But why shouldn't kids be good on the bass ...

[Barking Spiders]

So often I see clips on You Tube and elsewhere where posters are in jawdropping awe of children playing bass, guitar or drums to a high standard.  Thing is if a child starts learning at 3 or 4, with natural ability, being able to absorb information more efficiently than adults, having parental support and a good teacher by 10 they actually should be pretty advanced.  At my school there were quite a number of boys who could play drums, piano, sax, violin, trumpet or guitar to a very high standard by the age 12 but given that they'd been playing for 7 or 8 years it was kind of expected. I wonder if these posters would be in such awe of an adult reaching a high level of musical proficiency in a just 2 or 3 years? 

[milford59]

My theory is that a kid who starts at 4 yrs old and reaches a high standard by 12 years old, is the same as a guy that starts at 20 and reaches a high standard by 60......... both of them have spent double their starting age in years learning the instrument.

I started bass when I was 40.... so 19 years later I am bound to be still rubbish at playing it  !!

On the other hand I might be talking complete drivel.....

[JBP]

I'm always more impressed with bass more then guitar, because there is more of a size restriction there, even with a short scale my youngest student is 11.

My wife teaches piano and she has had some students who she has been teaching since they were 4 or 5  who are now in there teens and they are phenomonal. My daughter has been playing piano since she was 3 she is 14 now and thinks nothing of siting down and site reading grade 8 stuff or anything she fancies... I wish i had started so much younger.

... yes I am jealous 😞 

[Delberthot]

I think the younger the better as you'll pick it up quicker the younger you are. I was 11 when I got my first acoustic guitar and 12 when I got my first bass.

Plus all you have when you are young is school and friends - there's no job, mortgage, financial considerations and all of the many other distractions that prevent us or at least hinder us from taking up new hobbies the older we get.

A real shame is all of the really good musicians I knew from school who didn't continue to play into adulthood. There were loads of us all playing in various bands in school and I think that myself and another girl I knew who was a phenomenal classical guitarist may be the only ones who are still playing

[TheGreek]

Get those 10,000 hours under your belt...for those who want a great read about "natural talent" need to get a copy of "Bounce" by Matthew Syed (British Table Tennis and Commonwealth champ).

Do the work, don't rely on natural ability, you'll get there. 

[bassbiscuits]

I dunno. I taught some guitar a few years back to kids of various ages, and below about six years old the kids didn't have the same attention span or plain manual dexterity to be able to fret things properly, compared with say kids of around 10 and upwards. 

I started playing bass at 12 and even on a short scale bass that was quite big for me.

My eldest lad is 6 now and even my small travel guitar is beyond him on a manual level. 

Edited August 31, 2018 by bassbiscuits

[josie]

My grandson, aged not quite 4 in this pic. And don't suggest getting him a ukulele, I already have. This is what he wants. 

I might try getting him an Ibanez Mikro. But when I give him the choice of any of my guitars / basses, he always says "I want the big one!" 🙂

But a good U-bass can sound surprisingly good for its size. I know a bass player who is having increasing problems with lifting weight and has gone from a P to a viola-bass to a U-bass. The U-bass sounds better than the viola imho. 

[mikel]

Starting young is going to give the individual an advantage, to be sure, but not always. If the very young are learning simply because of the "Pushy Parent" syndrome, and they have no innate love of the activity, then it can be a hindrance as no one wants to be forced into doing something and they will probably give it up when they have that option.

 Talent, coupled with the desire to get the best out of that talent, is the unbeatable combination, If you have one without the other then even the 10,000 hour measure also means little.

[thepurpleblob]

Kids don't worry me. They can't drive or carry a 10x8.  I'll still have a gig 😂

[Happy Jack]

On 01/09/2018 at 00:15, josie said:

My grandson, aged not quite 4 in this pic.

Forget his choice of instrument ... you need to do something about his choice of reading material.