When Laith Michel started playing the piano at the age of 4, he admits to not really liking it very much. However, the instrument grew on him and by the age of 10, he started taking it more seriously.
"The piano is the only full orchestration instrument, meaning you can hear the violin, you can hear the guitar, but with the piano, you can hear a kind of complete orchestra, because you hear the bass, you hear the chords and you hear another beat all in one," he told Weekend Review from his music centre Brooklyn Melodies, in Studio City.
"That's why people don't get bored of going to listen to piano recitals and [the reason] there are pianos in lobbies. There are no other instruments you will find to play solo in the lobbies," he said.
Michel has established three centres over the past two years — in the Meadows, Mirdif and Studio City.
While he is an American citizen of Iraqi origin, he has lived in Dubai for the past 12 years and Mirdif for the past nine.
His father was a musician who played in the Iraqi symphony orchestra for 25 years and when the Russian Music and Ballet School of Baghdad opened, he chose the piano as the instrument for his son. "It was something I was pushed to do but once I started playing well, I really liked it," he recalled.
The Bolshoi Theatre-trained teachers started lessons at the school from noon to 4pm, after the students had mainstream curriculum lessons from 8am to noon.
Now Michel has taken a leaf from his father's book and has not forced but "pushed" his two sons to study music.
Julian, 15, and Adrian, 17, both play the piano and the guitar. Music for Michel is something to be treated as a core subject.
"I made sure they understood that music was just like maths. I said you can't go to school one year and say I don't want to take maths this year," he said.
"Piano and music will be part of their schooling until they are 18, then they're on their own," he continued. "I really recommend any family to push their children to take part in music."
While it is not impossible for adults to take up or learn an instrument later in life, children absorb information faster. As a child, musicians' fingers become adapted to the instruments, whereas if one is older "it's more difficult to move your fingers", he said.
When his sons were born, Michel used to play with them next to his piano. Children, he said, should start being taught to play musical instruments between the ages of 5 and 6. However, at his music centres children as young as 4-1/2 can attend a trial lesson to see if their concentration is sufficient enough to take classes. For practical reasons, children should be between 6 and 7 years old to take up the guitar.
Classical music can also have a calming effect on children, Michel said.
"Usually, any teenager or child studying classical music … doesn't look for trouble. Their behaviour will definitely be good," the pianist said.
"Not that I was completely out of trouble," he added, laughing.
Michel lived in the US for 15 years, playing every night in his own café in Michigan. He "fell in love" with jazz and started to take an interest in Latin music as well. He performed every night and at weddings, private parties and in churches. "I don't miss playing every night," he said. "I play every day at home and here [at the Centre], but not every night because of my schedule. I miss playing in my coffee shop, yes."
Brooklyn Melodies also provides ballet programmes for children between 3 and 4, and 5 and 6, and holds classes for adults as well. The centre also offers hip hop and salsa classes.
