Piano Recital

After taking lessons for almost a year, I finally agreed to participate in a recital (there have been two others since I started - and I had good reasons not to perform in either of them - but there were no excuses this time). I was last on the list and had four songs to play. My knees were shaking the whole recital in anticipation of when it would be my turn. I played my first two songs pretty easily, but my nerves caught up with me on the third and my hands started shaking so badly I could hardly press down the keys and missed a few notes. Somehow I got through it, and the audience was kind enough to clap (mostly parents of the other performers - who were all about 15 years younger than me and more experienced, except my sister who is only 12 years younger - but also more experienced). Daphne ran up to the front to join me. She was beaming and clapping and that was the best applause I could ask for. However, I also really appreciated having our neighbor there to support me, and of course Steve, and my parents, and sister and brother. I think my dad got a picture of us all at the end, and maybe some video of the performance so I might add that later.

As scary as it was, I'm glad I did it. And I'm glad it's over. I was practicing about 45-60 minutes a day for the week leading up to it! Funny how you can find the time to do something when it really matters to you. Most of the time I barely manage to get in 10 minutes of daily practice. Still, I love that I'm able to take lessons and continue to improve. Even if I am significantly older than most people at my level.