This year I did some research ahead of time and managed to learn how to correctly take video from my camera. Then, five minutes before the recital started I showed Mike how it worked. Thank goodness that guy is quick on the uptake!
In case you haven't seen my sister's blog - check out Ellie's performance. She definitely stole the show! She sang her pieces as she played and was quite proud of her curtsy whenever she practiced it for us.
The students played in a "new venue" this year and Mike voted it better than the other place. He was right - the piano sounded better and I think it was a little nicer for the audience to be a bit closer to the students.
Maddie and Jake have been preparing for awhile. One of my students asked when I fit them in for lessons. I'm not sure if he was horrified or jealous when I told him "lessons" worked differently in our house since I was their teacher and heard them everyday. When I know they are ready to pass on to the next piece, we take a few minutes to go over new concepts. Sometimes this takes a week, sometimes a month.
They really don't have "formal" lessons from me. I hear them, obviously, and a lot of days I might pop in for a minute to offer suggestions on corrections (or flat out tell them they are way off base on their notes and fingering). Other days I yell from the other room my "suggestions". Still, other days I am able to completely ignore them. These are usually also the days where they are practicing at the exact same time and Mike is sitting across from me and says, "How much longer do they have? I can't take much more!" and I look up at him with a blank face because I honestly have no idea what he's talking about; I've blocked all sound out and it doesn't phase me.
Anyway - their lessons paid off and I think they did great!
Jake played a piece called "Danza Spiccatta" by Dennis Alexander. The video starts about two seconds into his piece. He must have caught Mike by surprise.
Maddie played Variations on “Nel cor piu non mi sento” - Thema, Variation V, Variation VI by Beethoven.
We were super proud of everyone and celebrated with the whole gang at Dairy Queen afterwards:
They got the weekend off from practice and now it's back to work! It is so fun to listen to them play!
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