Nature or nurture?

[ChiefKiasu]

Is artistic talent in-born only, or can it be grown? Most kids naturally love to draw and sing. We parents tend to take this as a sign that our kids have artistic talents and try to send them for enrichment courses to hopefully groom the talents.


What are the signs that your child exhibit that made you send him or her to the art classes?

[phantom]

I have heard that a child under age 6 can be easily trained to acquire perfect pitch. The ability to identify the tone that you have just heard. I suppose you will need to send the kid to music training at the young age to unleash their music potential early in life.


I believe every kid have this in born talent. Any comments?

[wet]

Hey… that I believe. I sent my son to Yamaha since 4 years old and had to sit in the lessons for 2 years. It was amazing to hear literally ALL the kids being able to listen and recite the tones after hearing the notes just ONCE. Even as a adult with 6 years experience in school bands, I had a hard time catching up myself!


While talent may be in-born, I think the most critical factor is what can trigger the child’s interest in a specific subject. Even if he or she has the talent to do something, it count for nothing if there is zero interest in doing it. And the more parents force them to do it, the more they resist and hate it.

So sometimes, we parents have to be skilled negotiators and be observant to understand what drives our little ones and exploit these motivators to help our kids grow interest in what we can see are their talents.

[super_dad]

Incidentally, perfect pitch is not a good thing to have...most perfect pitch folks live a tortured lives, in an imperfect pitch world :). They can literally be killed by sounds. :lol:


But the ability to \"see\" notes, is a useful one if one wants to pursue a career in music. However, most good musicians don't have perfect pitch either.

[phantom]

super_dad:

Incidentally, perfect pitch is not a good thing to have...most perfect pitch folks live a tortured lives, in an imperfect pitch world :). They can literally be killed by sounds. :lol:


But the ability to \"see\" notes, is a useful one if one wants to pursue a career in music. However, most good musicians don't have perfect pitch either.

I came across lots of music training centres on the Internet that talk about training for perfect pitch. So is that a necessity for been a musician?

Been a musician in Singapore is hard to make a living, I would probably see it as a means to train children brain to make them more creative.

[ChiefKiasu]

Sorry… you lost me. What is PERFECT PITCH har? Something to do with hearing or singing? Or just being able to tell a perfect middle C from an imperfect one?

[super_dad]

Perfect pitch is the ability to tell the exact note of a tone. In layman's term, given a note, the person would be able to point at the exact key on a piano.


But as we know, all tones in the world does not fall perfectly on the keyboard. Even between keyboards, the pitch could be slightly out. Humans have a tendency to like certain ptiches...and that's how the scales were formed long ago. Maybe due to the resonant frequency of all our body parts put together

It is the equivalent of someone being able to tell you the exact RGB of a color.

I don't think it is necessary to have perfect pitch to be a musician...it is like if someone is good at colors and making him an artist. Not true.

[ChiefKiasu]

Like that ah… then I definitely don’t have perfect pitch. or pitch. or even a little bit of pitch. Heck, I can’t even sing the sofage of the songs that the kids in the classes seem to be able to do effortlessly.

[super_dad]

To a certain extent, this can be trained. And usually the right time to do so is when they are kids. By the time of adulthood, most people will find it difficult, just like learning a piano.

[phantom]

Heard that learning music or piano will help a kid to be more creative and uses their right brain improving memory. Anyone’s kid has been to piano courses? Does it helps in improving their memory?