Kids need sumfin’ to do. A little too much of that sumfin’ is way, way too structured nowadays. Playing pickup games in the park adds a form of self-organization and direction that transcends the benefits of the game itself. There’s no better self-organizing activity for kids than playing music you like with your friends.
You can quickly discover who your friends really are. The first lesson you learn is that 90% of show business is showing up. After a short while, you realize that initial enthusiasm is a poor substitute for punctuality. My own children performed as a duo because none of my older son’s friends would show up more than once or twice, no matter how much they promised they would. Hence the nine-year-old drummer got pressed into service. He had to show up. He lived there.
An adjunct to showing up is showing up knowing the material. Most budding musicians mistake rehearsal for practice. Practice is a solitary thing, and it takes fortitude to keep it up. To play in a band with your fellows, you’re required to show up ready to rehearse, i.e., play the songs with other people, not learn them on the fly.
The second lesson is mistaking performance for rehearsal. Practice is to get ready for rehearsal to get ready for performance. You can’t skip steps, or do them in the wrong order. I’ve played in a lot of bands over the years. In the most successful one, we had a simple rule: don’t play anything, and I mean anything, until you were playing a song. No noodling. And sound check isn’t performed with the audience staring at you, either. Showing up early is part of showing up, you know.
Look at the bright young faces in the Low Darts, making glorious noises in a basement in Fairfield Connecticut. Their reach doesn’t exceed their grasp, even though they mostly perform songs that less ambitious musicians would avoid. Too much practice. Too much rehearsal.
But hey; no risk, no story. What a nice Drop Ceiling Rock story the Low Darts are.
4 Responses
As long as we’re on the subject of talented kiddies playing real music, here’s a cute & cuddly bass playing babe kicking out Stevie’s incredible “Sir Duke” bass lines.
Sir Duke (Stevie Wonder) Bass Guitar Cover by Alana Alberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg2BS7H_dAU&t=1s
The kids are alright…
Hi El Polacko- I don’t know when it became sort of required for girls to play the bass. Lots of female bass players out there now. I don’t get it. A full scale bass requires a fairly large fret hand. These little girls start out at a disadvantage. Doesn’t seem to slow them down, much, though.
Five high school peers formed a band that played a lot of high school dances. They were pretty good musicians. Played all the current hits, and played them well. Several went on to a music career. One spent nearly 5 decades as a bass guitarist for mostly county bands, until the need for a retirement nest egg put him into a day job. One became a partner in a club that featured a combination of local talent and some national names. (I recall seeing Bo Diddley and Miles Davis, for example.) A downturn in the economy killed the club after a decade of existence. He wasted his club earnings on coke. He sobered up and still performs locally– mostly folk & Dylan. One went on to a career in journalism, writing some books along the way.
I have lost track of the other two band members.
Hi Gringo- I miss seeing music played live. I did it for a long time back in the day, but it was fading away even then. Everything is either a big production, or recorded now. Bring back supper clubs!