Batman and the Boy Who Couldn’t Play the Piano

In the mid-1960s, the TV show Batman was a wonder to a 5-year old boy. Not only did my son, Lloyd, love drawing the cartoon character, he was passionate about the music. I bought the printed score and played it for him. Written by Neal Hefti, the music is clever, punchy and rhythmically complex. It took some practicing on my part to play the syncopated middle section.

Lloyd loved it. He announced that he wanted to learn to play it. Holy cow, Batman! He couldn’t play the piano at all. So I showed him one little bit at a time, hands separately. He was listening to it constantly, either played live by me – we didn’t have even a reel-to-reel tape recorder then – or on the TV.

Lloyd played the bits he knew for hours. As he was learning them, he would get frustrated and furious. When it all got to be too much, he would climb down from the piano bench and hop with rage. This was fascinating to watch because I had only read about people hopping with rage in the fairy tale, The King of the Golden River. I would think to myself, 'Well, I guess that’s the last of his wanting to play "Batman."' Yet a few minutes later, he would be at the piano again.

Eventually, he got the first and last parts down pat. I explained to him that the middle section was way more complicated rhythmically, but he was determined to get it all and, by golly, he did.

It occurs to me now that the principles behind Lloyd’s learning of "Batman" are the same ones that it’s taken me decades of piano teaching to define. The student listens to a piece and gets excited about it; he learns it bit by bit, with lots of help from a teacher who can break the process into small chunks.

When students come to lessons excited about wanting to play pieces that are miles beyond their current ability, those of us using Mastering The Piano say, “Great! You can learn it, taking as much time as you need, nibbling a few measures each week.” We know that children who are self-motivated can climb mountains and accomplish miracles.