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How did Arnold Schoenberg begin composing music as a child?

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Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg in a suit, seated at a piano and holding a conductor's baton, appears to be conducting music in a wood-paneled room. — Arnold Schoenberg Austrian-American composer Arnold Schoenberg was one of the most influential teachers of music composition of the 20th century. He also was known for his creation of new methods of musical composition involving atonality, namely serialism and the 12-tone row.

Arnold Schoenberg began composing music before the age of nine, initially writing small pieces for two violins that he performed with his teacher or a cousin. As he grew older and gained access to a classmate who played the viola, he progressed to writing string trios.1

His musical development was significantly influenced by his friendship with the musician Oskar Adler, who encouraged him to learn the cello to facilitate the performance of string quartets among friends. Schoenberg began composing these quartets, famously teaching himself how to structure the sonata-form by consulting an encyclopedia his family was purchasing on an installment plan. While he was largely self-taught during his childhood, he later received formal instruction in harmony, counterpoint, and composition from Alexander von Zemlinsky after meeting him in the mid-1890s.1