Stage Fright

Today J had his visit to Mannes, the prestigious music school his uncle attended, the one I thought he would love to go to. Well, let's just say that it did not go all that well. While we waited in the hall, J got his rhythm going by tooting. Nobody heard that, but they did hear him banging on the walls. Drumming sorry. J hates when I say banging, and it is true, he is drumming at all times and with lots of talent. But alas, the man in the room on the other side of the drummed wall did not appreciate the beat and came out to tell us so. We waited and waited and I told J just to be himself and answer their questions when we went in. Well, we went in and it felt like the Flashdance audition in there yo. A table with a panel of piano teachers and the friendly woman from admissions. They asked J questions. He answered looking at the floor. "Are you excited fro Kindergarten?"- "No." You get the picture. The panel was very adamant about us needing a piano at home (isn't that putting the cart before the horse or whatever that expression is?) and could not care less that we have pianos at school and one at abuela's. In any event, part one was over (it would have been an audition if had piano experience) and we moved on to part two, which was a sort of music test. Except during this test, J was unable to show any of his talent or enthusiasm. The more questions the nice and patient music teacher asked, the more melodies he asked J to sing (why sing???) back to him, the worse it got. "Do you play the piano?". "No."J did not get to display his rhythm skills much, and he did not like to have such a formal evaluation. I do not think J wil get into the program. As much as I would love for him to follow in tío D's footsteps and to flourish as a musician, whatever will be, will be.