Movie Piano Recital

Another successful piano recital is in the books!
This evening I put on a Music from the Movies piano recital for my beginner piano students. Each student learned a song from a movie. At the recital they dressed up like a character from the movie. We had Batman, Bella, Luke Skywalker, Captain Jack Sparrow, Elsa, Jasmine, Johnny from Sing, PT Barnum, and I wore a beard and a dress. I was the bearded lady from the Greatest Showman. Ammon kept calling me mustache momma.

We set up 8 circular tables in the church gym. My dad brought my old digital keyboard from his house and I brought my portable keyboard to play duets on. We had the volume turned all the way up. I was worried it would sound muddy, but when I went back and listened to it, it sounded fine. My piano teacher, Mickey Herrin came, as well as my grandma and my parents.

The decorations were homemade pinterest crafts. I was trying to spruce it up a little since it was in the church gym. I wanted my decorations to be cute, inexpensive, and create as little waste as possible. I spray painted gift wrap tubes with foam balls on top to make DIY stanchions. Amanda decorated the Christmas decoration box with white and red tape, and I filled it with white and yellow balloons to look like popcorn. I brought the US map we have been charting our progress on and hung it up. It's like a game of ticket to ride: each day of practice gets you one centimeter on the map. Every one of my students met the goal he/she set at the beginning of the term. One student won longest route, most states, and best artistry. If he had traveled miles instead of centimeters, he would have driven 1745 miles! He practiced 53 days during the 10 weeks of lessons and mastered an 8 page song, a Million Dreams. I arranged a duet of "The Other Side" from the Greatest Showman that we played together. It was fantastic! Teaching him feels like such an accomplishment. But I can't take all the credit. He does work hard and I love seeing his passion for music burn within him. It reminds me of me when I was in middle school.

I give awards at the end; things like "best posture" "best technique" "duet master" ect. The reason I do it is: when I was on the JV girls tennis team in high school I wasn't very good. I'm not a very athletic person. But I liked tennis and I enjoyed being on the team even if I was the LVP (least valuable player.) My coach gave out awards to the JV girls one year. There really wasn't anything for me to win an award in. My coach gave me a container of green play-dough that had a plastic figurine of the Hulk on the lid. It was the "fist pump" award, because she noticed that when I would score a point or do a really awesome hit, I would often do a fist pump. It was such a little thing for her to do, but it changed my life! It taught me how important attitude is. And it showed me that while I might not be good at the measurable things in tennis (and life) there is always something right and good about me. Sometimes you need a JV girls tennis coach to point it out. But there's something special and worth celebrating in everyone. I believe that you become that adult that you needed as a child. I'm doing my best to be that adult, to notice the strengths and beautiful character traits in each of my students, my children, other adults. I want to be sure they know that they are valued, loved, and important to me.

Each performance was so good! It went much better than I had expected. Ammon started it out by playing "The Batman Theme." When he was finished, he gave the 3 deepest bows any preschooler has ever given. He was so proud of himself. He kept saying "wasn't that awesome!?" He was disappointed when I didn't let him have a turn with the microphone. Apparently he had been hoping to use the microphone to teach us how to do something.
Quin played the Star Wars main theme. On his way up he said out loud "this is gonna be so amazing." It was. After his adorable bow he said "thank you, thank you" to the audience. He really seemed to enjoy the recital. He was eager to help out and both boys spent time gathering things off the tables at the end and sweeping the gym.

I played "This is Me" from the Greatest Showman. There were plenty of mistakes made, but I'm more satisfied with it than I ever have been with a performance. I 100% did my best to prepare and perform. I poured my whole soul into that song. I feel like it was written for me. I love the words, especially "I am who I'm meant to be." I do feel that way now, but for most of my life I was disappointed in myself. I wish I could have heard that song when I was 15. I really needed it then! But it's here and helping me now. I'm so thankful to the people who wrote it.