The Summer Jam Session

Tonight was our piano recital, but it was quite different from our typical recital.  This was a jam session, complete with popular music and a drummer.

Here we are with Dave Young-- our drummer for the evening and a very good friend to Abe and I. We've known Dave and his family for about 7 years through our homeschool family book club.   He was beyond a good sport, giving these kids a wonderful experience and making them all feel like rock stars for the night. 

Not only did he give up his evening for the recital, but he spent all of Tuesday night at my house for a rehearsal with each performer. 

The pre-teen/teen young ladies were in fine form this evening and they all did great.  Somehow Elinor missed out on this picture.

And couldn't you just eat these little sweeties right up!!!!! I can hardly stand how cute they are.  I said to go ahead and channel your inner rock star and THEY DID!  Faith is so lucky to have all these friends in our neighborhood.

Because this recital was so different from anything we've done before I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  I have lost a bit of sleep over the last couple of weeks as it drew nearer.  There were more hiccups and stumbles than usual, but this was a hard thing these kids were doing.  Their songs had very challenging rhythms and were quite a bit longer than their regular music.  The girls in front are holding the music to "Bohemian Rhapsody"-- 11 pages, that my most advanced student played.  Then add the drums into the mix and each song was a real accomplishment, notwithstanding any mistakes.  We worked very hard and I am very proud of everyone.  I love these kids!

And I LOVE these kids.  Elinor played "Lean on Me" and I enjoyed watching her get into it and tapping her feet and doing a head bob as she played.  She was enjoying herself.
Clark played "Fireflies" and his fingers were flying, but he did a great job of staying right with the drums to some tricky rhythms.
Bethany played "Something That I Want" from Tangled and I've got to hand it to her-- she was seriously jamming with the drums.  One of my favorite of the evening.
Faith was second to last and she and I played "Eight Days a Week" by the Beatles.  She loves this song, has practiced it so much, and was spot on.

Abe snapped this picture of the whole group with the instructions to "make a rock star face".
Now I ask you, why is the drummer the only one not making a rock star face, when he's the only one who is actually IN a rock band??!!

What fun it is to work with so many great kids.  Do you see the young man in the striped black shirt on the left?  That's Jakob.  He played "Bohemian Rhapsody" and he was fantastic.  This was his last recital with me because he is just too spectacular and I've got nothing left to teach him.  After he performed he gave me a gift of a bling-y treble clef sign necklace.  I'm gonna miss that guy!  Good thing he's friends with Clark so he'll still be hanging around. 

As soon as we arrived home Clark announced, "Mom, now that the recital is done you can start thinking about the Christmas recital."

Clark, I didn't realize you loved it so much:)