Jacob and Elizabeth just started taking piano in January, and they both seem to enjoy it. While practicing was somewhat inconsistent, they rarely complained when I remembered to remind them to practice, and they would sometimes even take the initiative to practice on their own. On the rare occasion that I told them to go practice and they would complain, I would regale them with tales of Tiger Moms who demand three hours of daily piano practice and threaten to give away their kids' dollhouse piece by piece if they don't master The Little White Donkey before next week's lesson, which suddenly made the 10 minutes of practice that this Western mom was requesting seem eminently reasonable. I hope that their enjoyment of piano continues, because mom was right, I really do regret quitting as a kid.
They both seemed comfortable with their songs as the recital approached, and the teacher had them well-coached in performance protocol and what to do in the event of a mistake. But since Jacob in particular is prone to a bit of nervousness and perfectionism, I had a little chat with him before the recital:
C: You are going to do GREAT. What will you do if you make a mistake?
J: Just keep playing.
C: Right. You know Dr. P, Robert's dad? He is a neurosurgeon. If he makes a mistake while doing brain surgery, it matters. If you make a mistake while playing Ode to Joy, it doesn't matter.
J: I know. {long pause}. What would happen if Dr. P makes a mistake while doing brain surgery?
Both kids seemed totally relaxed when we got there, and they had a few minutes to practice on of the gorgeous 9 foot Steinway grand:
Elizabeth was the youngest student performing, and she played "Skating" and "Basketball" with great enthusiasm:
Jacob knocked Ode to Joy and Alouette out of the park:
And remembered to bow:
The most stressful part of the whole experience was walking through the gallery of $50-$100+ K Steinways with the kids; I know the point is to actually play the pianos at places like this, but my instinct was to shoo them away from the instruments while my eyes darted around looking for the dreaded "You Break It, You Buy It" sign. Thankfully, no breaking (or buying) took place, and it was a lovely afternoon all the way around.
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