Grade 4

can't believe myself, cried because someone critisized me, and the consolation was 3 hrs late? gosh, felt like a 7-yr-old.. feeling childish seems like the norm nowadays.

Exam, jittery all morning, don't know for what, didn't feel like I was going for an exam, just really restless. Guess haven't had such an individual exam for ages, no more orals nowadays, and i haven't taken performance exams for 3 yrs.. that's a long time. Guess i knew Clementi too well now, felt like I was just going for another lesson but really nervous about it.

Examiners' comments: (this is for my own reference, u might be extremely bored by this, so might as well don't read)
Impro: knew the requirements but choice of chords very simple, I-V-V-I, 1st round a bit shaky in the 2nd, 3rd line, didn't know the chords? (nope, just forgot what to do).. could have added more colour and made it more interesting. Ending part was a bit messy (yup, almost ended in wrong key).. (well, at least they didn't say that it was Grade 5 standard)

Motif: A & A': simple chords again, could be more adventurous, use IIm
B: memorised pretty much everything (hmm, wasn't i supposed to do that?), quite a contrasting usage of chords, so much more substance (well, I modulated to C maj, of course got more room to develop right?)
A'': again simple chords
generally: there were some slips but managed to catch back on and didn't break down (wasn't even thinking abt the possibility of a breakdown, slips yup, breakdown never)
maybe I should have chosen a minor key instead and show them my "more interesting" progressions

Sight-Reading: the thing had 4 flats, luckily it's not 4 sharps A few slips here and there, but ok (I thought quite a lot of mistakes, all the flats and naturals confusing me, even went to play Gb, haha) Sound change a bit sudden, yes the last part is f but the starting was already mf, so if you really want to change sound, change confidently and beware of your sounds, control your vol carefully, it was a bit too loud. (ok, so shouldn't have changed, and yup it's the confidence thing again, knew it'll come up in one of the comments, at least it didn't show up in impro)

JOC: Shooting Stars, strange choice, cos the girl before me played that too. Anyway can't believe what rubbish i did.. stopped the whole thing, silence, then flip page. Aargh! That was suicide! Shouldn't have flipped at all. Guess that's why they stopped me before I finished playing.. the 1st part was fine, but then stopped halfway, don't know is it musically like that or waiting for us to stop you or what? it sounded very strange.

Classic: not an easy piece because of the way it's written. The title is "From Heaven, I Come", it's stately, grand, but must have its soft parts as well. Do you listen to Bach music? (no) Maybe you should listen. You played all the notes accurately but although there are no phrase markings or dynamic marks but must observe the phrases and make them more distinct and not just loud all the way, noise all the way. It's very hard to explain, you should really listen to Bach's music. You didn't really understand the piece. (so I was creating noise.. wonder if i failed that>

Free Choice: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, I played 5 out of my 7 pieces yesterday at the demo, and they have to choose this piece which I didn't play yesterday, nvm, I love this piece all the same Again, this is not an easy piece to express, quite realistic soundings, (of course, articulation has always been my focus of practice). Can tell that you spent quite a bit of time on it. Must take note that the loud part must go soft too, if not it's a bit overwhelming. And I noticed that you haven't really learnt to use the touch-tone, (yup, I can't control it well, always become horrible swellings, so i don't usually use it, especially on a EL90 where the keys feel so different). This piece is so melodious, you can use the touch-tone more and depend less on your leg. That's why touch-tone was incorporated into electones, (yeah, but I only found that out a yr ago and just started using A.T.) Just an area to improve on, but don't overdo it, or it'll sound exaggerated.
Generally: Can tell that you practised your pieces.

OK fine, so what's the conclusion? That I prepared well, memorised chords and so on, but musically/ "musical theory-wise" I was just not good enough. Can't fill in nice chords and so on.. Well, that's quite accurate. The probs pointed out, for impro and motif, I nv noticed those probs, as in simple chords, nv knew they mattered, thought as long as filled in sth correct will do, apparently they want more than that. Sightreading, I was "drawing legs on the snake", got a mark deducted or so. JOC, I was asking for it lah, doing such stupid things. Classic, should have made him check me on that, or pressed to understand what's going on, or asked for another song. Too late now. Piece, think I spent too much effort trying to be submerged in the last part, a bit too loud, and think i shouldn't concentrate so much on my timing, not so much of a prob

Learnt a lot today but sure hope that it's not a fail. No chance to ever retake it and no point either. If I were to take lessons again, shall really really learn how to impro pro-ly like he does, learn some theory, and arranging/ composing, and perform. Ambitious eh? That's only if and only if i take again. Till then, life moves on, and it's mugging time