Soon all the students were there and had their instruments out and had been seated.
He went to the front and directed everyone's attention to himself.
"I know you've already practiced the music, and I've looked over it. It looks like some really fun stuff. Does anyone have any favorites?"
They couldn't play all the pieces, but he didn't want to cut anypieces that any of the children had their hearts set on performing. That's what he tried to weed out in the next few minutes, with Grace helping him keep track of who liked what songs.
By the end of his questions, Grace was able to come up to him and show him a list of the songs they could take out.
"All right. We're going to be performing on December 23rd, outside in the town square. It's going to be cold, so we don't want to play too long, because we don't want our fingers to fall off."
There was laughter from all of the children, and Grace's eyes twinkled. He would make corny jokes all day if it would get her to smile. "So, I have a list of four songs that it seems like no one's going to be super upset if we cut. I'm gonna read them out loud, and you guys can let me know if it's going to bother you if we don't end up doing all of them."
He named the titles of the songs while Grace carefully watched to see if there was any reaction from the children. When they learned that one of the songs was going to be dropped, some of them actually cheered.
Sometimes, as a musician, you had to play music that you didn't like. In fact, there were multiple times that he had to play music that he didn't care for. But most of the time he loved what he did, but he knew he did a better job when he enjoyed the music he had. Since these children were not professionals, and not adults, and since they had to pare down the amount of songs they could perform, it only made sense to keep the ones they enjoyed.
Learning to do things one didn't like was a process that happened over years and years, and if the children continued to take lessons, they would have to learn that lesson along with everything else. But it wasn't one they had to learn this Christmas.
Chapter 18
Grace lost herself in the enjoyment of teaching, the excitement on the children's faces, and working with someone who had her back constantly.
In the cutthroat world of professional musicians, sure, she had friends, but she had never had anyone who had her back the way Noah did. He wasn't out to one-up her, or take her chair, her position, or to try to play better than she did or schmooze up to someone better than she did, but was behind her, trying to make sure that she was successful, as she was doing with him. Plus, working with children was far less pressure than working with a professional group. They had fun, they enjoyed it, they laughed and their eyes sparkled. This was what music was supposed to do to people. Not make them so anxious that they ended up having panic attacks and couldn't play at all.
When had she lost the joy of performing, of playing just for the sake of playing? Of performing just because she loved it?
As Noah got the children started, and they got their music out and played their first notes, it didn't sound great. But thekids were having a good time, so was she, and Noah seemed to be enjoying everything as well.
About forty-five minutes into the practice, which they had agreed would only last an hour and no longer, Mason came to the door. She knew Mason from the medical center where he worked after school.
None of the children noticed, because they were in the middle of playing an arrangement of "Silent Night," and she casually walked to the door without drawing attention to him.
"Noah is a natural with these kids. I've heard them practice before, and they sounded terrible." Mason shuddered in mock horror.
She laughed and pitched her voice low.
"When you're first starting out learning an instrument, horrible is probably what you should expect."
"Well you should've seen the other teacher trying to work with the kids. They got angry and frustrated and slammed books around and insulted the kids, and they were nothing like Noah. I've been listening cause I've been working in the office across the hall for some extra credit to make up grades, and I've been listening. Noah is amazing with kids. I just thought I'd pop in and give him a thumbs-up. But I don't want to bother anyone."
"I'll tell him what you said. And I know he'll appreciate it. He's bitten off a pretty big chunk, and he's not sure he can chew it."
"But he's got you to help him. What more could a guy want?" He grinned and then ducked back out before Grace could ask him what in the world he meant.
As they came to a particularly hard part of the passage, Noah stopped and motioned to her to give him a hand. She went up, and they helped some of the children individually with that spot. As she did, she thought to herself that teaching was performing without performance anxiety. She was helping others to perform, and they were taking what she was giving them and using it for themselves and their performance. They would take a little bit of her with themwherever they went. She loved that idea. Loved that she was pouring into a child and that what she gave would last for the rest of that child's life, possibly making them a better person, and definitely a better musician if they took her advice and utilized it.
She was still thinking about that after the kids had left and they were cleaning up the room. They wanted to leave it spotless since the school had been gracious enough to allow them to use it without giving them a difficult time.
"I thought that went really well," Noah said as he closed the door after the last student left.
"Far better than I thought it was going to. The kids were such a joy to work with. They love what they do."
"I think anymore you almost have to love the idea of music or playing it yourself or something, because so few people actually put the work into learning an instrument."
"You could be right. Or maybe the love of music is fostered at home somehow?"
"It could be. I know my parents were instrumental—no pun intended—in my love of music. All of my siblings have it. Some of my favorite times with my family were when we all sat around together and sang in the evenings. What a great time as a family."
