Gifted Laasya becomes youngest to play most number of tunes by memory on her Xylophone
“We needed a reference letter to send off to the World Record organisation and had asked a lot of the media outlets but Andleeb Hanif, Editor of Asian Express, was the first to get back with one, so we sent off Laasya’s application to enter the contest.”
A pre-school three-year-old musical sensation from Leeds has become a world record holder for her impressive talents on the xylophone.
Talented Laasya Chigurupati from Beeston is the first child to be awarded ‘Youngest to play most number of tunes’ after playing an impressive fifty tunes in twenty-five minutes on her xylophone from memory by Assist World Records.
Her dad Jithender Chigurupati spoke of her incredible achievement and how Laasya has a natural ability to soak up music. Bursting with pride he explained where her journey on the xylophone started he said: “She started playing nursery rhymes when she was two-and-a-half-years-old and she slowly started picking it up.
“She initially learnt three songs on a small xylophone we got her as a gift on her second birthday and she started playing on that.
“She started playing one song and we asked, ‘one more rhyme, one more rhyme’ and she was more than happy to do it.”
Laasya started to become a very confident little performer and wanted to show off her talents to others, so she performed in front of her nursery friends.
Her dad said: “Just before the Easter break we asked her nursery if she could perform and they were more than happy for her to. When she heard all the people cheering and clapping for her she wanted to play more and more.”
Following on from her success in front of her little pals and impressed teachers, she started getting noticed by the media.
Jithender explains: “After that Easter she went from three songs to over thirty songs and we were very surprised, she was managing to learn and play her music and balance them out.
“We then began to post her videos on Facebook and they went viral and the local media got involved and it just snowballed from there.
“News agencies and international media got hold of the story. The Daily Mirror and Yahoo featured her as well as Asian Express, it was all over the place.”
“Andleeb Hanif, the Editor of Asian Express, sent off a reference letter to the world record organisation about Laasya.
“We needed a reference letter to send off to the World Record organisation as part of Laasya’s application to enter. We had asked a lot of the media outlets but Andleeb was the first to get back with one, so we were able to send off Laasya’s application to enter the contest. She then won youngest player to play most tunes on a xylophone!”
Laasya hasn’t stopped learning and continues to extend her catalogue of tunes, racking up an impressive amount since she started. She’s now looking to expand her repertoire and learn new instruments. Her dad told Asian Express: “She currently plays around 75 songs now, but when we submitted the record it was around 50 songs in 25 minutes from memory.
“We don’t force her, we let her take things at her own pace. She has just started reception now and she also has started going to piano classes.
Her dad then explained how this all stemmed from when they used to recite Sanskrit poetry to her. Laasya picked it up with ease.
Dad says: “We used to read her poetry just before sleep and she used to pick it up very quickly.
“We used to get puzzles for her and she would solve them within minutes, much to our surprise.
“We bought her the xylophone as a toy really. She started playing ABC and really picked up so we started to Google songs for her to do.
“She remembers the songs and rhythms better than me and my missus.
“Laasya has an incredible ability to remember everything.
“She can pick up three or four nursery rhymes in a day.”
