Jamming at His First Piano Recital

My little man recently hit a new milestone in his musical journey when he had his first piano recital.

I realise I’ve never written about Noey’s music lessons though it’s been nearly two years since he first started. I started Noey on piano lessons when he turned four because I thought knowing music – being able to read the notes, appreciate nuances in music and just translate music that you hear into tunes on the piano – is one of life’s pleasures. That said, I did approach music lessons with some trepidation, because I played for many years and I didn’t always enjoy it. I frequently felt like I was spending too much of my time playing exam pieces and not being very good at them! When I was finally done with piano lessons, I didn’t touch the piano for a long time. During that period, I didn’t miss it.

But by and by, I started playing again, listening to tunes and translating them onto the keyboard, flipping through song books and playing for enjoyment. Believe me, there was a time when I would never have put playing with enjoyment in the same sentence! And I was grateful. That I had the skill to play to entertain myself, and spend some time in private worship. When the kids came along, I was glad I was able to entertain them too. Noey loves to sing and Mei loves to dance, and I enjoy being able to accompany them.

I decided it was worth the hard work and so when Noey turned four, I started looking around for a piano course for him to join. I had intended to enrol him at Yamaha to learn the way I was taught, but was put off by the bad class timings — either after 7pm on weekdays or smack in the afternoon on Sat. Just as I was scratching my head about it, a friend providentially blogged about her daughter’s piano classes. And when I contacted the teacher, I was told – amazingly – that she was going to start a new class that very next week. That’s how Noey’s come to be with MYC (Music for Young Children).

Having been at it for a while, I must say that I do like the curriculum. It’s fun, rounded, fairly comprehensive as kids music classes go. Noey does enjoy class and because it is parent accompanied, I’ve been able to learn along with him. It’s a group class and he’s enjoys the company of his classmates. The mummies have become friends too!

But piano practice, well, that’s another matter altogether. I know my Mum totally thinks it’s karma as I struggle to get him to practice, considering how she struggled with me too. But seeing how I now do appreciate having the ability to play fuels my motivation to let Noey continue learning and make him practice. Honestly, he isn’t bad. He has a certain gift for music. Over the past couple of years he has developed perfect pitch that makes listening and singing tunes in notation effortless for him. I often catch him singing along to tunes, sounding out the notes while playing with Lego, and he’s almost never wrong. He also loves transposition and can play songs in a variety of keys by ear. BUT! Only when they are not on the practice list. He could certainly do with more piano practice since his playing is rather average (no beautifully curved hands and weak fingers) and his sight-reading is rather poor. It is really like staring at myself (horror of horrors!). My mother is definitely laughing!

Anyway, back to the recital.

Teacher Angela decided to hold a recital for all her students, which was both exciting and a bit nerve-wrecking at the same time. Well, probably more nerve-wrecking for me than for Noey! Still, I thought it was a great opportunity for all the children to learn a piece that was above their level and to perform before an audience.

The children each learnt a different piece, some solos (like Noey) and some playing duets with their mums. I thought Teacher Angela did a great job picking a variety of different pieces, which were all rather different and interesting. Noey’s was Traffic Jam by Kevin Olson, which is a modern piece I initially found rather jarring, since it was supposed to sound like a traffic jam after all! But it grows on you – or me at least!

Getting dressed up for the occasion was half the fun, though I admittedly didn’t think about it and would have sent him up in t-shirt and jeans if Teacher Angela hadn’t queried about his outfit a week before the actual event. I had to scramble and send out an SOS to friends asking if anyone had a long-sleeved shirt and long pants which Noey could borrow! Fortunately I have very helpful friends (thanks Jas!) and with a new pair of shoes and a borrowed bow tie from his classmate, he was set.

I felt nervous for him, but if Noey was nervous, he didn’t show it. He was fairly calm and when it was his turn to go up, well, he just went up and played his piece! Two actually, since he was also asked to play his piano composition for the MYC annual composition festival. He didn’t make any obvious errors and probably only I (and his teacher) could tell when certain parts were not as smooth as they could have been, but all things considered, I think he did good. We were – are – very proud of him.

With Noey done, we could sit back to enjoy the rest of the performances, most of which were really good. Especially the senior students! The husband wondered aloud if Noey would ever be up to that standard. Well, we shall see.

Everyone took a well-deserved, ermm, Carl’s Junior treat at the end of it before we called it a day. Definitely a proud parent moment for the record books — until the next one!