"She rapped my knuckles with a ruler, which was the way they taught everybody in that era anyway, and said,'Why would you want to play by ear'_ that's what they called composing _'when you could have the masters under your fingertips, when you could copy .'So you go to art school and innovation is everything, but in music, you're just a weird loner.
42.
At home his parents had a piano Lester Spinet and as soon as he had enough height to reach the keys, learned to play by ear . " I recognized chord progressions and melodies, and I could reproduce them after I had listened to them . " He started taking piano lessons at age 8, although he already knew how to play and compose blues.
