Piano Camp 2009

Someone should do a study on the psychology of piano camp.

We cram a lot of information into a few short hours a day, keeping the energy high-paced and the expectations above what most of these kids think they're capable of. We assign them a new ensemble piece on Monday and tell them they need to play it by Friday at the recital. This may be stressful for them, but believe me--it is also stressful for us as we try to bring it from notes to music in a few short days. (We have found jumping up and down and yelling to be quite effective...)

We play quite a bit of Jig-a-lo, in what has become a piano camp tradition.

(Yes, this is me, gettin' jiggy.)

We like to think we teach them some new things.

Mostly, we tease and are teased in return.

We do a lot of exaggerated eye-rolling and quite a bit of laughing.

We spend our days teaching, our lunch break reviewing what's working and what's not, and our evenings planning for the next day based off of what occurred.

We dwell in exhaustion and hear duets in our sleep.

Somehow though, come Friday, we are still smiling.

Somehow, those kids knock out an awesome recital.

Somehow, we can't wait until next year!