Piano Recital

Gess had her piano recital last month. She was ready and excited for the recital, more so than usual. That last week I heard her practice more than ever before. Then when she went to preform, she almost froze! It turns out she was bothered by one simple instruction the teacher gave her: to be careful about getting distracted while playing. This wasn't overly emphasized but something a student who isn't used to playing in front of an audience needs to think about. They need to play the piece, not watch Johnny on the front row, etc. We didn't think much about it until Gess ran up to preform and was incredibly nervous. She did this whole cracking her knuckles business that was just precious! I wish I had THAT on camera! She made a big production out of getting ready.

Still, she paused and fidgeted and then leaned over and told her teacher she wasn't going to get distracted. Then she finally began to play the piano with more animation than I have ever seen!

Her first song was Jazz Jig.


Then she played Party Cat, or maybe I should say played and danced to it!


During the reception she told me "I didn't get distracted!" That was the final clue that it was worrying about being distracted, not actually playing that made her so nervous. Still it was precious!

She will be taking a break from private lessons for the summer but will still be practicing. Maybe we should work on this whole getting distracted by worrying about getting distracted business!