The Precious Moments on Earth

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Saturday, December 01, 2007

11:13 PM

Overdue post

I know it's been a really long time since my previous post, but I have a very good reason. I was stressed out about my organ exam which is now finally over (Tuesday, 27 Nov). I could have posted after that but I had to concentrate on my UTM test next, which was yesterday.

Anyway, I just wanted to write about what happened during my organ exam.

For those of you who don't know, this is my second time taking, and most probably, I won't be able to pass this time too. My exam time was at 3pm, at Thomson Plaza, but I had to report in 15 min early so that there's enough time for me to prepare for my improvisation. I reported in at around 2.40pm and they showed me to one of the music studios. I was early, so I had to wait awhile before they showed me the improvisation and motif pieces.

(Info: Impro is when they give you a short song 4-8 lines, where you have to play the original and then improvise the melody. Motif is when they give you the beginning of a song, usually just 2-3 bars and you have to continue on your on after that to make it into a complete song)

The impro was in A minor. I was really happy because not only was it in A minor (easy), it was also in 8 beat (the style in which I had to play the piece in), which is my favourite style among the 3 types(8 beat, Swing, Waltz). I made some mistakes during the sight-reading part, but thankfully I didn't stop, and I think I did quite alright throughout the rest of it. For motif, I chose to do the one in G major. I didn't make any mistakes. So I was really proud of myself.

The disastrous part was when the time for the sight-playing came. They gave me 30 seconds to run through the song and I had to play after that. The song was in B flat major. It was considerably easier than the previous one, which was in A major, and a very complicated A major at that. But I still couldn't deliver because sight-playing is my weakest link.

Next was my repertoire pieces (2 of them: 1 is a compulsory piece and the other a choice made by the examiners out of 6 songs that I've prepared). I did quite ok for both of them, or so I thought.

Last but not least, was the examiners comments. Yes, they actually give you their comments after your examination. For my impro, they commented about the mistakes I made for my sight-reading but said that after that, I knew what to do. They said that the first chorus (meaning sight-reading) is very important. So I don't know how they'll grade me for it. For my motif, they said that it was good that I kept the flow going, but at some parts, the melody didn't sound nice. Oh well, I didn't really care because I'm so glad that I managed to complete it without making a mistake. As for my sight-playing, they said that it was messy, that I need to do a lot of practice. I knew what was coming, so I wasn't too bothered by what they said. For my compulsory piece, they said that it was ok except for the middle part where I rushed it through. Honestly, I didn't realize that I was rushing. My teacher has also told me tha I tend to rush the song during the middle part, but I just didn't realize it. I guess I have to pay a closer attention to how I play. Finally, for my 2nd song, they said that it needed more expression. Well, it's kind of hard to do that when you're feeling nervous like shit. Considering that my hands were shaking when I played the song, I thought I did a good job. I just hope that my scores this time will be better than last time. That is all I want. I need to know that I've improved.

Since this is a teacher's grade, they want every section to be perfect. You need to get at least 75% to pass. During the previous exam, one of my teacher's students failed by just 2 marks! It was all because she failed at sight-playing. So, looking at that, I can say that I'll be taking the exam again next year. Hopefully, I'll pass it then. 3rd time's the charm right?