Aha Moment

Last night Maddie was practicing and I was giving her a little piano lesson and we were working on one of her pieces. Lately I've been trying to get her to realize that she's further along in studying than just reading the notes and playing technically. I want her to really start trying to add dynamics and create different sounds - to be a well rounded musician. We've butted heads a few times because, like most kids her age, she just wants to play everything fast and in her own words, "I just like to play loud."

Well, we got to her recital piece last night. Against her will she's been practicing diligently with a metronome for well over a week at a slower speed. This piece can fly, but I wanted her to get control of it before we start working on that. This went against every bone in her body, I think, but she did it, mostly because I was in the next room reminding her if she "forgot".

My metronome is currently under repair so I listened to her play without it and she did great so we decided to take it a little faster. Then we decided to take it even a bit faster with me being the metronome.

She got through it. And it sounded awesome. It was faster AND she put in dynamics all over the place! But the best part was when she hit the last note and we just looked at each other and she had this gigantic grin. A Cannot-Contain-My-Enthusiasm-I-ROCK grin.

Being a teacher, that moment was just one of those rare "They got it! FINALLY!" moments. Being a mom though - I was about ready to bust. Not just because she got it musically, but because for that moment Maddie had this huge amount of pride in what she had accomplished - and wasn't embarrassed by it.

Then, being 9, she decided to try it again, but at about triple her speed. I just rolled my eyes, placed my hands on her shoulders and she looked at me and shrugged. A girl's gotta try.