Piano

Marin started piano lessons last summer, right before school started. Her teacher is Melody Kucks, a young music graduate student at GMU. Mama's patient Jillian Khoo's mother is a music teacher at Westminster private school and recommends Keys to Creativity studio.

Once a week for 30 minutes her lesson would run. We signed on for Suzuki teaching method, which involves parents in the learning process; i.e., parents would learn along with children and teach them at home additionally. It was difficult at first with Marin. Me. would attend the lessons with her, but she would act shy and withdrawn. Practicing at home together was always contentious, with Marin insisting on learning on her own and rejecting instructions from me.

Finally, after several weeks, me. wrote Ms. Melody (see email below) to ask that she teach Marin alone, instruct her on what to practice and how long, and give Marin the responsibility for her own progress. It worked out wonderfully well. At each lesson, Ms. Melody would ask Marin how many times to practice a piece; Marin would tell her; she would write it down for her and Marin followed those instructions closely. At first, me. would have to remind Marin of her commitment to Ms. Melody to encourage her to practice to keep her promise. But gradually, Marin just went to the piano on her own at various times of the day to practice by herself.

Marin's first recital was at a nursing home during Christmas season. Both Mama and me. were very nervous for her. We were late for the recital and arrived just in the nick of time for Marin to be the last performance. Marin just walked in, greeted her teacher, and walked up to the piano and started playing! No jitters or hesitation at all! She played Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle.

The second performance Marin had was called the Honors Recital. It is linked to this post here. Mama had videotaped the whole thing, showing everyone that was there (Ba`, Co Loan, Bac Quy, Aidan, Abby, Ba` Dam, Daddy and co Alice). Unfortunately, the following event on that same day was International Day Performance. Mama rewound the tape to show Alice the recital and forgot to forward before taping again. The whole thing was gone! However, the link to this post is a beautiful creation courtesy of another parent who videotaped the whole Honors Recital program. We thanked Mr. Marsden profusely and sent him a thank you gift basket.

I have been generally responsible for Marin's piano progress. It has been a generous mixture of proudness, sobering respect and awe, and overwhelming love I experience as I watch her learn each song. Marin is incredibly independent, especially when it comes to learning. She seems to have this notion that she is an equal to her parents; therefore, it is extremely hard for her to allow us to teach her anything. She is reluctant to show us that she can't do something. The results often are frustrating when we try. However, I do have profound respect for her need to learn on her own, her ability to do so at this age, and, most of all, her ability to "rise to the occasion" whenever needed. Her calmness and sense of purpose are quite something to see. The key seems to be that she needs to come to the decision on her own to do it, no matter what it is. No amount of prodding or wrangling can make her do what she quietly does when it's her decision 100%. And when it is, the results are nothing short of phenomenal, from this mother's opinion.

What a humbling experience it has been being a parent. Marin is far more capable than I ever had been at her age.