Aidan's First Piano Show/Recital

On September 25th, Aidan had his first piano show/recital. I was not only a proud Mommy that day, but also a proud piano teacher.

Since Aidan is the only piano student that I am currently teaching in my spare time, it was interesting coming up with a piano program that featured only him (usually you see something like that for a senior piano recital, but not typically a child’s first piano recital). Aidan insisted that even though he was playing piano, he wanted his first piano show to be fun. So with that idea in mind, we came up with this piano program and Mike did a terrific job making programs:

One of the things Aidan had trouble accepting as we prepared for his piano show was not stopping regardless of any mistakes made, but instead, finishing the piece and acting like nothing wrong had happened. As it turns out, Aidan is very much a perfectionist like his Mommy and it sounded terrible to him to find out that when he performs, it is better to continue finishing a piece even after mistakes were made, rather than starting over and trying again. But with Mommy being his piano teacher, he practiced this technique during his piano lessons as the day of his piano show approached.
Everything that Aidan chose to do for his piano show program I felt comfortable with, except for the violin and turtle puppet parts. Aidan had only been taking violin lessons with me for 2 months and I honestly wasn’t sure if his first violin piece would be ready in time for his piano show (there was a lot of screeching coming out of that violin beforehand). Aidan, however, was determined to surprise everyone at his show that he could also play the violin too. He was also determined that his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle, also be at his first piano show (whenever Aidan is finding a certain music skill or concept difficult to practice, he is often cheered up and made to laugh by his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle…brought to life by me :P). I honestly think I have terrible puppet skills and cringed at the thought of having our family witness it during Aidan’s first piano show, but I love my little boy….so how could I refuse?

Aidan felt so special having his first piano show in one of the biggest studios at Mommy’s workplace (Levine School of Music) with a Steinway grand piano for him to perform on…oh, la, la! On the day of the show, we arrived early into the studio to practice while Mike and Yeh-Yeh set up the chairs, as well as a table with a variety of cookies that Mommy and Yin-Yin had baked during the week. They also decorated the room with a few music balloons for the kids to take home after the show.



Then Aidan’s first piano show began:



Aidan did an amazing job! He was so happy and proud of himself! Caleb was so proud of Aidan too! Mike and I were concerned that Caleb might be distracted during Aidan’s piano show so we wanted him to sit with Yin-Yin just in case he needed to be taken out of the studio. Caleb, however, watched the whole piano show attentively, always excited for when he could clap after each piece Aidan performed. It was too cute!
After the piano show, we went home for lunch where Mike and I gave Aidan a new Nerf gun present. Later that evening we took Aidan out to the Daily Grill to celebrate all his hard work (Aidan asked to celebrate at a nice restaurant as a reward for not giving up when performing during his show, no matter what happened). At the Daily Grill, Aidan ordered and ate his first chicken pot pie. After stuffing his face with the pot pie, he ordered a chocolate cake for dessert. Then before bed, Mike and I each gave Aidan a book that we had picked out and signed, telling him how proud we were of all the hard work he had put into his first piano show.
After a day like that, it wasn’t any surprise when Aidan asked the next day when he could have another piano show :)