To: Doren who wrote (79 ) 3/3/2009 9:11:13 AM From: Paul Chiu Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 172 hi fate! thanks on listening to william. mom and i had been doing so for 6 years now. time flies over the last 3 years, we have debated with his russian teacher whether the contest route was for me. my wife and i are fully against it. in fact, we have given up on him even attempting to enter a conservatory or schools like juilliard. we know just how hard it is to have any career in music, so we stopped having these dreams since he was 8. now, we are trying to have him enjoy his music. he is working on some early american jazz now. i have some early sittings which i have filmed. i dearly enjoyed recording all his growing up stuff as besides a stock junky, an audiophile and a starbucks addict, i love photo and video. what better model than my baby. back to music. he has learned some stubbornness now that he is over 10 the bach craziness of 4 voices have challenged him and mom as it is she who puts down the hammer whenever he practices. he does 20 - 30 minutes a night now. (reluctantly) i don't play nor does my wife, so we guide by ear. in that, i am ok with it since i took some music history decades ago at columbia and of course listens to recordings consistently. still, even the best music reproduction cannot match the feeling of music while sitting or standing next to my son as he plays. in that, i think the bosendorfer would certainly trump even the steinway grand. the question is which model grand. for his purpose, we now view the piano is a discipline that we will continue until he simply grows out of. it is now up to him. lately, he is reading like a crazy person. at the dinner table, on the can, and even in the car. drives his mom nuts when he reads while driving. (i drive, lol) so, it seems now that he is aspiring to be a writer. that, his mom and i can live with. paul