After nearly four years of flute lessons, my teacher decided I was ready to sit a grade 3 exam. So I began doing a lot of serious practice, actually I did more practice preparing for the exam than I’ve ever done before! And yes, that could have something to do with the fact that I played for nearly four years before I was ready to sit an exam! Soon it was settled. I could certainly be able to attain a suitable level of playing on the required things by exam time. So the exam was booked; we found out the time and place it was; and I continued practicing long and hard! I think I drove everyone mad playing the scales and pieces so many times! It was getting close to exam time; we took my flute to KBB Music in Epsom, and scheduled many extra lessons with my teacher {Ruth}.
Finally that was it. The practice I had done was all I could do; the day had come. I had a quick lesson with my teacher in the morning to touch u on a couple of things, before going to an orthodontist appointment, going home for lunch, and Mum taking the others to their swimming lesson. She still had a couple of things to do, and the children would be late for their lesson if she waited any longer, so she dropped them off, leaving me home to relax on my own for a few minutes (music and a drink work wonders, don’t they?!). Then she came back home, I got ready to go, and she finished what she needed to do. We picked up the others from their swimming lesson, and drove out to Remuera.
We arrived in plenty of time to see where we needed to be and stuff. I grabbed my flute and warmed up. Unfortunately the nerves hit me then! =( Anyway Ruth soon called me for my exam, so we went in, returned the greeting of the examiner, and tuned before playing my first piece. (Ruth was accompanying me on the piano, so we had to make sure my flute was in tune with it). I got through my three pieces (Andante alla Siciliana, Hurdy Gurdy, and Melodie Polonaise) with only a few mistakes (mostly due to nerves), and my teacher left as soon as she had played all the accompaniments – so after Hurdy Gurdy. Then I played a few scales, arpeggios and the sight-reading piece. Then the aural test, unarguably my worst part of the exam!
Before I knew it, it was all over! The exam Mum and I had calculated to take about an hour was over in about 10 or 15 minutes! I was relieved that it was over, but at the same time I knew I could do it again.
I think Mum had been a bit unsure about whether or not I would pass, but when we got the results sheet it looked pretty good!
Minimum pass mark = 100
Maximum possible mark = 150
My mark = 120, or pass with merit! =)
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