I screwed up a little girl's piano recital :(

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Last Saturday we had a piano recital for all the students in the keyboard program. I am a student as well, taking lessons from the master piano teacher, but I also teach some students on the side. Most of my students right now are part of a group program taught by the master teacher. I spend some time with each one helping them polish their current songs and helping them on their solo pieces. However, I’m only part of that process, and so I don’t consider those kids truly ‘my’ students. However, I also teach private lessons, but right now I only have 1 private student, a 5-year old girl. We started back in February. I’m still new at this piano teaching gig, and so working with this little girl was a mutual learning experience.

I was really excited about the upcoming recital because it would show how much progress this little girl made in the past several months. I felt proud of myself that I was able to help this girl learn the piano from scratch- nobody else taught her before I did, and in teaching her it helps me calm the enormous amount of self doubt I have about teaching in general.

I wanted to make sure my one and only private student had a good experience for her first recital, so she would enjoy doing it, and I could continue to teach her. She’s the most angelic little 5-year old I have ever met; I don’t have any trouble getting her to pay attention, her parents are wonderful and caring, etc. So I didn’t want to have anything go wrong during her recital. But of course when you try that hard to make things perfect, something is bound to go wrong.

Every student is listed on the recital’s program, along with the piece they are playing and the composer of the piece. I was supposed to tell my teacher (the organizer of the recital) my student’s name, piece, and composer. I thought I did, but when I was helping my teacher set up for the recital Saturday morning, I came to the horrified realization that I had forgotten to mention it; my teacher had e-mailed me asking for the info a few days prior, but my browser has been acting up and I haven’t checked my e-mail for a week. So I didn’t get the memo, and consequently, my student’s name was not listed on the program :frowning:

I feel really terrible about it, especially since her extended family all came over to listen to her play. A lot of parents like to save the program since it has their child’s name printed on it, so I feel like a dolt for messing up on my own student’s special memory. Of course, being a naive little 5-year old, she had a great time, and did excellent, but I don’t know exactly how her parents feel…My teacher said it was really her fault since she was the one that printed up the program, but I think it was my responsibility for not communicating with her enough about it. I also don’t feel right handing off blame to someone else when I had at least a partial hand in the matter. :frowning:

2

Don’t be so hard on yourself. You didn’t ruin it for her, because she played, and did well. Her family was there to watch her do well. They’ll live without her name being on the program. And if they’re as great as you say they are, I’m sure her parents would understand!

3

I took classical piano for ten years…from the time I was 7 until the time I was 17. I can’t tell you the number of times my name was misspelled or left off or whatnot. But…for every time that happened I can give you 10 or more instances of learning a difficult piece or standing up after playing flawlessly and hearing the applause that more than make up for any mistake in a program. I have nothing but fond memories of my instructor and I thank her for putting a love of music in me.

Don’t sweat it. These things happen. I’m sure the little girl is on Cloud 9 from having a great performance and not even thinking about the mix-up.

And good on you for helping introduce her to music and hopefully put a love of it in someone else. :slight_smile:

4

Were these programs printed professionally, or did the teacher create them on a home PC? If it’s the latter, then it should be a very easy task to add your student’s name after-the-fact. Print a few of these up and give them to the girl’s family. Might just do the trick.

5

Having lived above a family whose little girl was learning to mplay piano, please just mark it off as Karmic revenge. The same tune played flawfully for week upon week can realy get painful. And of course, because it was a little girl and all that, whenever I met the family I would always say how nice the music was, and complement the girl’s skill.

6

I could be the little girl’s father… (my own 7-YO has been doing recitals for two years now). So I can tell you that it really isn’t all that important. Relax. Let this be the worst mistake you ever make :slight_smile:

Dani

7

Aww, don’t feel too bad.

When I first started reading your post I thought you were going to say that you forgot to schedule your student into a time slot and so she never got to play! At least she got to play for a bunch of people right? Who cares if her name isn’t on the program? Those things get hidden away in a drawer anyway.

And as someone else suggested, if it’s really that important you could just get some extra copies reprinted with her name in it, for her family. Even if it means reordering from the professional print service. If it was printed on a home or office printer, then you’re in luck. :slight_smile: