Piano Recital 2015

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Blondie and Kitty are the only two in the family that were taking lessons this year. Kitty played Linus and Lucy and Blondie played Fur Elise. In the fall I think I will add Kay on for lessons.

Piano recital 2014

Friday, June 6, 2014

Luke, Blondie and Kitty performed in the spring piano recital.  This will be Luke's final recital with this teacher.  He is just not working well with her and it is causing more problems for everyone all the way around...  We will have to see if Luke continues to challenge himself on the piano on his own - which M&M has continued to do.  Luke has become a really good player and can learn some really hard songs when he has the motivation to.

We haven't decided yet if Blondie and Kitty will continue with her after we move.  The teacher will be a little farther away and it will depend on school and activity day schedules in the fall.

Luke, Blondie and Kitty with their piano teacher.

Piano recital 2013

Thursday, May 30

Luke, Blondie and Kitty had their piano recital this evening.  The schedule worked out perfectly because we had no soccer games or other concerts that evening!  Luke played Cristofori's Dream by David Lanz.  It is a very difficult song and I was concerned if he would be able to learn it in time - or if he would even want to.  His piano teacher cut out a couple of pages of it because it was so long and difficult, but Luke decided to surprise her and he learned and memorized the whole thing - cut pages and all - and played it for her at one of his lessons!  I was quite impressed!  He did really well at the recital until he got to one spot where he all of a sudden forgot where he was.  He was able to pick it up again though without looking at any music.  He really wants to quit taking lessons, but I don't want him to!  I think he could be really good if he sticks to it!

This was Kitty's first recital and she was a little nervous but did a good job as well.  She told me that she felt relieved after she was finished!  Blondie also did well and enjoys taking lessons.

M&M did not take lessons this year - partly because her schedule was super crazy in the fall with marching band.  She has continued to practice on her own though and has taught herself the song Waterfall by Jon Schmidt and is trying to learn a number of the hymns from the hymnbook.

Piano recital

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The kids had their end of the year piano recital.  (Kitty started out the school year taking lessons but we dropped them a couple of months ago because she was having a hard time at lessons and not cooperating with the teacher on several occasions.  We might start her up again in the fall if we feel she is ready.)

For Luke's birthday I gave him some piano music to Star Wars and he ended up playing one of those for the recital.  Blondie played a song from the Tangled piano book I bought a couple of months ago and M&M played one of the theme songs from the Peanuts.  It's fun to hear the kids get better at the piano and to see them enjoying it when they learn a song that they know.

Unfortunately I spent most of the evening in the hallway trying to keep MJ entertained and trying not to distract the other people watching the recital.  Thankfully I could hear just fine from there though.

Future piano player?

MJ is a surprisingly good piano player for her young age. She will sit at the piano and play very gently on the keys - very rarely does she ever pound. With the piano being right in the middle of the house, quite often I am asking whoever is playing to play quieter or wait until a more convenient time. Lately I have called out to see who is playing the piano only to find out that surprisingly it is MJ!

Piano recital

Thursday, April 14, 2011
M&M, Luke and Blondie participated in their first piano recital this year put on by their teacher. The kids had a little over a month to learn their piece and to memorize it. The teacher is someone who used to live in our ward and they moved out several years ago to a neighborhood not too far from the kids' elementary school. There are two other families in our ward that have 3 kids each taking lessons from her as well so it was nice to see how all of the kids are doing on the piano.None of our kids were too excited about having to dress up and perform in front of people, but I think it is good experience for them and they all did well. Blondie was the first one to perform after the teacher and her daughter played a duet and she was so nervous introducing herself and her song. After she was finished playing, she sat down next to me and just started crying - I think it was a release from the stress she was feeling, plus the relief of being done with her song and performing it well.