Elise's Piano Recital

About a year ago, Elise started taking piano lessons.  She has picked it up pretty quickly, which I was very happy to see.  I took piano lessons for about eight years, and am really happy to see Elise enjoy the piano as much as I do.  In preparing for this spring's recital, Elise chose a piece that had an optional duet part.  Elise's teacher gave her the option of playing it as a solo or having me play with her.  Elise said she would like me to play with her.  I was really excited because once I had children, one of the things I hoped for was that one day I could play a piano duet with my child.  So I practiced and practiced and memorized the piece (thankfully it is short, I hadn't memorized a piece of music since 10th grade!).  I was really worried I would mess up and make Elise look bad at her recital.  We practiced and practiced together.  Of course, we didn't play it perfectly every time we practiced, and sometimes one of us messed up so badly we had to start over (one of the difficulties of playing a memorized duet is that when a mistake is made it is sometimes hard to hear the spot where the other person is playing and know exactly what to play and jump back in.  Sometimes, the only option is to stop and start over, or stop and agree on a spot to start again).  On the day of the recital Elise said to me "I'm nervous" and I said "me, too."  We were near the beginning of the list of performers, thank goodness.  I wanted to get it done so I could relax.  When our time came, we went up and played it perfectly!  I was overjoyed it had gone well, Elise had a positive experience, and I didn't humiliate myself or my daughter. 

You can see (and hear) a video of Elise and I practicing the duet at home here: duet practice