My Musical Family

Last Wednesday, Tyler and I were IMing in preparation for my trip to Youngstown on Thursday. He told me he had an audition on Saturday afternoon and asked if I would mind rehearsing with him to prepare for it. Mind?! I felt honored that he would ask! I told him if he had the option of bringing his own accompanist, I would be happy to accompany his audition.

Saturday morning he and I, accompanied by Boston who wanted to observe the action, climbed the stairs to his attic office, where he keeps a Kurzweil keyboard. Tyler pulled out the score to "Beauty and the Beast" and opened it to Gaston's solo, "Me!".

We started rehearsing and Boston wanted to get into the act. So I taught him how to turn pages, how to listen for me to say "Now" or "Okay" or "Turn". The last two beats of the piece are triplet eighth notes followed by a quarter note — all on F, in triple octaves. Boston heard that a couple times, then went down to the bottom of the keyboard and played the lowest F right along with me - rhythmically perfect. I taught him how to look for the fermatas and the three lines of text that indicated we were on the last page. When he saw that, he would know he didn't have any more pages to turn and he could move to the bottom of the keyboard to play the last two beats with me.

Each time he played the notes, usually with accurate rhythm and note, he ended with a flourish and a shout of "I did it just like you." As he got more and more comfortable with the music, he would sing along with his daddy. Tyler and I were starting to think he could go to the audition with us.

Boston had been begging me for money all weekend to buy a transformer. I told him if he did this job well, including not singing along, not talking, and not shouting in triumph at the end, I would pay him $5. He agreed, willingly.

The audition was challenging because of the space and setup of the keyboard, chair and music stand. Nevertheless, we mastered the awkward situation. (Thank God I automatically memorize things after three repetitions — the music was too far away for me to read!) Boston turned all the pages perfectly, then at the appropriate time moved to the end of the keyboard, watched me, and played his four notes exactly right. He looked at me and grinned and said nothing. And Maureen and Todd, running the audition, applauded him.

Maureen turned to Tyler and said, "Tyler, I knew you were a musician, but I didn't know you were a singer." He and I laughed about that all night long.

And in a private conversation with Maureen afterwards, Boston confided that he was being paid for his work. Maureen told him he should ask Grandma for an extra dollar on account of the applause.

Of course Grandma agreed. It was a memorable experience.

Before I left on Sunday, Tyler set up the video camera and we taped a repeat performance. I can't wait to see that video!