Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Experiences of HG, EG, PG children learning music

No, we let that be its own little surprise. LOL DD is in year 8 of piano lessons. She also took violin in a group setting (with me) when she was 7. That didn't last, for reasons I'll elaborate upon later.


The thing that made the biggest difference I think was that her cognitive ability has made learning to read music effortless. It's been osmotic-- and I get the sense that is NOT the case for most piano students who study theory and technique. She also sight-reads amazingly well-- nearly pro level, and always has done, right at the limit of her technical skill level.


Yes, dramatically-- at least for the first three years (piano). Yes also with violin, though not nearly so dramatic as with piano, and the challenges experienced by not yet having a sense of absolute pitch made the challenge unacceptably high for my DD. Also-- Mom was better without practicing (having had 12 or so years of additional experience with a treble clef instrument, mind). Unacceptable.
She has now decided that she'd like to try a string instrument again at some point-- so who knows?

Piano again: she still practices about half what someone at her level "should" in order to make progress the way that she does. If she were to double her practice time, I think that her skill advancement might well triple. We insist on a minimum and don't really fuss about it. Piano is for a lifetime and for learning task persistence/frustration tolerance/etc. Not for competitions in the here and now.

She does things for fun that many students never attempt-- like introducing a steady swing into something like.... one of the Bach two-part inventions, for example. She likes to just "tweak" things like that, just to amuse herself. She improvises during about 15% of her "practice" time daily.

Practice: what this means to my DD is something quite different from what her teacher (or myself, truthfully) have in mind. But there's no moving her. She practices by: a) warming up for 2-5 minutes with Hanon, Concone, or something similar then b) 5-10 minutes playing each of her "in progress" assignments through, with the instructions her teacher has given her-- unless they've slipped her mind or she doesn't like them, in which case she ignores the advice on fingerings, etc and just plays them through the way she pleases, and c) 10-15 minutes of playing whatever she fancies... often improv on piano standards, or tinkering with show tunes, sometimes sight reading. Yes. She practices (at most) 30 minutes a day. Late intermediate, why do you ask?



Piano: badly-- but raw talent and aptitude was enough to make it tolerable until she had enough invested that it made no sense to quit and start something else. (See above note on sight-reading). We also "fed" her desire to master with a steady stream of the types of material that she personally preferred (Russian and eastern European folk, ragtime, jazz, and FAST paced baroque-through-classical). Now it's Broadway standards, and has been for several years. It's a serious shame that she doesn't have an emotional connection to Debussy, because man-- she can move a listener to tears with it. In a good way. She can also move a listener to tears with how lackadaisical she is when her teacher is trying to tell her something.

Violin: This was the kicker, ultimately-- she couldn't develop hand strength and skill without practicing, and muscle memory never developed. Mental skill was fine, but didn't ever match the (more anemic) physical skill set. Intolerable. She quit.


I tend to think that this is generally the same TYPE of problem as with any other extracurricular. That is, for most of them, they find a point of balance with it. For those who are prodigy-type talent or who are OBSESSED and using it as an escape from an otherwise intolerable educational setting, parents may have to put limits on things to maintain a healthy lifestyle. It's never been a problem here.


No idea, really.