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Trey's First Violin Solo Competition

Are you familiar with the song "Go Tell Aunt Rhody?" It is permanently ingrained in my head after my 5th grader chose it for his first solo violin competition. I lost count of how many times I've heard it played during his rehearsals, but I am so proud of how hard he has worked on it.

We took him up to Harker Heights High School this morning at his designated time. Dozens of string-players were in various stages of tuning and rehearsing and the culminating sound was somewhat overwhelming. Trey got his violin tuned then sat to play through his song a few last times before seeing the judge.

When he was called in, he walked in with confidence and got ready to play. He had been told he could sit or stand during the competition and had chosen to rehearse while sitting down. The judge wouldn't allow that, explaining that concerts are always conducted standing up and he should learn to play standing. Gulp.

Yes, I am THAT mom, taking photos through the door window!

He recovered quickly and played his song very well. When he came out of the judge's room, his face was flushed and he said he felt like large birds were flapping inside his ribcage.

While we waited the results (I learned that a "1" is the best score meaning 'Superior' and a "2" is 'Excellent' and a "3" is -- in Trey's terms -- 'Needs Way More Work"), Trey nervously watched the 'runners' as they arrived with score sheets and wrote the new scores on the Results pages taped to the hallway wall.

Trey peeking over the shoulder of the score runner.
When his score was posted, he was thrilled to have received a score of "1"!!

Trey receives a score of "1" ... the highest you can get!
We are so very proud of him and encouraged that he has tangible evidence that hard work does pay off!  We look forward to seeing where his musical interest takes him in the future.

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