A Pianist in the Family

Friday night, my great-nephew, Carson, participated in a piano recital; and I shot this short video clip of his recital piece.

Carson will be ten years old in a few months. He began taking piano lessons when he was about seven. His piano teacher uses the Suzuki method of teaching, in which the child learns to play by listening and repetition, much the same way the child learned to talk. They begin with small steps, building the child's confidence and giving him a sense of success and enjoyment of his accomplishment. Note reading is postponed until the student is established on the instrument.

I was pretty skeptical of it when I first learned that the student wasn't taught to read music until later. But I've seen the method work well with Carson. It makes me envious that I wasn't exposed to this kind of teaching when I was trying to learn the piano as a child, although I don't think I would have done as well as Carson is doing, even if the Suzuki method had been used on me. I think there's a little natural ability floating around in this boy that wasn't present in his great-aunt.