I just finished reading 'Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother' by Amy Chua, a Chinese-American and professor of Law at Yale University. Her account of how she raised her kids is funny.... and makes one think. (It obviously got a HUGE negative reaction from the American audience, who anyway feel threatened by anything Chinese- yeah, even second generation Chinese!)
One huge theme from the book is about musical prodigies. I remember vividly how much my own piano teacher had to say on the subject. He used to tell us to look up YouTube videos to see under-tens playing pieces like ours! Check this out. Or this: (I played this piece when I was 16 or 17 and got nothing like the sounds she does!!!)
Having played piano myself for many years, I can see that it would be parents like Chua who produce musical prodigies. To excel at piano(I mean the concert pianist level of excellence), besides being musical, one needs to have technique drilled into you when you're small. It's nothing but practice, practice, practice! Even experienced concert pianists will need to break every single bar of a piece down and practise it for hours and hours together. Nothing happens by magic at all! Seeing a kid perform the way they do is lovely(notwithstanding the effect it tends to have on our self esteem) but our vantage point gives us no clue about the time that went into perfecting the particular piece.
One huge theme from the book is about musical prodigies. I remember vividly how much my own piano teacher had to say on the subject. He used to tell us to look up YouTube videos to see under-tens playing pieces like ours! Check this out. Or this: (I played this piece when I was 16 or 17 and got nothing like the sounds she does!!!)
Having played piano myself for many years, I can see that it would be parents like Chua who produce musical prodigies. To excel at piano(I mean the concert pianist level of excellence), besides being musical, one needs to have technique drilled into you when you're small. It's nothing but practice, practice, practice! Even experienced concert pianists will need to break every single bar of a piece down and practise it for hours and hours together. Nothing happens by magic at all! Seeing a kid perform the way they do is lovely(notwithstanding the effect it tends to have on our self esteem) but our vantage point gives us no clue about the time that went into perfecting the particular piece.
Another question she constantly raises is about happiness. Her view, the view of the 'Chinese mother' as she calls it, is that kids will be happy once they start doing well at something, so a parent's job is to make sure they do whatever it takes in order to enable them to excel, even if it means destroying their present happiness-i.e. not letting them do whatever they want when they're younger. Mommy knows best! Haha! I certainly see her point, though, you know; for sure kids on their own will just gravitate towards appealing but mind numbing pursuits like TV or Facebook!
As she brings out, though-this method definitely won't work with all kids(it didn't even with her daughters); only those kids who(like her elder daughter)are mature enough to realise that maybe Mommy does know best!!
As she brings out, though-this method definitely won't work with all kids(it didn't even with her daughters); only those kids who(like her elder daughter)are mature enough to realise that maybe Mommy does know best!!
