Parents who force their children to have piano lessons are keeping them away from classical music, Lang Lang, a world-leading pianist, has suggested. The Chinese musician stresses that children who are forced into piano lessons can end up shunning music.
Lang Lang has launched an initiative (倡议) through his foundation (基金会) to put piano lessons into primary school schedules, so they are not just an after-school activity for the rich. The lessons, designed by professionals, can be taught by any teacher and the foundation has donated dozens of digital pianos to schools. The initiative uses tablets (平板电脑) and keyboards to get children playing right away, from Beethoven to Mozart.
Lang, who became famous in his mid-twenties, expressed his strong disagreement with the parents who forced children to have piano lessons because"the neighbour's kid does". He said:
"Those parents don't even know what music is. They get their kids to play without knowing what they are going to listen for."
Lang said children had to be educated about classical music to truly enjoy it."You really need to have a good childhood education in music. Take the reading of Shakespeare as an example. If you don't learn Shakespeare in schools, you are less likely to pick it up later."
The school initiative, Keys of Inspiration, is running in 100 schools in America and 110 in China. And the UK programme has started in four primary schools in London. The initiative was created partly because arts education had been forced out in schools. Lang added:"When I came to America, the first day I realized few students in the high school knew Mozart. In the regular schools they just simply don't have art and culture."
