New here. Musically gifted count?

Today the piano teacher problem was solved...the teacher who is no longer teaching telephoned to ask if she could drop some music off at our house (dh and I had talked with her about playing chamber music with her for years but had never got around to it) so we could pick a couple of pieces to work on...and she brought a box of music, and I asked if she would do a favor for me...listen to my daughter play and tell me which teacher she needs. "I'll do it...I've spoken to M (dd18's teacher)...I don't need to hear her play". So they're starting Wednesday after next. I'm so pleased and relieved that dd18 doesn't have to wait any longer.

Deborah

Alnut:  First, welcome to the board!  What was your dd like at 3?  Wondering, because my younger ds3 can barely talk and has substantial motor delays, yet constantly sings/hums, and turns almost everything he touches into a drum or musical instrument.  You have never seen a look of glee until you see his face when he visits grandma and grandpa's piano (we live in a tiny apartment, so he's only got a kiddie electronic keyboard at home).  He's been begging to get a violin or cello, and won't leave his older brother alone when he practices.  You can stop a tantrum dead in its tracks by putting on the Hungarian Rhapsody.  Trying to figure out how to work musical learning opportunities with his  developmenetal delays.

Gwen

The problem of having musically gifted kids in an area without higher level teachers is that a less able teacher can do a lot of damage by omission and just plain wrongness. I have a conundrum now: dd18 started piano last year and took six lessons from an older (83) friend who has since moved away. The teacher left specific instructions: she needs to study with either a) this person (who is no longer teaching) or b) this person, whose studio is "full" so won't even give my daughter an audition so that I can figure out how to place her. But given my daughter's piano background, his seems like it should be an easy problem to solve: just find a person with a space in her studio in town and enroll her. Not so fast...she's already far outstripped (in terms of both technique and musicality) the person whose studio is an institution around here. How? She grew up in a musical family. She's been involved in music in one way or another all of her life, although her formal training has been very limited. Piano was not her first instrument. And she's a musical outlier. She does have an "elite" teacher for sax and clarinet...and this year got just five lessons from him because he lives 2500 miles away. My last email from him included this: "I have a great time working with [her], she's enthusiastic and intellectually curious-the best possible combination. I look forward to the possibility of working with her again. By the way I didn't recognize her at first glance this year, I still have trouble seeing students growing up! Also the clarinet is in excellent shape a very good buy." (The clarinet cost $10.) So we go from this extreme...a person whose extremely full studio with only advanced students always has room for her, to the situation where we live now and the kid whose tiny repertoire includes a Mozart sonata that sounds like a recording cannot even get a hearing from the teacher, whose studio is "full" of hothoused amusical eight year olds. Our move here was the thing that changed her professional focus from music to art (and she has a great art mentor here)...but she's still at the stage that she's learning so fast that it would be a mistake to spend the next three months when she's at such a crucial stage with no piano teacher. It turns out that my dh is likely going to be doing contract work (had to get permission) in the same town where dd's old teacher is living now (over 500 miles by the fastest and most dangerous route...the way we drive it would take about 11 hours at the least)...but that would probably be once per month at the most and likely all anyone can stand, as we are all homebodies and don't like to leave what everyone in our neighborhood calls "the mountain" for long. If nothing works out here, maybe we can get some help there. Sometimes (not often) I want to run away to a big dirty city...

Sorry for the vent...actually I'm not. I don't usually feel "entitled", but today I'm acting just like one of "those parents"....even though my daughter is 18 and well able to take care of herself. She's the one who's talked with the teacher...I'm just grinding my teeth on the sidelines.

Deborah

"Unlike beeblbrx, we have had no access to elite level training; my dd ended up essentially self-teaching both instruments from age 13 onwards."

Miranda, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a violin teacher? I understand your dilemma out where you live to a certain extent, but tbh sometimes I would have traded any access to "elite" teachers for an ability to, say, even read violin notes!

In general- and this is interesting- almost all the super-duper violin kids around here come from families whose parents play violin. The instrument is simply too difficult to master without help at home. That said, I do know that I'm in a very lucky position for my child - first of all because such programs are available for children who need it and secondly because they are funded by the government, so that all kids have the chance to participate.