Finally my piano exam is over! I'm so glad. I can't believe I actually spend more than 5 months preparing for a practical piano exam. It was definitely nerve wrecking, but a good experience to boost confidence and reduce performance anxiety.
Nevertheless, this is my first time taking a practical piano exam. But it is strange - when I entered the room I feel calm. However, as I sat down and my fingers touched the keys, I can feel my fingers start to shake. Oh dear, the goddamn nervousness have gotten hold of my fingers. Any thoughts start running through my head - was it the height of the bench affecting my posture and position of my fingers; or were I not used to the piano keys (it was a different piano with different key stiffness), or was it because of the room etc etc. But I quickly shrugged off my negative thoughts by telling myself that I should bravely confront the exam.
The examiner serenely asked me if I chose to perform my pieces first, or scales. I chose scales first because I thought it would be a great opportunity for my fingers to get used to the keys' stiffness and the sound. It is no wonder that most pianist would usually play scales before their actual performances to warm up their fingers and get familiar with the keys. So I had scales for my first part of the exam. Although my fingers are still slightly shaky, my mind remained composed and I think I got the first part with no problems, although I did accidentally made a note mistake in the beginning.
Next comes the 2nd part - piece performance. Stirring up the confident in me, I proceed to play Clementi's Allegro boldly with force and speed, I was able to play through the piece with the rhythm that I wanted but the unthinkable happened - my fingers slipped and I mess up the last few measures of the piece. Dammit. Of all times why did it happened now? But there's no time to worry, cause my examiner is expecting me to start playing my second piece: Rebikov's Pastushok na svireli igraet. I never did have any troubles with this piece before, except for the second phrase of the song which you have to play A major scale starting on E5 with fast tempo. Usually I would have troubles with this part while practicing because my fingers are still not fully used to playing the black keys (especially true since I started to change my fingers' posture of playing the black keys a few weeks ago). But I'm glad that I got through that piece with no mistakes or problems, although I think I might have accidentally connected two notes together earlier in the piece instead of disconnecting them. Lastly, Nikki Iles' Cotton Reel. I can't really remember how I did, but I think I might have made a small error in the middle of the music but still satisfactory nonetheless.
Then comes the third part: the dreaded sight-reading. I have been preparing extensively at home with sight-reading and if I botched this, there's a high possibility that I will failed my exam. The examiner gave me a short passage and I was given 30 seconds to read through it. Nevertheless, I take the opportunity to try it out but man... my fingers just won't stop shaking! I made lots of error playing the wrong notes while trying out and I was like OMG I'm doom. Ding! Thirty seconds are up and it's time to play. Much to my amusement, I was glad I manage to play the piece with no mistakes and good rhythm too. I think I have avoided the crisis. I'm pretty sure I've passed my sight-reading. Hurray for big persistent of constant practicing sight-reading!
Then finally the last section is Aural. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how well I've performed. I did give my answers confidently to the examiner as he tested me, but there is no sure way of telling if I did answer correctly or not. My teacher did advice me that I should answer quickly and confidently which I did, but there's no way to tell until I got my results three weeks from now.
Now that the exams are over, I can finally have a breathe of relief. I remember clearly that as soon as I got out of the room, my teacher just simply walked up to me and told me that I will be having a recital next month. You can probably expect to see me with a huge expression of WHAT? then and there. Haha.
With my exams over, it doesn't mean that I should be relaxing too. I've noticed that with my improved sight-reading, I was able to play some of the pieces with much ease so I would like to take this opportunity to increase my practice schedule. For the moment I'm looking at doing these exercises every night:
1. Hanon Finger Exercises from 1 to 20 (probably going to increase it to 30 or even 40 depending on my free time)
2. Scale, Contrary Motion Scales, Arpeggios and Chromatic Scales for all learned majors and minor scales (2 octaves). To be perform at least 10 times with no mistakes, proper tempo and evenness
3. John Thompson pieces (Both pieces and technical. To be prepared for class' next lesson)
4. Czerny Op 599 (for additional learning and sight-reading training)
5. Sight-reading (I'm thinking of going through Grade 3 sight-reading again and slowly increasing it to Grade 5. I've already consulted my teacher to give me materials for practice).
This is my current plan and I hope I will be able to stick to it persistently. Nevertheless, I'm definitely looking forward to how much I've improved before I take my next exam again next year (please teacher, don't make me take Grade 5 exam. I don't think my heart's ready yet...)
Sorry for the lengthy post but I am glad I was able to share my experience with you all! See you all next post!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
