What Were You Doing At Age 11?

[AndyV]

At 11? Painting, drawing, playing with friends and lusting after Mrs. Pell on the Avengers, but perhaps a bit unsure why. I was 7 years away from picking up the guitar and mandolin.

[AllanAllen]

Wow. While I listen to Saxon Weiss a little and think "This boy has a lot of potential. Let's see where he will be in a few years.", this girl really knows already how to play those folk blues tunes and get the finger-picking groove rolling. Which is the basis for singing over it freely. Being exposed to the music of Robert Johnson, Blind Blake and Blind Lemon Jefferson as a kid is for sure not the worst thing that can happen to you in times of plastic pop (Damn -- I am getting the conservative old fart I never wanted to be, I even cannot name pop artists from the last ten years any more LOL).

At 11 I quit classical piano lessons after 2 years (I had started biting on a recorder flute at 5 before and played that for a few years). I was interested in knights, ancient Romans and Native Indians, read every book I could get my fingers on and liked drawing and painting. My parents did not have a TV by conviction so I was not very much exposed to that.

It's easy, you can still name Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

[docsteve]

It's easy, you can still name Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

Billie Eilish


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

[AllanAllen]

Billie Eilish


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

She hasn't hit the 10 year mark yet. Did you see her do a song on SNL with Christian McBride?

[mr. beaumont]

She hasn't hit the 10 year mark yet. Did you see her do a song on SNL with Christian McBride?

Her SNL performances this last time were the best musical performances on that show in a good long while.

Billie has it.

It's modern music which I know scares the boomers off, but she has a very classic entertainer vibe about her...she has a kind of self-effacing, shy personality in reality (or maybe that's a well thought out act) but she could literally go from bringing people to tears with a musical performance to making you gut bust with laughter in a comedy skit (the cat skit was hilarious)

That's some Johnny Carson show shit right there. You ever see that episode where Art Carney comes out playing drunk wearing boxer shorts and then minutes later he's playing the piano?

Check this out...

Art comes out at 43:00, hilarity ensues, at 49 minutes in he's playing "September Song."

Billie got that "it."

[AllanAllen]

Man, look at how fun things used to be!

[Bop Head]

It's easy, you can still name Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

Billie Eilish


Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

Honestly I could not name any single song by Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish. I know Beyonce a little.

And I remember I liked this song when a friend showed it to me:

And this one has a funny video, too:

[Doctor Jeff]

I won San Diego and Imperial county for competitive swimming across 6 events at age 12 in about 1998.

Wow—impressed. I was like the Malcom Young of swimmers—not flashy, but persistent. My best effort was the 100-meter backstroke at the City Meet in Chattanooga in 1978. I took 5th. I was competing against some of the best swimmers in the SE, so I didn’t feel too bad about it.

Sports and scouting were the main reasons I stopped taking lessons about age 11 or 12–didn’t have enough time for practice and lessons. I had a Silvertone electric and almost unplayable no-name flattop at the time. I really regret not putting more effort into music early on. I didn’t pick it up again with any conviction until college.

I WAS in an award-winning school handbell choir in Jr. High and High School. We toured all over the SE and even played at the White House and Naval Academy chapel—said to be the first high school group allowed to perform there. My sight-reading and understanding of composition definitely improved because of that.

We made an album, which I still have, and which proves we were pretty good. I played virtually all bells at one time or another. One year I was the entire 8th octave of bells, but my preference was the 6th or 7th, as they got the most playing time. Those bells (German-made) were/are super expensive, btw.

[Doctor Jeff]

You’ve probably seen this—13 year-old Joe Bonamassa. We know what HE was doing age 11-12. (God is that 90’s variety show intro embarrassing.)

And here’s a 14-year-old Marty Stuart:

I have tix to see Marty and the boys in 2 weeks.

[jameslovestal]

Learning the violin and taking private lessons to prepare me for joining the Jr. High Orchestra once I got to 7th grade.

[Bop Head]

Pasquales Brother at 11

[wintermoon]

and you thought you could play guitar.....

[Bop Head]

Do you recognize her (at 10)?

[RJVB]

Wow. While I listen to Saxon Weiss a little and think "This boy has a lot of potential. Let's see where he will be in a few years.", this girl really knows already how to play those folk blues tunes and get the finger-picking groove rolling. Which is the basis for singing over it freely.

Funnily, "lot of potential" is what I thought of both. I can't really assess how well the boy improvises but at least that's what he appears to be doing. With the girl I have this nagging impression that part of that technical perfection comes from having studied very precisly exactly what (notes) her examples played. To put it differently: when I listen to recordings of, say, Robert Johnson I often wonder if the mojo and drive weren't captured by the recording technology of the day, or if he left them out on purpose (possibly again because of the technology). I do hope that she'll break free a little bit more as she matures (I realise I'm probably putting the bar high again, and yes, I wish I could play like that...)

[deacon Mark]

I had just started the guitar, but baseball was my life. I lived it and played it daily to extreme. The only thing that got me was college baseball and after that I pretty much quit baseball. I would not really start to play really serious until I began teaching in guitar in college. I then had to make some strides. I was able to teach and play but I needed a lot of work.

So today I never follow baseball and I am still working hard to keep up on the guitar. Lucky now that I have the time to really practice and play more than the past 40 years. This kid is great and clearly talented but probably puts in serious practice too. He probably has the time now and getting older it will not be quite the same.

[Bop Head]

Funnily, "lot of potential" is what I thought of both. I can't really assess how well the boy improvises but at least that's what he appears to be doing. With the girl I have this nagging impression that part of that technical perfection comes from having studied very precisly exactly what (notes) her examples played. To put it differently: when I listen to recordings of, say, Robert Johnson I often wonder if the mojo and drive weren't captured by the recording technology of the day, or if he left them out on purpose (possibly again because of the technology). I do hope that she'll break free a little bit more as she matures (I realise I'm probably putting the bar high again, and yes, I wish I could play like that...)

I could listen to the whole video of the girl but not of the boy. The outcome counts in the end.

[garybaldy]

Bireli Lagrene was playing professionally at 11. Still at it, touring the US with Martin Taylor.

Wasn't that the case with Boulou Ferret as well?

[sgosnell]

Boulou was a child prodigy, but I'm not familiar enough to know the actual age when he started. I haven't heard anything about him in a very long time. Bireli has been a continual force since his childhood, in multiple genres.

[Dean_G]

At 11, in 1962, I was transitioning from yo-yo competitions (wasn't competitive enough ?) to chromatic harmonica. Loved the Harmonicats, but couldn't play worth a crap myself. Didn't start guitar till 12, during the folk music scare, then the Brits and surf music and such.

[Doctor Jeff]

Yo-yos--if there was anything "cool" that kids did back then requiring some coordination, I sucked at it LOL. Other kids were walking the dog, doing cat's cradle, etc., and I was still trying to get the yo-yo to "stick" at the end of the tether.

I was a pretty clumsy kid. The only things I had any aptitude for outside of books were swimming and music.

I just remembered something funny from that time. I had a good buddy in 7th grade--I would have been 11 going on 12 at the time--and we would get together and play with our GI Joes, both of us having quite a collection. Then about halfway through the school year, interest in the toys just vanished, like turning off a switch. And we moved into Mad Magazine, records, movies, tennis and such.

I started to develop an interest in girls, and (in retrospect) Steve started developing an interest in guys. It's not like he said anything overt to me. But his large collection of show tune albums might have been a hint.

[RJVB]

I was a pretty clumsy kid.

Same here. Raises a somewhat interesting question... If we take playing a musical instrument as an intellectual endeavour (esp. if it leads to playing jazz ^^), how many of us were not clumsy to some extent?

I can't think of many musicians I've known who were good at sports in general and the forms requiring a lot of co-ordination in particular. And I (have) see(n) all too often in kids who were/are good at both that they have to make a choice for time reasons at some point - which almost always seems to be in favour of sports. I probably just escaped that because I discovered a physical activity that I liked quite late when my violinistic skills were already well enough developed that I never considered quitting (plus I was still young enough that I listened to my mom to play at least 15 minutes per day ). But the real break-through that even made me consider going pro for a short while came when I was recovering from having asked too much of my knees...

[Dean_G]

Yo-yos--if there was anything "cool" that kids did back then requiring some coordination, I sucked at it LOL. Other kids were walking the dog, doing cat's cradle, etc., and I was still trying to get the yo-yo to "stick" at the end of the tether.

I was hoping to win a local yo-yo competition hosted by the "Clancy the Cop" local tv station kids show and Duncan YoYo company. Prize was a trip to Disneyland. Did ok until the end when I biffed "man on the flying trapeze"! lol. So downhearted I hung up my yo-yo career. . Actuall it was the "Casey Jones" show as I think back. My name was drawn for a nice set of bongo drums on Clancy's show! Last thing I ever won! Only thing really...

[DonEsteban]

Impressively sour, irrelevant comment. Best to keep your jealousy to yourself.

U no ears?

[PMB]

After playing guitar for 3 years, I formed my first band at age 11 in 1972, The Wyvern Wildcats (named after my school) and wrote a bunch of songs with a classmate. Our first one was a blues-based ditty so it's no surprise really that I ended up as a jazz guitarist!

[Hyppolyte Bergamotte]

My dad gave me my first guitar and I tried to learn the chords of “ don’t be cruel”
HB