My Grandson is 3 years old and has a fascination with musical instruments.
I have a electronic keyboard that he likes to play with, a couple of Toms that he loves to bang on and he likes to pluck on my Bass Guitar.
His parents bought him a electronic guitar that plays riffs of popular songs by pressing keys on the neck. It also has a whammy bar on it that makes noise and simulates a small solo.
This afternoon I was sitting with him and He was holding that electronic guitar and kept pressing a key to play "Wild Thing" and I picked up a couple of sticks and started drumming along while He occasionally soloed with the whammy bar.
This went on for about 5 minutes til he went off to do something else. Then it occurred to me that we had had our first Jam Session. That made my day even more awesome.
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When I found out I was going to be a grandfather, I built a guitar for my granddaughter. I'm really hoping that when she gets old enough to actually start playing it, we can have fun and jam together someday.
Of course I have a while to wait as she's only 9 months old, but someday........
The day will be here before you know it.
And I can't wait.
If he grasped timing and produced a repeating pattern then he's a musical bud.
It seemed that he was grasping how to repeat the riff key and when to add the extra sounds from the whammy bar and it held his attention for 5 minutes.
When he goes to the keyboards, he'll start at the bass end and hit every key til he gets to the end of the treble keys. Then he'll do the Black keys the same way. Then both hands start working together. Seems that he's really interested in how it works. I'm going to keep influencing him to play and see where it goes.
Coupla years later, repeated same with her brother. He didn't say anything, just stared intently when I handrolled the C scale. Then he tried it with his pudgy baby fingers, and got 5 of the octave right. He proceeded to do this for the next five minutes.
Guess who plays piano, guitar, drums and trumpet, can play a song on piano about 80 percent correct after hearing it a coupla times, and makes up parts and arrangements?
Yep. His sister, on the other hand, is extremely verbal, can suss out the lyrics to any song after hearing it a coupla times, and can carry a tune in a bucket. She still remembers CAGED in first position on guitar, but doesn't play.
Try hide the note.
They close their eyes, no peeking!
You play a random note.
They have to find it.
This game will tell you more about a child's musical ability than any other game.
There's a second game called guess the fingers.
No peeking!
You play 2 3 4 ... 10 notes on the piano.
Guess how many fingers you used.
Older children can also reproduce the notes for extra points.
Of course just the sheer impact of seeing another person play an instrument astoundingly well and enjoying doing it .. Hand the instrument to the child and leave them alone with it.. No teaching.
Leaves a child with the desire to want to do that.
Desire to learn is the key.
Good ideas.
Haha It figures, girls are more verbal anyway and never depart from it.
Music really captures his attention, so I'm going to keep influencing that. I rebuilt a banged up acoustic guitar for him and will turn it over to him when he's a bit older. Right now, it would probably get destroyed within a week. LOL
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