Fuzzy socks and tea

Well, the vacation is over. I had to work today!! Saturday!! Up at dawn for a 30-mile drive through thundering rain to evaluate twenty piano students for Certificate of Merit, a program of advancement and recognition for piano, voice, strings and winds students. To begin with, I'm always a little anxious on the first assignment of the season. We only do this during February and March, so I was cramming like for a final exam last night to be sure I was familiar once again with the judging criteria.

It was a dreary day, and I was feeling dreary that vacation was over, when 20 little rays of sunshine came into the room and one after another lit up my day. These little 12 - 16 years old students were mostly applying for advanced levels. I was afraid they were over-reaching, but they were amazing! It's easy to evaluate students who are excellent. Its more difficult with the ones who give marginal performances. But today there were only two of those. You wrack your brain to find something genuinely positive to say when all you can think of is what needs to be improved. You write comments like, "You play with great energy," then point out the tempo is Andante, not Presto. Or, "You have a really nice legato pedal technique," then mention the damper pedal wasn't invented yet when Bach was composing.

Back home to fuzzy socks and a cup of tea.