Piano Parties

I am surprised each year about how much some of my students look forward to the piano performance party.  I’m not even good at throwing a party, but they are always excited to come to share their favorite piece they’ve played so far this year, play music jeopardy or “name that tune”and consume refreshments. It’s so much fun seeing the students interacting together, since I usually see them one on one.  They walk in the door ready to have a good time, even the teenagers, who I’ve always worried would think the idea was lame.  In fact, several of the teenagers made their families switch things around on their calendars so that they wouldn’t miss the party.  “We’ll make it work,” one student told me.

The students are arranged in groups by age, and each party is so different from the others.  The youngest group came first, and they were incredibly giggly.  Each person shared their music, and then I played a piece for them that I had been practicing.  “It was so good,” they said to me, “but how many pages was that?  It lasted for years!”  In actuality it was four pages long and lasted 3 minutes.  I told them all about the other piece that I was working on that I was working on that was 55 pages long.  They were sufficiently amazed, and then screeched over to the refreshment table with such delight that YaYa came out of the kitchen thinking that someone was hurt and that was what the racket was about.  The refreshments are a very big deal.

As they were leaving, students for the second party began arriving.  This time after they shared I played a piece that went very quickly, with lots of 32nd notes.  I messed up a lot, but they didn’t mind.  This group is always has the most voracious appetite.  I’m surprised they didn’t get sick, actually, given all the fruit, vegetables, pizza, cheese, crackers, and cookies that were consumed.  Some of them filled their small plates three or more times.  While consuming all of those snacks we played a riveting game of jeopardy.  It was intense, answers popping around from all directions.  They knew a lot.

Finally, the teenagers arrived.  I do love teenagers, and I’m so blessed to have a crew of middle school boys in my studio.   They have such energy, and it’s expressed in such unique and different  ways.  The girls smoked the boys at music jeopardy (harder questions for bigger kids).  There were so many moments with all the groups that just make me smile when I think back about them.

While all of the mayhem was taking place in the piano room and dining room, Dr. Peds faithfully cooked pizzas to be ready at the appropriate times and YaYa helped replenish things in the kitchen.  Mr. TOF was happy that occasionally people would sneak him a cookie.