Thatcher Starts Piano

We waited to start Thatcher in piano until he hit the same age as when Samantha started. So in winter quarter of first grade, Thatcher began lessons with Gus. 

Gus had absolutely no time block to add Thatcher in. He hasn't taken any new students in a while and his studio has grown with the addition of new piano teachers. I politely told him that we had referred more than 15 students to him and that surely there was a spot right after Samantha where he would fit in. 

He found a spot for him. ;)

During one of his first lessons, he wanted to show Gus and the other students in the room a song he had made up. He was so focused and then launched into a very dramatic song. At the end he said, "well I haven't really practiced." Nice job, Thatch!

2016 Holiday Piano Recital

Hands down the best music studio in Santa Barbara is Detar Music. Samantha has been taking lessons for over two years now and just recently Thatcher started. As we thumbed through the program at the Spring recital the other night, it confirmed that we have referred a quarter of their students. I like to remind the owner and the kid's teacher, Gus, this bit of information each week to keep our preferred piano time slot with him, forever. ;) 

Video: Sam's first piano recital over two years ago. 

Ready for the Holiday recital this past December (you'll have to wait for me to catch up to show you the Spring recital that was the other night) ;) 

Always a little nervous anticipating her turn on stage. 

After seeing Thatcher perform the other night at his first recital, I am convinced he is more comfortable on the stage than he is sitting in the audience eating coconut shrimp. ;)  

Gus is such a great musical mentor for both our kids. 

Video: Every once in a while he will just play for us. It's incredible how talented he is. 

Video: And finally, Samantha's performance from the Holiday show. 

Samantha Piano - "Lightly Row"

My favorite part of Samantha playing piano now is how comfortable she is getting at reading music. It is like the lights when on one day for her with understanding the notes. Piano is low on the totem pole for her as far as activities that she does but it is a "must do" in my opinion and I'm confident that one day, ONE DAY, she will thank me for that practice time I make her carve out each day. 

Samantha Piano - "Cuckoo"

Reading music is starting to click more for Samantha. Mixing in weekly piano homework with regular school homework has been a bit of a challenge but now that she is getting the hang of it I am hoping it won't be met with as many eye rolls that I normally get. I keep telling Samantha she will thank me one day for making her stick with piano. ;)

Samantha Piano: Spanish Caballero

Here's Samantha's next piano performance piece, "Spanish Caballero." She will play a version of this in December at the holiday recital. 

Like A Dream

It's been a little challenging keeping up with piano over the summer due to schedules but we've managed to squeeze in a few lessons here and there. 

Here's a little piece Samantha learned last month called "Like a Dream". 

Samantha's First Piano Recital

About mid-April, Gus began to teach Samantha a third performance song. Mind you, she hadn't performed at her school talent show yet the previous two songs he taught her. So, she was getting confused mixing the new song with the older songs. When he said that she would be performing in his studio's piano recital in a month, I was a little concerned about the new song. I could tell Gus was too. He flip flopped and decided she should play the second talent show song she had learned but Samantha was getting frustrated still mixing up the songs. So, it was sink or swim. We added in an extra lesson and she promised Gus she would practice, practice and practice some more. 

Here's the progression from the start to about fifteen minutes before her recital. 

Prior to the recital, I took her shopping for a new recital outfit. 

We bought a few choices.

And this was her pick!

This is her, "stop taking pictures and stop making me practice" look. 

Excited for the show at SoHo!

Lots of friends including Reesie take lessons from Gus too. 

Both waiting for their names to be called on stage. Samantha said she wasn't nervous. She told me it was a lot scarier performing at the school talent show. Maybe this was old news now that she had performed piano on stage before? Who knows? 

This looks like it may have been after they both performed. Both looking a little more relieved and relaxed that it was over. 

Here's Samantha's performance. I'm not sure if the audience could tell but she played the entire piece an octave higher than she was supposed to. There was a point in the song where she paused and I could tell she realized it but the show must go on! 

Sofia closed the show with her rock band group. 

Proud mom Cami videotaping. 

Here's a little clip of Sofia singing with her band as well as a group of siblings that played after that were really talented. 

Great job done by all three!

Future band perhaps?

How did they go from this? 

To this?!

And thank you, Sarah, for doing your best trying to get a decent family photo.

I'll end with a clip of Gus. Samantha always asks him to play for her and this is a little piece he belted out for her at practice one day. Not bad. 

Chord Etude

Here's Samantha's journey to learning her next performance song from her piano teacher, Gus.

Piano Lessons

So, I've been sort of dragging my feet on putting Samantha in piano lessons. Partially due to there not being a time slot open to make this happen. She's playing two sports right now, taking flamenco lessons and she's in a running club so every single day there is something scheduled after school. And then there is the fact that we don't have a piano nor do we have room for one. Minor detail ;)

Our talented neighbors use Gus from Detar Music as their teacher and as luck would have it after my message to him inquiring about piano lessons got lost somewhere in space last year, HE reached out to us after the New Year and said he had a time slot open for Sam and we took it!

Now about that piano….. We have a keyboard that was mine growing up that we brought out of the garage to start with. 

We have literally five minutes to get downtown to Gus' studio from running class. Until running is over, Samantha will be looking quite sporty at piano lessons each week ;) 

As soon as we arrived, Gus got Samantha started with learning her way around the piano. 

I even brought my old piano books (yes, I saved them all) wondering if maybe the lessons were the same nowadays. Gus laughed at me and while my books were 30 or so years old, they were indeed the same thing taught now. The only thing is that he uses a different method for his students BUT has taught the Bastian method before and thought it would be fun for him to teach something different from his other students AND it would be cool for her to use my books, so that is the route we are going! 

My books ;)

We were short one piano book that I needed to order so Gus has been teaching Sam scales, chords and one of his songs he wrote for kids to have fun with and sound really fancy on the piano as a beginner. 

And check this out! We scored an awesome piano off of Craigslist for $75! 

Here's some video of her first month of playing piano. She can now play the "Arpeggio" song with her eyes closed and we are happy she is on to the next song ;)