Last Thursday I had another practice session at my piano teachers home. I feel that I am getting use to the feel of the piano keys now and actually prefer them more than my keyboard. I practiced all of my scales, my contrary motion scales, broken chords, chromatics, and my three chosen pieces. My teacher so generously asked if I would like to do some aural testing as well. We went over my theory notes for each piece and that was it. I really felt that it had helped me, immensely, having these few practice sessions. I practiced again that night until 11:15pm and again in the morning of my exam day, being Friday.
It seemed like the whole morning I was just a ball of adrenaline. My thoughts were only on doing this exam and my nerves were showing it. I made my way to the exam venue and I had no idea what the exact time was but I knew I had some time before I had to go in, so I parked my car and studied my theory notes for the last time. When the time had come closer I decided to go in, as I needed to be 10 minutes early to get my name marked off and to receive my exam sheet to give to the examiner.
It wasn't long until I got called in. My heart started thumping so fast. I sat down and tried to calm myself, but it just wasn't happening. So I thought to myself, 'Oh well, I'll just have to play through it like I did in my lessons,' and that is exactly what I did. With hands shaking profusely I went through my scales, and surprisingly I hit the right notes. I was so happy but still had to keep a level head. All the technical stuff was complete, now for the pieces.
Skachka was my first piece, and I felt like my shaking fingers would just give up on me, I made a slight mistake, but just played on and completed it. With an inward sigh of relief I tried to compose myself again. The examiner requested my next piece, which was Les Plaintes D'une Poupee. I asked him if I could just have a second to get my head together. My heart was nearly beating out of my chest, but I couldn't calm down.
I began my piece, all started well, but I tried not to get carried away, I just stayed focused. I made a little mistake, but I remembered what my teacher said and just played on without stopping. When I played the last note of this song, I was ecstatic. It was the one that had been giving me the most trouble but today it just came together, I wouldn't say perfectly, but the flow of it was there.
Light Blue was my last piece and I feel that that one went OK too, until I got to the last couple of notes. My last triplet just stalled for a second, just enough for me to lose position for the last note. I then played it wrong and tried to fix it by playing it again and played it wrong a second time. I knew I should have just left it at the first wrong note, but something was telling me to show that I did know the note that should have been played but it didn't come out that way, but overall I was happy with it.
Next came some theory questions about my pieces. What Key are they in? What does Andantino mean? What does Molto legato mean? What are the three grouped notes called? I felt that I answered these relatively correct. Then the aural part. Sing the tonic note, which in my head sounded correct. Clap the rhythm back, which also sounded OK to me, then sing the melody. This one I don't think was that good, but my teacher said its better to sing something than nothing at all. So I gave it a go. Maybe the first half was right, but the second half I kind of ad-libed.
Some sight reading followed. I am so glad that my teacher showed me an easy way to do these, because it was taking me a long time to figure out where to put my fingers to start, but on the day, the first thing that I knew for sure was where to put my fingers to start, whether I played all the notes right, time will tell. Anyway that was the exam all done and what seemed like the longest 14 minutes ever, but I had survived and come out feeling pretty happy with my effort. I can say that I tried my best.
I now have to wait for about a week for the results and I don't know what is harder, the exam or the waiting for results. Lets hope there will be celebration and not commiseration.
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