It’s nuts how quickly they can pick up stuff faster than old folk such as I.
My son is part of the local School of Rock, and he’s the only bassist in this group (one of 3 dedicated bassists in the whole program), so he had to learn 11 songs in 12 weeks, and played an hour long set.
I still can’t get Billie Jean right…
Very nice! 
It’s so true, at this age they learn so fast. Wow, 11 songs in 12 weeks, that’s impressive! I couldn’t attempt that myself.
Maybe he can help you. 
And the award for the coolest kid on stage goooooeees toooo theeee BASS PLAYER 
It’s so not right! My son was given a guitar, never played one, no lessons, and taught himself 5 songs in a week! Now, he’s musical; played sax and banjo at the time. Now he plays sax, banjo, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and a washboard. Yeah, he was born 100 years too late 
It is in fact the way that we are made.
Take away all the dead brain cells from drinking, the full brain cells of work and life stress etc. and even take away the ‘sponginess’ of young brains, and you are left with the same simple formula…
Pre-puberty brains are really really good at rote learning, so good in fact, it really isn’t even very rote. Puberty and a bit beyond start changing our brain makeup for higher order thinking and problem solving (this is why your jr. high kid can’t seem to ever load the dishwasher right). Bake it in in those formative years, easily, or, simply do it the hard way. Lots of good reasearch on this.
The other issue, or lack thereof, is myelin. You are born with only so much of it, and you lose it as you age. Myelin is the stuff that literally ‘bakes in’ repetitive, rote learning, basically sealing a nervous system path into being able to do something very well at your beck and call.
For an excellent read on the subject that will make you feel better, and worse, all at the same time about mastery of something at a later age, read The Talent Code, it is a great book.
But here is the thing - just enjoy the doing, vs. the what can’t be done. The fact that you are doing is actually fantastic. Pure gold. You rest you rust. Gold is worth far more than rust.
Wife and I moved our son and daughter back to Thailand last year. My son was 4 and only knew english, now he speaks English and Thai fluently and has even picked up enough of the local Isaan dialect to get by.
Yes at a young age they are literal brain sponges, now if we could just get him to wipe his own ass:rofl:
Holy carp! That’s some cardio!
They can also launch into a full spring with no warm up, and not pull anything.
Those School of Rock programs are super fun, for both the kids and the parents. My son(bass) did our local one starting in about the 9th grade all the way through high school. The last year and a half our so, he was with the same kids and they got to be really fun to watch. They did a great rendition of the Eddie Money song “Take me home tonight” and played at a couple of their high school function, it became a fan favorite. It was fun to see those kids enjoy a song from a different era. Anyway, @coryplowman enjoy those moments. My son is in college now and hasn’t been playing much live lately. All the kids from this band went their separate ways at graduation. I’ll leave a video of their last performance here.
Well done…
“The Chain” - I love that John McVie bass line, especially the part starting on 3:00 in the video.