National Music Federation

Kennedy just participated in the local Music Federation's competition. She's been taking piano lessons for almost three years now, two with Dr. Diane Earle in Owensboro, and this year with Martha Stork, in her home in a neighborhood right behind our house.

Before she started lessons this year, I described the competitions I had been in while I was taking lessons with Ms. Carley back in Griffin. She seemed interested, and I asked if that was something she'd like to do, and whether I should seek out a piano teacher willing to do that. She said she would, so that was one of the questions I asked Ms. Stork before we started lessons.

Kennedy prepared two pieces for the competition. The less difficult was entitled "Gypsy Earrings," the more difficult, "The Notorious Pirate." She had her pieces picked out just after the Christmas holidays, and had them ready to go in mid-February, so her teacher had her put them aside until just a few weeks before the competition.

I (Michael) took her to the event, held at Harrison High School here in Evansville. This is the kind of event where musicians on various instruments play before a judge and receive a written critique and a numerial score, which is then translated to either: Fair, Good, Excellent, Superior, or Super Superior. A perfect score of all 50 points ranks you at Super Superior, with 5 point degradations below that.

She signed in and got her room assignment, and then we headed down to the room, 30 minutes before her allotted time. When we arrived, the room monitor said that no other person with times before her had arrived, and she was welcome to go on in as soon as the judge returned from a lunch break. She said she was ready.

She was nervous. Waiting for the judge to return wasn't too bad, but when Kennedy saw the judge enter the room, she mentioned that she wasn't feeling good. Butterflies big time. I reminder her of the basics: take her time getting ready, say hello to the judge, get the bench in the right place, take a deep breath before each piece, and say thank you to the judge before she left. That seemed to calm her enough. She went in.

It was my turn to be nervous. There is no feeling like standing outside a classroom, listening to your daughter play piano through the door, knowing she's being judged on every little movement. But I digress; this isn't about me.

Her teacher had recommended she start with the easier piece. Good advice. She played absolutely perfectly, at least to this dad's ears. Not a mistake, great tempo and tempo changes, dynamics perfect, not a note out of place. Same thing on the second, more difficult, piece. Great expression in every dimension. She lost herself every so briefly on two occasions on the second piece.

The music ended. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. The door opened and out she came. The room monitor went into the room, and we had a few moments to wait until the score came out. I told her how beautiful the pieces were, and that I was proud of her, and what she said next is priceless, worth every trip to every lesson, every reminder to practice daily (some more trying than others), worth all of it. What she said was, "I know. I'm proud of myself."

Out came the score: Superior. She was smiling from ear to ear. She played so beautifully. We went to the "music store" that someone had set up near the registration table, and Kennedy picked out a nice portfolio to keep her music in, which we bought to celebrate her big piano day.

Just the other day, she had her first piano lesson after the competition. Ms. Stork had a blue ribbon for her and a certificate indicating her accomplishment. But, more importantly, she had the judge's original score sheet, which was Kennedy's to keep. Looking at the scoring, we discovered that her two foibles had cost her only one point, and that was the only deduction on the entire sheet. She had performed one point away from a perfect score!

So, we are so proud of her, and like I wrote above, even more importantly, she came away with a very positive experience and a great foundation for future adventures.