the playful piano and the joy of music

[lorcar]

I was watching Victor Borge here

https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/video-picks/piano-humor-a-victor-borge-tribute-174/

and thought how beautiful should be to play piano in that way, and how many years should take to master it in this way. Or is it just a matter of having the absolute pitch?

anyway, I will have a little baby in few months, and although I'll try very hard not to impose anything, I definitely want the baby to have a musical education. I'd like to avoid forcing the baby to study in the coercitive old ways, rather develop love for music and sounds, and be able to play without score, like I saw Victor Borge   doing in those vids above.

Which are the best ways to develop such abilities? or it's a matter of absolute pitch?
any hint on this is highly appreciated
thanks in advance

[indianajo]

When I was an infant, my Mother subscribed to a record of the month club where they sent records of classical music accompanied by some dialog telling a little story.  These weren't the Happy Hippo records, they were classical music like Tschaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty I remember that one in particular and still like the piece.  Anyway, age three, for my birthday I got a cheap phonograph player where I could play these records by myself.  I played the classical records a lot more than Teddy Bear's Picnic and The Little Engine that Could. Quality, if available, wins out.  
Our family has a "do it yourself" gene or tradition, so when Mother offered me lessons age 8 to learn to play the piano, I was interested.  
Nowadays with the internet, you don't have to join a club to get suitable material.  but the little story around the good music helps the child relate to the music.  
In this part of the country, many couples play "bluegrass" which is an easy to learn folk music for several instruments, up to six,  Children are allowed to participate in rehearsals as soon as they can sing, and often learn to play an instrument as soon as they can hold it up, age 8 usually.  It is great family entertainment, and I enjoy the music, but the genre is somewhat limited.  My Mother couldn't play that well, and mostly played show tunes about love on piano that I couldn't relate to.  The Stamps Baxter Christian songs we learned in Sunday School were much more my speed.  My church teaches those to the junior choir, but the melodies have been borrowed these days by the Barney show with new words. Some enthusiastic Christian hymns we sang in Sunday School assembly, and I learned to play age 8 to 10, are still in my repretoire.   
Mother also tried finger painting with me, then later Museum art lessons, but I have the inclination of a musician, not a visual artist, Let the child's success at something be what he concentrates on; every child is his own person.  
Have fun.  

[lorcar]

well
i guess I'd like to know how to start to study in order to play by ear.
Jazz? or what else? what to develop ear in young kids?

[indianajo]

Michael Feinstein the Sinatra cover artist said when he was about 4 he just sat down at the piano and started playing the melodies he heard his parents playing on the phonograph.  
Somebody on Micellaneous forum in the "what was your first piano experience?" thread said they started playing by ear at their parent's piano age 2 1/2.  
I wasn't encouraged to touch the piano age 2 1/2 and I am not a pushy person.  But I did have a xylophone, and I never got the hang of picking out tunes on it.  My best memory is visual: I discovered in college that If I took notes in class, I didn't have to study them because I knew what I had written down.  Likewise, if I make an arrangement on paper, I can later play it on piano.  My coordination between the music playing on the jukebox of the mind, and my fingers, is still rather poor, but is improving due to many trials.  
So everybody is different.  Your child may have audible memory, or like me he may be crippled that way.  Just give him access to a keyboard and encourage his efforts.  I have a friend whose Mother encouraged him, and he is still ***-awful in his sixties.  His family makes him play an electric keyboard into headphones, and I know why.  Some people have it, some don't.  Most people don't even have good relative pitch (but I do).
Try different things with your child, find out who he/she is.  My mother took child development classes before I has born, I can see her notes in the file cabinet.  I got to try lots of things.  My brother started building projects out of concrete age 2 when Dad was building sidewalks, and now he is a civil engineer and designs bridges for a living.  He was allowed to be who he wanted to be, and is quite good at it.   And most important, talk and read to your child; ability to process language is important to everybody. Even introverted object oriented people like my brother and I.  I knew probably 50000 English words before grade school, and can now be incoherent and weird as always in 3 languages.  Europeans learn 3 languages before they go to school.  there is no limit to what a normal person can remember.  Help make his/her memories be useful ones.