Getting young kids playing music thread

[I've seen black diamonds!]

I'd like to draw on the wisdom of the collective.



I've got a 5 year old who loves music. He absorbs lyrics like a sponge. He can't hold a tune but will start singing along to chorus of a song the first time he hears it. He'll asks me to play songs I haven't played in months when they pop into his head.

I just got him a 3 string guitar which he loves, but hasn't shown any patience learning how to use his left hand. I think I'll put it in an open tuning tonight so he can rock out on power chords with one finger. That should be fun. We've also got a piano he isn't much interested in. I've offered singing/piano/guitar lessons and he doesn't want them.

I'd love to hear from parents whose kids started playing music early and stuck with it. What worked? What didn't? Thanks.

Also, he just told me these are his three favorite songs:

[criscam]

following.
my 10 and 8 yo just got an electric and bass guitar. doing some online lessons and early in the process. I think I've heard the Smoke on the Water intro 87 times the past 2 weeks.

[St. Jerry]

11 year old son is a master at the baritone but told him he also needs to learn to play a "cool instrument" ('cause the baritone ain't going to get ya laid, son). So drums it is.

[DJSapp]

5 y.o.? Rhythm games and dancing games. There's a lot of them now, but the old standards are Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Just Dance. Anything that makes them tap or move at a steady rhythm for more than 30 seconds at a time. Those games have training modes too so they won't get too frustrated. The kids will see the patterns in music quickly, Intro, A, chorus, B, chorus, bridge, C, especially in the dance games. Talk to them about the patterns they hear or are dancing to. Let them figure out a lot of music is repeated 8 bar patterns. Once they get that, write some rhythms out.

Other than piano or percussion a 5 y.o. is just not physically large enough, the lung capacity, or have the coordination required to handle non-toy instruments. Let them handle a couple of them anyway and foster a love.

My 10 y.o. just finished 4th grade and started on the viola. She liked the idea of it at first, but quickly got frustrated with the coordination required for strings. She's moving to clarinet and mom is helping her with that and she's a lot more excited about that.

Video them often, it's hard to see progress as music takes weeks/months/years to get it down and kids won't see that. Replay the tape when they're feeling frustrated.