Future Musicians

Many children take music lessons. There are numerous academic studies touring the benefits of this. There are just as many kids complaining about “being forced to practice” every day as there are studies saying it is good for them.

When I was a kid, I took accordion lessons for three years, both starting and stopping of my own accord with my parent’s support either way. Years later, in high school, we bought a keyboard so I was able to transfer my skills to that at least for the right hand keys, but those left-hand chords were a bit different between the instruments.

Today’s question is do you think that kids should be forced to continue with an instrument they no longer wish to play? Some people say they are glad their parents made them continue because they were able to enjoy the talent as adults while others have horrid memories of crying all the way through daily practice.

There was only one time, many years later, that I wish I had stayed with the accordion. An episode of the sitcom Who’s The Boss featured an old friend of Tony’s from Brooklyn. Before the character appeared, Tony mentioned that when they were kids, everybody would tease the person because of his accordion playing. When the character appeared, the other characters remarked about his huge biceps, which he attributed to playing the accordion. Someone should have told me sooner!child, children, dad, father, fatherhood, mom, mother, motherhood, parenthood, parenting, parents, raising children, raising kids, teenagers, teens

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