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Walter Thompson

Walter Thompson was a retired Black American music teacher who lived at Harbor View Apartments in Curtis Bay, Baltimore. From fall 2021 until his death in Summer 2022, he gave his neighbor Jacob Keller the first sustained formal music instruction of Jacob’s life.

Music Teaching and Mentorship

Main article: Jacob Keller and Walter Thompson

Walter heard fourteen-year-old Jacob practicing through the apartment walls and invited him over under the pretext of helping with chores. He gave Jacob hot food, occasional cash, and time at the grand piano in his front room. He connected written notation and formal theory to music Jacob already understood and composed by ear. Their conversations also included the work of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Beethoven.

Walter’s voice was rough, and his manner with Jacob was no-nonsense but kind. He encouraged the teenager and corrected him sternly when needed without pitying him. Jacob respected Walter and listened to him at a time when he resisted most other adults. Walter learned ASL so he could communicate with Jacob during his nonverbal periods. Jacob’s angry outbursts seemed to ease while Walter was involved in his life.

Walter was struck by how quickly Jacob grasped theory and how much he already understood without names for the concepts. His instruction gave Jacob a durable written language for music that had previously existed largely in memory. He treated Jacob’s musical ability as preexisting and taught him the formal tools needed to preserve and develop it.

Death and the Yamaha Keyboard

Walter died of a heart attack in summer 2022, before Jacob’s sophomore year of high school. Days before the heart attack, he had given Jacob a sheet-music folder. After Walter’s death, his son delivered Walter’s Yamaha digital keyboard to Jacob. The son appeared angry and would not look at Jacob. The folder stayed with Jacob after he lost the keyboard during the October 2024 expulsion from Robert’s apartment.

Main article: Walter Thompson’s Digital Keyboard

Legacy and Memory

Walter’s teaching supported Jacob’s later written composition, music-theory study, conservatory preparation, and work as an educator. Jacob carried Walter’s distinction between existing musical ability and learned formalities into his own teaching.

Memorable Quotes

“I’m just teaching you the formalities. You already got what matters, and that’s something can’t nobody teach.”

(Walter explaining the relationship between Jacob’s existing musical ability and formal notation and theory.)

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