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Posted

Spencer's piano lessons have been on winter break for the last 6 weeks, so he has been keeping himself busy by binging on college-level music theory videos, learning Mozart pieces, and writing his first composition (taking inspiration from Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Lady Gaga and John Williams).

The composition is titled Piano Lessons and tells the tale of how much he has enjoyed piano lessons so far and how excited he is to start up again after winter break. He wrote it in Musescore, so the audio file is the piece being played by the Musescore program. Spencer is still working on being able to play it himself.

image.png.fe36673b12265f5f2cb9909481dcc59e.png

 

And here he is playing Rondo alla Turca.

 

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  • Thanks 2
Posted
9 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

He is so talented -- and he is also beyond adorable! (Am I still allowed to say he's adorable, or does he think he's too old for adorable? 😉 )

As the youngest of the three boys, he seems to have chosen adorable people pleaser as his niche.
Certainly none of his siblings are vying for that role! 😄

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  • Haha 5
Posted
8 minutes ago, Dmmetler said:

Awesome. I have very seriously had college students not do so well 🙂

He tried to include elements reminiscent of so many composers, that I think it ended up a bit disjointed and unpredictable...but I figure that is right on brand for an 8 year old with ADHD. 😄

  • Like 4
Posted
22 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

He tried to include elements reminiscent of so many composers, that I think it ended up a bit disjointed and unpredictable...but I figure that is right on brand for an 8 year old with ADHD. 😄

It's perfect!  🙂

Posted
43 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

He tried to include elements reminiscent of so many composers, that I think it ended up a bit disjointed and unpredictable...but I figure that is right on brand for an 8 year old with ADHD. 😄

It is playful and reminds me of some of the music to Warner Bros cartoons when I was little - which was good piano or orchestral music.  
 

WtG, Spencer!!

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, wendyroo said:

He tried to include elements reminiscent of so many composers, that I think it ended up a bit disjointed and unpredictable...but I figure that is right on brand for an 8 year old with ADHD. 😄

I think it’s amazing! 
 

I have been playing piano for over 35 years and have taught beginners through intermediate. He’s very talented and clearly puts in the practice time!
 

Bravo!! 

  • Like 1
Posted
36 minutes ago, kristin0713 said:

I think it’s amazing! 
 

I have been playing piano for over 35 years and have taught beginners through intermediate. He’s very talented and clearly puts in the practice time!
 

Bravo!! 

He started learning piano (just using a computer program) when he was 5. By the time he was 8 he was practicing for several hours a day, reading every music/composer related book we could find, and determined to learn classical pieces (as the composer wrote them!! that was/is very important to him) far beyond the difficulty the computer program could help with.

So last fall, just after he had turned 8, he started taking piano lessons with a really wonderful teacher. He quickly bumped up to two 45 minute lessons a week to keep up with his passion. He then practices (completely voluntarily) for 15-20 hours a week.

His piano teacher and I also suspect that he has perfect pitch, or at least is well on his way. If his teacher plays a note on one of her pianos (out of Spencer's line of sight), he can 90% of the time play the same note on the other piano on his first try, and if he misses the first try, he can almost always self-correct and get it on the second try.

Shortly before break, his teacher was having Spencer pick a new piece to play out of a book. He was flipping through and pausing briefly at each piece before rejecting it and moving on. His teacher asked if he wanted her to play them to help him choose, and he said no, that he could hear them in his head. And then he proceeded to accurately hum the piece he was looking at as he tracked his eyes along the score even though he had never seen or heard it before! We were caught off guard. 😀

  • Like 6
Posted
2 minutes ago, wendyroo said:

He started learning piano (just using a computer program) when he was 5. By the time he was 8 he was practicing for several hours a day, reading every music/composer related book we could find, and determined to learn classical pieces (as the composer wrote them!! that was/is very important to him) far beyond the difficulty the computer program could help with.

So last fall, just after he had turned 8, he started taking piano lessons with a really wonderful teacher. He quickly bumped up to two 45 minute lessons a week to keep up with his passion. He then practices (completely voluntarily) for 15-20 hours a week.

His piano teacher and I also suspect that he has perfect pitch, or at least is well on his way. If his teacher plays a note on one of her pianos (out of Spencer's line of sight), he can 90% of the time play the same note on the other piano on his first try, and if he misses the first try, he can almost always self-correct and get it on the second try.

Shortly before break, his teacher was having Spencer pick a new piece to play out of a book. He was flipping through and pausing briefly at each piece before rejecting it and moving on. His teacher asked if he wanted her to play them to help him choose, and he said no, that he could hear them in his head. And then he proceeded to accurately hum the piece he was looking at as he tracked his eyes along the score even though he had never seen or heard it before! We were caught off guard. 😀

I love this!! It is music to my ears! 😁

  • Like 1
Posted
2 hours ago, wendyroo said:

He started learning piano (just using a computer program) when he was 5. By the time he was 8 he was practicing for several hours a day, reading every music/composer related book we could find, and determined to learn classical pieces (as the composer wrote them!! that was/is very important to him) far beyond the difficulty the computer program could help with.

So last fall, just after he had turned 8, he started taking piano lessons with a really wonderful teacher. He quickly bumped up to two 45 minute lessons a week to keep up with his passion. He then practices (completely voluntarily) for 15-20 hours a week.

His piano teacher and I also suspect that he has perfect pitch, or at least is well on his way. If his teacher plays a note on one of her pianos (out of Spencer's line of sight), he can 90% of the time play the same note on the other piano on his first try, and if he misses the first try, he can almost always self-correct and get it on the second try.

Shortly before break, his teacher was having Spencer pick a new piece to play out of a book. He was flipping through and pausing briefly at each piece before rejecting it and moving on. His teacher asked if he wanted her to play them to help him choose, and he said no, that he could hear them in his head. And then he proceeded to accurately hum the piece he was looking at as he tracked his eyes along the score even though he had never seen or heard it before! We were caught off guard. 😀

Wow! That's awesome!

Posted
3 minutes ago, Harriet Vane said:

WOW!!! I adore kids doing awesome things with their awesome talents. Thanks for sharing. I'm genuinely impressed with his composition.

QFT!

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