"The Shane Show": Playing For A Cause

His fingers lightly press the keys as he nonchalantly looks around the room, feet barely touching the floor from his perch on the wooden piano bench.

“I wanna run through the halls of my high school, I wanna scream at the top of my lungs...” Shane Turner coos John Mayer tunes into the microphone, tickling the ivories as if he was born to do it. But Turner won't be running down high school halls anytime soon—he's only 10.

The singer/songwriter/pianist/fifth grader plays a weekly gig at in downtown Menlo Park, “The Shane Show” (Thursdays, 7-8 p.m.). Last week, Turner and seventh grader Lexi Kastanis donated all of their tips to the Salvation Army Disaster Relief Program's effort in Japan—raking in $77 in only an hour.

“What can I do to help these poor people who lost everything?” Turner had asked when his parents, Brad and Michele, showed him pictures of the earthquake aftermath in Japan.

“It really hit him that it could happen here,” said Michele. The Turner family lives in Portola Valley, on the San Andreas Fault line.

Turner, who had played at the Salvation Army Celebrity Bell Ringing event in San Francisco last Christmas, found out about the organization's extensive emergency relief efforts in Japan and decided to do his part.

“I said, let's donate every cent we make to the Salvation Army,” said Turner, who attends Corte Madera public school in Portola Valley.

Turner is undaunted by attentive audiences, barely glances at his fingers as they fly across the keys to everything from improvised jazz to Usher's “DJ Got Us Falling In Love Again.”

According to Brad, Turner was a natural from the first day he sat at the piano—at age four. At seven, he was already playing jazz, and now he studies under jazz pianist Michael Hatfield of the Berklee College of Music.

“He's taking college-level music theory...he has perfect pitch,” beamed Michele.

“I was never even close to this good,” laughed Brad. Neither of Turner's parents can pinpoint where his musical talent comes from, but they surely support it—Brad even got the school to offer music instead of language for the last class period of the day.

“It's all about inspiring the passion,” said Brad. Lucky for Turner, Corte Madera offers an extensive music program, including award-winning jazz ensembles, world music classes and a student orchestra. In January, Shane accompanied one of the jazz groups, Panache, at the Folsom Jazz Festival, where they took second place overall—against a bunch of high schools.

Between Corte Madera jazz groups, private lessons and personal practice, Turner plays about two hours of piano a day. He is also one of two kids in the College of San Mateo steel drum ensemble, The Panhandlers.

Turner's personality teeters on professionalism. “Sometimes, I'll just come home and have a really rough day and just sit at the piano and play. It's the one thing that helps me escape,” he said, sounding more like a 50-year-old than a fifth grader.

When not playing piano, Turner skis with his family in Sugar Bowl Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe.

Next year, Turner plans on taking an online extension program to complete a performance certificate through Berklee College of Music.

“Kids take you places that you never expected you would go,” said Michele, a proud grin on her face.

Back at Oak City Bar & Grill, Turner finishes up another tune and turns to his dad as he does between each song, and asks, "What should I play next?" 

Bring your song requests to the Oak City Bar & Grill on Thursday, April 7, at 7 p.m. Check out a video of Shane playing piano an original piano piece on his website.