I’ve talked about my son Gavin’s interest in music before. Recently turned eleven, he’s played piano since age four, and then picked up guitar about three years ago. An extremely self-motivated kid, he often goes to Youtube for guitar lessons. He’ll pick out a song, watch the video, then go off and play it.
Interestingly — to me, at least — he wants to respond in kind. Obviously, Gavin lives in a different world than I did as a kid. A couple of days ago he announced that he made some videos and put them on Youtube. “You did what?” we asked.
(Why do I suspect, as parents, we’re all going to be asking that question a lot. “You did . . . WHAT??!!)
I don’t know how to make a video, and I don’t know how to get it on Youtube. But for Gavin, it’s entirely natural for him to figure that out.
Anyway, here’s two of his recent efforts.
This one he made yesterday, while I was upstairs reading When You Reach Me with Maggie: “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix . . .
And over the weekend, on piano, he knocked out a crazy tune by Alan Hovhaness, “Macedonian Mountain Dance.” This song he heard another boy play at piano camp over the summer, and returned home determined to learn it. And did, completely on his own . . .
We just sit back in amazement, frankly. Not that he’s perfect, or that these are refined versions, but that he’s out there . . . doing . . . communicating in this modern world.
Very impressive.
I love Gavin channeling Jimi — great to see 11-yr-old fingers taking that tune on, and he does a great job. My son posted some clips he’s working on with stop-motion video. He told us and we said the same thing: You did WHAT??
Wonderful stuff, great hobby playing music, I don’t know if there is a bett one.