Possibly this is a subject dear to my heart because my own family placement fits the theory exactly..with myself as the youngest [Linked Image]
Certainly in the situation Graham describes, the youngest is creative, but in a field other than music...and to generalise, as I'm sure Emily will agree, is a mistake. On the other hand, there is a vast difference between just playing music, and playing it well..and the ability to improvise is a long step further along that track.
Some students, while musically able to handle almost anything thrown at them, can not put into train the thought processes necessary to improvise, no matter how dedicated the teacher is..and my experience, over the last three plus decades, is that these people are in almost every case the oldest child.
I spent two weeks in Carnarvon, Shark Bay, Monkey Mia and Esperence in the late '80s, BTW, Graham, and really enjoyed the visit.

[This message has been edited by satu largi (edited 02-22-2004).]

Fucarta Non Perfecta: Carpe Cerevisi