From his earliest years, Meyerbeer showed an exceptional bent for music. His father, far from opposing this tendency, rather encouraged him in it, and gave him an excellent piano teacher, Ignace Lauska, who had been a pupil of Clementi. The child made such rapid progress that he was able to appear at a public concert in Berlin, October 14, 1800, at which he made a great success. He appeared again in 1803 and 1804 with the same success, and it was then that the Abbé Vogler, whose disciple he became later on, hearing him improvise with a rare facility, predicted that he would one day be a great musician. Two or three years later, Meyerbeer had occasion to play before Clementi, who was staying for some time in Berlin, on his way back from Saint Petersburg, and the master was so charmed with the lad's talent that he consented to give him lessons during his sojourn in that city.
At this period, and without having given any attention to theoretic study, Meyerbeer already occupied himself with composition. Guided alone by his instinct and his natural taste, he wrote numerous songs and piano pieces, so that his father resolved to give him a master in composition, and fixed his choice on Bernard Anselme Weber, then leader of the orchestra at the Berlin Opera. But this artist, very distinguished in his way, and who could give excellent advice on dramatic style, instrumentation, etc., was not himself sufficiently versed in the science of counterpoint and fugue to be able to guide a pupil in this difficult study. Moreover, he showed himself too easily satisfied with Meyerbeer's efforts. One day when the latter brought him a fugue, he could not conceal his admiration, and, regarding it as a masterpiece, thought he would send it to the celebrated Abbé Vogler, who had been his own teacher, hoping thereby to prove to him that he, Weber, was able to form good pupils. For several weeks they anxiously awaited the Abbé's response, which arrived at length in the form of a bulky package. On opening it, they found that the contents were divided into three parts. The first constituted a sort of practical treatise on the fugue, written by Vogler's own hand, and in which all the rules for this kind of composition were set forth in a precise and succinct manner. The second part, which was called _The Scholar's Fugue_, reproduced that of Meyerbeer, analyzed step by step throughout its development, with remarks which proved super-abundantly that it was far from being good. The third part, entitled _The Master's Fugue_, was that which Vogler had constructed on Meyerbeer's theme, analyzed in all its details and in its _ensemble_, with an explanation of the reasons which justified its general form and all the incidents.