Teen who is a serious pianist and vacation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amy Chua, is that you?

Exactly what I thought!

[Anonymous]

My kid is a percussionist, so she brings a practice pad, but there's no way to practice mallets. I won't lie, it seems like the competition and summer festival cycle is devilishly tied to the school break and exam cycle. So it's lead to some stress when she returns and has to get everything back up to speed. (In fact, she dropped all state this year down the first time ever. Auditions were delayed due to snow, fell after a scheduled trip, and she could not get things back in shape and get her summer festival work done)

All that being said, she's never skipped vacation and never asked to skip vacation.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a typical asian family, and all of my brothers and sister, myself included, were forced into piano at the age of five until we finished Royal Conservatory Music (RCM) level ten at the age of fifteen. We still had to practice even when we were on vacation, and we hated our parents for that.

In high school, I picked up the guitar and my brother picked up the saxophone, and it continued into college. I got so good at guitar that I did guitar gigs, and I was able to date so many women, even after college. I am so grateful that my parents forced me to practice piano every day, even when we were on vacation, because I was a young and stupid kid.

Try not to skip practice even when you're on vacation, if possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a typical asian family, and all of my brothers and sister, myself included, were forced into piano at the age of five until we finished Royal Conservatory Music (RCM) level ten at the age of fifteen. We still had to practice even when we were on vacation, and we hated our parents for that.

In high school, I picked up the guitar and my brother picked up the saxophone, and it continued into college. I got so good at guitar that I did guitar gigs, and I was able to date so many women, even after college. I am so grateful that my parents forced me to practice piano every day, even when we were on vacation, because I was a young and stupid kid.

Try not to skip practice even when you're on vacation, if possible.

Were your vacations in Stockholm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a typical asian family, and all of my brothers and sister, myself included, were forced into piano at the age of five until we finished Royal Conservatory Music (RCM) level ten at the age of fifteen. We still had to practice even when we were on vacation, and we hated our parents for that.

In high school, I picked up the guitar and my brother picked up the saxophone, and it continued into college. I got so good at guitar that I did guitar gigs, and I was able to date so many women, even after college. I am so grateful that my parents forced me to practice piano every day, even when we were on vacation, because I was a young and stupid kid.

Try not to skip practice even when you're on vacation, if possible.

So you were a loser without the guitar?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in a typical asian family, and all of my brothers and sister, myself included, were forced into piano at the age of five until we finished Royal Conservatory Music (RCM) level ten at the age of fifteen. We still had to practice even when we were on vacation, and we hated our parents for that.

In high school, I picked up the guitar and my brother picked up the saxophone, and it continued into college. I got so good at guitar that I did guitar gigs, and I was able to date so many women, even after college. I am so grateful that my parents forced me to practice piano every day, even when we were on vacation, because I was a young and stupid kid.

Try not to skip practice even when you're on vacation, if possible.

So you were a loser without the guitar?

Well, women love to hang out with musicians. Therefore, most men are losers without musical instruments.

[Anonymous]

I'm a professional classical musician and I know it sounds crazy, but, really, there is an intense decade where you really must practice every day. From the time I was 16-26, when I won my first job, I literally only skipped practicing when I had my wisdom teeth out (which was terrifying). I play a brass instrument. Now that I've been playing professionally for decades, it's easy to skip days (in fact, I skipped today!) and even healthy to, but if your child is that dedicated, you should honor it and accommodate it!

[Anonymous]

This post made me remember my son carrying his drum pad and bells on a very long flight last year so he could practice all week on our ski trip. These kids are dedicated!
Maybe compromise… like find a place for 2 days on the trip. But wouldn’t disrupt plans for this.

[Anonymous]

Or, how about not taking vacations where they can't practice until they have left for college? The time flies by and you will have years and years without needing to be near a piano.

[Anonymous]

I was never a serious musician and didn’t practice piano on vacation. But if music is a passion I don’t see how it’s different from wanting to make sure there are running trails or a pool where I can keep up my fitness routines on vacation. No, I’m not going to have unrecoverable losses in fitness if I don’t swim for a week, but it makes me happy to be able to keep it up while away from home. So I don’t think it’s crazy to try to accommodate music practice when possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or, how about not taking vacations where they can't practice until they have left for college? The time flies by and you will have years and years without needing to be near a piano.

You might be dead by then

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Or, how about not taking vacations where they can't practice until they have left for college? The time flies by and you will have years and years without needing to be near a piano.

OP here, she’s 13, so that would be a lot of years before her siblings would get a vacation centered on this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would let the teen decide as long as it was feasible to bring the instrument and they figured out on their own how to work in practice time.

Requiring your teen to practice on vacation would be some pretty seriously deranged behavior.

Teen is saying that they only want to go to places with pianos. Last year we brought an electric piano to the beach but they are saying that is not an option.

WTF. Who is the parent?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am the PP who only lets my kid take his instrument on certain vacations. My kid can be somewhat rigid and I see the instrument-less vacations as good practice for compromising. After all, who is going to want to marry someone who insists on bringing his instrument on all vacations?

This is weird. I played violin as a kid and we took my violin on all our vacations. Except I guess to the one international vacation we took. But the beach, grandparents' house, Maine, skiing? Yep, the violin came along and I practiced the same amount per day I was supposed to. I wasn't crazy or super intense. Just a kid who played violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the PP who only lets my kid take his instrument on certain vacations. My kid can be somewhat rigid and I see the instrument-less vacations as good practice for compromising. After all, who is going to want to marry someone who insists on bringing his instrument on all vacations?

This is weird. I played violin as a kid and we took my violin on all our vacations. Except I guess to the one international vacation we took. But the beach, grandparents' house, Maine, skiing? Yep, the violin came along and I practiced the same amount per day I was supposed to. I wasn't crazy or super intense. Just a kid who played violin.

Your instrument is much smaller than my kids instrument. If you played cello or tuba your parents might have felt differently.