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?

annasmami/pixie, ds has a friend who goes to RCM junior dept every week and has done for years (since he was about 8 I think - now 16). He really enjoys it and has made lots of musical friends there. He is also quite awesomely good at music!! A couple of years ago they invited ds & I along to see what it was like & we were very impressed - ds wanted to join too until he remembered what he'd have to give up in order to make time for it. Just as well as it's extremely expensive and we don't live very near London, so it wasn't really a viable option.

Snorkie, yes it seems a huge time & financial commitment. DD would have to really, really want to go (and get accepted ) for us to consider it.

Agreed! Ds would have needed to show more than a passing inclination to practise for us to consider it and even then the answer would probably have been no as it would have impacted the way of life of the whole family which wouldn't really have been very fair on dd. Of course he most likely wouldn't have passed an audition either - although if he had practised more he might have scraped in.

snorkie, you have taught me something about grammar. My parents would deffo have said go and do your practice.

Always happy to make something my responsibility

My grammar is far from perfect, but I remember this one because practice and ice are both nouns.

ah haaa. Like saying the way you spell beautiful is Be A Utiful. Never remember otherwise

I have just had a note from DD's music teacher at school (who does not teach her piano) if I can pop in and see her as she heard DD 'messing about' on the piano today at school and has offered extra tuition free of charge!

May as well take her up on offer. DD keen on extra lessons, but not so keen when she found out it is at playtime!!

Oh - that is a really bad idea actually (sorry to throw cold water on it) - there is nothing more annoying as a teacher than a pupil having lessons from another teacher as well - they rarely complement each other, and often cause confusion. You really need to find one teacher you are happy with and stick with them.

Problems can include; conflicts over when to do exams, confliction of practice time, different fingerings being used, different technical work done (so that technique is not established) and you are giving the message to the 1st teacher that you are not satisfied with their teaching.

She is a full time member of the staff at the school and teaches music to the whole school- as far as I know she does not do any individual tuition. All the children I know who do piano at the school have a teacher who comes in one morning a week and teaches just piano.

Good point about message to current teacher though (who we are really happy with). I will go in tomorrow and see what she is suggesting. DD is v keen to learn to write down the tunes she makes up, so could maybe steer teacher to help her with this?

While I agree that having two piano teachers is a bad idea, maybe the school teacher could focus on composition and that might work as it's a rather separate skill.

and/or theory? But do make sure the existing teacher is aware of what's going on and is happy about it.

if she could do theory and auural that would be really beneficial, but I wouldn't have any cross-over with the piano teaching. But most teachers will be really pleased if someone will boost theory and aural as there is often not enough time in lessons to cover these.

Thanks for advice. Will see what she is offering.

I think she must be something special if people who know about music are always commenting on her talent.

How nice for her

My child was at G1 level after 6 months of playing at age 7, now 11 she is doing well but not gifted. Gifted is probably being able to be G6-8 by the time they are 11 if not before.

There is more to playing than technical competance though. It's the expression and colour that people put into their playing that characterises the best players and that is something that is unusual in younger players whatever their grade. I agree wit ZZZenagain, that if musical people keep commenting, then she probably does have something special and if she keeps her interest and commitment up she will go on to be a good pianist (which is a lovely skill to have).

In the local environment a grade 5 before the end of primary school is pretty exceptional, but if you go to National Childrens Orchestras nearly everyone will be at least that standard and you will find children with diplomas at age 12! But as some people start learning slowly & then accelerate and others make rapid progress to start and then slow down, at grade 1 it's not really possible to extrapolate accurately.

I think that identifying musical talent in beginners is more about how a child approaches music (phrasing, tone etc) than about rapid progress. The rapidity of progress depends so much on the teacher's and parent's expectations. For example, a teacher expecting a child to do grade 1 at a particular time will teach to that level (no criticism intended of the teacher or parent btw )

I would take what the professional musicians who have heard your daughter play say very seriously. It is too early to tell how her talent will develop, but to give her a chance, what you need to do now is get her to a really good children's teacher. One route to this is by a consultation lesson with a top teacher, who can then recommend a suitable local teacher, and give you advice about your daughter's musical development.

I'd e-mail the junior department of one of the music colleges to try to set up a consultation lesson with one of their piano teachers. Most teachers are happy to do this.

Do let us know how you get on!

Thanks for the advice acebaby, the comments people have made are more about her 'musicality' and expression than the difficulty of the pieces that she is able to play. I guess that her academic achievement at the piano is probably pretty average for her age (judging from comments here), but it seems to be more how she plays and her ability to play by ear and make up tunes that is unusual.

As I have said, I am completely unmusical, but even I can hear a difference in the way she plays her grade 2 pieces compared to children of a similar age who practice the same pieces when they come round to play.

I have signed her up for a 4 day music course at a local music collage in the summer where she will play piano and try lots of other instruments too. They also have sessions on basic music writing and listening to music. Will see how she gets on with that.

Her teacher at school has been really good and is going to do half an hour with her each week on the theory of music.

swarski, there is nothing average about achieving grade 1 piano in under a year - especially so young. Most children who learn piano (remember that even more children don't ever get the chance) take about 2 years to grade 1.

The thing is with music, that there are ALWAYS a few individuals who did whatever faster/younger - but don't let that detract from your dd's achievements. It's all too easy to get over competative and involved in a grade-race, whereas, unless you really do want to be that concert pianist where you will need both the talent AND a fierce competive drive and possibly a fair degree of luck as well, really it's about progressing at the right pace for you (which may well still be quite rapid), enjoying the music along the way and getting skillful enough to continue to enjoy the instrument as an adult in whatever way you want to.

Most important thing for me is that she loves it and gets so much out of it. She really goes 'into the zone' when she is playing the piano and has little awareness of things going on around her (especially when it is me telling her it is time to stop and go to bed!!!).

I have no desire for her to become a concert pianist, just happy that she enjoys it so much and want to make sure she gets to support and teaching she needs to progress at the rate that suits her.