Fall Piano Recital

The kids' piano recital was held last night.  Their teacher is the only Suzuki piano teacher residing in our city. Unfortunately, she is still 25-30 minutes from our house.  Some of her other students travel even further for piano lessons.  She's only been living in the area for two years, yet she already was far more students than she ever intended and will not accept any new students. Even with some students out of town, there were at least 63 songs on the program.  I am so amazed that all those young children managed to sit still and remain quiet throughout the long recital. 

I was nervous for our daughter.  Now that she's in school with the same number of extracurricular activities she had while homeschooling, she has not had as much time to practice. Then, two days before we left for our extended road trip, she selected an ambitious music piece (for her level) to play at the recital.   I did not think she would have time to learn the piece during the two weeks remaining after we returned from our trip and encouraged her to prepare an easier piece as her backup.  However, our strong willed child had made up her mind. Her teacher also suggested that she choose another piece.  At her lesson this past Wednesday, the more difficult piece still wasn't ready, but our daughter would not change her mind.  Her teacher seemed so impressed by her stubborn ambition that she agreed to let her play it anyway come what may.

Finding time to learn this piece became even more challenging when the teacher suggested less than one week before the recital that my daughter and I play a duet as a third recital piece (usually, students play two songs each).  She seems to enjoy playing duets with me (finally), so she practiced the duet more often than the piece that needed more practice. 

The more challenging song included a lot of contrasting dynamics with the more difficult chords and fingerings played very loudly.  So, if she made a mistake, it would be quite noticeable.  I prayed for her throughout her songs, and she did remarkably well (better than I played my part of the duet).

Scrapbook page for our daughter

Suzuki recommends that children begin piano lessons as early as age 3.   I had always been told to begin lessons around age 7.  Our son just turned five and has been asking for lessons for over a year.  We finally agreed, so he recently began taking one 15 minute lesson each week.  His eagerness to practice has inspired his sister to practice more often, so that alone justifies the expense.  His hand position is nearly perfect and he enjoys learning simple songs.  He still has the attention span of a 5-year old, but at least he is well-behaved during his lessons.  Congratulations, "Joey", on playing with confidence at your first piano recital.

Scrapbook page for our son

The cute little girl in the black and pink dress has been playing piano since age 3 and is a remarkable pianist.  She is our son's friend from our homeschool co-op.  She has been my Foundations student in the past and is enrolled in one of my PE classes this year. Her talented and creative mother teaches our son during Book Time this year and introduced us to this piano teacher. They are an awesome family, and their three talented girls played a trio as the finale at the recital.