Is this musically unusual?

[LondonMum81]

My DD is 5 and has been studying the piano for about a year and is about to do her first graded exams.

However, despite being a beginner she can play almost any melody she hears by ear immediately without much guess work. She can't add in the chords as accurately (though she tries) but any melody from any genre seems fine and she likes to then play them in different keys by transposing them once she's figured them out for fun.

She also likes to improvise, particularly with her teacher and the results are bad in that it sounds like music rather than noise.

Is this unusual or am I just not familiar with what's typical for a generally musical child?

That's wonderful. Musically gifted children usually are keen to practice and it can bring so much to their lives. I'm not particularly musically talented myself, but a great lover of music and enthusiastic lifelong student meaning that I am now what one teacher described as "a very competent musician" (I think this was a nice way of saying "but not especially gifted at it"!).

Sounds like this one is going to be fun! And great that teacher is taking time with her to enjoy improvising and playing by ear too. All round musician skills not just exam passing tools.

Try the violin? It's a great social instrument, you can get fractional sized ones and there are lots of genres of music to explore.