The Concert

Well, my son's big concert was this past weekend.  Two years ago he came home from school with a little card for a "test-day" for a melodica class.  I had never heard of this instrument - but think... piano horn (I actually don't have a photo of it handy so here is a photo from Amazon for you!)
  
He loved it from the first class.  It was easy to see that he took to it like a duck in water.  At the end of the year he had a little concert at the town square with lots of people milling about.  The next year he graduated to the accordion with the piano keys on the side (which we rented and paid insurance on).  But the classes weren't working out - a group lesson and on Monday's, but Monday has so many holidays we were paying for lessons that he wasn't actually getting, and Monday is always a heavy day for homework at school.  We looked around and found a professional music school and he now has private lessons.  The school has lent him (no additional charge) a lovely accordion.  An added plus - his lessons are on Friday so he has all weekend to get that homework finished for school! He has progressed by leaps and bounds and this past weekend was his first really big concert.  Big relief that it was well before the onslaught of Christmas events. 

His view - I estimated that the place holds 300 people because there are chairs you can't see in the photo and I would say that there were probably a good 250 people there.  We sat in the back 1/3 seats because they were cheaper - this was a fancy event.  But, since we were there for the rehearsal we actually had a mostly private concert the first time around.  (Rehearsal photo below).

I won't lie - it was a long day for him.  We left home just after 4 for the rehearsal and then the concert didn't start until 7:30 pm.  They had a 30 minute intermission.  Many of the churches over here have bars and serve little sandwiches/drinks you can buy during intermission for events held there.  After a little sandwich and some OJ he was ready - 3 kids total played in the 2nd half of the concert.  Why oh why didn't they put the kids first, I have no idea, but that is just the way it works sometimes.  So, the concert didn't get out until after 10.  We went straight to a little pub with a smoke free room for pizza and didn't get home until after 11.

It was pouring!  At night, the public transportation does not run as often so it was actually faster for us to walk all the way home.  I was so happy that my husband had bought me my very own umbrella earlier that day on a whim when he was at the grocery store (we usually share and that works fine for a light drizzle, but it was really coming down in buckets going to and leaving the concert).
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I think this will work now - if you click on the little triangle it will play a short video clip of the group playing a song during the rehearsal.  Really worth listening to!  He has come a long way from that squeaky melodica.  So - if your kids are learning to play an instrument - hang in there - it DOES get better!

Enjoy!