Chicago 10-year-old has hung out with Mark Ronson and Skrillex, but his parents say they still want him riding bikes and running lemonade stands
Miles Bonham has already spent time with music industry heavyweights like Mark Ronson and Skrillex, yet the 10-year-old from Chicago still prioritizes classic childhood activities like running lemonade stands. While he has gained attention from artists such as Zedd, Remi Wolf, and drummer and filmmaker Questlove, his parents are determined to keep his life grounded, according to People.
They want him to ride bikes and play with friends so his talent does not take over his life. Much like the 10-year-old math genius who enrolled at university after years of asking, Miles seems to have set his own pace, as his parents say he taught himself five instruments by age four.
His mother noticed his advanced musical interests when he was just a baby. By the time he was a toddler, he insisted on hearing the full eight minutes of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” “We could not get out of the car at seven minutes and 55 seconds,” his mother recalled. Miles has already told his parents he hopes to pursue music as an adult, and his father says the family still encourages bike rides with friends and lemonade stands alongside his songwriting.
His parents still can’t explain where the guitar skills came from
When Miles turned four, his parents bought a used student guitar from a local shop that was closing down. He quickly taught himself to play by ear in the mornings, which surprised his father. “I’m like, ‘How do you know how to do this?'” His father said. By that same age, Miles was reportedly already playing barre chords.
His parents say he also has perfect pitch, as he often identified notes in everyday objects. “Mommy, your toothbrush is buzzing in a C half sharp,” he used to tell her, his mother recalled, laughing. Finding a music teacher proved difficult because of his young age. One school initially refused to accept guitar students under nine, as it typically preferred to start them at 11. However, the school changed its mind after seeing videos of Miles playing, with a representative telling his mother they had “never seen anything like this.”
Today, Miles plays guitar, piano, bass, drums, ukulele, and trumpet, and he has also played saxophone, trombone, and violin. He enjoys producing original music and remixes, often reworking existing songs while keeping only the vocals. At Lollapalooza, Skrillex let Miles and his sister, Charlie, sign a guitar that was being auctioned for charity.
Despite these experiences, Miles says his friends treat him like any other kid. He compares his music to a friend who is talented at baseball, noting that they rarely talk about it. His parents agree, as his father says there is never pressure to meet deadlines or finish projects. His mother adds that while his talent is mind-blowing, she is proudest of his heart, describing him as empathetic and compassionate.
His parents believe a well-rounded childhood is necessary for his future success, both personally and creatively. “If he can’t be a kid, what is he going to say to the world?” his mother asked.
Scientists still disagree on how kids like Miles end up with perfect pitch
Perfect pitch is the ability to identify or produce a note without a reference tone, and fewer than one American in 10,000 is estimated to have it, per Scientific American. A study led by Diana Deutsch of the University of California, San Diego found that none of the American music students who began training after their eighth birthday had it.
University of Chicago researchers argue perfect pitch may sit on a spectrum instead. Their study, described in a university report, found that how the nervous system encodes sound predicted note naming better than the age someone first learned an instrument. However, the researchers said that encoding is not fixed and may improve with practice.
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