Yeah, I've wondered a lot about that, too. On the one hand, if all goes well, by the time the little lady matures to the point where she really grows to understand the music and have a real feel for it, just about all the technical problems involved in playing should be well conquered and she can devote her attention to the music rather than the notes. For example, that piece (Francisco Tárrega's Requerdos de la Alhambra or "Memories of the Alhambra"—an opulent Moorish palace in Granada), is one I can play, along with a couple of other Tárrega pieces. Technically, she can play it a lot better than I can (except that her tremolo tends to "gallop" a bit in a few spots), but I think I play it with more "feeling" than she does. But in a few years, she'll get there.

But—is she doing this because she wants to, or because adults are pushing her? More than one talented kid has been forced to take lessons and practice assiduously by their parents, only to toss the instrument in a corner and run screaming from the house the moment they got a chance.

But on the other hand, there are those like Segovia. He fell in love with the sound of the guitar when he was really small (four, some say) and begged his father for guitar lessons. His father was a church organist, and regarded the guitar as "the instrument of the gypsies," and gave young Andés the option of piano or violin, neither of which appealed to him. Segovia senior was afraid his son would wind up hanging out with gypsies if he took up the guitar, so he put his foot down. Counterproductive. Segovia, very young indeed, did start hanging out with the gypsies, getting them to show him things on the guitar. He didn't go for flamenco, of course, but they taught him his basic technique. Very young. Sixish. He simply wouldn't be put off.

Don Firth