Hey all. I came across this fascinating article about piano virtuosos. Although it’s a few months old, and I’m sure many of you have already seen it, I was wondering what you all think about this topic. More specifically, have you seen any other material about this phenomenon? All of my efforts to find similar articles have only turned up the original article and message board threads about it. :rolleyes:
I have nothing to back this up, but my impression is this:
There are millions of prodigies out there who never got the chance to touch a piano, or attempt a pole vault, or drive a race car, or whatever. Most people around the world live a simple life, likely centered around farming.
But people are getting richer, particularly in China but elsewhere as well, and this enables these prodigies to access their talent by providing them with the time and equipment they need. The essentially parallels the rise of civilization in general; the less time spent on just getting by (food, shelter, etc.), the more resources we have to spend on less utilitarian skills.
Another aspect is that we’re probably getting better at musical education. I don’t play music but I know that different types of training go through phases and I’d hope that in the long run we’d stick with the better ones.