V.com weekend vote: Do you/did you have a musical mother?
Happy Mother's Day! I thought I'd use the opportunity to talk about moms and music. We violinists and string players tend to talk a lot about our teachers and the roles they played in our musical development, but how about our parents, and more specifically, Mom?
It might be that your mom is (or was) a musician herself - after all, it does tend to run in families! Or, it might be that, though she wasn't musical herself, it was your mom who really made sure that you practiced. Or perhaps you had a mother figure in your life who was a musical influence on you. If so, do tell us about it!
Or maybe your answer, like mine, is simply "no"! I loved my mother, but she was not musically inclined. I'm actually pretty grateful that I could just slip under the radar and do my own thing, musically - no one was really qualified (or inclined) to comment on what kind of progress I was making in my basement practice room!
How about you, did you or do you have a "musical mother"? Has this been inspirational or difficult, or maybe a bit of both? Please participate in the vote, and tell us all about it!
You might also like:
- Thanks for Making Me Practice, Mom Kidnapped by the Smartphone
- A Lion Mother Roars: Two Ferocious Moms Aim High for their Musical Children, but in Very Different Ways
* * *
Enjoying Violinist.com? Click here to sign up for our free, bi-weekly email newsletter. And if you've already signed up, please invite your friends! Thank you.
Tweet
Replies
Nope, my mom isn’t very fond of classical music…more like the Beatles.
My mother was an excellent pianist in her younger days, and once told me that she would have liked to play the violin but it wasn’t thought of in her family. My father was also a talented and well-trained amateur musician, as were all his siblings. Nobody in his generation became a professional musician but a few of my cousins did so, along with (obviously) me.
My mom (and dad) loved classical music (especially violin), and I inherited that love of music. Both were never musicians, but mom was a semi-professional actress, and dad was a professional newspaper editor and part-time fiction writer (never got anything published, though). They fully supported my starting to take violin lessons when I was 9 years old.
Happy Mother's Day to all.
Both my parents were violinists. My mother performed the Bruch G minor concerto before I was born, and when I first studied it, I felt that I had played it before. What a head start!
I think my mother has some musical inclination because she sang in a church choir, but she never had the opportunity to develop her talent. I’m also very grateful to both of my non-musical parents for paying for and driving me to and from private lessons, county festivals, and youth orchestra, and attending concerts.
Laurie, Happy Mother's Day to you and all the other Moms reading violinist.com today! And thank you for linking to my article, "Thanks for Making Me Practice, Mom." I am flooded with wonderful memories of my mom today, as well as all the conversations you and I have had about motherhood and our respective mothers.
Yup, my mother was the policewoman in many ways. She would sit behind me and whack my head every time I played out of tune. Later on, when she visited me at Meadowmount, rented a room. Mr. Galamian encouraged her to be my policewoman
Mom was a piano whiz and former child prodigy. It was her idea to enroll me in beginning piano lessons on a trial basis when I was at 7 y/o. She and Dad thought I might have musical ability, because I would sit and listen, on my own, to one classical album after another from their collection on Saturday mornings during the cold, gray winter months.
But I didn’t get beyond the basics in piano. I soon switched to violin when the muse got hold of me. I was, and still am, the geeky type. Mom didn’t have to make sure that I practiced; neither parent had to. I was hooked on it. If anything, they would have to remind me once in a while that it was time to stop practicing for the day - i.e., when it was getting late in the evening, with school was coming up the next day.
Fortunately, I didn’t have a stage-mom - or stage-dad. I’m sure that kind of relationship would have made me rebel, and I wouldn’t have gone on to major in performance, as I did.
Not at all. Neither of my parents even listens to music of any genre, and I suspect that both are among the 3% of the population with musical anhedonia. They were willing to pay for piano lessons and tried to find me a violin teacher, but preferred that I practice when they were not home.
Andrew, "anhedonia" - what a great word! But a sad condition, "musical anhedonia"!
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Violinist.com is made possible by...
Dimitri Musafia, Master Maker of Violin and Viola Cases
Johnson String Instrument/Carriage House Violins
Subscribe
Laurie's Books
Discover the best of Violinist.com in these collections of editor Laurie Niles' exclusive interviews.
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 1, with introduction by Hilary Hahn
Violinist.com Interviews Volume 2, with introduction by Rachel Barton Pine
May 12, 2024 at 02:59 AM · Neither of my parents were musical. My Mom is/was fond of music and was an appreciator, but has little to no musical education or training.