Mount Roraima from Rangsit: Keng climbs a book-trek to the flat-topped tepui of South America and steadies his online piano learning app practice

Keng is twelve and lives in a gated estate behind a shopping mall in Rangsit, a place he describes as completely flat and slightly boring. He likes adventure novels, maps and anything that sounds dangerous. When his school library got a new travel encyclopedia, he claimed it before anyone else could reach the shelf.

Inside he found a photograph that looked impossible. A gigantic mountain with no peak, just a flat top surrounded by vertical walls, rose above a sea of clouds. Waterfalls spilled off its edges into the mist. The caption read Mount Roraima, a tepui on the meeting point of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana.

Tepuis are table mountains made of ancient sandstone, some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet, formed nearly two billion years ago. Over time, rivers and rain wore away the softer land around them, leaving these isolated islands in the sky. The Pemón people consider them homes of spirits.

A tabletop in the clouds, older than dinosaurs

On top of Roraima, the landscape is strange and lunar. Black rock is sculpted into towers and mushroom shapes, while pink crystals glitter in hollows. Carnivorous plants trap insects in sticky leaves, and a tiny black frog walks instead of hopping. Arthur Conan Doyle may have drawn on accounts of such places when writing The Lost World.

Keng read that trekkers spend about six days reaching the summit and returning. Guides insist on slow, careful steps, especially on a steep ramp that passes beneath a waterfall. Each evening, porters wipe mud from boots and sleeping mats so that nothing slips or soaks through overnight.

He realised his own practice needed a slower ramp. His parents had installed an app for him to learn piano, but Keng gave up within minutes whenever a piece went wrong. He also played on a keyboard stored under his bed, its keys grey with dust, and he started every session already annoyed.

Remembering the porters and their muddy boots, he invented a ritual. Keng shakes the creases out of a striped chamois, then strokes it along the keys from bottom to top as if smoothing a trail. When he reaches the final key he pauses, breathes in through his nose and pictures standing on the rim of the tepui above the clouds. Only then does he open the first level.

Keng uses TiGA AI, which his mother picked because it works as an online piano learning app on any phone. It listens to each note and offers feedback in a few seconds. Keng says this AI piano teacher is like a good guide, because it never rushes him and it always tells him exactly where the path becomes slippery.

The structure of the piano course helped him stop quitting. Each level is short enough to finish in one go, and the next is unlocked straight away. Keng now treats practice like a trek with daily camps. On bad days he simply reaches the next camp, which still counts as progress.

His father, an accountant who travels for work, joins him by video call twice a week. Keng plays the newest tune, and his father asks questions about tepuis, crystals and frogs. Keng answers like a tour guide, then insists on a chance to play piano for him again, proud that he knows more about South America than any adult in the family.

Plenty of parents find that a child's sudden passion, whether for dinosaurs, robots or mountains, can be harnessed for music. Keng's AI piano lessons became part of his explorer identity, so practice felt like gear preparation rather than homework. That shift kept him going far longer than any reward chart had managed.

He has started writing Lost World, a sketch, with a slow climbing pattern in the left hand and mysterious chords in the right. It helps him play music with a clear story, and he adds a new section each week as if discovering another corner of the plateau.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What is a tepui? A: A tepui is a flat-topped mountain with sheer cliffs, found in the Guiana Highlands of South America. The word comes from the Pemón language and is often translated as house of the gods. Mount Roraima is one of the most famous.

Q: What makes Mount Roraima special? A: Its summit plateau is isolated by cliffs up to four hundred metres high, so many plants and animals there exist nowhere else. The sandstone is among the oldest rock formations on Earth.

Q: Can AI piano lessons help a child who gives up easily? A: Small levels and quick feedback create frequent wins, which help children stick with practice. Combining that with a calm start routine reduces the frustration that makes them quit.

Keng also learnt that early explorers struggled for years to find a route up the cliffs. In 1884, Everard im Thurn and Harry Perkins finally reached the summit using the natural ramp that trekkers still follow today. Keng copied their names into his map notebook and drew a dotted line marking their path through the mist and the waterfall spray.

He would love to join music lessons where students compose together, perhaps at the community hall near his estate. For now he practises nightly, chamois first, then the climb. Keng is certain that someday he will stand on top of Roraima, look down on the clouds and hum his own melody while the waterfalls roar below.

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