"The Journey of the Little Piano Princess: Musical Talent?" "鋼琴小公主的故事 ~ 小公主的音樂天份？"

Since a young age the little Princess had been exposed to a vast array of music, ranging from Bach and Mozart to Jazz and 60's Rock. But even before that, at less than a year old (8.5 months to be exact) whilst travelling on public transport in the comfort of her mother's arms, she could replicate the various sounds of a passing ambulance to the exact phrase length, delighting an elderly lady sat nearby who smiled kindly at the Princess' mother who was taken aback by her daughter's sudden action.

The Princess' sensitivity to music was thereafter highly noticeable; even during deep sleep the baby Princess' would wake up as soon as a certain song was played on television for the opening of a drama series and promptly fall back to sleep as soon as it was finished.

Music was always played in the house, and the first classical and also piano piece the little Princess heard must have been La Campanella by Liszt; her parents had taken her with them when her father had decided to purchase an audio system which was playing the said piece.

Several years later, it was nearly Christmas and the weather was cold and brewing snow; the little Princess was now seven and a half, and little did she know, her parents had chosen a beautiful mahogany upright piano for her as a present. She had been twinkling on an old keyboard that belonged to her mother, and had already picked up small extracts of tunes from old piano tutorial books.

The piano was a stunning high gloss mahogany finish, and was of an elegant contemporary style without the side pillars either side of the keyboard. As expected, the hardware were brilliantly polished brass and the piano came with a adjustable stool of equal elegance, upholstered with velvet.

Soon after the little Princess took up lessons with a local piano teacher who prepared her thoroughly with strict methods and a wide range of repertoire of Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Kabalevsky and contemporary composers. The Princess gained praise for her nimble fingers and musicality, suitable for light and intricate playing; she was once told by an adjudicator of a piano festival she had "Bach hands".

Despite the difficulty, the strict tuition and tedious practise sessions, the Princess passed grade after grade with distinction; her playing was extremely delicate, with poise and elegance, and highly musical, qualities that she had kept throughout even in her later studies. She took graded examinations on average twice a year and soon she was grade 5 before the age of 11.

During this period the teacher was very pleased and the Princess had even attracted another girl to become her teacher's pupil; since her teacher was a lady who regularly enters her students into local music festivals and competitions, a child not much older than her had seen the little Princess' musical playing and had instantly approached the teacher.

Unfortunately this developed into the first misfortune the Princess was to experience. Eagerly, the new girl was accepted by the Princess' teacher and proved to be extremely hard working, subsequently becoming a new favourite of the lady.

It wasn't until the next piano competition where the Princess was competing against the new pupil that there was bias and manipulation in favour of the new girl apparent. 

Being an enthusiastic learner and fairly smart, the Princess was able to learn and memorise pieces rather quickly, and had been hoping to complete the pieces for the competition early so that there was time to mature them. However the teacher had piled her with piece after piece, learning new pieces right up until before the competition. Of course, this meant that the freshly learnt pieces would not be of the same standard of older, matured pieces; however, it were these pieces that the teacher had demanded the young Princess to take to the competition, "to gain experience".

The little Princess and her parents were oblivious to the fact that the new pupil was using pieces that she had matured for a long time; and such maturity in any piece brings new qualities to a performance, like an inner connection and a natural feeling where pianist, piano and music become one.

It soon became obvious as the new girl performed, each stage of the competition, each and every section, her pieces were undoubtedly ones she had 'lived with' for a long time; whereas the Princess performed musically but fresh pieces where the connection had not fully matured.

And it was this competition that the young Princess lost almost each and every round to the new pupil; the Princess was a consistent prize-winner and this experience made her doubt her preparation for the festival. On the other hand, the teacher appeared extremely proud, shooting glances and smirks towards the Princess, who naively didn't think twice over it but had fallen into disappointment, clearly upset with herself.

It was soon the very last section of the competition, and her last chance against the new girl. Unexpectedly, the teacher approached her and her parents with the news that the new pupil had gone home due to a headache as she had been very stressed for this competition. Consequently, as expected, the young Princess won that section of the competition.

This event was extremely peculiar and suspicious on several levels; the teacher would never suggested or requested 'fresh' pieces to be used in a competition (on any previous occasion) whilst the new pupil used matured pieces, the rather arrogant glances the Princess and her parents received throughout each performance as the new student took prize after prize, and lastly the sudden disappearance of the competitor after taking all but the last prize.

After thoughtful deduction by the Princess' parents, they soon realised that the event turned out as so perhaps by manipulation of the teacher to prove to the new student her teaching methods are successful and can make her a prize-winner equally like the Princess, and had arranged for the last prize to be left to the Princess so she was not to feel disappointed.

The Princess' parents were very much angry that it was clearly not a fair competition but a politically manipulated one and thus after explaining to the young Princess, they confronted the teacher for the Princess to leave from her studies with her. Of course, the teacher was thoroughly shocked, angry and upset, and became rather hysterical, however the Princess was firm and left the teacher to her own guilty conscience.

Now, the next challenge was to find an equally good or better teacher to study with...

Next: Chapter 2