# Do You Come from a Musical Family?



## Double Helix (Apr 13, 2022)

A quick search does not reveal a specific thread: Therefore, I'd imagine that many of us were brought up in a musical family (parents/siblings playing instruments? Family "music nights"?)

*EDIT* - Member @cel4145's son is starting at Full Sail -- any other offspring studying music and/or playing gigs?


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## ChrisSiuMusic (Apr 13, 2022)

Cool topic! My mother was the pianist for our church and grew up playing strings/clarinet, while my father is absolutely not musical and only sang in the choir at times.


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## kgdrum (Apr 13, 2022)

My great grandfather was a violinist,my mom and uncle on that side of the family played piano, my sister played cello & piano and my brother played piano and trombone as a kids than I took up drums and butchering keyboards so yeah there’s a musical side and lineage running in my family.


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## J-M (Apr 13, 2022)

This is a cool one so oh boy, here I go sharing again!

Music in my (extended) family is a pretty recurring thing. My mom knows how to play the piano decently, her sister as well. My younger brother played the clarinet as a kid (quit) and then took piano lessons the same time I did, but never really pursued music any further. Then I have numerous cousins of different ages who play various instruments, none of them so far have been crazy enough to make a career out of music though...

Also got an uncle who has a doctorate in music, other one who apparently plays the piano quite decently (this was a surprise to me since he is pretty much the last person I expected to play anything), and ANOTHER uncle who "was" a very talented pianist and graduated as a music teacher, but his career got cut short by a tumor which caused an early dementia and a ton of difficulties in his everyday life. Despite all that and his advanced age he can still play relatively well, which is pretty amazing all things considered!


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## dhmusic (Apr 13, 2022)

hmm... I remember my dad played Nickleback in his truck once. 

does that count?


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## Thomas Kallweit (Apr 13, 2022)

A generation gap here. The parents - no instruments. Grandfather - yes (the violin). Son - no (so far).


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## rgames (Apr 13, 2022)

Also generation gap here - my parents had no interest in music but my grandfather made his living as a professional musician.

And my kids... sigh... absolutely no interest despite having two parents who are musicians. My son has all the musical talent in the world but no interest in music. I blame video games.

rgames


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## Niah2 (Apr 13, 2022)

No, not at all.

My grandfather played the guitar as a hobby but he passed away a little after I was born.
I also never saw my parents listen to music and I don't have any siblings. So I discovered music through MTV and started playing the keyboards and guitar as my first musical instruments. I wanted to be in a band but everyone just wanted to play covers and I was interested in creating original music. Later I started to use the computer to record music and then discovered DAW's, plugins, virtual instruments.

Clint Mansell said something about this "I am a product of technology". Maybe I am too.


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## studiostuff (Apr 13, 2022)

Of course! Both sides of the family. Piano,Church, Choir, Self taught guitar, folk music, Beatles, Bond movies, Peter Sellars movies... everyone I knew back then sang very well, spontaneous harmony... I don't know how one can do it any other way.


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## EgM (Apr 13, 2022)

My grandfather played violin
my father plays bass, guitar and violin
I play guitar, bass, piano, violin, flutes, oboe and some others
2 of my 3 kids play guitar, bass and piano, third one plays videogames 😕

I think it's more about being raised in a musical family than genes though and yes, we've had MANY family music nights


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## d.healey (Apr 13, 2022)

Yes.

My dad plays guitar and mandolin, my granny played piano, my grandad played piano, violin, and mandolin. I have a bunch of uncles and cousins who mainly play guitars and banjos and sing, I think I'm the only piano player in the family. Whenever there is a family gathering there is always a guitar or two floating around.

Where I live there is a lively folk music scene and a large annual folk music festival. Throughout the year there are folk clubs, blues clubs, and open mic nights every week, myself and various family members have been involved with these over the years.


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## J-M (Apr 13, 2022)

rgames said:


> Also generation gap here - my parents had no interest in music but my grandfather made his living as a professional musician.
> 
> And my kids... sigh... absolutely no interest despite having two parents who are musicians. My son has all the musical talent in the world but no interest in music. I blame video games.
> 
> rgames


Hey now, I played a ton of video games as a kid (still do) and did plenty of music. 
...I actually wrote this just after finishing a match of Battlefield 1.


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## artomatic (Apr 13, 2022)

No. Out of 7 kids, I'm the only musician.


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## rhizomusicosmos (Apr 13, 2022)

Not particularly. It seems I'm in the wrong branch of the family tree, as this person is a distant relative (by marriage):








William Sterndale Bennett - Wikipedia







en.wikipedia.org





My genetic forebears were mostly magicians, not musicians.


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## ShidoStrife (Apr 13, 2022)

No, but I'm making sure my daughter does . My dad does karaoke at home, he really enjoys singing but sucks so bad at it. Me and my 2 siblings all play guitar.


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## Marcus Millfield (Apr 13, 2022)

Oh yes! My whole family at one time or another played some form of instrument and that had a huge influence on me.

My grandfather was organist in our local church. I remember the grandkids (me and my cousins) sitting behind his home organ when we were little and he was out. He didn't like us playing that organ, but my grandmother never minded as long as he wasn't home to get all grumpy about it. 

My father has been playing tuba for over 40 years and to this day, keeps on playing now and again. My mother actually played drums for a while, but quit when she got a bit of health issues with one knee. That prevented her from playing unfortunately.

One of my uncles was a pianist and taught piano and music theory for a living.

My aunt played alto sax for years, but needed to stop due to health reasons.

My niece played concert flute when she was young. Her daughter plays trumpet at several local pop bands now.

My wife was a concert flautist and that's how we met, playing in the same local band when we were kids


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## NekujaK (Apr 13, 2022)

My maternal grandfather played trumpet as a young man, then later sang in church, and also accompanied himself on guitar. He even made a record of folk songs in the 1960s. My mother played piano, and later in life, sang opera.

On my father's side, my dad was the first in his family to delve into music. At an early age, he knew he wanted to be an opera singer, and it became his life's obsession, so when I was growing up, music was always at the forefront in our home.

At family gatherings there was always singing and playing. I think it's those big family dinners and musical "performances" at my grandmother's house that I miss most from my youth.


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## KEM (Apr 13, 2022)

My uncle was David Allan Coe’s drummer for a period of time


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## GtrString (Apr 14, 2022)

No musicians, but the arts, yes. My mom was a painter, and made a living from it. Dad liked to write poems, but I liked loud rock guitars.. and still do / maybe it’s a rebellion


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## TomislavEP (Apr 14, 2022)

My great grandfather was Italian by birth and liked music very much; he used to play the accordion. My mom also played one for a brief period during her youth. Other than that, zero. My late grandfather, however, was an avid painter.

I started spontaneously at the age of six. No coercion of any kind from my family or from anyone else. Most of the time, I'm very thankful for this. However, after almost thirty years now, and struggling to make ends meet only with music, I often ponder on how much some things could be potentially simpler and less painful had I had the fortune of coming from a musical family in a true sense of the word.


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## Denkii (Apr 14, 2022)

No.


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## Chris Schmidt (Apr 14, 2022)

My mom played piano, but only rarely when I was a kid.

Also, I went camping with my grandfather and his brothers once and they had a perfectly coordinated symphony of snoring, parts that I seem to remember mimic'd passages from Bizet's Carmen Opera

So yeah, it's in my blood I guess.


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## doctoremmet (Apr 14, 2022)

Grandfather and uncle played accordion. Niece plays sax in a really cool jazzband. My dad used to play altorecorder alongside Rolling Stones records and did a particularly cool version of Ruby Tuesday. He also bought me a piano and an FM synth when I was a kid.


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## Gensaii (Apr 14, 2022)

Kinda? Not really. I recently found out my father used to play a percussive instrument the name of which escapes me. Just for fun. A few of my siblings did/still do play from time to time (Oud, Darbuka, you name it.) My passion for orchestral music and such seems to have come out of nowhere. 😅


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## DANIELE (Apr 14, 2022)

No.


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## Polkasound (Apr 14, 2022)

When my dad was a kid living on a farm, he wanted a sled for Christmas, but instead, on a whim, he got an accordion. That one decision charted the course for his life, and had a significant impact on his own family. He got a degree in music, married a church organist and fellow music student in college, and became a band teacher and later a school administrator. My mom gave up music to be a housewife, but my dad went on to play in the polka, dixieland, and big band circuits.

My oldest brother also played in those same music circuits. Both he and my dad gigged with bands like Jack Morgan, Jan Garber, and Guy Lombardo, and musicians like Chuck Hedges and Don Nedobeck. My brother left music behind to become a corporate executive, but my dad kept playing until he passed away in 2005.

My sister became a WAMI award-winning heavy metal drummer in a band called The Hunted. They toured the country for a while, opening for Wendy O'Williams. My sister quit drumming just a few years later to settle down.

I could have gone a few different routes, but chose to make polka music my bread and butter.

The music in our family comes to an end with me, though, as none of my nieces or nephews caught the music bug.


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## CT (Apr 14, 2022)

I guess so. Many of them play something and have natural musical sense. At the very least there's a lot of good taste which I'm glad I was exposed to as a kid. I do have a composer cousin (by marriage, not a blood relative). He's not really involved with the film world very much; more of an academic.


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## BigMal (May 1, 2022)

My dad taught me to play the guitar. He died when I was quite young, and it's my most detailed memory of him, taking me through the guitar chords in all of the songs of 'The Beatles Complete', and one of his most enduring influences on me.

My son and my daughter both now play multiple instruments that I was extremely enthusiastic about but cautious in not pushing on to them, but to wait until the passion came from them. My son became interested when at school, in order to motivate playing recorder, they awarded 'belt's, like karate belts, and he really wanted that black belt (in recorder!!!). Whatever works! Now he's way better than I will ever be, and my daughter sings beautifully. Music has been such a gift to our family.


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## AceAudioHQ (May 1, 2022)

My mother is a flute teacher, my father is a saxophonist and my brother is a conductor, cellist and a saxophonist, in addition of having a doctorate on musicology


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## muziksculp (May 1, 2022)

No. I was the odd one in my family that got carried away with 🎶🎶 😎


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## Double Helix (May 1, 2022)

Polkasound said:


> I could have gone a few different routes, but chose to make polka music my bread and butter.


And the world is better for it


Polkasound said:


> The music in our family comes to an end with me, though, as none of my nieces or nephews caught the music bug.


Ya never know--sometimes genetic propensities skip a generation


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## Loïc D (May 1, 2022)

I have a very large family (18 cousins !) with a long family tree on my mother's side in Normandy.
I - with my brother - am the only musician, and to a greater extent, no one else has the slightest interest in music.
It's definitely not in our genes.


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## widescreen (May 1, 2022)

My nearer family: no "real" musicians. My father can play the harmonica and has a >40 year old guitar with thick dust on it. Doesn't count?

But a cousin of mine has studied music on the pipe organ and is the conductor of a symphony orchestra as well as a passionate classical singer. He doesn't know about my hobby, yet. But in my dreams he once plays one of my compositions with his whole orchestra. 
Maybe I surprise him once by sending him some sheets when I think I reached a level that's not too embarassing for me. Would probably last forever...

My wife played the flute in an amateur orchestra 15 years ago and recently began to practise again. That's my tit-for-tat response infecting her again with the music virus as she infected me with Corona. 

My daughter (7) can at least play some children's songs on the piano thanks to my "influence" and whenever she sees myself practising the guitar she chimes in with her little one. But still on a very basic level, she hasn't enough patience for stricter learning. And I don't want to force her too much.

But in parallel she began to compose on her own (a proud father I am!), totally old-school on the piano. She already noted down more notes on physical sheets than I have! 
So I must hurry, otherwise she will soon have her first symphony written and then mentioned her father right here in this thread as "has helped me in the beginning but is still jingling around like I was when I was 7".


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## Arbee (May 1, 2022)

No music anywhere in my family that I'm aware of, though my father had a love of instrumental music in general (MJQ were his favorite) and an uncanny ear. My mother was an amateur poet. My wife is not musical and though we introduced both of our daughters to music (one played violin, the other french horn), they both chose dance over music. So it gets very lonely here in my home studio .


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## Tim_Wells (May 1, 2022)

I wish. I think it might have made things easier if I'd had some emntors.


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## timbit2006 (May 1, 2022)

According to my mom the reason why I took guitar lessons is because she found me trying to play my dads guitar one day and asked if I wanted lessons and I said yeah. I was younger than 9 then. My parents bought me an acoustic and of course, I wanted an electric so my dad told me that I needed to learn power chords before he'd get me one. I learnt to do them right away and that's how it began. Fortunately my younger brother had been taking Piano lessons since the age of 5 so I always had access to a piano for fun. I think this really helped me with what I'm doing now.

Generationally I come from a long line of Roman Catholic organ and violin players. My Great great grandfather played both. I wish his organ was still around, unfortunately the communists destroyed their village as part of "German Operation" in 1943 so it is doubtful that it exists otherwise I'd gladly pay freight shipping to get it to Canada. I also have some other relatives who were relatively well known musicians in Russia, both disappeared after a show one night. More than likely NKVD was the cause. On my mother's side which was Greek Catholic I think there was a violin player, my great uncle John was great at singing in Ruthenian/Ukrainian as well.

The genetic generational influence of musicianship has always fascinated me for a long time since I was a teenager.


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## VanSou (May 2, 2022)

My family is not musical at all actually. My mother sometimes sings in a choir, but just for fun.. No idea where my obsession with it came from. 
Maybe the urge to do something completely different than your family also sometimes has a strong impact on that.


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## JJP (May 2, 2022)

No musicians on either side of my family. I had to convince my parents to let me audition for college. Nobody in my extended family could understand how music counted as “work”. I was seen as a smart kid, so music was likely throwing away my potential.


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## ghostnote (May 2, 2022)

Father plays bass and had a huuuuge rock/progressive/blues collection. Since the beginning I had to listen to Whitesnake, BB King, Dream Theater etc. Then, I was about 8 years old, I heard Hadaway's "What is love (Baby don't hurt me)" for the first time on the radio and I somehow realized that things never will be the same again. However, always wanted to play the traverso since I was a kid, but somehow it didn't feel right so I settled for the Piano. Later with 13, it was e-guitar. I play almost every day.


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## NYC Composer (May 4, 2022)

My cousin Alice just retired as a flautist with the National Symphony in D.C. for over 50 years. My cousin Peter, also recently retired, was a percussionist with the Minneapolis Symphony and the Honolulu symphony as well as being a jazz drummer. My cousin Danny was the lead guitarist for a seminal Greenwich Village band call The Blues Project. His brother Johnny is a great blues guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who played in Europe for years. My Uncle Al played piano for Kate Smith and Broadway. Those are just the pros and I’m probably missing a few.


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## El Buhdai (May 4, 2022)

I almost said no, and then I remembered that I'm related to legendary Jazz musician Lou Donaldson, I had a grandfather who was in a jazz band, an uncle who had his own home studio he'd rent out to musicians, and a father who wrote an entire album of music for my mother.

So yes.

Even outside of that, everyone in my immediate family has a deep love and appreciation for music, and before I grew up and moved out, at least one of us four had music playing at all times. Whether it was my dad's repetitive gospel music, my brother's jazzy, artsy and introspective hip hop, my mom's old school/funk, or the 10+ genres I listen to, there was always something playing as long as someone was awake.

EDIT: And my late grandmother was a locally-known and well-respected volunteer for the Toledo Symphony Orchestra before her passing. How did I forget all these musical connections?!


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## mybadmemory (Jul 22, 2022)

We had an old upright at home and my grandfather had a steinway grand. Neither my parents or grandparents were music professionals but I guess I still grew up sitting in front of pianos. I took lessons for a few years in junior high, but never learned to read sheet music. What I really count as the main reason for this hobby of mine is my music teacher in school who for some reason figured it was a good idea to put me in front of Cubase, a Sound Canvas module, and a midi keyboard at age 14. I got hooked instantly and didn’t to much else between 14 and 20. After that I got occupied with my career and forgot all about music making for 15 years, until my mothers passing a few years ago brought me back into it.


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## jbuhler (Jul 22, 2022)

No one in my immediate family and not much serious musical talent in my extended family. My grandfather however did play accordion semi professionally in polka bands for about 40 years.


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## Bron (Jul 22, 2022)

Music has been in the family on both sides (eg grandmothers piano in the house) and we all had an opportunity to learn an instrument as children but I’m the one who took it up professionally. My grandmother did learn violin from a young age and was quite good, and the story goes she played for Ravel (in a youth orchestra) at some point.


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## EanS (Jul 22, 2022)

Dad was a painter/artist (sorry for the music, not my doing but he passed away right before smartphones so was hard to have decent backups) 



Not a single instrument in the family, if you live in France maybe you know Quilapayun.

Formerly directed by Victor Jara killed during the coup, the director Eduardo Carrasco is my uncle. Don't dig much this kind of music, but there are some awesome tunes like Cantata Santa Maria.

We had to flee the country; my family went to Brazil, uncle and family to France. After returning to Chile I met him and also helped a student (drummer) doing finals I play guitar auditioning at a music School, my uncle was the Principal. He even offered me a scholarship.

I declined, I'm a hemophiliac and can't rely on my body regarding reliability, I get joints' bleeding and can't move them for days or weeks.

_and that's how I met your mother 😂_


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