Eleven-year-old Jared Alpern keeps his eyes closed sometimes when he riffs on his electric guitar. His mother says they do not need to be open because the talent he possesses naturally flows from his fingers.
As Alpern approached the stage at Savannah’s nightclub on South Pearl Street in Albany on Saturday, March 29, to perform with his teacher, Charlie Smith, and his band, The Charlie Smith Blues Band, he was more excited than nervous.
It’s really fun that the people get to hear my music, he said.
Alpern’s interest in being a musician began a little over
two years ago, according to his mother, Laura Bulatao.
Although Alpern also has experience with the piano and keyboard, his mother said he is most impressive and developed with his guitar playing.
He got his first guitar in November 2005. Since then, Alpern spends about an hour per day practicing all of his instruments, `which is really not that much,` said Bulatao. `When parents ask me how much he practices, they want to hear that he practices a lot so that he can inspire their kids to practice a lot.`
But practice aside, Alpern’s skill is combined with a natural-born instinct that less than 1 percent of the population has. North Colonie District Music Supervisor Deborah Kehough labeled this musical gift as `perfect pitch.`
`It means that if you hear any note, [a person with perfect pitch] can tell you what it is; they just recognize it immediately,` she said. `For example, If I picked a note on a trumpet, somebody with this talent can pick it out, and it is a very rare skill. Jared can hear something, even say on the radio, and he knows that those notes are, say, an E minor chord. And he can immediately play it.`
Kehough said that Alpern not only recognizes the sound of the notes, but can instantly repeat them, which allows him to learn and create music more easily.
`Often [people with perfect pitch] are drawn to music in some way. When they play their instrument, they just know, this is where G is,` she said.
Alpern’s guitar teacher, Charlie Smith, believes the boy is part of a fraction of young musicians with few of the concerns that are typically associated with performing.
`They’ve got great confidence and don’t have much fear. When he gets in front of a crowd, he gets excited as hell, but it sure isn’t fear.`
Smith had first learned about Alpern when he was playing a benefit concert at a local mall. He and five of his friends noticed Alpern playing the piano.
`Jared just appeared all of a sudden playing a Beatles song,` he said.
Alpern stands `little for his age,` according to his mother, with a small physique, an innocent face, and longer-than-shoulder-length wavy brown hair.
Smith, his teacher of about six months, said Alpern is rarely uneasy, especially in front of large crowds.
`He wants me to book him at SPAC [Saratoga Performing Arts Center],` said Bulatao. `He is totally un-phased by crowds. He tells me, ‘The more people the better.’`
And Smith is confident that with Alpern’s abilities, he soon will be able to play at such large shows.
`Let me just say, he’s 11 years old. I didn’t even play a guitar or an instrument at 11. At that point, for someone to play at that age at that ability is uncommon,` he said. `He’s a little guy with little hands carrying a big guitar.`
With Smith’s instruction, Alpern has learned that musicianship is mostly mental but also very physical.
Smith said his motto is `no drugs, no thugs,` and that he plans to, at some point, open up a blues school for young musicians like Alpern, which will involve teaching music, as well as lots of physical activities.
But as for Alpern and Smith’s relationship as teacher and student, Smith said the time is nearing where he will no longer be helpful.
`Honestly, I’m about three to six months away from me not being able to not teach him a heck of a lot more,` said Smith, `But I am teaching him to teach himself at the same time. Instead of answering questions right away, I make him think about it.`
Alpern has transitioned drastically between the time Smith began teaching him and now, according to Smith.
`When I first met him, he wouldn’t listen to me at all,` said Smith.
Smith said that the first lesson is always the hardest, and after throwing a `teacher’s fit,` Alpern began to listen to him about music, as well as respect.
`I always teach him that it’s about being people too,` he said, `I tell him to go up to other musicians, tell them that they play good and ask them if they need help with equipment. I think I really got him to listen and it’s changed him.`
While Smith’s guitar instruction may end soon, he plans to have more performances with the young prodigy.
Though Smith may have been a large musical influence in Alpern’s life, it is also possible that Alpern has musical genes in his family. His mother attended the Manhattan School of Music as a flute performance major, and was a member of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in the 1970s. She now helps teach music to her son.
`Jared has definitely grown up with music all around him,` she said.
The sixth-grader said his inspiration comes mostly from jazz and blues musicians. Specifically, he is inspired by Duane Allman, of The Allman Brothers Band, Derrick Trucks and B.B. King ` all of which became popular musicians long before Alpern was born.
Currently attending Bought Hills Elementary School, Alpern is not a member of a school band since one does not exist in which he can play the electric guitar. However, he will be attending Shaker Junior High School next year, at which he is hoping to play in the jazz ensemble.
Alpern has played various solo performances throughout the North Colonie School District including at jazz band concerts.
In the upcoming months, Alpern will begin preparing for a performance at the Altamont Fair, to be held at the Altamont Fairgrounds on Aug.12. “