First piano recital

C8 and Q7 has their first piano recital last night.

We had to drive over to Chevy Chase last night for the recital, but was in a lovely church with a grand piano. The drive wasn't bad, no traffic, and we had dinner nearby. And then the recital!

I never did recitals when I took piano lessons, so the format was all new to me. Recitals apparently start with the students who are less experienced, and end with the most experienced/technically competent players and pieces.

Q7 was third last night. As this was the end of her first year this seems appropriate. The video is a little fuzzy ... I am not sure why. But Q7 was the only student at the recital to sing and play at the same time, which I've mentioned before. A number of parents said how great that was, and how difficult. This praise did not seem to have any impact upon Q7, but when the girl who closed the show told Q7 how great she'd done singing and playing, that made an impact. Ah, peer pressure, both good and bad. Hopefully this is the good kind and will stick, because as of late Q7 has been saying that she hates piano. I do have a hard time really believing that, since she seems to really enjoy playing and singing. And she clearly enjoyed listening to the other pieces last night, especially as they progressed. She was sitting and paying attention and really listening.

Q7 picked this piece based solely on the name, "The Unicorn Ride."

C8 was also at the end of her first year, so I was a little surprised as to where C8 was placed in the line-up,  about halfway through the program. Although she did push forward to do a piano piece at the elementary school talent show she was placed 3-4 slots after the girl who taught her piano last summer. But, C8 just loves the piano and classical music, despite the fact of getting "rhythm lectures" (and "dynamics lectures") from her piano teacher every week.  To get her to think about rhythm and dynamics during practice all I have to do is shout out "rhythm lecture!" and she will think about it rather than rushing through the piece.

C8 couldn't have cared less about the other performers. When asked, she said her favorite piece was her own. And after the girl before her finished, C8 was up and almost out of the pew before the girl had even taken her bow. I literally had to hold her back.

C8 picked a more classical piece for her recital.