‘I speak fluent music’: why children deserve an early musical education

Hong Kong author Joanne Chan didn’t have to look far for inspiration for her Happy Gabby children’s music book series. It is loosely based on her son, Gabriel, and his friends.

“Gabriel was born with curly hair, which made him look cartoonish,” Chan says. “The books also feature a dog inspired by Brownie, the stuffed animal he sleeps with. It was given to me by my great-aunts when I was growing up in Canada. In fact, every character in the books is tied to somebody our son knows, and every item is something that’s dear to him.”

It’s not surprising that music is the common thread running through the series: Chan’s husband is Andrew Ling Hin-yau, principal violist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. She herself learned the piano as a child.

“When I got older, I fell in love with the Spanish guitar style and started strumming Romance d’Amour, as well as Mandarin pop songs like A-Yue’s Love Me, Don’t Go and Shunza’s April 5, 1969, and singing along for fun,” says Chan, a former CEO of Le French May. “I would play at home for hours and carry my guitar to practise at the now-closed Brown Restaurant and Bar, jamming with friends.”

And a passion for music filtered down to her son.

“When Gabriel was starting to communicate as a baby, he would point to a book he wanted me to read and hum tunes like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons when he wanted his dad to play them. I also noticed him humming Saint-Saëns’ Fossils while he was playing blocks on the floor by himself, pretending they were all part of a xylophone … I was impressed that he started singing classical music tunes before he could speak.”

It was a “eureka” moment that inspired Chan to create a children’s music book series to help parents instil a love of classical music in their children.