It's a strange thing, when your kids get better than you at an instrument that you have played a lot

axisus

My eldest daughter is 17. I remember her at about 10 being thrilled that she worked out the 10 or so notes of the super trouper (ABBA) melody on piano. She didn't play for a few more years but at 14 she started to teach herself via Youtube on her phone. I was quite frankly stunned by her memory and ability, when she ended up playing the Fairy tail (Anime) theme in it's entirety. Other pieces followed, once again surprising me with ALL of Fur Elise - timing not perfect, but quite incredible to hear. She had declined lessons, but then decided that she wanted a more formal approach about a year ago. We know of a very good teacher, and he is really surprised at how good she is, learning somewhat difficult things in about a week despite going with zero ability to read music. He set her one piece and a week later she was playing it to him, he said "are you reading the music?" and she said, "No, I remember it now". She can sit at a piano and race through a whole load of pieces that she has memorised. I was pretty good in my youth, and can still impress people on a piano, but she has definitely leapfrogged right over me! I realised that she was a lot better than me when she took a beautiful piece (River flows in you) and learned it in no time, It was one that I struggled to learn some years ago and gave up on. 

I feel very proud to hear her playing now. She also has a go at Bass, guitar, ukulele, Flute, saxophone and pretty much any instrument that she can get her hands on. We went into a secondhand shop to try an old Sax and she played a tune on it having never held one before (she looked up fingering beforehand!)

My oldest son is 22, he could be very good on guitar but he just can't be bothered.

Freebird

Same with my nephew, we messed about when he was 14 and then I thought he'd lost interest and given up. To my surprise, he just came back from uni as a fully formed guitarist churning out great original material. Amazing!

digitalscream

I remember my daughter went through a 3-week phase of wanting to learn guitar; she'd been badgering me for ages to get her one, so I got her an Ibanez Gio RG-alike, and sat down. Her first words at that point were..."Can we do Enter Sandman?". I was unconvinced, but a week later - having never held a guitar before - she was playing all the rhythm parts spot-on, from start to finish. To say that I was astonished was an understatement.

A couple of weeks (and a few Godsmack tunes, since she had a thing for Sully Erna) later, she decided she couldn't be bothered. What a waste.

FX_Munkee

My 11 year old is keeping me on my toes. We're currently at the fast solo in Sweet Child and I'm having to learn it properly myself this time The rate he absorbs stuff I really have to practice myself to make sure I'm teaching him it right.
I suspect he'll out play me before he's 14 if he keeps going at this rate.
The 9 year old is looking more like a drummer every day though.

DefaultM

I was the same at that age but I seem to have lost it now. I could play loads of Joe Satriani stuff by memory, but at the weekend I struggled to remember an Olly Murs song at a gig.

ThePrettyDamned

axisus said:

My eldest daughter is 17. I remember her at about 10 being thrilled that she worked out the 10 or so notes of the super trouper (ABBA) melody on piano. She didn't play for a few more years but at 14 she started to teach herself via Youtube on her phone. I was quite frankly stunned by her memory and ability, when she ended up playing the Fairy tail (Anime) theme in it's entirety. Other pieces followed, once again surprising me with ALL of Fur Elise - timing not perfect, but quite incredible to hear. She had declined lessons, but then decided that she wanted a more formal approach about a year ago. We know of a very good teacher, and he is really surprised at how good she is, learning somewhat difficult things in about a week despite going with zero ability to read music. He set her one piece and a week later she was playing it to him, he said "are you reading the music?" and she said, "No, I remember it now". She can sit at a piano and race through a whole load of pieces that she has memorised. I was pretty good in my youth, and can still impress people on a piano, but she has definitely leapfrogged right over me! I realised that she was a lot better than me when she took a beautiful piece (River flows in you) and learned it in no time, It was one that I struggled to learn some years ago and gave up on. 

I feel very proud to hear her playing now. She also has a go at Bass, guitar, ukulele, Flute, saxophone and pretty much any instrument that she can get her hands on. We went into a secondhand shop to try an old Sax and she played a tune on it having never held one before (she looked up fingering beforehand!)

My oldest son is 22, he could be very good on guitar but he just can't be bothered.

Wow, the other two movements of für elise are damn hard - I never managed to even learn the notes, let alone play it. 

Sounds talented - you never know where it may lead