Pitch Perfect

Zach is musical. And I just realized the extent of it.

He's been playing the recorder at school, and every day he comes home with some tune to practice. He likes it. They are simple songs and he plays them well. No big deal.

But, on the way to school the other day, just for fun, I put a song on the stereo for him to play with.

Stairway to Heaven, that perennially cool 70's Led Zep song, features four harmonized recorders in the intro, playing along with Jimmy Page's classic arpeggiated acoustic guitar.

Zach homed in on those recorder parts like a cruise missile and started playing along. By the end of the intro, he had them nailed with an accuracy that amazed me. It suddenly hit me that he has a fantastic ear. This sense of pitch comes naturally too, he doesn't really have to try, it's just in him.

I played a bunch of non-recorder songs afterwards and he was always able to get right on key fast and came up with some interesting accompanying improvisations.

I was so proud of him. I don't think he realizes that he has something that is difficult or impossible to learn if you aren't born with it.

I asked him if he would like to learn guitar, which is his dad's hobby, and he said:

"Dad, I'm already involved in one instrument."

Ok, don't push. He'll gravitate to it, I know he will. He once blurted out:

"Dad, when I grow up, should I be an artist, or a rocker?"

Energy. Talent. Attitude. An almost preternatural hatred for homework.

He'd make a good rocker.