Flashback Friday - Lessons & Recitals

Welcome to Flashback Friday!

If you have a child in your life, your calendar for April and May is probably quickly filling up with end-of-year activities - performances, recitals, etc. Did you take lessons as a child? Piano or another instrument? Gymnastics or dance? Other types of lessons? Were they weekly? How much were you required to practice between lessons? Did you participate in recitals? If so, do any of them stand out in your memory? Did they foster a love or a hate for that activity? Did you want to take lessons in a certain thing that you never got to? And if you have kids now, how did your experiences with taking lessons like these impact the activities you had/have them do?

Life was very different back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid. People didn't schedule their kids' lives every waking moment. I did take piano for a couple of years in junior high. I liked playing piano. I h-a-t-e-d practicing. Of course, that's not unusual, but the teacher was part of the reason I didn't like it. She was very classically oriented and always assigned me sonatinas and sonatas.

(Rabbit trail: Her son was a piano genius - when he was in high school they enclosed their garage, soundproofed it, and made it into his bedroom, including a piano. He would get up at 4:00 am every morning and practice for 3 hours or so before school. I just googled him and was not surprised to discover he's an award-winning composer and internationally known musician.)

Anyway, I wanted to play popular songs and church songs, not classical music. Practicing 30 minutes a day was torture, and I eventually quit taking piano. I can play hymns decently, but like most people, I wish I hadn't quit!

Recitals weren't awful, but they weren't my favorite. Of course, at the end of the recital, each student received a small composer bust statue! I had three by the time I quit; have no idea what they were - probably Brahms, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky!

Piano was the only thing my parents let me take. Gymnastics and dancing were way too expensive and slightly scandalous to their conservative minds. I would have enjoyed voice lessons, but I don't think they realized what a benefit that would have been.

When my kids were in early elementary school, they each took gymnastics for a couple of years. When it looked like the next step would be mortaging our house and surrendering every waking moment joining a team, we quit. My girl took dance when she was 5 for one year. (Of course she was 5 for one year! I meant that she took dance for one year! See what misplaced modifiers can do?!) That came to an abrupt end when their recital dance was a Playboy Bunny song! The lessons that have stuck with them have been piano. Neither has ever wanted to quit. Practicing is hit or miss with my boy, but my girl can hardly walk by the piano without playing a few chords!

What about you? Share your memories on your blog and link your post here!

(BTW, I will read everyone's flashbacks but I'm leaving about noon for lunch with a bloggy friend (pics to come!) and then go to our ladies retreat. I'll likely be out of pocket until later in the day on Sunday.)