If you're an aspiring young musician, there's no better place for learning than inside a good band's rehearsal space, sitting in a corner, soaking it all in.

It's even better if one of the band members is your father, and the rehearsal spot is in your home.

For Father's Day, we talked to a couple of father-son combinations who lived out that situation. George Penn Jr. was exposed to music and players while he sat in a practice room corner to hear George Penn Sr.'s bands working out. Rob Vaughan grew up watching his father, Hoppie Vaughan, rehearsing with his many talented bands.

They learned their lessons well.

Penn Jr. has played with acts including Blacksburg favorites Yams From Outer Space, Baltimore-based reggae act Jah Works, bluesman Corey Harris and his current gig, Blacksburg jam-rap act HopeHop. Rob Vaughan plays with his dad in The Ministers of Soul and The Good Sons, as well as Roanoke-based Jimmy Buffett tribute band Key West and any number of pickup jobs.

Here are their stories of musical inspiration and father-son bonding.

-- Tad Dickens

George Penn and George Penn Jr.

For George Penn Sr., drumming was all about the groove.

He had to lay it down solid as a rock in the True Tones Band, which he joined when he was just a lad of 13 in Pulaski. He and brother William Penn played venues in the Roanoke and New River valleys and beyond, backing up such R&B artists as Rufus Thomas and William Bell, both of whom had recorded hits for the Stax/Volt label. They crossed paths with Solomon Burke, Jimi Hendrix and Bobby "Blue" Bland.

Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times

Drummers George Penn and his son George Penn Jr. play at Flat 5 Studio in Salem.

"They called it the Chitlin' Circuit, but I called it the learning circuit," George Penn, 62, said of the venues he played, including legendary Roanoke rooms The Yard and Club Morocco. "We just learned. On the road, you played, you learned. And we were fortunate to meet some brilliant people."

When he was 17, he got an offer to join James Brown's band, he said, but he didn't take it -- "Mom wouldn't let me go."

Instead, Penn pursued his other professional dream: mortuary science. About 1985 he bought into a funeral home in Pulaski, later called Penn's Funeral Home. And he kept on playing music.

George Penn Jr., one of his two sons, had his ears wide open.

Sights, sounds, vibes

"I was listening as far back as I can remember," Penn Jr., 41, said. "Pops and them's band would be rehearsing in the basement, and I'd be a 5-, 6-year-old, listening to them. And really attentive. I wouldn't be that one running around, bothering people. I would be just sitting there, listening, watching, smelling the smells of the instruments. The sights, the sounds, the whole vibe. So that got into me real early.

"And pop and them's bands [were] always some of the funkiest bands around. Through him, his playing style, the R&B stuff we were listening to at home, to what his bandmates were listening to, I got a big array of music."

Father and son went to Penn Jr.'s first concert in 1973 -- James Brown at the Roanoke Civic Center. The next year, they saw The Jackson 5 together.

"That was before music television and the computer and all this stuff," Penn Jr. said. "So you had to go check it out. It made it even more of a mystical kind of experience."

Meanwhile, father was showing son beats, grooves and professionalism.

"There wasn't much to do around Pulaski, except play ball and maybe get in trouble," Penn Jr. said. "Luckily, I had a beautiful family, a beautiful father. He put me on the art of music."

Penn Sr. smiled at the thought of it.

"I loved it," Penn Sr. said. "It was touching to see him do what I do. And he was good. It's touching to watch George perform ... to see your son, your junior, come up and do it and take it to another level."

What is funk?

The two didn't always agree on musical styles. Penn Jr. has made most of his waves playing funk, hip-hop and reggae. In childhood, his favorite bands were Funkadelic and Kiss.

"He got into George Clinton," Penn Sr. said. "Everything was funk!

"I sat him down one day and asked him: 'What is funk?'

"He said 'Dad, it's not a smell, it's a state of mind.'

"I said, 'Get out of the room, George.' "

Father and son cracked up laughing at the memory. "You couldn't get mad at him," Penn Sr. said.

From there, Penn Sr.'s ears opened up to the new music. But funk rock act Fishbone was just a little too much. A few years back Penn Sr. came to the old Baylee's, on South Main Street in Blacksburg, to hear his son's band, True Sound, open for Fishbone. After a few notes, "I ran out of there!" Penn Sr. said. "I said, 'This is too much.' "

In later years, they bonded over hip-hop and reggae.

"George [Jr.] taught me about hip-hop, what to listen to," he said. "And I was down on reggae, but he invited me to see The Wailers with him -- 'Come over and get in touch,' he said. And I understand it now, because they set a mood."

Groove in the DNA

The Penns got together recently at Tom Ohmsen's Flat 5 Studio in Salem to talk about the past, present and future and to play some drums together.

After taking some time away from music, Penn Sr. has revived his old stage name, Ellery Penn, and his old act, The Cream of The Crop Blues Band. Penn Sr. has given up the drums, and is fronting the band as its singer. Cream of the Crop has a new record coming about the end of this month.

"I like entertaining an audience -- a little comedy, a little blues," Penn Sr. said.

Penn Jr. recently recorded six tracks with Charlottesville-based blues and reggae artist Corey Harris. He was going to tour with Harris as well, but internal conflicts caused Penn Jr. to leave the band early in the rehearsal stage. He said he drove back to Roanoke, angry and dejected from the experience, about which he declined to elaborate.

"That was one of the key moments when you know you appreciate your love from your pop -- my elder, my adviser," Penn Jr. said. "He's like my Yoda, my Buddha, as far as a lot of musical things go.

"He told me, 'You've got other stuff of your own to concentrate on, not trying to get with this artist. You're in band situations that are good.' So that really helped me out to move forward, because that was tough."

In fact, Penn's latest band, HopeHop, is releasing a new EP and has a growing fan base.

"Twenty years in ... there were times when I thought, 'What am I doing?' " Penn Jr. said. "But you still have to maintain some sort of spirit, love -- love for what you do, love for people."

He said he got that spirit from his father. And listening to them play together -- the son sitting behind a drum kit, grooving, while the father accompanied him on the same kit, tastefully splashing and choking cymbals, a listener can feel that the groove was passed down, too.

"Pop was always known as a groove drummer," Penn Jr. said. "I'm trying to carry that forward."

Hoppie Vaughn and Rob Vaughn

As father and teenage son, Hoppie and Rob Vaughan had their clashes, like any family would. They had disagreements about school, chores, the typical stuff.

But onstage, it was a different story.

"We could play music and forget about all that stuff, and that was the beauty of it for me," said the father, Hoppie Vaughan, a bassist, guitarist and singer.

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Hoppie Vaughn (left) and his son Rob Vaughn perform at Blues BBQ in downtown Roanoke.

"It was a saving grace, almost," drummer Rob Vaughan added.

A few years down the road, they're still playing music together.

And like his father has for years, Rob Vaughan is making a living at it. Rob, 23, credits his father for the lessons that have made him an in-demand local and regional drummer.

"It's been great to watch him grow," Hoppie Vaughan, 51, said as the pair sat together earlier this week at 202 Market, where they play a regular Tuesday night open microphone night.

Built-in rhythm section

Hoppie Vaughan started young, too. When he was 14 and still living with his family in North Augusta, S.C., his older brother, Kem Vaughan, recruited the young bass player into his band, The Horse Heads. Soon, the band discovered Hoppie could sing, and that opened up a new avenue.

Vaughan moved around with different acts to different towns, including Huntsville, Ala., and Nashville, Tenn., where he spent 14 years. In 1995, he settled his family in Roanoke but continued playing music for a living.

Since 2001, he has played with The Fat Daddy Band, Roanoke-based blues purveyors. He had been known as one of the Roanoke Valley's top bassists, but when Fat Daddy needed a guitarist a few years back, Vaughan switched from four strings to six, and has been flooring people with his musicality ever since.

"I just relied on all the bass licks I knew, and tried to play the melody," Hoppie Vaughan said. "Turns out that was a very unique thing to do."

All the while, he's worked on his own projects, including countless hours of home studio recordings with his only child. Father and son spent most of 2002 spring break in a beach-side motel room, having lugged all their recording gear along so they could capture their songs.

The next year, Fat Daddy needed a substitute drummer. Hoppie called on Rob to join the band for a show at Snowshoe Mountain Ski Resort in West Virginia. What had been a beloved hobby was now becoming something else entirely, Rob Vaughan said.

"I couldn't believe I got paid for it. ... I got a free meal out of it," he said. "And I couldn't believe that my father had called me for a gig."

Hoppie replied: "I had confidence. We had been playing -- all that jamming and writing songs together. All that was paying off. He had the feel. I didn't want him there just because he was my son. He really has the feel."

Lessons for a living

Later on, father asked son to join two other projects, The Ministers of Soul and The Good Sons. Recently, Rob Vaughan got a gig with Jimmy Buffett tribute band Key West, which keeps him traveling and making good money, he said.

Three lessons from his father put him in this position, he said.

"The biggest things ... would probably be meat and potatoes [playing], first and foremost," Rob Vaughan said. "Most kids or young adults my age, they want to play like Dennis Chambers or Steve Gadd, they want to put all these grace notes in everything. ... And it's just the biggest thing I've ever learned in music -- [create] all that space and all that room for everyone else to play. That's what it's all about.

"Also, my tempo ... he's helped me out a lot with that. I think that was one of my big weaknesses, was steady time."

It's not just about keeping time, it's about being on time, Hoppie Vaughan said. He was happy to see his son finally buy a calendar, to keep up with all the work he's been getting. But he's learned to let go, to watch his son be his own creative self. He said he's noticed musical improvements in Rob's playing and when he asked him about it, Rob told him, "I'm just trying to make it musical."

"He always brings a lot to the music table," Hoppie Vaughan said. "I am proud of him.

"Just seeing him put some of these practical things to use has been a lot of fun."

Watching and hearing these two groove together is a lot of fun, too.