Ludvig Schytte in Bangkok, Thailand: how Kwan learns from the Danish pharmacist who became a composer of melodic studies, and turns on her lamp before AI piano lessons

Kwan is eleven and lives in Bangkok, Thailand, in a shophouse where her parents run a small pharmacy. She spends many evenings behind the counter doing homework while customers ask for cough syrup and plasters. Her parents hope she might become a pharmacist too. Kwan is not so sure. She would rather be a pianist.

That tension at home is exactly why a name in her study book caught her attention. The composer of one of her exercises, Ludvig Schytte, had a short biography printed beneath the title. It said he had trained as a pharmacist before becoming a musician. Kwan read it aloud to her father, who raised his eyebrows.

From a pharmacy counter to Weimar

Schytte was born in 1848 in Aarhus, Denmark. As a young man he followed a practical path. He qualified as a pharmacist and worked in a pharmacy, measuring and mixing medicines just like Kwan's parents. Music was something he loved, but at first it seemed like a hobby, not a career.

In his twenties he changed course. He began serious musical training, studying composition and piano in Copenhagen, including lessons with Niels Gade, the leading Danish composer of the time. Later he travelled to Weimar in Germany to study with Franz Liszt, who taught many of the finest young pianists in Europe.

Kwan's father was impressed despite himself. A pharmacist who went to study with Liszt was a story worth hearing. He admitted that he had once wanted to play the guitar but had never found the time. Kwan told him it was not too late, which made her mother laugh from the back room.

Schytte later settled in Vienna, where he taught piano for many years. He composed operas and songs, but children around the world know him mainly through his piano studies. They are short, tuneful pieces that each practise a skill, and many have a strong mood, like a little scene in a storybook.

Kwan likes them because they feel like real music rather than finger drills. One study she is learning sounds like a running stream; another is slow and dreamy. Each asks for something different from her hands, and each has a clear picture behind it. It is easier to practise a stream than a pattern of notes.

Her lessons happen online. Kwan has been taking piano lessons for a year on TIGA ALPHA, an online piano learning app she uses on a digital piano in the storeroom above the pharmacy. The AI piano teacher listens to each study and suggests the next one when her accuracy is high enough.

The storeroom is lit by a single dim bulb, surrounded by boxes of medicine. Kwan refuses to play until she has reached behind the music stand and switched on the slim lamp hidden there, letting its glow spread over every key and line of notes before her hands move. Her father fixed the lamp there after she complained about squinting.

Now she reads much more accurately. Her piano course tracks her progress through the studies, and the app shows a graph of her correct notes over time. Kwan likes showing the graph to her parents. It is a language they understand, since they spend their days with careful measurements.

Schytte's story has become a family joke and a family lesson. The joke is that the pharmacy might produce another composer. The lesson is that people can learn piano, or anything else, at many stages of life. A practical job and a love of music do not have to cancel each other out.

In her school music lessons, Kwan told her class about the pharmacist composer. Her teacher asked her to play one of his studies, and Kwan chose the stream. Afterwards, a classmate who wants to be a doctor said she might take up the violin. Kwan considered this a victory.

Kwan's goal is to play piano in a small recital at her school at the end of the year, and to play music by Schytte as part of it. She has also persuaded her father to try a beginner guitar app. He practises behind the counter when the shop is quiet.

Long after the pharmacy shutters come down in Bangkok, Thailand, a girl climbs the stairs, switches the hidden lamp on, and plays a study written by a man who once stood behind a counter just like her parents. Perhaps, she thinks, there is room for both.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who was Ludvig Schytte? A: Ludvig Schytte (1848–1909) was a Danish composer, pianist and teacher born in Aarhus. He first trained and worked as a pharmacist, turned to music in his twenties, studied with Niels Gade and later with Franz Liszt in Weimar, and taught for many years in Vienna.

Q: What kind of music did Schytte write? A: He wrote songs, operas and piano works, but he is best remembered today for many short, melodic piano studies and character pieces that teachers give to children and teenagers.

Q: Is it too late to start music in your twenties? A: Schytte's life shows that serious musical study can begin later than childhood. Many adults learn an instrument successfully, especially with regular, patient practice.

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