How do you feel when a kid tears you a new one?

[uhoh7]

Some historical context for musical prodigy:

 

back in the day...say 1700, the future pros usually started by singing for at least three years before they  touched an instrument. Much recent scholarship has unearthed the training, which is pretty interesting. A level of individual attention we can't imagine was de-reguer from the best choirmasters. The kids learned to combine two six-note scales at the semi-tones and could read many clefs and improvise complex harmony if they did well.

 

Conservatory is an Italian word for orphanage. In 1650 the largest city in Europe was Naples, with about 200,000 people, and many orphans. The lucky ones were trained in trades. 4 of the orphanages specialized in Music, and these were the first Music conservatories and the most influential in the history of "Western Music".

 

Instrumental training began at about age 10, after the 3 years of singing. There was a ton of gigs besides the music study. Naples was the most important Spanish colony, and it had the most music happening anywhere in Europe. The orphans earned their keep, and became so famous and coveted from St Petersburg to Havana, that the Conservatories also began training "boarders" who had fancier digs but the same general supervision in music.

 

Improvisation was central from the start. Paper was not cheap. Everyone had erasable tablets like Ipads to take notes etc. Keyboard players learned a specific set of chords for major and minor scales in the bass, and a particular set of cadences, and sequences. There was room to embellish all these fundamental elements. The bass line with or without "figures" was the key to know what to play, and when to change key. They changed keys all the time, but usually to close ones.

 

This teaching system spread everywhere, but was "inside knowledge", not open source, except in fragments. Your choirmaster knew it, and every organ had a bevy of students learning  it. In Germany the bass lines had more "figures" to help, but it was a "system" so you if you were immersed, after a time you didn't need the figures, just the bass line, which implied more detail than any lead sheet today.

 

It was a tough and demanding life, but teachers of every level in the conservatory were implored to make it as fun as possible. There were no private music rooms, The dorms were a cacophony. In Naples it was "boys only" in the conservatories, but Venice had "girls only" music conservatories, which were the most popular venue in town, and Vivaldi's day job. Those girls were trained to be wives whose skills were worth a dowry.

 

Naples was taken by Napoleon, and the entire teaching system was copied to create the Paris conservatory. But Naples became a backwater, depopulated in the 19th century. The old  "system" of improvisation and learning through playing was hard to teach "paying" students like we have today, because they could not "immerse", nor did they want to. Shortcuts were called for! Many books were sold with new ideas about harmony that were supposed to be much easier to learn. Of course the real professionals had already been trained the old way up to Wagner and Rachmaninov. But the modern music factories fired up, and forgot about improvisation completely. Technology has progressed, but improvising complex form is near extinct. Jazz improvisation is about the closest thing left, except for a very recent revival of the old school that began with the use of historical instruments, gut strings, harpsichords etc. Search "Partimento" on Youtube or Facebook.

 

When you consider Beethoven established his reputation in cutting contests at dinner parties, as did many others.... Mozart the child was not crying for sheet music...the current "system" for classical players is very far from the tradition it adores, but it does support high quality recreations and academic business models.

 

The prodigy is a combination of "immersion" in some activity and thriving with intensity starting by age 10 or 12 at least. Any number of factors might derail the process. Bottomline: "Natural Talent" always has some extreme shedding behind it, starting early and usually ongoing. Reaching a high level from a late start is complicated by distractions and biology. The brain grows slower and the body is injured easier by vigorous reps. These truths are condensed into "There will always be somebody younger, faster, and more good looking" by matter of fact coaches correcting great expectations time out of mind.

 

Good news for the non-talented! Study after study shows that attempting to play music is the healthiest natural activity yet encountered, for brain and body, and one which can be pursued very late in life. The "If you suck give up" ethos is not supported by science, regardless of audience reaction.

 

Basically what many posts in this thread have been saying with far fewer words

 

 

Reference:

https://www.amazon.com/Child-Composers-Old-Conservatories-Musicians/dp/0190653590

[Adan]

On 3/11/2023 at 8:06 AM, JamPro said:

 

It seems everyone and their brother has a 8, 10, or 12-year who can blaze thru all of those pieces and they all have videos available on YouTube, so I am constantly watching these young pianists play great versions of the same pieces I am stumbling on.

 

The internet offers millions of ways to make you feel shitty every minute of every day.  If it's not that wunderkind piano playing kid, it's that guy who made fun of you in high school posting photos of himself sipping drinks beachside in Cabo.  One has to ask oneself whether the decision to consume this information is making life better or worse.