Child Prodigies - Videos and Links
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Charles Stuart
Senior Registered
Hi everyone,
Has anyone here ever heard of "Blind Tom"? Thomas Greene Bethiune was born in 1849, the son of slaves. He was blind and had a mental problem known as Savant Syndrome. In his first years of life, he already demonstrated an interest in sounds - any kind of sound. And his capacity to immitate them was prodigious. The Bethune family had seven children, all gifted in music. While the other children practiced the piano, Blind Tom would sit quietly listening. One day, while the children were practicing, he blindly walked towards the piano. Feeling pity for him, the other kids let him sit on the piano seat. And the blind boy, who was then just four years old and seemed to be of absolutely no use, played all the notes he had heard others practicing the very first time he sat at the piano.
The first teacher who came to teach him, left on the same day saying that there was nothing he could teach the young boy, confessing that Tom's musical talent was beyond comprehension. He could learn in a matter of hours what others took years to master. At the age of six, Blind Tom was already composing his own songs.
He played in public for the first time when he was eight, and could play equally well with his back turned to the piano or with crossed hands. At the age of nine, Tom was already making his owner a small fortune, but nothing went to him. He could play the classics of all the great geniuses of music. He could play three different tunes simultaneously.
One of the first articles about Tom came out in the Baltimore Sun in 1860. Critics said his talent could be compared to that of Mozart.
And why could he not have been the reincarnation of Mozart or one of the other great geniuses of music? If he weren't, where then could such a talent have come from to a blind and mentally debilitated boy? What other rational explanation could there be for the phenomenon?
Blind Tom died on June 13, 1908, when he was 59 years old...
Has anyone here ever heard of "Blind Tom"? Thomas Greene Bethiune was born in 1849, the son of slaves. He was blind and had a mental problem known as Savant Syndrome. In his first years of life, he already demonstrated an interest in sounds - any kind of sound. And his capacity to immitate them was prodigious. The Bethune family had seven children, all gifted in music. While the other children practiced the piano, Blind Tom would sit quietly listening. One day, while the children were practicing, he blindly walked towards the piano. Feeling pity for him, the other kids let him sit on the piano seat. And the blind boy, who was then just four years old and seemed to be of absolutely no use, played all the notes he had heard others practicing the very first time he sat at the piano.
The first teacher who came to teach him, left on the same day saying that there was nothing he could teach the young boy, confessing that Tom's musical talent was beyond comprehension. He could learn in a matter of hours what others took years to master. At the age of six, Blind Tom was already composing his own songs.
He played in public for the first time when he was eight, and could play equally well with his back turned to the piano or with crossed hands. At the age of nine, Tom was already making his owner a small fortune, but nothing went to him. He could play the classics of all the great geniuses of music. He could play three different tunes simultaneously.
One of the first articles about Tom came out in the Baltimore Sun in 1860. Critics said his talent could be compared to that of Mozart.
And why could he not have been the reincarnation of Mozart or one of the other great geniuses of music? If he weren't, where then could such a talent have come from to a blind and mentally debilitated boy? What other rational explanation could there be for the phenomenon?
Blind Tom died on June 13, 1908, when he was 59 years old...
Hi Charles,
Yup - A Famous Case in History. I read about it a few years ago. An interesting story for sure.
Yup - A Famous Case in History. I read about it a few years ago. An interesting story for sure.
lynxie
New Member
Zara Larsson
I saw this in a completely unrelated forum topic on my students' union web site. It was about how unhappy people can be for no reason. Suddenly someone posted this link:
Zara Larsson won a national Swedish talent show. (It sounds like a big European concept.) Which is nothing more but correct. She is only 10 or 11 years old.
I saw this in a completely unrelated forum topic on my students' union web site. It was about how unhappy people can be for no reason. Suddenly someone posted this link:
Zara Larsson won a national Swedish talent show. (It sounds like a big European concept.) Which is nothing more but correct. She is only 10 or 11 years old.
Susie
Dreamer-former moderator
But, what is exceptional is that he is four years old and plays the fiddle at all. My beau teaches music and he has said that children generally are ready to be taught music when they are around six years old, not usually before. It may or may not have anything to do with reincarnation, but he sure is one talented little guy.MoonDansyr said:
ButterflyPsyche
Senior Registered
This is a great thread and very timely as I just got an email about Akiane! What an amazing artist! I feel for certain there is *something* there.
Here's a 2 year old little girl who's made the news headlines in the UK this week. Although she's no evidence for reincarnation, I do wonder how a child this young, can know so much .... and be so intelligent. A comment that stood out for me was from her mother ... "It's nothing to do with me, she just says things and you have no idea where she got it from."
With an IQ of 156, she's only a few points behind Einstein .... maybe she WAS Einstein!
You can read about her here and here.
With an IQ of 156, she's only a few points behind Einstein .... maybe she WAS Einstein!
You can read about her here and here.
Allerleirauh
The Constant Companion
I don't know if this girl has been posted, I looked briefly, but didn't see her. Her name is Emily Bear and she started playing the piano when she was 2.
I had always felt that my talents from when I was younger weren't developed or appreciated. I wanted to take ballet when I was 5 and we couldn't afford it, but I always did my own sort of fake ballet around the house. When I was in high school, I was in musicals and we did an excercise in improv dancing and I got out and did my improv ballet. I was asked afterward by our resident ballarina how long I'd been dancing! I told her I was making it up and she was amazed. Hehe. My mom also went to college when I was a child and she would have me read her dental hygene textbooks out loud to her because I could pronounce the medical terms better than she could.
I wish that more children had parents receptive to abilities and desires at earlier stages in development. I think that it would foster greater talent in our children as they grow up. I know that the talents I have now, I had always begged to do when I was younger, but my mom wasn't receptive to them (Egyptology, history, art, and music) or couldn't afford them (dance, musical intruments, and art).
I had always felt that my talents from when I was younger weren't developed or appreciated. I wanted to take ballet when I was 5 and we couldn't afford it, but I always did my own sort of fake ballet around the house. When I was in high school, I was in musicals and we did an excercise in improv dancing and I got out and did my improv ballet. I was asked afterward by our resident ballarina how long I'd been dancing! I told her I was making it up and she was amazed. Hehe. My mom also went to college when I was a child and she would have me read her dental hygene textbooks out loud to her because I could pronounce the medical terms better than she could.
I wish that more children had parents receptive to abilities and desires at earlier stages in development. I think that it would foster greater talent in our children as they grow up. I know that the talents I have now, I had always begged to do when I was younger, but my mom wasn't receptive to them (Egyptology, history, art, and music) or couldn't afford them (dance, musical intruments, and art).
Titus Rivas
Senior Registered
Flamenco prodigies
Here's a young flamenco singer of only 11, Rocío Luna who already interprets the most difficult styles of the so-called cante jondo with authentic emotional expression:
Titus
Here's a young flamenco singer of only 11, Rocío Luna who already interprets the most difficult styles of the so-called cante jondo with authentic emotional expression:
Titus
Shine
New Member
Child Painter
Found this on a local new site and thought of this thread.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/4025088/Eight-year-old-painting-prodigy-is-new-art-world-star
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/4025088/Eight-year-old-painting-prodigy-is-new-art-world-star
Especially interesting are Picasso and Jack Boyle's comments on child prodigies (towards the end of the article) which certainly seem to fit in with what we know about past life memories.
Found this on a local new site and thought of this thread.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/4025088/Eight-year-old-painting-prodigy-is-new-art-world-star
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/4025088/Eight-year-old-painting-prodigy-is-new-art-world-star
Especially interesting are Picasso and Jack Boyle's comments on child prodigies (towards the end of the article) which certainly seem to fit in with what we know about past life memories.
Nightrain
Senior Registered
Hi Shine! Welcome to the Forum!
I did an OMG when I saw Kieron's work. Although he may have been misidentified by the press as a "mini Monet", his work is strangely reminiscent of a few impressionist painters, who have passed on. In spite of the late Picasso's opinion that there are no child prodigies, implying that any child can paint that way; I would testify that no child that I ever knew could paint in such a style by accident. It takes many years even for a talented painter to acquire a style like Kieron's.
I did an OMG when I saw Kieron's work. Although he may have been misidentified by the press as a "mini Monet", his work is strangely reminiscent of a few impressionist painters, who have passed on. In spite of the late Picasso's opinion that there are no child prodigies, implying that any child can paint that way; I would testify that no child that I ever knew could paint in such a style by accident. It takes many years even for a talented painter to acquire a style like Kieron's.
Titus Rivas
Senior Registered
Cleopatra Stratan
That Jackie really sounds as if she already sang opera in her previous life!
A very young, succesful singer from Romania with a remarkable musical talent is named Cleopatra Stratan.
Titus
That Jackie really sounds as if she already sang opera in her previous life!
A very young, succesful singer from Romania with a remarkable musical talent is named Cleopatra Stratan.
Titus
It is very unusual, but there are other examples, e.g. violinist Akim Camara, who performed "Schneefloeckchen, Weissbroeckchen" with the Marzahn Hellersdorf School of Music at age 2.vicky said:
Wikipedia has a partial list of music prodigies under 12 yrs old.
Here's Matilda who's joined MENSA with a claimed IQ of 152.ChrisR said:Here's a 2 year old little girl who's made the news headlines in the UK this week.
...
With an IQ of 156, she's only a few points behind Einstein .... maybe she WAS Einstein!
IQ tests are pretty unreliable below around 4 years old, and require a test normalised around the relevant age, so the IQ figures should be taken more as rough guidelines, but these kids are truly extraordinary!
Cryscat
Senior Member
Video of 10 year old classical crossover soprano, Jackie Evancho (who was on America's Got Talent), on the Oprah show.
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/10-Year-Old-Opera-Singer-Jackie-Evancho-Video/topic/oprahshow
amazing voice!
http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/10-Year-Old-Opera-Singer-Jackie-Evancho-Video/topic/oprahshow
amazing voice!
Beware of the Anti-Prodigy!
I wonder (with tongue in cheek) if there is such a thing as a, "Anti-Prodigy", somewhere along the lines of say "Anti-Matter" perhaps.
Instead of being a Prodigy in playing the Clarinet, I was, in fact, quite the opposite, whenever I practiced it, dogs for miles around would start howling and try to leave the area, followed closely by the like-wise suffering cats.
The parakeet we had then, a mean old bird, would himself go crazy whenever I practiced, and to put himself out of his misery, would try to hang himself in the cage!
I played so badly, even I knew it, and one day I just quit and walked away from it.
Seriously I greatly admire Prodigies, Savants and Geniuses of all persuasions, it would be nice to be really good at something in a lifetime.
One of my lady friends hinted that I might be good at Writing, but I don't know if it's me or the Computer, I think the Word program in it might be broken somehow, it hasn't written a decent thing at all lately!
I wonder (with tongue in cheek) if there is such a thing as a, "Anti-Prodigy", somewhere along the lines of say "Anti-Matter" perhaps.
Instead of being a Prodigy in playing the Clarinet, I was, in fact, quite the opposite, whenever I practiced it, dogs for miles around would start howling and try to leave the area, followed closely by the like-wise suffering cats.
The parakeet we had then, a mean old bird, would himself go crazy whenever I practiced, and to put himself out of his misery, would try to hang himself in the cage!
I played so badly, even I knew it, and one day I just quit and walked away from it.
Seriously I greatly admire Prodigies, Savants and Geniuses of all persuasions, it would be nice to be really good at something in a lifetime.
One of my lady friends hinted that I might be good at Writing, but I don't know if it's me or the Computer, I think the Word program in it might be broken somehow, it hasn't written a decent thing at all lately!
Nightrain
Senior Registered
Even though I know you're joking at your own expense, I think there is some truth to your theory. While child prodigies may provide some evidence that some people may have gained their knowledge from previous lifetime experience, the complete and utter lack of ability in other areas may also suggest that we have more to learn than one lifetime can provide. While you would know how to keep me breathing and alive after some trauma, I would not know what to do and would probably attempt to psychoanalyze a dying patient, for I have absolutely no care or concept of how to keep anyone alive. In fact, I am so horribly inept in so many areas that I'm certain to have a long road to travel after I die.hydrolad said:
On the other hand, we are the worst people to be judging our own talents. Many who believe they can sing attempt to prove it on American Idol, while you believe that your skill with the clarinet is substandard only because your parakeet attempted to hang himself. What does a parakeet know? After all, you could have been the Charles Ives of the clarinet. And your Word program? I think you just plunked out a rather good theory on the keyboard just now.
:thumbsup:
Nightrain
Senior Registered
I have just viewed an interesting
on Victor Zammit's Friday Afterlife Report for July 15th, about a child prodigy by the name of Jay Greenberg. Apparently he has written 5 full-length symphonies by the age of 12 (2004). He doesn't really compose, because he's actually just writing down music that "comes" to him "at the speed of light". He began writing music at two, and his parents have no musical background whatsoever.
