Imagine you are nine and the Clementi Sonatina in C is the 18th century equivalent of a computer game, filled with booby traps and assorted threats in the form of menacing black keys, terrifying dissonances--all kinds of unprepared disturbances.

Or have you grown so accustomed to hearing the piece in its mangle-ironed state that there is no room in it for fantasy play?

Today's nine-year-old thought it was a riot to approach it this way. We both decided that even though one risked making mistakes (which you do anyway) it was a whole lot more fun.