Never Too Late to Try
Written by Kristen Jeffers on April 30, 2009
As I was doing my daily browsing of the Washington Post, I happened on the story of Clifton Williams, a 17-year-old classical piano prodigy from Southeast DC. It would be extraordinary enough if the kid had been playing piano since he was knee high to a chicken as we say down South. He has been, but that’s beside the point. Although he’s been taking lessons in jazz, gospel and blues piano for 10 years, he’s only been playing classical for three years and he doesn’t even own his own piano.
I stop here to talk about myself. I used to mess around with the keys myself, occasionally writing a song or two, yet I wrote myself off a long time ago. Why you ask? I always felt that me and my horribly monotone Casio keyboard playing self had no chance against even the worst of my church piano players. They could play off the radio by ear. Some even could read music. What could I do, I didn’t have a real piano and I certainly couldn’t play whole songs by ear. OK, I lie, I think I did a killer by ear rendition of “God Bless America” once, but that never made it outside of my bedroom.
Yet, seeing this kid and so many of my artist friends overcome major obstacles, makes me re-think my logic of my musical training and even my musical leanings. Williams didn’t let not having a piano stop him, thanks to his church, he can practice anytime he wants. He’s not bothered by the fact that it’s out of tune, he brings his soul to the ivories and that soul makes up the difference. The work has paid off, he will appear on “For the Top,“ a showcase of young classical musicians which airs on NPR, this Sunday evening. He also earned a $10,000 scholarship from the Jack Kent Cook Foundation, some of which he used to purchase his own piano.
Meanwhile, I’m going to go grab my songbook and reach back to the two semesters of piano I did have. After all, like Williams, I may not have had the best instruments or even the top teachers, but that can’t stop me from playing music. Watch him talk about his gift and play Prokofiev’s “Suggestion Diabolique” below.
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