Born into Music - Projecting Your Desires onto your Children

 

I read a blog called “ how to create a child prodigy” that is about what choice children have for themselves to choose a life direction in a very young age. For example some parents force their children into taking lessons for an instrument at the age of 3. The movie “ SHINE” is an example of a parent who wanted his son to be a master pianist and pushed him into it his whole life. In these cases it is the parents projecting their desires onto their children.

This all led me to question – why am I a Musician?

My mother played the piano her whole – she played it when she was young and throughout the years. She played while she was pregnant with me and when I was born she played it still. There was always that link between my mother and the piano so I was naturally inclined to the piano as my first instrument. And I really liked playing the piano. I was never forced into it, It was not like I went for lessons at a young age or forced to sit and practice for hours and hours on end, I liked playing it and wanted to learn more. I was always quick to learn and people always said I was talented.

Back then I did not understand the reason why I liked it, but now when I look back at the reason it was because I wanted to be appreciated/valued. Every time I played for people they would cheer me on and say how good I am so that was my primary motivation – to be liked.

So for me the reason why I became a musician was because I was born into it, It made people appreciate me and it reminded me of my mother and that’s the reason I liked playing the piano.

Within all this I would say I’m lucky, because I have met people in my life who were forced to become better and better with a particular instrument and who had to practice many hours all to fulfill the parents dreams and ambitions. I did not have to deal with all that crap.

Music is self-expression. Something you do because you truly enjoy it. It is not something you should force onto a child. Too many parents want to shape their children according to the parent’s desires. The parents made mistakes in life or regretted not doing something and thus want to try and live through their children. Here is a quote from the blog above:

“A child should have the opportunity to explore and investigate and experience as much as possible so that they can find out what it is they do like - in this way the child has the best opportunity to make an informed decision for themselves. - See more at: http://activistsjourneytolife.blogspot.com/2014/09/day-591-how-to-create-child-prodigy.html#sthash.2u6n0m5t.dpuf’’

Word.