On Monday, June 13th we had our annual piano recital. I squished 50 people into my dining/living room. That is the largest crowd we've had here in the NW ever! It was awesome:)
Emma played "Walk Tall, You're a Daughter of God" by Janice Kapp Perry. She worked hard on it. She couldn't really practice it until after her elbow injury healed. She did AWESOME!
Olivia played "Water Music" and a duet of "I Love To See the Temple". Since I was the one taking pictures, I couldn't take a picture of her while playing the duet with her at the same time. But she did a great job on both pieces!
Brynn played a duet, too. It's called "C.S. Theme and Variations" by Randall Compton. She started playing by herself, but played the wrong song (Oh, What Do You Do In the Summertime by Paul Cardall). I then stood up & made a big fuss about her playing the wrong song & scooted her over on the bench.
We then played each others' parts while teasing one another. You had to be there:)
At one point during the duet, I PUSH her off the bench & take over the top part. She had to get up off the floor & settle on playing the lower part. We are currently working on recording the duet to post on YouTube. I'll let you know when that happens. But it's just not the same as when we did it at the recital. We have had a TON of fun learning this duet together!
At the end of the recital, each student was presented with a potted flower (to represent how much they've grown in their skills) & a Super Song Star filled with all the super songs they had passed off since January. Some had one song, others had 6 or 7. It really depended on each student and the songs they chose to work on, the level of difficulty it was, and such.
From left to right: Emma's, Brynn's, Olivia's
A Super Song is any song NOT in their lesson books that they choose to learn. I keep a list of these songs under each students' name in my teaching binder. We then can refer to this list to choose songs to perform. The purpose of this program is to further nourish the students' skills in a more desirable & fun fashion. They learn what they NEED to in order to play the song they WANT to. They progress much quicker than if we just stayed to the lesson books & they enjoy learning the piano much better. Not to mention their repertoire grows along with it:) Once the student passes off the Super Song, they earn a star and a certificate. I keep colorful paper stars in my piano bucket for the students to write the title of their song on. They sign their name on the back. By using poster putty, they stick their Super Song Star anywhere on the Star Chart. Others who look at the chart will see only song titles and no student names. This way the competition isn't one sided & they can get ideas on what others' are playing.
At the end we all pigged out on cookies, brownies, rice crispy treats, and bubbly apple cider with apple juice star ice cubes.
Thanks, KARA, for being so willing to help set up the refreshments during the recital & pitching in at the last minute as "photographer"!
