Gifted at piano?

[Swarski]

My daughter is 8 and passed grade one in Feb with a distinction after just under a year of lessons. Her teacher says she is very 'bright' (which we already know-she achieved a L5 in her KS1 SATS and has a reading age of 13+) and is doing well, ready for her grade 2 after the summer hols. My son has just started lessons with a teacher who comes to our house. My DD was practicing when he arrived and he got really excited saying she was 'gifted' at piano and that in 23 years of teaching he has only heard one other child with that sort of talent!

Then, on Friday at the pub a fellow dad spoke to my husband and said he had heard DD playing when she was round playing with his DD after school and that he thought that she was exceptionally talented (he is a professional musician). He said he thought that we should have her taught by a teacher focused on talented children.

Both me and my DH are excpetionally unmusical so have no idea if she is particularly talented - we are just impressed she can read music and play with 2 hands!!

Any views?

I think very bright children often do pick up music very easily. My observation is that although from what you say I'm sure she is very talented at piano, very, very few children go on to become concert pianists and unless she & you want her to pursue music almost to the exclusion of everything else it might be more realistic to view it as a hobby in which case having a specialist teacher is less essential. Have you thought about her taking up a second orchestral instrument too?

If you do want more specialised teaching look into the junior departments of the conservatoires in London (RAM, RCM etc). If you live close enough and can afford the time & money to go each Saturday they are very good and your dd would be in the company of similarly abled youngsters.

My DS has a choral scholarship to a prep school that specialises in music. He was offered it when he was 6.8 on the basis of his voice and general 'musical potential'. He passed Grade 1 piano with distinction at the age of 7.5 after a few months of lessons; he then passed Grade 2 with a mere merit three months later and is currently doing Grade 3 (he's just turned eight). His former teacher (my own teacher) says he's the most talented child she's ever taught in 35 years; his current teacher is more quietly impressed, but impressed all the same. I play the piano, so I have a reasonably good idea of how talented he is myself (i.e. very talented, but eight-year-old-boyishly slapdash in my view).

I don't say this to trumpet my son's great talent (I have so many other problems with him that the last thing I'm going to do is bang on about how fantastic he is ), but to give you an idea as to where your daughter might fit in on some kind of 'talented pianist' scale.

If she is particularly talented, I wouldn't necessarily seek out a teacher who focusses on talented children. However, I would seek out a teacher whom she likes and respects - and who inspires and excites her. Practising any instrument involves a degree of slog, however keen and talented you are, and the right teacher will make her want to do it on the days when she's too tired/has more interesting things to do/just wants to play with her toys. I can't emphasise enough how important the right teacher is - and that's a case of matching the child to the best teacher for them. There may well be a degree of trial and error involved in this!

When I say a specialist teacher is less essential, I mean for the lower grades a reasonably competant piano teacher (which I assume she has already) is probably OK. When she gets to the higher grades (6+ ish) if she's still keen then she would benefit from a really good piano teacher.

Thanks for your messages.

She is really happy with her current teacher and practises every day with no prompting. She also loves improvising on the piano and makes up tunes herself.

She is extremely good at sight reading (full marks in grade 1 for sight reading and for aural), and seems to be able to play most grade appropriate tunes by sight. She can also work out on the piano by ear tunes she hears.

She started clarinet last term, enjoys this but needs prompting to practice- loves piano more!

I have absolutely no desire for her to be a concert pianist, so will leave it as it is as she is having so much fun.