I just started teaching again after about a 15 year absence, at the school I used to teach at. I only have a few students so far, some adult acoustic players that I can relate to but the younger teens baffle me. They don't have heroes, they can't name a player or band they like and have never heard of AC/DC, Hendrix, Led Zep, or even Jack White. While I concentrate on teaching the actual nuts and bolts, theory, at least for the counting/time aspect and chords etc...., I'm used to using examples from players they look up to. I have a 25 year old daughter but she has no idea either and says she listens to artists based on friends youtube suggestions. This has her listening to a very eclectic mix of folk, rock and some surprisingly weird stuff. I feel like I just woke up a century later one day. Help?
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
Comments
https://youtu.be/LL_iUj-mQfg
Though I have no idea how much is being listened/watched by anyone below the age of 25.
The singer in my my band teaches music at high school. I gather there is very little interest in orchestral instruments or even guitar, bass and drums. It's much more dj / studio based - hip hop, grime, etc. Also a lot of interest in things like Dhol drumming.
I could ask them but as I'm typing this on a Sunday morning I don't expect to see them out of bed until about 1pm.
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
Quite liking King Krule - bit like Portishead with less physically attractive people.
Anyway, my youngest is out of bed and after discussing something that is both acceptable to adolescent boys and has guitars we came down to Slaves.
My entire knowledge of Slaves comes from seeing them on Sunday Brunch once where they looked suitably out of place. Well,good luck.
In the current age there just isn't a similar heavyweight figure who the kids look to, and they certainly don't take any notice of their parents. I remember a friend of mine telling me his 19 year old son had been devastated when he realised his dad already had all the Motorhead albums.
The problem is compounded by the massive amount of available music today plus the fact that with each successive generation there seems to be less likelihood of an influential youth culture emerging, as has always been the case in the past - teddy boys, hippies, punks, skins, mods, new romantics and so on.
I don't have kids, so what intrigues me is who or what do they put on their bedroom walls these days?
WTF have the kids of today got ? Our old stuff - and that.
'Tis a sorry state of affairs.
Also chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them.
I'm 24 so maybe I'm out of touch already - not sure.
I teach kids Ed Sheeran if they need something current, the rest is quite fleeting these days you'll end up chasing your own tail trying to learn this weeks new cool indie band that'll be irrelevant in the ears of kids in a couple of months time..
PA Hire and Event Management
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
Just like it always was...
This. It’s all about songs - lyrics, vocal melodies, chord structure and to some extent production - not instrumental parts. ’Learning to play’ a song on a guitar mostly means working out a simple strummed chord arrangement.
Rock music and the guitar parts in it are as dead to my kids as big-band jazz and the trumpet parts were to me as a teenager - my dad was a trumpet player, but I had no interest in learning to play it at all.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
So is there hope that these youngsters, as they mature, will eventually see the light and start becoming interested in real music?
(BTW the kid in that video isn't half going to get some stick when he's my age.)
Some of the artists I get are Ed Sheeran, Charlie Puth, Emilie Sande, Rationale, Sia and of course some guy called Justin Bieber.....
Just because I have to suffer, here's a sample so you can feel my pain. This was one they played yesterday.
My Trading Feedback | You Bring The Band
Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after youWe desperately need a new guitar hero!
My Trading Feedback | You Bring The Band
Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you