Jim,
Oh ya i can relate to what you just said,,After forty years of being in the field.
I sometimes sit back and hold my head in my hands.Parents are reliving there lives through there kids...
Some days when i`m forced to run the studio,Kids days ,i`m a rock star ,i want !!!!!
Ya,or the parents are telling me how it has to be done,lol
Half have no clue what`s in the control booth ,just like a big home unit,right ...
young bands are even better as i put them in there own rooms
Oh wait we can`t play like this ,have to be all in one room,,
Boy it this going to be a long day or what....
Glad your having fun at work or is this play ...
Bruce

Funny stuff!

Use the parents' excitement over their kid's talent to your advantage. Encourage them to buy Marshall amps and high priced guitars! After all, they will be back if someone tells them you sold them a cheap, junk starter guitar. And, they need a whole rack of stompboxes and effects. Ebay always needs year old instruments that we can buy cheap. Their's will be a good inventory for us to browse.

On the serious side, parental excitement can create confidence in the young player. If someone thinks I'm good, I will work hard to support that belief. It can be a positive thing.

I wonder if the stage parent you describe is a Las Vegas phenomena or if they're everywhere.
They sound like a salesman's dream come true - nothing too good for little Johnny B. Goode in the making.
This has "Spinal Tap" out take (with John Cleese as the GC salesman) written all over it!

Hey Jim, I've always wondered whats the hours like and is the money you're able to make more or less what you expected?

A musician was the LAST thing my Dad (mostly) and Mom (to a lesser, but ever present degree) wanted me to be........
I was relentlessly pushed to play fooball, until both my knees were wrecked..,.. one joint "broken backwards".
Pushed to play baseball.......even practiced every day for a week & played 2 games with an un-treated broken wrist (2 bones).
Put a team mates eye out & crushed his cheekbone w/a line drive as he ran bases, quit All Star Baseball on the spot because the coach AND my Dad BOTH ran out & jumped on me for running to my injured friend instead of to 1st base.
Pushed to be in the Boy Scouts, advanced as far as my parents could afford for me to advance.

My grandmother got my 1st guitar for my 11th birthday, but every time I tried to show my Dad what i'd learned on it, he'd ask me if all I ever wanted to be was "God*amn dope addict guitar player".
The guitar got smashed as a "punishment" for lying to him about smoking.......he threatened to smash if if I didn't tell the truth, I told the truth, he smashed it into a hundred pieces anyhow(along with my record album collection), for lying before he threatened to do it.

I signed up for the schools marching band & bandclass to be a drummer........the next day I had to withdrawl and sign up for auto shop........I was going to be something besides a "*amn dope addict drummer".

The really funny part of all this (now) is the fact that he stayed home all day, wolfing down Coedine, Valium,and muscle relaxers as fast as he could stomach them.

Thats the funny thing about these "prodigys" parents.........it actually has NOTHING to do with what the kids want, it's all about what the parent wants the kid to do.

Thats why I never pushed my son to do anything he didn't show a real (non prodded) interest in.......because I totally understood rebellion, and knew that he'd do what he wanted to, whether I approved or not.

I'd say that as a salesman, take every possible friggin' advantage of this type of parent........stick them for every penny you can wring out of them.........Seeing them taken advantage of financially, may be the only REAL enjoyment these kids get out of it.

Oh well.......off my soapbox........back to your regularly scheduled programming.

This happens with sports as well. My son made it to "A" level baseball with the SF Giants as a pitcher. I wasn't living my dreams through my son but I spared no expense on what he needed to develop. So other than the thrill of watching my son play pro baseball, his very expensive to develop talent got him an 80% baseball scholarship at Miami of Ohio. So in the long run the costs were cheap compared to a $40,000 per year tuition. Maybe that is what other parents are hoping for.

My dad knew a little guitar, and I refinished (with marine spar varnish) his old $5 Silvertone acoustic guitar. I began lessons at about 12 years of age, and he bought a cheap Ibanez, and we both practiced an hour a night. I did lead and he did rhythm, and then we reversed roles. Did that from 1962 to 1967. Like learning a foreign language with a study partner, it really helped. Maybe GC should market some father/son guitar combinations, with two guitars and one amp for a decent discount.

Man Midi we must have been separated at birth, I had to beg, plead, and wheedle for a year and a half to get my old used Teisco 100, thanks to my little sister who had to have an organ because it was refined for little girls to play keyboard. Became the biggest dust collector in the house. I've tried twice to get loved ones to play, my son gave him, my Teisco V2 that I had for 25+ years, and my nephew my Hagstrom I, neither learned to play and got rid of my babies. Well I've got another chance a new nephew he's 11 tomorrow and tearing up the keyboard and trumpet. Christmas is going to be a guitar Christmas and he's getting something cheap, maybe an Epi LP JR or a cheap Squire Strat. Tomorrow he get's all his PA gear. He wants to DJ also, yeah I'm that Uncle that every kid loves and every sister hates, did I mention the Drums he got for his 5th birthday

The owner of the music store where I buy most of my gear told me this story a few years ago.One day an obviously well-heeled couple pulled up in front of his store with their ultra expensive car and their spoiled brat 14yr old son.The parents were looking for a guitar for Jr. to learn on for a Christmas present.The owner suggested a Fender Squire and some other reasonably priced guitars telling them that was the best way to go until they were sure their young treasure was serious about it but young Jr. had other plans.He had spied a very expensive Signature Artist guitar (a Steve Vai or some such guitar)and wasn't going to settle for anything else.His parents and the owner all said a learner guitar was a much more practicle choice and that playing that guitar from the start wasn't going to make him sound like Steve Vai or learn any faster.Anyway their beloved 14yr old proceded to throw a tantrum that would put any 6yr old to shame,so being good parents Mommy and Daddy rewarded the boy's theatrics with the guitar.About 3 months later a very sheepish father came into the store wanting to exchange the guitar for cash,it appears Daddy's boy got very frustrated with the idea he had no musical aptitude and took it out on the guitar,it was in almost unplayable condition as he had thrown the"stupid"guitar on the floor several times so Daddy couldn't get anything because of dear son's action.I often wonder what happened to that psycho brat maybe he's in jail or politics.

That was good...

And i can somewhat (but not fully) relate to the $30 department store thing... Although I didn't get something that cheap (it was my birthday...) my parents DID think it would become a dust collector, and that I was going through some sort of "phase," and i did have to beg for quite a while before I could finally convince them to get it... Now, over a year later, I still haven't come out of this "phase," and unless I somehow lose interest in blues improvisation (which I don't see happening...) I don't think I ever will stop playing... Which now bugs my parents a bit. (first they didn't want it to collect dust, and now they do? *sigh*)

Yeah, I am sick of the "prodigy" kids to a certain extent... Depends how little they respect their gear. All of my friends, however ignorant they may be, are very grateful for anything they get... One of them did get a Gibson Les Paul (and he let me touch it ) and he's still excited about it, a few months later... If only he had gotten a Peavy Windsor halfstack rather than that Marshall Mg thing... same price, but 100w tube vs. 100w solid state... Oh well... As long as he keeps using his boss distortion pedal rather than channel 2 of his amp... Oh, then there's his 70's Jazz bass, which he loves, and his trumpet, which is his favorite instrument to play... His drum kit...

Of course, he's actually playing live and making money... and he's been doing so for years... This year he's a senior in high school... So i don't know, he may have earned all of that gear, there's no way to know unless I ask, and I know he wouldn't mind telling if I asked, but I just don't think it'd be worth his or my time to ask that... He respects his stuff, and that's good enough for me.

Then there's my OTHER friend though... Thinks he's all that, rarely practices, but when I come over and do some improv he comments on how easy that'd be if he wanted to do it... he changes his strings once every year or so, likes to use drop D and tries playing metal riffs that he's got no chance in hell of learning at the rate he's going... His parents paid over 1k for a used powermac g5 that he never uses anymore, because they recently dropped another couple grand on his new 24" imac... He's got an HD camera with XLR inputs (try and find one of those for under 1k) he's got shake, final cut pro, and logic pro... and he doesn't seem to give a damn about any of that...


But that doesn't mean he's not a nice guy... He helped me earn enough money to buy my used G4 powermac... So despite not really seeming to be satisfied with what he's got (then again, he doesn't show much interest in new things either) he's good... I just wish i could do something for him that he'd actually value in some way... He tells me not to get him a birthday present, not because he's being nice, but because there's nothing I can afford to get him that he wants that he doesn't already have...