same granddaughter who's playing horn, and going off to Interlochen every summer...

[bloke]

She told her Mom that she wanted a trumpet, so I found one to fix up and gave to her...

(I honestly can't remember when they were here, but it was less than a year ago...might have been just this last Christmas...??...)

She wanted to participate in the school jazz band...(no horns, so...)

The first random thing I played for her on youtube was Al Hirt playing "Java"...(I told her that I'd actually played one dixie job with him, a very long time ago.) Three days later (after they got home), her Mom sent me a picture of her having downloaded a transcribed trumpet solo part to "Java" and working on it.

She's now the lead trumpet player in her school's jazz band...She's 13.

It seems as though everything that she discovers exists, she wants to embrace it and excel at it...(??)

[Jperry1466]

The talent and work ethic runs deep in your family, Joe.

[matt g]

That’s great!

[Pauvog1]

Awesome

[Tubeast]

A very important part of that sucess seems to be the consequence of Your granddaughter actively seeking / choosing / TAKING THE INITIATIVE.
SHE wants to play in Jazz Band. So SHE chooses an instrument to make it happen, and SHE is looking up that solo transcript.

That "taking the initiative"- part seems to be the main driving factor with successful, talented kids.
My opinion: this will ALWAYS be superior to parents determining their kids´ pastime activities, such as pressing them into ballet class or choosing their instrument for them.

Your little boy watches ballet on TV and wants to dance? Great.
He takes the initiative and comes up with a self-researched contact form of a local corps de ballet that offers beginner´s classes, showing You where to sign, please?
Even better. Hints at determination and increases chances for a good start.
You send him to jazz dance classes instead, because that´s what YOU think You´d prefer for Your kid?
Not quite as good.

You make him join the wrestling team, ´cause ballet is for sissies?
Prepare for failure in that sport.

[bloke]

The previous post was right on target.

[Mary Ann]

Yes --- when I had a lesson business, occasionally I'd get a kid with talent who was there because of a parent. Even when the kid was really trying to please the parent, as is often the case, the desire just wasn't there. I had to have some conversations of "if he doesn't love it, it's not going to work no matter how much he tries to please you; if playing baseball is what he wants to do, let him go play baseball, and YOU take the piano lessons."

I'm not in her talent class, but the summer when I was 12 I was voluntarily doing two hours a day on the violin, and I got results. Similar with students whose motivation came from THEMSELVES, and I never agreed with the notion that it was the teacher's job to motivate, and the supposed failure of the teacher if the parent thought the student's failure was the teacher's failure to motivate the student.

She's going to go somewhere, bloke, but it might not be music in the end, because my guess is that she is smart enough to do quite a few things. For some, music performance is actually not hard enough intellectually to hold their interest into adulthood, and they go off and become brilliant scientists or authors or composers.

[bloke]

As the music business is dying, I sort of hope that she doesn't enter that field, but I hope that her habit of embracing things that are interesting and striving to excel remains.

picture:
I don't get to see them (there are three) very often. They look "different again" in every new picture I'm sent.
This one is now slightly taller than her older sister, and is looking more like a "young lady" now, and less like a little pixie.

(cousin on the left...litte bro' on the right...She began teaching her brother how to play the horn...and now he's studying horn with his Dad and - on zoom - with his grandmother)



btw...Her Dad is picking up some "skills"...He just soldered her thumb valve saddle back onto her horn (not the easiest solder joint!)

[bloke]

I have no comments to make about what's occurred within the Boy Scouts, my opinion of the Girl Scouts, nor my opinion of girls in the Boy Scouts (though - via this picture - there seems to be some appropriate stuff happening), but

ANYWAY...

She has decided to join the Boy Scouts, is determined to achieve the rank of "Eagle", and - unless she ends up having to sacrifice this for other activities - I have no doubt that she will.

The reason for posting is that (along with the trumpet I recently fixed up and handed off to her at Christmas), there was a nearly-free-to-me Jinbao POCKET trumpet that I handed to her younger brother (years ago, and he's now ALSO playing horn, but not trumpet). She took the pocket trumpet off to camp, and is playing all of the appropriate calls for all of the appropriate assemblies, in addition to Reveille and Taps.

Being compact, it's not much of a burden, and - being Jinbao - she doesn't have to feel as though she has to be particularly careful with it. (Her Mom reports a loose solder joint...meh.)

Her uncle (my son) did the same thing (with a cheap trumpet, though he had a nice one at home) when he went off to Boy Scout camp. I believe having a bugler at camp really adds to the experience.

[bloke]

...and now, I'm received texted videos of Scout camp...starting a fire with a magnifying glass, and a bunch of other cool "Scout stuff"...

[bloke]

The talent and work ethic runs deep in your family, Joe.

Please don't try to give me any credit...
I appreciate the sentiment , but one of my pet peeves is crediting parents/teachers for achievements (etc.) which were achieved by those who (well...) achieved them.

This one just seems to (as her parents) embrace life, do things, and do them as well as she can. Her siblings are great, but she's different.

My daughter stood up in front of a 50-50 pro/amateur orchestra (when 14) and played the complete Haydn oboe concerto (with an "ok"/not-wonderful oboe...a Mirafone/Hans Kreul). I'd post the video (really fine performance - would have to find the VHS and convert) but you guys aren't interested... I did point out to my own daughter (quite a few times, when she was in grade school) that our life here is limited, and - in order to make it more interesting - why not see just how much can actually be accomplished, and just how well it can be accomplished (??) Sometimes, I don't have patience with some people (which - maybe - sometimes is apparent here), because I might not be convinced that they're pushing themselves to do as much as they can...probably a flaw in me, which might make me come off as (more than a bit) obnoxious...guilty as charged.

[Three Valves]

...and now, I'm received texted videos of Scout camp...starting a fire with a magnifying glass, and a bunch of other cool "Scout stuff"...

Around here we have Sea Scouts, an extension of BSA that has always been open to boys and girls for at least as long as I have been aware of them.

Civil Air Patrol was similarly open. I once thought it would be cool to get a glider pilot license at 14. I don’t know if they still issue those.

Hopefully, she won’t find out about that!

[bloke]

A trombone/power plant manager/genius friend of mine got interested in flying when he lived out west and - later - in Alaska, in order to get around more quickly (with things really spread out "out there").

His son became interested, because a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan (yikes! ) and now flies medivac around western Tennessee to various hospitals.

My friend (the father) started out with a Piper Cub (two passengers IF the second person weighs under blah-blah and IF the air temperature is blah-blah), and now has some sort of fairly "significant" twin-engine something-or-other.

[royjohn]

Bloke,
It's great to hear about your granddaughter's exploits. Kids today...some of them...seem scary smart and accomplished.

I hope you will keep her supplied with trumpets which are commensurate with her ability level. If she's in jazz band, she
may soon want a "screamer."


royjohn
Old Guy, Tuba Newbie

[bloke]

Her parents and grandparents (though this one seems remarkably "so-called" well-adjusted) are concerned about a 13-year-old who seemed to be able to do most everything extremely well, very quickly very well (any instrument, any academic discipline, any sport, any craft...blah, blah-blah, and blah-blah-blah), and ends up being bounced year(s) above nearly all of her same-age counterparts in most disciplines. Everyone who cares about her is watching and observing.


Scouts: This is an all-girls Boy Scout troop, and girls tend to join these because Boy Scouts (well...) seem to do more things - and more interesting things - than Girl Scouts.
She's determined to achieve the Eagle rank... We'll see...??