MONROE - Sam Jiang started taking piano lessons in February 2011. Less than two years later, on Sunday, he's performing a full-length recital of his own compositions.

The eighth-grader at Monroe Middle School can play and compose totally by ear.

"Most people have to sit down and write down every note. I can just improvise and I'll remember it," he said.

If counted as a lesson, his solo concert Sunday at the Monroe Arts Center will be his 100th piano lesson with his teacher Delores Marti. She's a 35-year veteran of music education in area public schools and, at 74, now retired.

"I'm just amazed at the child's talent," she said.

But talent and an uncanny memory can only get a budding pianist so far. Sam also has a disciplined practicing routine. He plays for fun, but the real payoff comes from challenging himself to play daily, even when he doesn't feel like it.

He often sets an alarm for an hour at the start of his practice.

"I tell myself, I can't leave the piano until the hour's done. You play until you can play in your sleep," he said, then paused to reconsider. "No, that's a bad metaphor because you can do anything in your sleep."

Sam's program notes for Sunday's recital reveal a refreshing lack of pretense, a love of fantasy and a wry sense of humor. For a composition called "Phantom Fantasy," he writes, "This melody has the strangest harmonies. Sometimes I wonder why the composer used that certain note; then I remember, oh, that's me."

Or this: "I've been a huge Harry Potter fan since third grade, when I read the first book in the series. I simply called this song 'Wizards' because any more words would ruin the effect. Just whisper it: 'Wizards...'"

When asked to describe a video game-inspired song called "Dragon Spire," the first word to pop into his head is "bloody."

He draws much of the inspiration for his music from literature, especially Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" and James Patterson's sci-fi series "Maximum Ride." But he seems open to finding inspiration just about anywhere, even a simple visual cue that evokes an emotional response in him, like dust suspended in a ray of sunlight or an arc of moonlight.

Marti says she senses in Sam a curiosity and compassion for the world around him.

"He knows what's going on in the world. He wants to know what I think," she said. When he expressed his frustration with the kids in band class at school who goofed off instead of focusing on the music, she encouraged him to "just keep your nose in your bassoon and move on."

Sam's parents, Amanda Chen and James Jiang, are Chinese and run the World Buffet restaurant on 8th Street. Sam was born in the United States but spent his first five years in China before moving back to the U.S. for kindergarten.

"I think he has a gift from God," his mother said while listening to him practice Friday afternoon in the empty hall of the Monroe Arts Center.

"And he accepted the gift," Marti chimed in.

Marti isn't his only piano teacher. A few months ago, he also started studying with Nick Scheppele, a 22-year-old Monroe native. They started by meeting twice a week for one hour.

"He loves piano that much. He wanted more lessons," Scheppele said.

Scheppele is teaching him the basics of jazz improv. "He's taken to that really well," Scheppele said. "He has excellent grasp of how music should sound."

Ironically, Sam didn't take to music right away.

"When I was little, music class was really boring. We'd sing these songs about frogs," he said. "And I don't like frogs."

Now he's planning to study music in college and, in the shorter term, researching music-focused high schools for next year.

In the meantime, his latest project is teaching himself pop songs from Synthesia video tutorials. It's "like karaoke for piano," he said. He's tackling Carly Rae Jepsen, Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj.