Today I was in a recital for the first time since…probably age 18. I was in concerts/performances in college and I’ve played shows as an adult, but this was the first legitimate recital in quite some time. I did play harp on one piece during my cousin’s masters of music recital, but even that was more than a decade ago.
And, actually, all of my recitals took place between the ages of 14 and 18, which meant I never experienced a casual recital or lack of pressure – the perfect and blissful overconfidence of a musician under the age of ten. Today, although the recital took place in a Brooklyn bar, I’m pretty confident no one else was older than 11 or 12, and as such, no one seemed a whit nervous. It was delightful. I want to give special mention to the girl of maybe eight who sang an original song while our teacher (my friend, a jack of many instruments, trumpeter by profession but drum teacher to me and keyboard/piano teacher to others) accompanied her. The lyrics consisted mainly of:
“If you’re ever bored, if you’re ever scared, I’ll be right there
If you’re ever scared, if you’re ever bored, I’ll be right there
and
If you go to the park, if you go to the stairs, I’ll be right there”
at the end of which my roommate leaned over and whispered, “That’s the first song I’ve heard told from the perspective of the cell phone!”
I initially thought she was singing “if you go to the bar, if you go to the stairs” which seemed incongruous, but then, we were in a bar as she sang. And since my songwriting achievements consist mainly of writing 101 verses to the diarrhea song with my best friend when I was 11, I was sincerely impressed.
And as for me, his oldest student – I think I acquitted myself well enough, even though the high hat was broken. And I didn’t bring drumsticks. Fortunately, there was another drum student. There were a few equipment malfunctions; an intrepid father of a bassist whose performance was delayed by a broken amp hookup (I think?) poked his head back into the room to query, “Does anyone have a lighter?” and then, a minute later, “Does anyone have any gum?” I don’t know what he did to the bass, but the kid was able to play given the instruction to stand up and stay very, very still as he did so.
