Good article from last year about Lang Lang from the New Yorker.

The Olympian - How China’s greatest musician will win the Beijing Games.

Labels: piano

An article on CNN about Lang Lang. My daughter started playing at age 4, but when we moved to Silicon Valley the piano lessons/practice got disrupted a bit.

It's a challenge to keep a young child practicing. Of course it's also a challenge to keep a teenager practicing! The right Teacher is very important, as well as support from parents. My wife was so supportive of my daughter's piano practice that when my daughter's teacher mentioned we needed a Grand Piano, since it had a different feel when hitting the keys, we got one (Kawai) and I learned way to much about buying a piano :-)

Learning Chinese is very similar, it helps to have the right curriculum for learning Chinese, the parental support, and a good teacher.

Labels: Learning Chinese, piano

The piano's status in U.S. living rooms is declining - LA Times.

Not from what I see in the Chinese community in the US. It seems all my daughter's friends are taking Piano. But, at the piano competitions, testing, etc. the majority of students at the ones we go to in the Los Angeles area seem to be either Korean or Chinese.

The change in status of the Piano could explain the headache I have had trying to sell the upright piano we have. We bought a Grand Piano, because per my daughter's teacher my daughter's skill had outgrown an upright, since the keys have a different feel to them. And of course this happened as the bottom of the piano market fell. There have been a lot of piano stores closing in the Los Angeles area. Pianos when the economy is doing well is a great business, but when the economy does not do well, down goes the sale of Pianos.

Labels: piano

China’s six-to-one advantage over the US from the Asia Times.

Great article, I wish I had written it! As I type this, I am listening to my daughter practice on her Kawai Grand Piano for her first Piano competition. The article states how 36 Million Chinese are learning the Piano, while only 6 Million in the US are. And how listening to classical music is the highest form of Western Culture, and the article wonders how the creativity required for this will impact China in the future. And the fact that Piano requires a lot of discipline and focus, which can be very valuable.

Labels: piano

An article about him in the NY Times, I think the LA Times also had one. A Prodigy, A Piano, Hardship, Stardom; Dreams Comes True For Lang

Previous post I wrote on Lang Lang, 35 million kids learning piano in china and for background on Piano playing in the Chinese community - music lessons and chinese americans

Labels: Chinese Culture, piano