Child Musicians on YouTube

[BMD]

Following on from a post I made (and which Craig replied to) in the 'Binge' thread, I'm wondering what your thoughts are about some of those talented kids who seem to abound on YouTube

 

Some, it has to be said, are technically brilliant but look bored rigid. And one wonders whether the parents of these children forced their diminutive charges into learning an instrument for the express purpose of making said parents a few quid (or bucks, if you're American) via the internet

 

This young girl looks as though she actually enjoys what she's doing. Oh, and she's a damn good drummer!

 

The song she's playing along to is 'Burn' by Deep Purple. If you're interested, there's a reaction video on YouTube by none other than Ian Paice, the drummer with Deep Purple

 

[video:youtube]

[Anderton]

Well that's what makes her different, isn't it? You can tell she is 100% thrilled to be playing. I know exactly what you mean by the technically brilliant ones who look bored stiff. We don't need any more "I-can-play-100,000-notes-per-second-but-they-have-all-the-emotion-of-a-shovel" players. And with respect to "forcing diminutive charges, there's always this video...

 

[video:youtube]

[BMD]

That is an extremely disturbing video

[GovernorSilver]

I stumbled upon Senri Kawaguchi's videos while she was still a kid. She seemed to smile a lot, even when playing along with a song with tricky time changes.

 

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As an adult, she's still drumming and looking like she's having fun

 

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[Mike Rivers]

I think you should need a license to post a video on YouTube.

[dboomer]

For the most part when I see performances from kids, even though they possess a huge amount of skill there is also a bit of a trained monkey aspect to it. And then there"s this kid ... Joey Alexander. Here"s a video of him at 12 years old (he"s probably 15 now).

 

[GovernorSilver]

This type of thread always goes in a particular direction when its old guys talking about kid musicians. Still, I gotta give props to this one's talent. The joy on his face suggests to me he'd not going to become a bitter, drug-abusing adult, but what i do I know?

 

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[Mike Rivers]

And who can forget The Collins Kids - Who actually grew up and Larry had a pretty long career in music over his lifetime.

[video:youtube]

[JohnG11]

And then there's the tiny Anke Chen:

 

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A real prodigy IMHO.

JohnG.

[elsongs]

These videos are definitely entertaining. Not to downplay their talent, but I would bet that 90% of these kids have parents who are trained and/or professional musicians. Not a criticism at all but an explanation. How else would they have access to the resources, both material (i.e. gear) and intangible (i.e. training, practice discipline, focus, support/encouragement, etc)? Not saying that an ordinary kid who doesn't have a musician parent can't do these things, but they definitely have more obstacles.

 

In the past few weeks, some of you have heard of an all-girl teenage punk band from L.A. called The Linda Lindas who played a socially-distanced

which went viral enough that they were offered a recording contract by Epitaph Records. They may not be *virtuosos* per se, but they have enough playing chops, stage presence and tightness that defies their age (ranging from 10 to 13) and are polished enough to do real gigs out there. I mean, all the bands I was in and knew of junior high school didn't have decent gear and sounded relatively sloppy. As many of you know, keeping a band together is hard; it's even harder to make time for songwriting and rehearsals when everyone is that young. Then I read an article on the Linda Lindas and discovered that two of the members are sisters, and lo and behold, their dad is a Grammy-winning record producer...So more likely than not, these viral child musicians have numerous advantages over other young musicians.

 

I didn't learn music until relatively late; I took guitar lessons at age 10, but lost interest quickly because I wanted to learn chords and instead was taught to play Spanish Guitar. When I was 12 though, I wanted to learn piano and willfully took piano lessons along with two of my siblings (neither of whom continued playing music beyond their piano lessons). When I was 14, back in 1985 my folks bought me a brand new Yamaha DX7 for Christmas.

 

My parents are not musicians (my mom could hold a tune singing but that was pretty much it), they were regular working people. They supported my musical endeavors but did tell me to turn it down when I practiced too loud. But practice and discipline were all up to me. Whatever I did was good enough for their ears; I did not have anyone besides myself pushing me to practice more or achieve a higher level of musical proficiency. It's all relative anyway, as they were willing to plunk down $1500 for the DX7 (which I still use to this day) and unlike some other immigrant parents, they didn't force me or my siblings into the same career paths as themselves nor did they force us to follow a pre-determined career of their choosing.

 

So when I see extremely young yet extremely musically endowed musicians on YouTube or other mediums, I can't help but wonder whether the child is playing music out of their own volition or desire, or is raised by a parent to be musical (at worst, forced to do it by a parent who wants to live vicariously through their child's achievements), or a combination of both. One of my junior high/high school classmates was a virtuoso classical pianist in his youth. I learned later on that in college, he "rebelled" and decided to study filmmaking in college and wanted nothing to do with piano, but later in life rediscovered his talents and now embraces his musicianship again, this time helping to run a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting youth musicians.

[The Real MC]

What I enjoy most about NAMM shows is seeing young kids with serious talent. Impromptu jam sessions pop up anywhere. One memorable kid played drums with a great funk feel, he couldn't had been ten years old and his feet could barely reach the pedals.

[Chip McDonald]

Ironic, I just got an email from someone wanting guitar lessons for their..... 2 year old. "Sorry, no...".

 

 

Those North Korean kids are sad. I don't want to think about what went into *training* them to do that.

 

What's happening now are talented kids seeing from their parents that play, or from YouTube, what it takes to have to practice to get better. The ones that really love music see what they need to do. The ones that don't keep looking for the next YouTube video that will magically show them "the trick".

 

The thing that's interesting is the "Asian female drummer" phenomenon. There must be something that's making that happen? A student of mine had his girlfriend in his band, they did fairly well/record contract/world tour, but that is so much an anomaly. I had another student who sort of had a band with her sister playing drums - but they grew up in Japan?

[KuruPrionz]

I am glad to see so many youngsters are playing music. It is an inherent quality of humanity, all humans need music.

 

Not all of them are good, not all of them are happy. That would be true no matter what they did. The important thing is the process, the connection. Only a very few of them will go forth as musicians, same as it ever was.

Some will only appear as if by magic at an open mic night, blow everybody away and never be seen again.

 

I was enthralled by my uncle's ukulele when I was around 4 or 5, I would have started in playing then if I'd had an instrument.

I made a rattle when I was 3 out of a stick, an orange juice can and some gravel. I bent the can with my shoe so it stayed on the stick, drove my parents insane but it was so much fun!!!!

 

Now instruments are everywhere and kids can get their hands on them. The future looks bright to me.

[GovernorSilver]

Some of them are just so adorable.

 

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[Chip McDonald]

My joke has long been that I'm going to get a phone call from a couple wanting their embryo to learn guitar. I'm not one that should be speaking about height-ism, but .... really, one should be taller than the scale length of a guitar in order to play it.

 

The way people view learning an instrument today, in the year 2021:

 

IN TEMPORAL ORDER:

 

1) Birth

2) Look at parents

3) Waddle-walk

4) Speak a few words

5) Play bar chords on an uncle's ragged out rusty heavy gauge string acoustic

6) Potty train

[elsongs]

My joke has long been that I'm going to get a phone call from a couple wanting their embryo to learn guitar. I'm not one that should be speaking about height-ism, but .... really, one should be taller than the scale length of a guitar in order to play it.

 

The way people view learning an instrument today, in the year 2021:

 

IN TEMPORAL ORDER:

 

1) Birth

2) Look at parents

3) Waddle-walk

4) Speak a few words

5) Play bar chords on an uncle's ragged out rusty heavy gauge string acoustic

6) Potty train

 

 

"I want my son to play just like Eddie Van Halen by the time he turns 4, because that will REALLY get me a bunch of Likes on Instagram!"

[Mike Davis]

It makes a good case for reincarnation!

[nursers]

The Nandi Bushell / Dave Grohl series of videos are great fun to watch.

 

Have always loved Sina's drum vids - she started posting them when she was 14 and is still going strong at 21:

 

[video:youtube]

[Chip McDonald]

 

"I want my son to play just like Eddie Van Halen by the time he turns 4, because that will REALLY get me a bunch of Likes on Instagram!"

 

 

That's not as hyperbolic as you would think.

[elsongs]

Okay, not necessarily a child virtuoso per se, but this one is sure to overload anyone's Adorbs-O-Meter for sure:

 

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