(There are far fewer examples of literary prodigies. This is partly because of the strict parameters and repetitive nature of these disciplines. Prodigies are most common in the areas of math, science, music, and competitive games. Beyond a basic agreement that prodigies possess levels of ability before their 13 th birthdays that learned adults often don’t, there is much debate over how and where prodigiousness originates in children. The fluffy, surface-level nature of most child prodigy stories might have something to do with just how little we actually know about the phenomenon. What makes a child prodigy? Are they really a different breed of human altogether, or have they just gotten better faster than the rest of us? Petty jealousy has dissipated (somewhat) with maturity, but I’m still curious as to what those stories so consistently left out. They were merely more snapshots of kids doing the darndest things. They certainly didn’t provide much insight into child prodigiousness. There I would be: 12 years old, just having finished struggling my way through the opening to Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” with typical rookie angst, when I would walk into the family room to see my mother watching some 8-year old on 60 Minutes blasting through “Flight of the Bumblebee” with a huge, shit-eating grin on his face.Īt the time, these stories seemed to exist only to provoke my prepubescent jealousy. When I was just above child-age, and not at all close to being a prodigious musician, stories of musical child prodigies seemed to pop up like clockwork.

60 minutes music prodigy