It's the holidays and what does that mean? Well, it means "Sing for Grandma-why do I pay for all of these lessons if you won't even sing for Grandma?" "Play your Aunt that song you have been working on for the whole year in piano lessons!" "Do your Christmas dance that you learned at dancing school." "Recite all of your lines from your school Christmas play or you will get NO presents from Santa!" Entertain your family TIME!
My own memories of "entertaining" my family go WAY back. Way back to singing in the back room (of our current house) standing on a suitcase singing for my Grandma and Aunt Nancy. I loved to perform and they wanted me to sing each song about a million times too! They loved watching me. They loved every move I made. I remember my mom asking me to sing "Greatest Love of All" in the car to her. I remember my mom sitting at the top of the stairs listening to me play the piano. I loved an audience and was never shy to put on a show. Even in high school I would play the piano and re-write the words to songs to include my friends names, my family members names, etc. I loved to play and sing and did it often.
There is one little dreaded time I did not like to perform. When Santa Claus arrived on Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve my parents would have a HUGE party and Santa was sure to arrive sometime in the evening. When he did my Dad would scream "Lisa get to the piano!" I seriously HATED it! I wanted to be normal. I wanted to sit with the rest of the crowd and watch Santa arrive. I wanted to sit with my cousins. I usually gave my Dad some serious dirty looks and then played with a real bad attitude. When I would stop-- he would tell me to start up again. The just when I thought I was in the clear Santa would LEAVE and it would all begin again. This time everyone would gather around the piano and I would play every song they threw at me. I am not a fabulous piano player by any means and I do NOT accompany my students but I do play really well and I have a special ability to sight read 80's music:) This is a fun time for my family now-a-days!
Well---I think this is the time my students need to share their talents with their families too. So I love to make recordings and videos of my students and allow them to share these special memories with their family far and near. Over the next few days I will be uploading many recordings and videos that my students have created. Many of these were done on very few takes. At this time of year it is most important for me to get the recording than to get the most perfect recording ever! I mean--seriously---that is why rock stars are in the "studio" for months on end! We do this with a MacBook, iPad and a Snowball Microphone.
The first recording I am sharing is Fiona! Hope you enjoy!