All in Vain
*Please note this post was written pre-quarantine.
My 8 year old son plays piano. He has played for about 3 years now and he kind of likes it! I say kind of because, as is the case for most kids his age, they don’t always like extra work. But my son doesn’t fight me on practicing every day, he practices without much supervision, and behaves for his piano teacher.
We got started with piano because I learned to play the piano when I was a child and my parents gifted me a piano when I got married. So since we had kids, we have always had a piano in the house. Being able to play the piano has always been one of those things I assumed our kids would learn since we have a piano and it’s a good base instrument for kids to learn to play. I figure once the kids learn to read music, learn music theory, and can play the piano, they can spin off and play any other instrument they choose.
When I was a kid, a huge part of my playing the piano, was taking part in Certificate of Merit. Certificate of Merit is a theory and piano performance exam that takes place every year and goes from Preparatory level to Level 10. Most kids finish all of the levels when they graduate from high school. You learn to play a list of chords/scales, you memorize piano pieces and perform them for a judge, and you take a written theory exam. The requirements get harder every year. I finished every single level, and as I got older, the test got harder, and the more I hated piano. But...somehow I am still happy I finished all of the levels, and somewhere in the garage I have a certificate to show for all the tears I shed while arguing with my parents over the exam.
When my son’s piano teacher let me know that he was ready last year to take the Certificate of Merit exam, I jumped on the chance. I thought of course my son should do it. He is proficient in theory and can certainly memorize and play music for a judge. It would be a good learning experience for him, and later on he could put it on his college applications. But things got busy last year and we decided to skip and try again this year.
When it came time to prepare for Certificate of Merit this year my son started learning all the different scales, chords, arpeggios on the list, and was taking practice written tests every week. I could tell it was annoying for him and he was starting to dread his piano practice and lessons. When I asked him if he wanted to take the exam, he said sure he wanted to if I wanted him to.
After a lot of discussion with my husband and thinking about it, we decided we would not push our son to do the Certificate of Merit. I talked to the piano teacher and she reacted differently than I expected. She said that many parents want their kids to take the Certificate of Merit, and she supports that decision, but truthfully she thought it wasn’t that valuable and just stressed everyone out. She and I agreed we wanted to foster a love of music and the piano, so with that in mind we are not going to do Certificate of Merit. We don’t need the Certificate or the notation in the college application. We are going to focus on the music and let my son enjoy piano for what it is. Kids have enough stress in their lives, no need to add more. We will let the extra-curricular be what it is, extra.