2100 Lakeside: The Piano Man

The other day, during one of my piano workshops, I got the chance to meet a young man named Desmond. "Dez" is only 19 years old, and ran away from home about a year ago, but he is one of the most incredible pianists I have ever heard. Humble in his approach, he told me he only knew a little bit, but then sat and played something that would take me months to learn. I asked him where he learned to play, and he said that he taught himself. I asked him to play something else, and he played a popular song by R&B singer Rihanna to perfection. He had learned to play by ear, which was something that is extremely difficult to do, let alone do it at such a young age in the circumstances he had been presented with. He wanted to learn to read music is what he told me and now we have been meeting up regularly to go over the basics of theory and reading/writing music. Its refreshing to meet someone so passionate about learning that he would do whatever he could to play. Everyday he plays in an isolated room, and he will sit there for an hour at a time and just play whatever he wants to. I am really looking forward to meet up with him this upcoming week to see what else he can do with the instrument and see if we can advance his talent into something that may help him out of the shelter.