March 27, 2010 8:18 p.m.

The judge wrote: "listen for the melodic line. Make the melodies more fluid & expressive -- not just correct...I look forward to your future development. You play very well."

The italicized words above were actually underlined by the judge.

There were two contestants today. Chips, and an older girl. They both played the same piece. Chips played flawlessly (as far as I could tell), and with plenty of artistry and expression, the likes of which we haven't heard from him until now. The older girl played well, too, although some notes were out of tune, her trills weren't always clean, and she actually stopped for a few seconds in the middle of the piece, as if she was having a memory lapse.

All the adults there who heard them both play agreed that Chips played it best. Actually, Chips was technically perfect, to the extent that my untrained ear can hear. And my ear is better than it used to be (it has to be, I've been a violin mom for seven years, now!) Our teacher, Miss S, was thrilled with his playing, saying that he played extremely well and that he even surprised her today. That's a lot, coming from her.

However, First Place went to the girl, and Chips took Second (loser) Place. Remember there were only two competing today.

So here I am again, singin' the same tune. Completely stumped as to why First Place is always so elusive. I know it sounds like sour grapes to ya'll, but we continue to be baffled by this. Nobody could understand it today, and the judge's decision is always final. Violin competitions, like figure skating and gymnastics, can be so subjective.

But it was a positive day. Chips himself said that he figured this was another one of those "character building" competitions. And since he played as perfectly as we ever could have hoped or imagined, we were happy to give him the $20 cash prize we had reserved for him for "winning" today, even if it was only in our imaginations. I so wish I could have videotaped him today to share with everyone; it was so amazing. He made it all sound so easy. But contest rules forbade videotaping. Had we known how it would turn out, we would have recorded it!!

Yes, times like these are discouraging. But we are just amazed at what our son can do. No matter, we are so proud of our son today!

And if you haven't seen him play this concerto before, it is six pages long, it takes nine minutes to play through, and of course he had to play it from memory. I posted a link to a video from early February, but he played it so much better today.