Teaching your kids

[hooters123]

My daughter (4, nearly 5) loves music and actually isn't half bad at hitting a note so I really want to encourage her along. I've tried to get her into a singing lesson but she was very shy so looks like I need to do some work at home first. I come from a musical family and play guitar and piano myself (though a bit rusty) so quite comfortable teaching her notes and providing the musical backdrop etc. but I'm struggling keeping her engaged for more than 5 minutes. Is this just normal for this age or have any of you had more success teaching them an entire song?

I also need to relearn how to use a DAW as I suspect she'd love trying to record herself, though it was the 90s last time I did anything like that...!

[Chicken Chaser]

I tried with my first at about 5. The problem is she can't listen to me without saying she knows what she's doing, when she doesn't really have a clue. She's now 9 and is asking for piano lessons. My background is in keys but not piano however that's what I now play so I'm going to look at getting some kind of course to see if I can start her off just to see how she maintains her interest. Her sister is now 5 and appears to be more of a natural but hasn't really got the interest yet so I'm not pushing it until she asks. I was 7 before I had my first keyboard and took lessons until 15.

[languagetimothy]

Apart from the obvious karaoke things on YouTube there’s plenty of downloadable MP3/4 backing tracks which are often quite good quality and available for very little money. Down load some files of songs she likes, add to GarageBand (or whatever) and she can practice and record.

I did this for a singer friend (I have a Mic and headphones) and the results were none too shabby.

[davidd]

We never tried teaching them, but there is always a lot of music in the house. The children naturally wanted to have a go and both played stuff from about 6 years old. We never gave them any pressure but always encouraged them.
My daughter played violin, piano, bass and drums but ended up singing and has just got her grade 8.

My son stuck with guitar and is about to go to uni to study music.

Neither of them have ever let me teach them anything!