Saturday, March 28, 2009

My kid's first piano recital

I mentioned in a previous post that I started having my kids take piano lessons with a nice local pianist in the area.  She is excellent and my kids are doing extremely well under her teaching.  

This past weekend was their first piano recital.   For Toothsome #2, this was no big deal.  She was born to perform and that she had to memorize a song and play it in front of others was actually a very exciting thing for her.  For Toothsome #1, it is his definition of Hades.  From the moment he found out he had to do it, he has been miserable.  

When the day finally approached, I started feeling very nervous for him and I couldn't quite get  a story told about Dentist husband and one of his first (and possibly only) piano recitals out of my head.  I tell this story with permission from my husband.  

I think he was about 8 or 9 years old and he was to play "Red Balloon" while his younger sister sang the words.  The song was a simple, one-handed piece and I think all of about 10 measures long.  They had practiced and practiced and both felt very confident with the outcome.  Well, poor Dentist Husband got about four notes into it and messed up.  He sat on the piano bench and cried while his sister continued singing a cappella.  

So, as my very nervous 9 year old boy headed up to the piano for his first recital, that is all I could think about.  His face was green while he introduced his song and then he sat down and played.  He did it!  No mistakes.  I was so proud of him and thankful there was no "incident" like poor Dentist Husband.  I should say Toothsome #2 also did a wonderful job but with her, I was never worried.  Phew, one piano recital down with, I am sure, many more to go.  

4 comments:

Michelle said...

I hate that feeling in Mom's stomach of being so afraid they will make a mistake and be scarred for life but wanting them to have the feeling of success. So glad it had a happy ending... Notice no exclamation points.

Lisa Christine said...

I totally get the nervous mother bit. Alexandra had to play violin for a stake meeting last week and I was so nervous on her behalf. I wanted her to do so well and to have a good experience {she did}.

Your husbands story reminded me of a piano competition I was in when I was quite young. I got a little ways into the piece and I totally blanked! So I started over and when I got to the same place I froze! I had to start over 2 or 3 times before I made it through! Not a good experience :)

Carrie said...

My 8 year old love the recital but hates the practice, so really I don't know why she loves the performance because if I practiced as little as her I would be terrified! But somehow she pulls it off beautifully every time. I don't know how she does it.....because I perform about like your husband.

love.boxes said...

Oh.. I get that feeling a lot w/ c who loves to be onstage. I'm glad he was so brave and got through it.