Piano Recital

Dawson had a piano recital last evening. He did great. His piece sounded so good on a Baldwin Grand Piano and in a space designed for concerts. He claims he messed up and had to improvise for 4 measures, but we couldn't tell.

That's the challenge his teacher likes. She was highly recommended and has older students. Dawson came to her in his mid teens and couldn't be started in a typical kid book with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! He had already been playing from ear in worship bands for years, and could read music, but not a lot of training there. And he'd done violin for years since really little.

She keeps picking his brain (even on general subjects of life - she likes him. I told Dawson she ought to schedule an extra 1/2 hour just for talk time.) But she really wants to learn to improvise. Another piano friend of ours has said years of piano lessons does not teach people how to improvise and he's often called upon to teach that. Well Dawson's piano teacher is forcing herself to practice it.

I'm sure she could tell where he improvised, not skipping a beat, or making the typical faces people do and you know they messed up. She said it's the best she's heard him play. Another lady said he's like John Tesh. Dawson was embarrassed about that, but I'm sure it had to make him feel good. He knows who he is since I have some of his CDs.