To All Parents

Reading two other excellent posts "piano for 5 year old" and "does music make us smarter?" made me want to jump on my soap box, and having no better place to do so, I'll give my little speech here. Now, I'm no expert on kids, I have none of my own, but I was one once, so at least I can speak from my own experience.

I see kids and young people nowadays, who have no knowledge of, and thus no appreciation for, music other than the boom-boom-boom pop music that comes out of the tube or speakers that they are in proximity of. I find this very sad. Now, I like pop music (with exceptions) as much as the next guy, but that shouldn't be ALL that we're listening to. I blame the parents (and the schools, and whoever else I can think of) for this. Kids, of all ages, need to be exposed to all kinds of music (and other arts as well for that matter). They need to hear all kinds of music, in all its forms, to develop an ear for it. Then, and only then, can they form their own informed opinion on what they like, if not all of it.

I thank the Lord for giving me a father, who introduced me to just about everything in way of art and science, leaving it up to me then to decide what was interesting. Many things held short-lived interest, but other things turned into life-long passions. I was at the tender age of 6, when he took me to my first opera, and I'll never forget it. It happened to be "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" (The Abduction from the Seraglio) by Mozart. I have never seen or heard it since, but still remember it fondly, that's how big an impression it made.

I realize that I was very privileged, in being able to go to ballets, operas, concerts and what not, but it doesn't have to be a "big affair". Beautiful music comes in humble packages as well. Just about every performance you can think of, is available on DVDs (which can be rented), a lot of it is shown on public television as well (if you look at the right channels, like PBS), and nowadays there's not much you can't find on YouTube if you look for it.

I find it very sad, when I encounter "narrow minded" people, who snuff classical music (or anything older than 10 years for that matter) with "oh, that old stuff, that's boring" - yet, they've never actually listened to any of it. One of the reasons I find this so sad is, that this attitude carries over to other parts of their lives as well. We all need to be broad minded, to become better people, and to understand and "give room" to our fellow man.

So there, I've said it, and I'll get off my box.

Hey, I was never interested in classical music or anything until just about 2 or 3 years ago. We got a keyboard in the house, I heard Fur Elise and reallly liked it, so I tried to play a bit of it with the light up keys lol. But for some reason I was able to pick up how to recognise pitches from doing that.

I got this game called Eternal Sonata for the PS3 (on 360 too), an RPG game, but one of the game's characters is Chopin, parts of the game give history on him, and has a few pieces of his music in it. Pretty much from getting that game, I found out about Chopin and really like his pieces. And then went to listen to his other work, and other classical composers. I think that was one way of introducing classical music, love to see more in the future. Kids love games, so why not have these things built in?

What ever it takes, Liam

Well said, thanks for sharing this.

Yeah, the thing is you say that kids have no appreciation for music other than pop, but if they had opportunities to listen to other music, they would appreciate that too, suppose it's not their fault, it's just what's available to them. Just like how you yourself had the opportunity when you were younger, you liked what you heard, and that hasn't ever left you.

Pretty sure TV is where kids listen to the music. If kids had the chance to listen to other music, like through video games or other things they do, they might find something they like. May even say to parents ' I like this' and they maybe able to tell them it's classical or whatever it is, and try to find other music similar to what they have listened to.

Yes, and sadly TV is getting dumber by the day, sigh.

There's no way you can deny friends' influence on them.

I've been trying to work on my little cousin for years now, but after all the hard influence she received at school and outsiders it turned out being a harder task then I thought. She's so young and yet narrow minded, she hasn't experienced a third of what life has to offer and still she thinks that all she hears to and everything that she thinks is the absolute best. Kids are stubborn I know, but it's just that sad to let a child think that way and not do anything about it. She spoke of classical music so harshly without even hearing a whole piece.

Not that you're supposed to like something at first sight, but you have to give it time before judging it.

I, on the other hand, always was amazed by classicals, but my parents never took my desire all that seriously. When I was 8 my favorite instruments were (and are) piano and violin, I remember listening to friends at school practicing and was admired by the tender sounds those instruments held. Only place I had contact with a piano was at school and every time I had the chance I hopped onto one and played random keys; and one day a friend thought me mary had a little lamb and just after a couple of minutes I was enjoying myself with it. (:

After long years of waiting I came up to my mom and told her I wanted to practice piano, she always told me she'd look into it, but that never happened. I used to blame myself for not insisting more, but I never did because I didn't want to bother my parents over it.

When I randomly searched for piano lessons and found out about Andrew I nearly burst into tears of happiness, and since then I've gave myself entirely to make this dream come true.

I do listen to other stuff, obviously, but I've had the right thoughts and decisions. I didn't (and don't) choose to listen to a song just because of its rhythm, I look into its lyric to see if the message's worth to be listened to.

I sought my way to where I am now and I'm surprised with the result. I've become proud of myself for turning out this way, and believe me it was hard resisting to temptations all over.

I thank my parents for educating me, showing me the reality of life, how to be humble to people, having manners and so on and so forth.

My kids will be raised the same in that manner, but I'll make sure they have the opportunity I didn't while they're still young.

I feel this thread is going away from its purpose. Focusing on classical only. There are traditional music, trance, metal, ska, blues, experimental and more. It's not really about classical music, but all genres of music.

I've always been enjoying music, I dont really care what it is, aslong as it has some kind of melodic or harmonic stuff inside. For me bad music doesnt exist, ofcourse I dont feel much for the music that's full of screaming cats sounds and randomly played notes with no purpose or nonsense lyrics. There are some times I've listened on an album, found it boring becuase every song is about love and breakups. There are other theme's out there less used, there are so much more to the world than only love. I'm cool about love, but when the first track is "i hate you" and the other one is "i dont like you anymore" you kinda got to start thinking if the artist doesnt have any imagination at all ^_^

Some music make you relax, some make you stressed, some make you sad etc. Aslong the music manages to make you feel something it's good I guess.

I totally agree, Victor, all music that "speaks to us" and make us feel something (as long as it isn't hate) is good music.

And yes, the main theme here is: everyone should have a choice, but there can be no choice without options.

Liam19 wrote:Hey, I was never interested in classical music or anything until just about 2 or 3 years ago. We got a keyboard in the house, I heard Fur Elise and reallly liked it, so I tried to play a bit of it with the light up keys lol. But for some reason I was able to pick up how to recognise pitches from doing that.

I got this game called Eternal Sonata for the PS3 (on 360 too), an RPG game, but one of the game's characters is Chopin, parts of the game give history on him, and has a few pieces of his music in it. Pretty much from getting that game, I found out about Chopin and really like his pieces. And then went to listen to his other work, and other classical composers. I think that was one way of introducing classical music, love to see more in the future. Kids love games, so why not have these things built in?

I've got Eternal Sonata too, I love that game (one of the most amazing games I've played). Maybe the most importiant thing that helped me get into classical music is video game music. Alot of video games, especially JRPGs (Japanese Roleplaying Games) have amazing music. Let me show you some examples of amazing video game music:















Anyways, there are some benefits from exposing babies and young kids to classical music such as raising their IQ, teaching them absolute pitch easily and getting them interested to play piano and/or other instruments.

Yeah video game music is awesome to me, I liked the Banjo Kazooie and White Knight Chronicles pieces you showed . If you ever seen Kylelandry on youtube, he plays video game music on piano, some of his stuff is really good, check him out if you haven't, I'm sure you'll like it. You're right, the thing about video game music is that you will find different kinds of genres and pieces, giving different emotions. Kids might might find what they like by playing, and listening. Eventually some of them will probably look on youtube to listen and come across more they like, see people that play these pieces on instruments, could take an interest and want to play themselves, and then watch Andrew's videos for piano or take lessons for whatever instrument they want, this will most likely lead to finding other types of music. This is just video games, but anything really, even movies and stuff. Also I have nothing against any music that's out now, but a variety of music is really nice, whether it's old or new or whatever it's from.

Also I think schools should show more, even an hour just listening to different kinds of music once in a while, listening to and getting the chance to play different instruments. All we ever got to do was play the recorder, and school was just not right really, music teachers just being or annoying or strict, which is stupid since it should be the opposite, encouraged to keep going, show easier ways if things or difficult or whatever. From school I had no interest in learning music, only when I got a keyboard I discovered what I liked, and we got to play with keyboards in school lol. I think kids should find music really enjoyable in school no matter what, instead of dreading going near it.

My musical appreciation has only started expanding in recent years (I am 26 by the way). Previously there were very few genre's I had any interest in...and that mostly evolved around current rock type of music...as well as some punk, some older rock, but that was essentially it throughout my teenage years.

I was only very rarely exposed to classical music and never developed a fondness for it. I didn't hate it, it just wasn't something I paid attention to. There were only a few classical songs I have always enjoyed from a young age...the 2 I can think of are Beethovens Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata. That is perhaps why to this day Moonlight is probably my favorite, because it is one I have enjoyed from a young age.

Within the last 3-5 years I find myself exposed to many other genres and I have found my musical tastes expanding, and I thoroughly am enjoying it! I suppose going through college, having new experiences, meeting different people, etc... tends to expose us to a wider range of music (and other topics as well). If one keeps an open mind we can grow from those experiences. I now love so many different kinds of music...classical, rock, electronica, 70's, other oldies, techno, older hip hop stuff, punk, indie, etc.... I still have not developed much of a taste for country music, nor (most) of the newer rap stuff though. But I also don't like mushrooms or onions...c'est la vie.

I think were I exposed to different genres, such as classical music, when I was younger (like before 10 years old) I probably would have developed a greater appreciation for it earlier. I think once I entered those teen/preteen years though that I became a usual stubborn teenager and I liked what I liked and didn't want to hear anything else. It is good to have those years behind me lol. So yes, I think if we want our kids to grow up with an appreciation of a variety of music they need to be exposed early, in schools and at home. Same with other arts.

I was listening to NPR the other day (I listed to talk radio a lot lol), I can't remember the program but they were talking about what would happen if aliens ever landed on earth. The hypothesis was that aliens would find artists (music, painting, sculpture, etc...) as more valuable than the mathematicians and physicists and etc... This is because math etc.. are more universal and theoretically an advanced species would already know what we know. However the arts are specific to the person, the culture, the place and so a species from another world would find this more valuable because human art is unique to humans. Aliens theoretically wouldn't have a universal Chopin, or Van Gogh, or Michelangelo....and so they would find them to be more important than Einstein and Pythagoras. I'm getting off track, but I just thought that was an interesting discussion and theoretically showed how important the arts are to humanity.

So in conclusion, I love video game music also!

You said it well. Science is important yes, but without the arts, we're all just like a bunch of robots

Ha, speaking of video game music, if any of you played Braid, the music is awesome. I don't know if this was wrote for the game but these are great, I'm sure you'll like it whether you play games or not:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7UVfoXQT6w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7BMM-M1Yyw

Enjoy

Now, THAT is beautiful!
Actually I thought that it sounded "Irish", and when I looked in the comments (first one) it said: a version of "O Son do Ar" (The Sound of the Air) by galician folk group Luar na Lubre. Close enough
Second one says: Beautiful atmospheric music from Shira Kammen. Never heard of her, must look it up I guess.
Really loved #1, thanks for sharing.

Well, I guess that can make up a bit for not being able to provide any Irish music for you, and you're right, I thought that the first one sounded Irish too. But yeah, they're two of my favourites.

But really, being Irish (and they're famous for their tunes), you really should know some of the traditional ones, and I'm sure you do, you probably just don't even realize it. And when you come to think of one - and I'm sure that especially around Christmas time they play traditional songs everywhere - please share them with us. I for one would love to hear.

Yeah, I probably do know some without realising it, I'll give youtbe a look later and see if there's anything I come across. I'll share if I come across anything nice.