The most portable piano in the world.

Ainan, my 13 year old son, owns the most portable piano in the world. It is in his head. I shall explain.

Ainan has the habit of playing an imaginary piano with his fingers, whilst he sits at the dinner table, or even stands up in mid conversation. His fingers tap out “tunes” in the air, not aimlessly, but with perfect, most careful choice of movement and depression of finger. He has been doing this for some time, now.

Today, I asked him: “Ainan: do you hear the music when you do that?”

“Yes.” He said and carried on playing on his invisible piano.

He had confirmed what I had come to intuit: Ainan actually hears the music he plays on his imaginary piano. For him, the music is as real as if he had played it on an actual piano. So, it is, in this way, that Ainan composes music, even when a piano is not near: he will simply tap out the music to himself, on his inner piano. For him, that is enough, to allow him to appreciate it. Most often, later, he will play it on a real piano and, of course, record it – but the first creation is often of him simply tapping the music out on the table or in the air.

For Ainan, musical composition has become very much an instinct and a reflex. Ainan is often seen to be tapping out music on his imaginary piano, whilst holding a conversation. He particularly likes to do this in the kitchen. Either his brothers, or his parents, will be talking to him – and he will be responding – but throughout the conversation, he will quite clearly be seen to be composing music, on his invisible piano. He is so used to composing, now, that not even the distraction of a conversation can stop him from doing so...it just carries on in the background, bubbling up from within him.

It is quietly pleasing to see how much this creative activity has become a part of Ainan since the beginning of his 12^th year, when he resumed composition, after a six year break (he had started to do so as a six year old, before being put off music for a long time). I do hope that he continues with this momentum and grows musically by the day, week, month, year. Already, of course, he is a very accomplished composer, producing new works all the time. I look forward to all the music, yet to be heard in this house, to come. I hope he plays more of it on the piano in the corner of the house, rather than on the one in the corner of his mind – for only he can hear that one!

Happy composing Ainan – piano or not.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Ainan Celeste Cawley, composer, for “Reflection” a film, by Ignas Versinskas.

Ainan Celeste Cawley, my eldest son, composed the music for the film, “Reflection” , at age 12. The short film (15 minutes), written and directed by Ignas Versinskas, is premiering at the Vilnius International Film Festival, which is from March 14^th to March 28^th, in Lithuania.

Now, I don’t know if you know much about film scoring...but Google taught me something very interesting. In the field of film music scoring, a youthful composer is thought to be one in their twenties. I couldn’t find any examples of ones anywhere near as young as Ainan was when he composed the music used in Reflection. It seems, therefore, that Ainan is the youngest film score composer, in world history.

It came as a big surprise that Ainan, who has over the years been primarily interested in science, computer programming, mathematics and digital animated film-making, should suddenly emerge as a composer. It was very sudden. We had a piano in our house for six long years – and Ainan never touched it. He seemed utterly uninterested in it. Then, one day, I heard music coming from the piano room, when Ainan was in the early months of his 12^th year. It was very familiar music...Beethoven, in fact. I approached the room, very curious as to what I would find. There Ainan sat, at the piano, playing Beethoven, without any sense, at all, that this might be considered unusual – considering that he was doing so, without any piano lessons, or aid, whatsoever. I listened and didn’t interrupt until he had finished. It was only then that I told him how beautiful it sounded. He quietly absorbed my words without comment.

“How did you learn to play that?” I further enquired.

“Oh, I heard it somewhere, before.” He said, casually.

It turned out that he remembered the music from months ago and had worked it out, by ear on the piano.

Within days, Ainan was composing his own pieces. I learnt this by asking him who had composed the piece he had just played one day.

“Me.”, he answered, simply and started to play another – of his own, it turned out.

Music emerged from him, spontaneously and with considerable skill, considering how little time he had been playing and composing.

My friend, Ignas Versinskas, a director, writer and actor, whom I had worked with on Vikingdom, (both of us were actors on it) was making a film. He invited me to play the lead, Trent, in the film Reflection. Trent is an Interpol agent – a detective whose life consists of inquiry into the darker acts human beings are capable of. I agreed to do the role. However, Ignas had a problem – the composer he intended to use had gone overseas and was difficult to contact. That gave me the idea of a solution. I invited Ignas round to listen to Ainan play his music.

Ignas was smitten at once. Ainan’s music was just what was needed for Reflection. He decided then and there to invite Ainan to compose the music for Reflection.

Ainan composed the music for Reflection over a few weeks, at a few minutes, to tens of minutes, a day of work. He is quite spontaneous with his music and it didn’t need all that much time to compose the pieces. He ended up composing quite a few more works than were actually used: the ones most suited to the needs of the film, were chosen.

Ainan then played the music into a computer system, which recorded his performance in complete detail. 

Then the music was output, sometimes as a piano, as it had been input – but sometimes as other instruments. Thus, the music used in the film was all performed by Ainan as well as composed, but his performance is disguised by the fact that some of it had been output to sound like different instruments, to the piano he plays.

If you take a look at Ainan’s IMDB page, here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

You will note that Ainan is now described as a composer and is listed as the composer on Reflection.

If you click through to the full cast and crew page for Reflection, here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2751566/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast

You will see that it states “Original Music score by Ainan Celeste Cawley”.

Of all of Ainan’s many achievements in his life, this one is the one of which I am both most proud and most surprised. I regard it as my favourite achievement of his, because of its utter unexpectedness – and because it shows creativity in a domain that I did not expect him focus on. It also shows genuine creativity and that is something many prodigies do not display (many of them just show skill, not creativity). Ainan is showing something more than that, therefore...he is showing the working elements of true genius, too – that is, originality and creativity.

I have always described Ainan as a scientific child prodigy – because that was his focus when he was very young. However, his mind has broadened over the years. He is now operating at a high level in many domains, scientific, mathematical and artistic. There is a term for such a prodigy: it is called an omnibus prodigy. The composition of the film score for Reflection, establishes Ainan as an omnibus prodigy. If you do some research into it, you will find that this is the rarest kind of prodigy, since almost all prodigies operate in a single area. Not so, with Ainan...his mind now encompasses many facets of human endeavour. I am left to wonder what he will become in the years ahead and what more surprises there might be.

As for now, I am pleased just to be able to listen to his music composition, on a daily basis when he comes home from University. It is, now, one of my greatest pleasures, in life.

Thank you Ainan.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)