Little Concert

James was SUCH a wiggle-wart at piano lessons today, I was sure it would be a beastly week for practice. He has his first piano recital in 6 days! His teacher made me laugh out loud today. James' recital pieces are a little above his sight-reading level. In fact, he learned them by ear (and visually memorizing the key sequence), not by reading the notes on the page, so he hasn't looked at the music on the page for a couple weeks. So, when his teacher opened the book to the right page and asked him to play his pieces, he started with the second one. She pointed to the first, a little confused. James was a little out of practice and had forgotten a few notes of the first one. She pointed to them on the page, but he wasn't even looking. He has no idea what those notes on the page mean in the context of what he has memorized for his fingers. She leaned over to him and said, "Okay, if you're not going to use your eyes, I'll just poke them out." James let out a little squeak and his eyes got as big as his smile. He looked at the page a lot better for the rest of the lesson.

Then his teacher pulled out some simple Christmas duets. She had him sight read through them, even after one episode of him going boneless on the piano bench and moaning, "But that one looks so HARD." He played it through once, smiled, and his teacher nudged him on the shoulder with a wink, "See? There was once a kid who thought this looked too hard." James got a little smily-er. His assignment this week is to practice his recital pieces and play from the Christmas duets book. That news resulted in more boneless drooping on the piano bench. My spirit wilted a little, too...how hard would it be to get him to play the Christmas ones?! His teacher took him through the book, every song, and showed him that he already knew all the notes to all the songs. She told him he was fully capable of playing everything in it. No response from James.

As soon as James got home from his lesson, he rediscovered a string of rainbow Christmas lights that I had said earlier he could put anywhere in the house. I didn't hear from him for a while. Then he announced that there would be a concert in the front room starting shortly. He had strung the lights all around the piano and intended to play Christmas songs from the very book his teacher had just shown him! He made an arena and audience seats and everything. He was SO stinking proud of himself performing for us, mistakes and all. We clapped and clapped and clapped after each piece, calling for an encore. He decided to favor us with his recital pieces, too. What a surprise!

A little while later, he walked up to me with that big, beaming grin of his...the one that squints his eyes...and he gave me a big hug around my waist, "Wasn't that great?" he said. I knew he meant the concert. And his budding piano skills. And a newfound confidence in himself. The applause. He was so, so happy.

Selfie #1 when he should be going to bed.

Selfie #2 even later in the night.

And Selfie #3. Yup, he's totally on vacation. Late nights all around.

Hiking in Ohio, "The Ledges" trail. He's thrilled to be outside again, even if it's barely 35F.

James-y: my big man in the middle.