Whatever happened to...'If at first you don't succeed......'?

'If at first you don't succeed, try try again!'

Isn't that the wisdom of our childhood? Why don't kids hear that anymore? I'm constantly surprised that my piano students haven't heard this simple expression!

Little Miss J, aged 6, had a 'brain freeze' during Hush Little Baby this afternoon. Poor little possum cried as she couldn't even work out where she'd stopped in the music.

For the non-musical readers......it's called a 'brain freeze'! It happens! Usually during a performance or exam when you'd really rather it happened someplace else...like NEVER! It's that awful inner panic that happens when, usually triggered by a small mistake (called a 'slip'), you lose your place in the music & have no idea where you stopped! It's AWFUL!!! It's often accompanied (in my experience) by severe nausea, light-headedness, wobbly legs or the feeling that your heart has decided to go camping inside your brain.

Poor little Miss J, who has also been sick & is one day away from the end of Term 2 of school, just needed that brain freeze on another day. She cried. So we talked for a few minutes about school, being tired, making mistakes & how to 'try try again' after a brain freeze. Then we decided to leave Hush Little Baby & do some drawing & clapping (Theory) instead. She was perfectly happy & chose this week's favourite colour texta (purple) to complete the activities in her theory book. She left with a big smile & a skip.