Leaping across notes

With less than a year’s classical training, 13-year-old Michael Liang from Emmarentia recently played his first-ever piano musical exam at Grade 5 level.
Liang’s teacher, Magdalize Carstens, said his piano skills are impressive and that she was proud to have a student that is as inclined as Liang. “Most people take six or seven years to reach this stage,” Carstens said.
Liang was introduced to the piano, his instrument of choice, by his older sister and became interested and started playing from memory. At the end of last year, Liang started with classical training, as well as reading and playing sheet music.
“When he started, I gave him Grade 3 pieces to learn. He only took about two weeks to learn an entire piece. We moved him up and found that Grade 5 was challenging enough, even though it was a big leap,” Carstens said.
From quick modern pieces to more classical pieces, Liang said he likes all kinds of music he plays on the piano and practices every day.

His skills were put to the test in an Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) exam. The board delivers more than 650 000 music exams and assessments every year in 93 countries.
According to the board, the piano Grade 5 exams consist of three pieces chosen by the candidate from the appropriate lists in the current syllabus, scales and arpeggios, sight-reading and aural tests.
“I am nervous. But playing calms me down, it makes me think,” Liang said during a lesson with Carstens.
Although Liang’s achievement is significant, the De La Salle Holy Cross College school boy said he also enjoys soccer and wants to become a pediatrician one day.
Liang and Carstens are still awaiting the results of his exam.