hi again

some people might remember my posts from when i came back after sitting Grade 5 piano and poured out all my sightreading woe into a post. everyone was really supportive, and i truly do thank them for that.

anywho, i recently received my mark in the mail, and was pleasantly surprised to see i gained distinction, so it was a bit of a *woot* with a bit of mixed in...

about the sight reading...




i passed.


i dont know how.


i dont know why.


i think it was a miracle.




i think it was 16/21, which is pretty good for ending the piece more than four times slower than the first piece


also, one remark (which i love!) the examiner made about the sight reading was "tried to keep it going" , the operative word being "trying". apparently through some sheer miracle i managed to "form an overall shape of the music" or something like that. maybe she was just trying to make some positive up...

but yes, thanks again to everyone who was so nice about all my worrying and that, i have a feeling it was your support that might have, through some strange paradoxical happening, miraculously give me this

Well done, Julia.

Well done Julia!
I'm always trying to convince my pupils that you get a lot of credit for "trying to keep going"!

Well done!!!

You can start those grade 6 pieces now!

I once read a reply on this forum that someone wrote about sightreading, can't remember who it was that wrote it, but it really stuck in my head and improved my ability to keep going.

'Go in to the exam and play a note when there's a note and don't play a note when there's a rest, make sure you do at a minimum that and anything else is a bonus'. I found that apparently very simple advice to be very helpful in keeping going; yes, okay 'keep going' which we hear all the time amounts to the same thing but when it's worded so that it sounds so simple to do the keep going thing, i.e. just make a sound when there's a note, it really makes one feel like one can keep going since it's so simple and causes one to be more willing to sacrifice other things to do so. It's slightly more complex on piano (this advice was for a single line instrument) where one has to play the right number of notes with each hand and only make a noise with each hand when there's a note in each hand. Still a lot easier than thinking about all the right notes though (of course one does this to the best of one's abilities instinctively when keeping going).

Congratulations on your grade 5 result .

Well done!

Car Expert

Good job! 16/21 is a respectable pass, and that also means you must have got high distinction marks in other categories

Congratulations!

Wow. Congratualtions. I can only hope that one day, I type out a similar email and then get a distinction. Can I borrow your hands to do my Grade 1 ;-)

Well done

Well done

Thanks, everyone!

Its strange, ive suddenly been overcome by this great sense of gratitude and im really touched by all these positive replies from people i hardly know. its a nice feeling...

Ooh! i forgot to mention in reply to Helen that i have started by Grade 6 pieces!
I was really eager to start - to me, Grade 6 sounds high up and its weird to think ive come this far when I still feel like Ive just started learning! Strange... Ive chosen my three pieces, and might I add that I was rather taken aback by their simplicity (or maybe my idea of Grade 6 was one a lot more difficult)

Anyway, like what i always do, there was that short burst of initial enthusiam and I came straight home and learnt the first two pages of my first piece. Now that enthusiam has worn off but I'll have to make it come back if i'm to sit the exam in June next year. Ive heard its quite a bit harder that Grade 5 and doing that, plus learning Grade 5 theory (so i can sit the Grade 6 Practical in june) and keeping up with school commitments is going to be a trifle interesting!

Well done!