shades of grey.

hello.

today was class outing (or rather clique gathering) for sushi buffet. today was the first, and probably one of the few times i'd ever go for it, partly because of cost and partly because 3 - 6pm is not a strategic time to have a eat-all-you can session.

was watching a documentary entitled 'my brilliant brain' (or something like that) on natgeo. it followed an eight year old pianist, who played beethoven's sonatina no. 1 when he was three, more cleanly than i can now. and oh yes he has perfect pitch (apparently 1 in 10000 people have it; well it does make me feel a bit more privileged :P) and can recognize tonality of chords. and yeah he's like playing high level concertos and chopin pieces.

well so the reason one of the researchers gave for some childrens' amazing ability with music is because they like it and are drawn into something like a trance when they play it. and heres the catch: they get better at it when they practice even more and want to learn it better (i just practice up to a point when i get pissed/sian/when i feel like i'm not improving).

so the discussion goes on about whether it is nature or nurture, and the conclusion is never drawn, so i guess both have their part in creating a genius.

but my consolations are that if i were to live the life the little dude lives, i'd be practising 8h a day, and i wouldn't be able to connect that well to friends my age, and i wouldn't have the privilege of going through a normal schooling life. and even young prodigies face a challenge when they go through puberty/become an adult cos the thing about child prodigies is that it seems queer that a child is doing what adults can do, but when they grow older a lot more is demanded like critical interpretation and an individual style in order to keep their fame. and yeah mozart was one of those people, but he died at 35.

so in conclusion, life is fair. when i practice music, i think the most important thing is to enjoy myself, and not bother whether i can master the pieces to the extent the world class performers on youtube do. the documentary also found that if children started to receive brain stimulation in the form of creative learning and puzzles even before the age of 3, they would have an advantage in terms of intellect later in life. but i guess what is most important is that we recognize that God has given us different talents and use it for his glory.

posted by guitar123 @ 11:32 PM