Piano Exam

Just came back from my Grade 7 exam at Cristofori Funan S3... the examiner was very friendly, we joked about how the water in my bottle looked like alcohol and thus was affecting my coordination.

Obviously, since we were joking about my coordination, it didn't go all that well... did ok in scales but messed up the F# contrary chromatic scale (he asked for staccato! how cruel) and had to try it again. My first piece I did ok, but my fingers were stiff and cold so the rhythm was a bit off for the whole first part and I botched the last bar - second part was alright though. My second and third pieces were better, but I accidentally held a G# instead of F# for two whole bars in the third piece (the contemporary one)... held it intentionally of course, to cover my mistake. ;) Hopefully the rest of the piece was cacophonous and abstract enough for him to miss that error, although I highly doubt it.

Sight-reading went better than I had hoped, but my attention to dynamics were sorely lacking and this was made obvious when I played the last bar as "pp" instead of "ff" as it was written. I maintain nonetheless that it sounded much better as "pp," but I don't think he really would have cared about that. Hmph.

Aural was a disaster. Especially the modulation, cadences, and clapping-the-rhythm... he didn't really play a very loud bass line for the first two and the last one - well, there's really no excuse for messing that one up. Curses. At least I think I got the period right for test D, romantic.

Provided I get a decent score on the scales and exam pieces, and an average sight-reading mark, those should save my aural score and give me a pass. But they do say friendly examiners are the harshest markers, so I'm not particularly optimistic. :( Oh well.

Dropped by Borders after my exam and bumped into Arjun there - he's leaving for St. Bart's at the end of the month. Also saw Giri. Walked past Olinda Cho as she was heading out of Borders with two friends? bodyguards? o_O ... she's surprisingly short.