Tonight we had our first recital since October. I schedule small recitals for the family whenever some of the children finish learning their piano pieces. Imani, Joy and Esteban are working through the Suzuki piano school books. Joy and Esteban are in book 1, and Imani is in book 2. Tonight she performed the last piece Yanni learned in Suzuki before she stopped using that method.

I have also been experimenting with teaching Chanya to play. I thought it would be cute to put her on the program tonight.

Chanya and I had a rough dress rehearsal. She was distracted. She was more interested in sucking her fingers than playing her piece. I wasn’t sure whether she’d be up to performing when her time came.

I started the program out with Esteban. Bad idea. He played tentatively and choppily. He was obviously nervous, and it sounded like he didn’t know his music. So he won’t be headlining any more recitals for a while. Esteban made a bee-line for the couch after his performance. He didn’t want to bow.

Joy was next up. She started out much more confidently than Esteban, her piece sounding like real music. Then she hit the section she was less sure of. The music lost its way, sounding confused and repetitive. Joy slowly got back on track and finished strong. She took a hurried, joyful curtsy before hopping on the couch.

Imani’s playing had a mellow tone to it. She played with dynamics (loud and soft) and she had a lighter touch than Joy. Imani took a confident bow. She had impressed her father.

Chanya had been sitting quietly on the couch in between Yanni and Xay. I didn’t know if she wanted to leave her spot to go perform. I picked her up and asked her, and she was happy to go to the piano. I started playing chopsticks, and she copied what I played. Then she looked over at her father. I gently returned her attention to the piano. We played through the notes twice, and left the piano bench.

I softly told Chanya to take a bow, fully expecting to bend her body for her, showing her how to bow. Before I could help her, Chanya had bent her tiny body at the waist and put her hands on the floor. It was the deepest bow I’d ever seen.

I should have known little miss precocious would already know how to bow.