piano recital

At the beginning of summer we got a flier on our door that said that one of the young men in our ward was going to be teaching beginning piano lessons for the month of June, just for the summer. I'm always looking for things for Aiden to do, without spending too much money, so I was interested. And it would be helping out a kid in our ward. Bonus.

After the first lesson, I was sure it was a mistake. That he was too young. Some of the things he had to do/practice were kind of ridiculous for a four year old with Aiden's attention span. After lessons when I picked him up, I would ask him what he learned. He said (after every single lesson) "I got to see Byron's fish!" so I'd say "what else did you learn?" and his response was "I got to see a movie on Byron's computer!" (we found out later they watched short clips of different people playing the piano). It was frustrating. It was hard. But we did it. He practiced most days. I felt like I was teaching him piano lessons most of the time.

On about the fifth or sixth lesson he brought home his song that he would be playing for the recital. He didn't even have enough strength in his pinkie finger to push the key down, so he had to use a finger from his other hand to help out. Funniest thing ever if I hadn't been so stressed out about it!

Today was his recital. Cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. They had five students performing their songs, and Aiden was fourth. Before the recital started his teacher talked with him about how he would need to go up, tell who he was and what song he would be playing. So when it was his turn, Aiden went up and said "My name is Aiden Gordon and I'm going to play my song." For the record, his song was called "Lightly Row".

I don't think lessons were a mistake anymore. He learned more than I ever thought he could. He can play a whole song now, and has it memorized. I love him more than words can say, and I am so proud of him, I can hardly stand it.