Exam Results and the Beginning of 'Real Stress'

Hey all,

after waiting for almost a month, I've finally got my exam results for my ABRSM Grade 3 Piano. Can't say that I am anxious about it because I am only expecting to only get a past for my results. I know I made a lot of mistakes during the exams so I didn't really expect too great for my results.

I wasn't able to attend my class last week due to illness, so I wasn't really informed about my exam results. But when I went to my recital a few days ago, my teacher inform me that I've actually gotten a distinction for my exams. All I could think on my mind was the word "Impossible". Since my main focus was on the recital, so I didn't really pay much attention to it.

Did I mention I didn't really perform too well during the recital? I was perfectly calm during before the performance but when I actually sat myself on the chair, my heart starts beating like madly. I don't know what came over me. Since I can't control my crazy heartbeat, I used my mind to control my fingers to play my piece. As you expected, I definitely made a few blunders, but I make absolutely sure to keep playing the piece without stopping, without restarting a phrase, keep up a consistent rhythm and more importantly, not to shake my head whenever I made an error. And I did manage to do all of that. I was told by my teacher that my nervousness showed greatly during my performance, so I guess for next year's goal I have to learn to control my nervousness and stage fright if I were to do more performance in front of the audience. Time to work hard!

So where was I? Oh, the exam results. Sorry for getting off the track. So yesterday I went for my class and my teacher finally gave me my exam assessment. I really did get a distinction for my exams! I am proud of myself for achieving a distinction, but at the same time I am also worried. The thing is, my teacher plans to make me take Grade 5 exams next year! I have a lot of pressure and stress preparing for my Grade 3 exam this year, and I am certain that I am going to have more pressure preparing for Grade 5 since I do know that it is not easy to take Grade 5 exams. It's going to be another year till my exams come, and yet I'm feeling more inclined to practice more. I guess it never hurts to start preparing early rather than late, huh?

Aside from that, my class lessons have increased in time due to preparing me for taking Grade 5 exams, and I am actually glad it happen. Although I work 9 hours a day in the office, I am always constantly thinking about going back home and play the piano so I'm really glad I get to spend more lesson time with my teacher to improve my piano skills. It is tiring to practice daily, but I've always enjoyed my time spent with the piano.

As of this moment, my teacher has already started me on learning all the required scales, arpeggio etc for Grade 5 and I've taken most of my time to make sure I remember the key signatures. More so than ever, I am highly motivated to approach and learn new difficult pieces to increase my repertoire and musical knowledge. I can't wait to see how much I'll be improving for the following 3 months!

Enough rambling today. Right now I'm trying to learn Clementi's Op 36 No.1 so once I did I'll try to post a video of me performing it. Till then, see you guys in the next post!

Regards,
Ryou Takehito