Are You Planning a Birthday Party?

Well.... is it the time of the year when you are thinking what kind of surprise party to plan for your child's birthday again?

The past two years with COVID were hard to plan any kind of get-together and party but now that we all seem to move forward, I see parties everywhere again which is great. I happen to be planning a birthday party recently, not for my own kid but for my student and I would be happy to share with you just how interesting a birthday party could be! My student is turning 10 in October and I have proposed to her mother that we could throw a MUSIC PARTY to celebrate her birthday. She will be performing piano in her music party, and It would be a process which she will be involved, from preparing the music program to designing her invitations to friends and space design.

I think it's wonderful to involve kids in this process because it's not always just mommy planning all the surprises that make it fun, I think as children grow up they get more excited when they are in charge and they definitely want to be in charge for the fun stuff. Moreover, I am using this opportunity to create more intrinsic motivations for my student to want to practice well and have something as a goal to work hard for. So now she is practicing every day and she sends me videos of her practice. I am with her every step of the preparation. Such process really make a kid grow. The birthday party is a celebration of growth. When I proposed this idea, I wished for my student to transform in this process which I expected fun but also struggles. On some days, the mom and the kid both would feel stressed out for the music party. Practice do not always show positive changes. There are hard days and there are struggles but these are all part of the process and I keep telling my student and her mom that this is a beautiful process. Even when you feel hard, tough, difficult, it is all normal and that is because any hard work will always meet difficulties, it is also the sign that you start to care more when you start to feel the resistance. Well, the good news is: she is growing fast now, she is improving much more than ever before!

So this is the plan for her music party: 1. We found a nice cafe as the venue where it can fit in 30 people, it's a nice intimate venue with a nice grand piano 2. We are about 6 weeks before the performance and now she has all the music ready in hands 3. Next we will work on putting together her music pieces in a program 4. Rehearsals - as I also plan for her to do some duets, she will be working on rehearsals intensively 3 weeks before the music party!

5. Then comes the fun part - she gets to design the program notes, invitation cards and choosing her performing dress. Who doesn't like this part?

Well, hope this gives you an idea to throw a very special, beautiful birthday party that is filled with music and spot light for the birthday girl and boy. Another special note about my student's music program is that I chose a beautiful ending music for her to perform which is "Cerf Volant" which also means "Kite", it is actually a choir song from a french movie Les Choristes and it is about the growth of children. I will end this blog post with the music here, hope you like it!

And here is the piano arrangement I made for my student, enjoy!

Cerf Volant 风筝.pdf

Download PDF • 463KB