State Music Festival, Here We Come

We made it through the District Music Competition (times two). I had the pleasure of being their room monitor. It's pretty nerve-wracking for the mom to sit outside and listen to your child play. Andrew & Nathan have worked their songs since February/March and we've heard them hundreds of times getting ready for this moment. Andrew went first and I missed his first song (getting Nathan ready). In Andrew's second song, I heard a memory error and to me it was glaring, but he kept going and she must have missed it.

Nathan went in and when he did his scales, he was coming down with his left hand and stopped with two notes left in the scale. WHAT!?!?!?!? Then he restarted the scale coming down. I'm cringing. I guess he made a fingering error and didn't have enough fingers left to finish--so he restarted. YIKES!!! He played his songs flawlessly.

I was proud of both boys, but kept telling them it might be a 2 rating. FYI--Superior rating is 1+, 1 or 1-. The ratings go downward from 1-4. We thought it took a Superior rating to go to state (plus a good score on theory test), but somebody told us a 2 could still go to state.

Well, I'm pleased to announce our scores. Andrew was #95 and Nathan was #96. BOTH boys got a 1+. What an honor. They are thrilled with their medals. We get their theory tests back Friday, but their teacher took a quick look over and both had enough right to go to state. Woo Hoo!!!

Here's what Nathan did while waiting for his turn to play. Totally relaxed (go figure) and playing with his magnetic game. Eventually, I think another boy joined him to play while they waited.