Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, all opinions expressed are my own.
RNYD wrote this one for you all. Thought you might like to hear from him. It’s worth noting before you read, that RNYD has music credits on actual albums. Additionally, he and I were in an actual band together when we were first married (no offense taken to his “Highlight” comment, I get it). We knew we wanted our kids to be into music, and maybe even play an instrument. We weren’t quite prepared for this.
Every musician dreams of jamming with their children when they grow up. Playing music for a musician goes beyond reading notes on a page and counting 4 beats to a measure. You connect with the people in your band. You support each other, you must listen and react to them. If all goes well, you create some great music. This past December, I had the pleasure of being my 8-year-old son (A)’s bass player and it was the absolute highlight of my musical career.
(A)’s and his teacher Andrew stopped me at the end of his lesson one Monday and said, “would you be willing to play with Aidan at his recital in December”? “Are you guys kidding, of course I will”! We were playing Aidan’s favorite Ramones song. I could see Aidan was excited, and he knew I was excited. It was pretty cool. That night after dinner, I wrote out a chart so that the next evening I was ready to go. We spent hours and hours rehearsing, listening to the song, and talking about the arrangement. Some of it was tough, but 98% of it was a blast. (A) got to see how I ready myself for a performance. I’d play for hours on my own. I was terrified of making a mistake. I’m ok if a mistake makes me look bad, but if I made a mistake this time…I’d make him look bad.
The day of the performance came, and I was more nervous than he was. I never thought I’d be nervous about playing a Ramones song…unless of course I was playing with the actual Ramones. I played the song at least 25 times that morning. (A) was surprisingly calm. As we were walking up to the front to perform, I was the most nervous I had ever been to play music in my entire life (I’ve been playing in front of people since I was 8…in 1984). I sat down, plugged my bass and gave (A) a sly smile. He counted us in and we nailed it. If I closed my eyes, I never would have known that my band mate, my son, was 8. When we finished (A) looked over and smiled at me. After we spoke to the 12 family members who came for the performance, he thanked me for playing with him. I thanked him for the opportunity and told him one day he’d understand how special that was for me. How many Dad’s can say they got to play a Ramones song with their kid?
I can’t thank Andrew Klein and The New City Music School enough. They have taken a kid with a passion for music and turned him into a musician. Now (A) and I get to not only listen to music together, but we get to jam together as well.
He’s playing a Weezer song this weekend without me, but we are already talking about what we are going to do for the December recital. Keep your eye out for that review…it’s going to be awesome!
As a special for our readers, if you register by Saturday June 30th and mention Rockland NY Mom, we’ll waive the $55 registration fee!
