Did anyone see the program on channel 4 last night about talented kids. (The worlds greatest musical) astounding.... And the clips from next week are enough to make you give up...absolutely incredible


andy

It was amazing yes!!! There's another thread on this in general music forum I think Might be worth looking in there instead of having 2 threads run concurrently.

Edit: sorry it's in parents.

There is already a thread on this ! Pleas euse the existing thread rather than start a new one on the same topic.

Who appointed you to be the forum police F#m?
Give the guy a break!

I'll chase you with my truncheon!
Seriously , it often happens that we get two threads running on the same subject - surely posters should check to avoid this happening. I was going to start a thread on this early today but it already had been done. I started one on 'Cardiff Singer of the World' because no one else had started it.

That's all well and good if adult learners are moved to read the parents' forum. But I know many posters read the forums pertaining to their situation rather than all of them.

I read all of them and answer without noticing which forum the original post is in. And then because I've posted in the strings forum by mistake.

Just to clear this up

I added this to the adult forum, because I looked and saw no entry within the adult forum for it. I am an adult ( some would disagree) and so greatly enjoy the quality of responses you get within this forum. If I wanted to know what a parents view of the program was, maybe I'd have seen the duplicate thread and so wouldn't have bothered. I don't read every forum, just the few that cover my situation, goals and instrument.

Watching these kids as an adult (and struggling learner) do you find it inspirational or demoralising when little johnny can play Rachmaninoff after 2 years of playing, ? do you feel like " I can do that" or just setting fire to the piano..lol

I think it's best not to compare oneself to anyone else - I know that if I did that I'd probably give up! I think I play because I enjoy it, rather than because I want to get really good, but I do want to play my pieces to the best of my ability, which does involve a lot of effort. My son seems to learn his piano pieces without much effort and practise at all, which is rather unfair, but I obviously find learning the piano much harder than he does.

I've seen a few programmes on these prodigies, and I must say it's shocking how pushy some of the parents are. I wonder how many of these kids grow up resenting the pressure they were put under when very young?

The line between encouragement and bullying has been crossed quite often in some cases (IMO).

I don't tend to watch programmes like that much - whatever kids do at a young age, it's what they mature into which counts for more, really. I am not put off my own attempts at music-making by others: I know that I am fitting mine into a life far more packed and varied than such kids can have, and have no desire to be one-track in the way the most advanced musicians have to be. I do often wonder what it must be like for kids whose lives are channelled in such a way, not to have time to explore so many other facets of life, and to have one dimension of it so dominant...the same would go for excellence in sport. My reason for being dubious about it is that not all of those training so intensively are geniunely in with a chance to succeed at the level they aspire to, and after decades of work may find themselves unfitted for anything else. I know the contrary argument goes along the line of jack of all trades, etc, but I'm happier being flexible and with a wider range of interests.

I totally agree with you here. I have said similar on the other thread.

Mind you, Mozart and Beethoven's fathers were pretty pushy, and Clementi's, I think.

Hmm, perhaps you have a point...

Mozart - Died at a tragically young age.
Beethoven - Was clearly barking mad

And Clementi comes over as nastily avaricious - unable to extend to others the same kindness and charity he'd been shown early in his life.

But re: comparing ourselves with these prodigies ... if we all gave up things because we saw someone younger that was better at it we'd never do anything. Besides .. you can be a prodigy at any age. You don't have to be a CHILD prodigy.

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But re: comparing ourselves with these prodigies ... if we all gave up things because we saw someone younger that was better at it we'd never do anything. Besides .. you can be a prodigy at any age. You don't have to be a CHILD prodigy.
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Oh good does that mean there is still time for me to become a clarinet prodigy?

(though still wanting to balance her life... )

Czerny's a forum prodigy anyway!

But that's my ambition!

According to Wiktionary the current meanings of prodigy are:

An amazing or marvellous thing.
A wonderful example of something.
An extremely talented person (especially a child).

So yes - you can be any or all of these.

Or you can become any of them, unless you take the view that talent is something you are born with, rather than something that can be developed, in which case you can still aspire to amazing, marvellous and wonderful achievements.


In that case you'll have to follow in my footsteps and start having un-birthdays instead of birthdays.

About 40 of them should suffice.

So how do you become one then ? do they offer evening classes down the local Poly . Is it squeezed in between needlecraft 2a and mastic asphalt spreading for beginners?

Mentally, you are easily childish enough

I think maledictis might like that

And who gave you permission to think?