Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for September 08, 2024

…and so it begins…

You’re an inspiration, Charlie Brown. But the student outpaced the teacher.

How does he do it? That score fragment covers a range of about 2 dozen notes, but that little piano looks to have only half that many keys.

Already a child prodigy.

Is that Schroeder’s first time on the piano?

If those are the opening notes of Beethoven’s Fifth, I’m not surprised.

Is this where Schroeder started playing Beethoven?

The prodigy begins!

He sure knows how to tickle the ivories!

And so it begins….

When I was in School a teacher who was also was a TERRIBLE snob made the mistake of saying to a boy in my class that he didn’t think he could be any good on the piano despite the boy having taken lessons since he was 5 ( he was 12 then). This was because of his family background, his father worked for the council as a binman and his mother worked as a cleaner in a local factory. The boy, Thomas, was to say the least a real prodigy and proved it on the night of the school concert when he played La Campanella by Franz Liszt. Needless to say that teacher never doubted his ability on the piano again.

He’s just playing some little ditty he heard someplace.

I’ve always been enamored with the guitar. Once when my dad was showing my wife my old baby pictures (much to my chagrin), he stumbled on an old toddler photo, in which I was holding someone’s guitar like a bass fiddle (it was bigger than I was). The wife just shook her head and said, “Even then…”

I had the pleasure of attending a concert by Schroeder in Minneapolis some years back. He regaled a sold-out crowd for two solid hours without intermission, and came back for two encores! What a glorious night! The highlight was undoubtedly “Moonlight Sonata.”

And so it begins.

And thus a Beethoven prodigy is born.

At other times, it’s a weaponized zither.

And this is how it began! As Paul Harvey would say, “and now you know the rest of the story!” :)

And so it begins…

I remember the real life inspiration behind Schroeder’s piano for Schulz. This was then the strip that started it all.

Schroeder is a musical genius.

Charlie just changed Schroeder’s life forever.

Playing the Hammerklavier on that toy piano would be and accomplishment, to say the least.

As Kiki Dee might observe “He’s got the music in him”.

The Epiphany of Schroeder

And he would loosen in to Jazz later…

A legend is born.

So, apparently Lucy is a bit older than him. She must’ve been a cougar.

And so it starts — even with painted on black keys

And from that moment on …