Beatles A Day In The Life

A Day in the Life of a 5-Year-Old Music Prodigy with Autism

Ethan Walmark's dad sang The Beatles’ “I Will” to his child every night. It’s the gentle type of song that a proud father would sing to his son, with lyrics like, “Love you forever and forever/Love you with all my heart.”

When Ethan was four, he played the song by ear. At five years old, he knows The Doors, the tunes from Glee and just about anything else he hears. For Ethan, who has autism, music is medicine, therapy and a rare gift

“When people see our son and all the attributes he has, it takes a little of the pain away because I’m in pain 24/7,” said his mother, Allison Ziering Walmark.

While Ethan can belt out a bevy of tunes despite being too short to reach the piano pedals, his disorder makes social interactions difficult. When Mike, his dad, played The Beatles over an iPhone, Ethan started hysterically shouting to turn it off. He often shouts and has problems focusing.

The balance between the harmony of his music and the discord of his autism is a regular part of the Walmark family as they adjust to their always-changing lives.

“You’ll always have thoughts and goals and dreams and they may change, but that’s OK,” said Mike. “Life is messy.”

Parenting experts gave the family differing advice on how to deal with Ethan’s passion for music. Some told them to put a stop to it, since music allows the child to escape to a different world rather than developing human relationships. Others told them to let Ethan embrace what he loves.

“We just want our son to be happy, whatever that means to him,” said Mike. “It’s not about us anymore. It’s about him.”

So far, Chris Robison, a musician and instructor, has been meeting with Ethan for several weeks. The first song Ethan played for him at Half Mile Studios near Coleytown Elementary School was The Beatles’ “Let it Be.”

“It just blew my mind,” said Robison. “I never met any musician who can get all the chords like that.”

Robison has had students with a variety of labels, such as dyslexic, and he himself knows something about them. Beginning in the late 1960s, he was an openly gay pioneering artist in the New York City music scene. In his career, he has recorded with John Lennon, Keith Richards and other music legends.

“Here comes a kid with another label – autistic – and I never felt that way when I hit him with the music,” Robison said. “Labels are convenient but certainly don’t tell the whole story. To me, he’s my regular playing buddy.

Beatles "A Day In The Life" Bass/Drum - fudgeknuckle

"A Day In The Life" is probably my favorite Beatles song of them all. Sure, I do have my heavy weaknesses for "Norwegian Wood" - okay, more accurately, just about everything on Rubber Soul and Revolver. My feelings on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as an album, are admittedly mixed (I do not find it to be the be-all and end-all album that most critics seem to believe it is...I mean, it's great, for a children's album, as is the much less-ambitious Magical Mystery Tour), but "A Day In The Life" is just one of those songs that continues to speak to me. Truth be told, even as a kid, I was ga-ga over the track and, as I steamroll through adulthood, the song just seems to keep right on giving. This blog is the creation of Darren Robbins, who, when not fighting crime in pink tights (by the way, crime is wearing pink tights, not us), is unleashing a very special brand of commentary and /or fact-starved hilarity that might occasionally be mistaken for a mild stroke or severe Tourette's depending on the day. If so inclined, you may feel free to leave a comment or communicate your displeasure via email: darren@fudgeknuckle.

The Beatles, a Day in the Life, The Day-By-Day Diary 1960-1970

The Beatles, a day in the life, the day-by-day diary, 1960-1970

A Day in the Life of the Beatles

The Beatles as musicians, Revolver through the Anthology

A day in the life, the music and artistry of the Beatles