Some parents think their children should know how to play a musical instrument because it makes them a more rounded person. Some parents have always wanted to be a musician, and they try to live vicariously through their children. Some parents genuinely love playing music, and want their kids to know that feeling of joy.
I think some people are musicians by nature. There are loads of kids in the world who would have been thrilled to get piano lessons as you did, and they would have had the enthusiasm to do the practice necessary to get good at it. But for whatever reason, you weren't like them, and your parents couldn't see that.
I had lessons in violin and coronet when I was a kid. I was never any good, I didn't have the self-discipline to practice, and my parents never pushed me.
My wife was made to take guitar lessons for years as a kid, but her parents decided that she should learn classical guitar, rather than styles more interesting to a kid. Her memory of that is of just learning to play endless scales and never getting around to anything interesting.
My daughter has absolutely no interest in learning an instrument. We have a keyboard and guitar at home, but she's never even messed around with them. From a very young age, it's been clear that her thing is visual art, and so we do all we can to make it possible to develop that interest. I'd really like to have a rock-chick daughter, but I guess that's unlikely to happen, and I can live with that.
Should parents force children to learn music
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Some parents think their children should know how to play a musical instrument because it makes them a more rounded person. Some parents have always wanted to be a musician, and they try to live vicariously through their children. Some parents genuinely love playing music, and want their kids to know that feeling of joy.
I think some people are musicians by nature. There are loads of kids in the world who would have been thrilled to get piano lessons as you did, and they would have had the enthusiasm to do the practice necessary to get good at it. But for whatever reason, you weren't like them, and your parents couldn't see that.
I had lessons in violin and coronet when I was a kid. I was never any good, I didn't have the self-discipline to practice, and my parents never pushed me.
My wife was made to take guitar lessons for years as a kid, but her parents decided that she should learn classical guitar, rather than styles more interesting to a kid. Her memory of that is of just learning to play endless scales and never getting around to anything interesting.
My daughter has absolutely no interest in learning an instrument. We have a keyboard and guitar at home, but she's never even messed around with them. From a very young age, it's been clear that her thing is visual art, and so we do all we can to make it possible to develop that interest. I'd really like to have a rock-chick daughter, but I guess that's unlikely to happen, and I can live with that.