It was a lot like the request for ballet. “Mommy, when can I take piano?” So shortly before his dance classes ended last spring, I went on a quest for a piano teacher. Yes, I could have taught him myself, but this time I thought he’d have a better experience if he had someone besides Mommy to please, someone more objective, and someone who had a better idea where to start. The problem was that most of the piano teachers in our area won’t start a child on piano until they are in third grade. Would his interest wait 4 more years? I didn’t want to find out. Finally, I asked just the right person; our church’s organist, Mrs. Jelsma. She said she would do it! It didn’t matter that he was only 5. She said she knew him well enough to know he was probably ready. To make sure we were on the right track, I added music note flashcards, music math, and keyboard note identification exercises to Zac’s homeschooling curriculum last spring. Then, in May, a week after his dance recital, Zac excitedly headed off to his first lesson. I don’t know what was more fun for him, his playing the piano for the first time or being allowed to hand feed the cows on the Jelsma farm. He took to piano like a duck takes to water. Three or four pieces to practice each week didn’t seem to be enough. He finished his first workbook in record time! Fortunately I still had a lot of the music books that I used when I was learning piano, so Mrs. Jelsma supplemented some material I had with the program she uses. At one point Zac was playing pieces from eight different books in the same week. Well, he seemed to have the piano playing part down, but could he play in a recital. By August we had our answer.
Some of Mrs. Jelsma’s other students proposed a recital to be played at a local as
sisted living facility. Older folks usually make an appreciative audience for performing children. Zac was given an option this time…to play or not. He chose to play. He and Mrs. Jelsma picked five or six pieces that he had recently mastered. The closer the recital date came, the more nervous was Zac. To quell some of his jitters, Zac and I went to the facility a few days ahead of time, and he played on the piano. Some of the residents sat around after dinner and quietly listened. Zac relaxed some, but he was still nervous. We expected him to back out, and that would have been okay. The afternoon of recital day, I sat Zac down with a DVD of a Barry Manilow concert. Zac had never seen Barry perform. Wow, did that make an impression! Suddenly the piano wasn’t just something to do, it was a way to express himself. Unfortunately, an hour before the recital, Zac got it in his head that he was going to play his music from memory. Not that the boy doesn’t memorize everything anyway, but this was not the time to test his music brain. The stand off was huge with Zac on one side saying he wasn’t going to take his music to the recital, and Mommy on the other side saying he was going to take it or he wasn’t going at all. During a breather in the argument when Daddy intervened, I had an epiphany; Barry doesn’t use music to play the piano…that’s how it got into Zac’s head...backfired! I grabbed Zac’s music bag as we left for the recital while Daddy and I explained that Mr. Manilow has been playing his songs for many, many years, not just a few weeks, so of course he has it memorized. Not something for a boy to try for his first recital. But still the question remained, would Zac freeze up? Well, he shocked us all. Not only did he play, and play well, he played all of the songs he had prepared and then kept going with more. Somewhere around 10 songs, Mrs. Jelsma was finally able to convince him to stop. What a surprise! The little boy who was afraid of his own shadow at his dance recital had found his niche, or at least his fingers. After the recital, Mrs. Jelsma said the audience kept asking “How old is that little boy? Five, really? Boy, he’s going to be something if he keeps it up.”
So where has Zac gone with his piano since the August recital? How about playing “Happy Birthday” for five birthdays in November. He played over the phone for his Godmother then for his Daddy, brother, and sister. We even took the keyboard to Grandpa’s for a min-recital at the assisted living facility where he lives. A waltz duet with Mommy and a few solo pieces the older crowd recognized, and then a perfect rendition of “Happy Birthday” for his Grandpa’s 98th. A one point I looked over Zac’s shoulder at Grandpa and saw tears brimming in the old man’s eyes. The little boy playing for his Grandpa. The best birthday gift Zac had to offer. So who played “Happy Birthday” for Zac? I did, and it was my pleasure!
Somedays practice is better than others. Nice weather is still more of a draw to play outside than to sit inside and work on scales. Complicated looking pieces scare him and he balks, so we break them down until he masters them. He is only six years old after all. I still find it amazing to watch his little boy hands flying across the keyboard and listening to the very big music he plays. In the end, the work gets done, the music is mastered, and Zac keeps advancing. In the meantime he has been busily working on Christmas music in anticipation of another public performance or two in the coming weeks. As the older folks said “Boy, he is going to be something if he keeps this up!”
It is the season for miracles. With one heartbeat, our family is being blessed with another one. One very loved, cherished, and prayed over heartbeat.
miracle of our family continues.
kay, we’ll give it a try. As usual, it wasn't on our timing but God's.
