Posts
My son had his first piano recital on Saturday. I was very worried about the fact that he is notorious for getting stage fright, and bowing out at the last minute. He could be completely excited about a performance or show, then freak out when it came time to go up on stage in front of everyone.
This recital was to be a small production of just a few of his instructor's students. It was apparently not on the scale of her other recitals, which include students from other sources as well. For my son, it was a "trial run" for the larger one coming in April. As I said, I was nervous about his ability to perform at the last minute.
So after a week of practicing his piece until he knew it completely, a few "practice" recitals in front of parents, and then my assistants, we moved on to teaching him to deal with his fears. We had at least two days straight of "what do you do if you make a mistake?" or "what happens if you get scared?" until we felt he was confident in his ability and response.
Then came the big day. At the last minute I was reminded that I should invite his grandparents and aunt, as they would probably have been disappointed to find out about it after the fact. So with very little notice they and we made it up to Newcastle for his recital.
I sat with him (the young students sat in a row near the teacher) while everyone came in, gauging his comfort level with the number of people in the audience. There ended up being around 15 - 20 students and their parents, a larger crowd than I had anticipated, yet he seemed ok with it. I told him he was number five in the line-up, and he counted as each student went before him.
When it was his turn, he marched up to the piano, played his piece, took his bow, then marched back to his seat. He was quite proud of himself, but not nearly as proud as we were. I think this is the first time he's been able to get up in front of a group and perform without quite a lot of fear, and sometimes tears.
This was an achievement for him, and I'm quite proud!
