Le Xuan's 2nd Piano Recital

Gosh, can't believe I have not written anything for more than half a year. I must say it's been really tiring but fulfilling handling a cheeky 22-month toddler who hates to sleep and is getting more active by the day. Oh and to put things on record, she's finally potty trained at 22 months! (Daytime only). What makes it even more challenging is the need to also manage dabao's development, school work and piano practices on top of my tuition business, trying my best to be a great tuition teacher and making ends meet.

To illustrate how difficult it is to write this entry, haha the little one is pushing my keyboard away with all her might. No matter what, I will make sure that I can finish this post about dabao's wonderful piano recital this year on 23 July 2017.

Le Xuan is learning her grade 2 piano this year but the teacher is planning for her to start learning grade 3 towards the last quarter of the year so that she can take her grade 3 exams in Jun/Jul next year. When she was selecting the song for this year's recital, her teacher had recommended "This old man" but I couldn't believe that she changed her mind 2 weeks before the recital and said that she wanted to play one of her grade 2 exams songs.  I could see that Teacher Tang was not very comfortable with her choice as Le Xuan had yet to grasp that song very well, but he still agreed and asked Le Xuan to practise alot more until the recital day.

There were two rehearsals prior to actual recital, but Teacher Tang was not there for both rehearsals to give her any comments. And there wasn't much breakthrough when she practiced at home, until it suddenly dawned on me that I read this article before about how to reduce kid's anxiety and boost their confidence for any exams or performance. It mentioned something about reminding kids about a similar event that they did very well, so I decided to give that a try. I reminded her about her grade 1 exam song "Asian Tiger Prowl" and how she had impressed the examiner with this song which she scored almost full marks, and the examiner's comments about her characterful and spirited performance. It seemed to have some magical effect all of a sudden and she suddenly played the recital piece again with grace and confidence. At that moment, I knew that it has worked :)

On the recital day, Papa was full of pride and anticipation as he had missed Le Xuan's recital last year and this was the first time he would be there at the recital, with his camera all ready.  Couldn't wait to bring mum and rongrong along next year to support Le Xuan. So happy to have captured Le Xuan's performance on video but as usual the file size is too big to be uploaded here.

Darling all ready for her recital

Beautiful Performance

I could see that Teacher Tang was very impressed with Le Xuan's performance during the recital, and of course Papa and Mama were beaming with pride. Le Xuan was also happy to see Jiu Jiu, Jiu Ma and Abby there to support her for the second time. Hope darling will continue to enjoy this music journey which I believe will make a difference in her life. Proud of you, my princess!!!