Piano Recital

So last weekend, Gabe, myself, and Alena had a piano recital along with all the other students our teacher has. We've been taking lessons since January and we LOVE our teacher.

Gabe and I each had a solo piece and then we played a duet (Carol of the Bells) together. Alena also had two songs. We had been told to have our songs memorized and we did, even Alena.

Since Alena was the youngest student and because we didn't want her getting too nervous, she went first. OMGoodness, I just could not have been prouder! I just couldn't believe that our five year old was up there BY HERSELF playing two songs from MEMORY! And she did great. She got a note wrong on Hark the Herold Angels Sing but redid it and kept going never missing a beat.

Here she is playing at home the day before the recital. I didn't want to film the recital because I wanted to be able to sit and watch. This is her second recital song, Hark the Herold Angels Sing.

And now I really have to brag. :) Remember, we had our songs memorized. Well, I thought everyone else would too. I mean, Alena's five and had her's memorized, Gabe and I were the oldest students so of course we had ours... But would you believe not a single other person (maybe one, I can't remember) played from memory?! Alena noticed that too and mentioned it to us. I think it increased her confidence to know that she was the youngest and did her songs without the music in front of her. But everyone did great considering this was everyone's first piano (and a few voice) recital.

Gabe and I being the oldest, were the last to play on the piano. So we had to sit there through twenty other performers and get more and more nervous.

I was so nervous playing my song that I could visibly see my hands shaking as I was playing. I don't know how I played the song without mistakes because during it I kept thinking "God, my hands are shaking! How can they be shaking so bad and I'm still hitting the right keys?". Haha! I think the fact that I have played that darn song over and over and over until I started to hate it actually helped me. I could sit and play it because it was so engrained into my brain.

Gabe played his right after me and also did very well. Then we had our duet. Oh boy... We were both shaking and Gabe missed some notes and we played that part three times before getting it. (side note: apparently we didn't make it obvious because we and the teacher got several good remarks about our duet. ) Anyway, we got through that and then I messed up on my favorite part of the song no less! We played through it and finished. Whew! What a load off our chest.

Our next recital is tentatively the first weekend in May. Hmm, the baby should be three weeks old then. We'll see how that goes. :) I thought it would be cool if I ended up playing my songs with a baby in its carrier strapped to my chest. How impressive would that be?!