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

My DH is extremely musically talented and won many competitions as a child and teen. It's been hard for him to see that our DD does not seem to be musically talented. In fact, he was worried she was tone deaf. She absolutely is not--she simply is an average singer. He just doesn't understand that an average child takes a while to learn to sing on key--but she improved dramatically from say, age 6 to 9. She also doesn't seem to have much rhythm.

However--and this is interesting--she has been composing music since she was tiny. She had us write down songs when she was two. She was in a music camp this summer where they formed bands, and her band's song (music and lyrics) was written almost entirely by her. The counselors also commented on her songwriting.

I've given her access to my MP3 player, since it has a recording feature, and she records musical snippets all the time. Again, her singing voice is average at best, but when you can hear what she's after, you realize it's good.

So this is all kind of interesting. She's an extraordinarily creative kid, though.

Most definitely.

Our son has been playing for seven years this Fall and continues to impress us. The trick is that he could be phenomenal with just a bit more practice, but after a spirited debate here a few years back, I decided that it was more important that he enjoy himself. He's continued with music in high school and does very well there with another instrument, so I'm satisfied.

He and I both read Tiger Mom and it's very clear that I can't do what Chua did, and it wouldn't work with him even if I tried.

But part of me, yeah, part of me wishes he'd taken piano more seriously. (I'll consider our efforts successful if, in 30 years, he still plays for enjoyment like his mother does.)

Dandy-- same exact story here.

I mean, she plays Bach and Mozart, and she plays Billy Joel and Elton John... and (lamentably) Coldplay. Mostly to irritate my DH, who loathes Emo. LOL.

But she plays and enjoys playing, mostly. That's far more important than a willingness to develop the chops for competition.

My son is hearing impaired and he wears a hearing aid. He is pretty musical. I didn't tell his teacher he was bright. For the last two years, he got a perfect score on our state piano competition's written exam, for music theory. He just started viola lessons.

I'm green with envy of y'all.

I must admit, while I try to accept DD for all that she is and isn't, I am slightly disappointed that she doesn't want to learn piano or any other musical instruments yet. It's not just that she doesn't ask for it but when we gently suggest music lessons, we get a very angry passionate "NOOOOOOOOOOO" in reply.

We never expected her to be a musical genius but she has always shown many indications that she is very musical but maybe musical interments aren't her thing. Sigh.

I tried to teach DS (10) to read music when he was about 5, but he wasn't interested or making progress so I dropped it. Then, when he was 8, he picked up a music theory book we had lying around and completely devoured it -- loved learning about the circle of 5ths, etc. So we started him on piano lessons, and his progress over the last year or so has been very fast indeed. His teacher is wonderful and they are very alike -- math-oriented eggheads.

We don't have to remind him to practice -- he really enjoys the challenge. And physically it is a challenge, but he drills and drills. His math aptitude and easy absorption of theory help him with skills like transposing on the fly.

It is such a pleasure to hear him play, and I am so happy he has found this creative outlet.

My DD7 is phenomenally fast with picking up cello. She started only 18 months ago, but is already very fluent. She's working towards ABRSM grade 4 at the moment. I attribute her rapidity in learning cello to her focus: she is intensely focused and will literally choose to play cello for hours on end. She loves it to bits, which is so thrilling. Her VCI is 155, so perhaps that has helped.

There are marked differences in speed of progress with Piano between two of my children, who have a significant gap in both IQ and level of LDs, my 2nd child having the higher IQ and far less challenges. Both have hyper-mobility and low tone, but the 2nd more so in the hands, which might actually be making the gap less dramatic than it could have been (for which I am grateful).

Agree with ultramarina that composing is a neat facet or musical ability. The creativity is so fun to watch, and it is totally different from the other writing /art that DD enjoys. She is able to write for multiple parts and seems to innately understand the theory and structure well-enough to produce some decent sounding music (having access to really cool computer software that enables this is definitely a plus). We feel lucky our school offers a music theory sequence in high school if she is still interested.

We keep offering my DD9 piano lessons on the theory that that would help her write music. She turns them down because she does not want to practice--although any time she's near a piano or keyboard (we don't own one), she sits and makes up songs. (She also writes songs on her recorder and writes them down.) Her free time is very precious to her, which I understand, given that she is in several after-school clubs she enjoys and has close to two hours of HW a day (yes, really). I guess this is a separate post, but I do wonder if I can enable the interest in songwriting somehow without getting her committed to a lot of time in lessons. It may just be a matter of finding some good software?