~piano~

One thing has been on my mind this whole week. What? Piano. Why? Probably because I had two piano competitions this week. Okay... so one of them wasn't an actual competition, but it was an evaluation where you play in front of a judge, which to me is just as bad as a competition. This whole week I've been practicing piano like crazy. Lots of my free time went into playing and practicing and going through things over and over and over. Mostly I've been worried about the concerto I've been playing. I've only had it about 6 or 7 months, and that isn't exactly long enough to learn a 10 minute piece to play in front of a judge. I didn't really have it down until... well... honestly, yesterday. I thought I was ready to go and show the judges that I was the most incredible pianist ever.
Well... today came the competitions. The first one, Festival, like I said was just an evaluation. But I had my concerto first. Without warming up. BAD idea. My concerto.... I bombed it. It died. I failed. It was absolutely awful... at best. Okay, honestly, it wasn't so bad that I forgot where I was and had to stop or anything like that. But I missed so many notes (or even two or three measures at some points), it was pretty bad. Some of it actually wasn't too bad. Other parts, I'd rather have erased from my memory. But that was the piece I was most nervous about. So when it was over, it was over. And goodness gracious was I happy about it being over. I played a couple of hymns for the same judge, and then I was done with that judge. Thankfully. And I hope I never see her again because it would be an embarrassment after how I played.
Anyway, I was done with the concerto, so pretty much all of my jitters went away. I had two more pieces to play - one being the Scherzo section of a Beethoven sonata, and the other piece is called Soft Lights. I went in to see the next judge, who listened to those two pieces. They went quite fantastically, for the most part. Understandably, though, because I've been playing the sonata for over a year, and Soft Lights is slow and not terribly difficult either. So I was done with that. I was done with Festival. As far as I know, I got a superior in my hymns and solo pieces. My concerto? I don't even want to know what awful comments I got. But it's okay - thankfully things like that don't upset me much.
This afternoon, though, I had the real competition. The big deal. The thing that actually counted. Amusingly enough, I was immensely less nervous about this. Reason being, I didn't have to touch my concerto again. No more concerto playing for another scary judge. This competition was at 3:15 for me. I played the sonata and Soft Lights again, amusingly enough for the same judge that I played them for this morning. But I was glad to have him, because he seemed very amiable and fair. I played my sonata, and felt a little more shaky on it than I did the previous morning, but it wasn't too bad. And like I said, the judge seemed fair, and he seemed to be the kind of judge who would be lenient, and understand being nervous and such (and heaven knows I get nervous... sometimes my hands shake so bad that I completely fail at a piece). I then played Soft Lights... and rocked it. It was nearly perfect. Maybe one or two minor slip ups, but besides that it went marvelously. I walked out. I was done with all competitions. Joy and freedom and release. Quite honestly, I hate piano competitions. Playing for my own pleasure, okay, that's the epitome of fun. Playing for a judge under pressure with my hands shaking and me messing up every two notes? No thank you. Anyway, I felt pretty good about it, but I wasn't sure if I was going on to state. My dad and I waited outside for the last two students to play, and then the judge would announce who was going to state. Finally, they were finished. All the students stood in a row looking intently at the judge. My heart was beating faster and faster. The judge finally said, "And the winner for the 10th grade students...." He announced the name of some random girl I didn't know. I figured there was only one winner per grade, so I felt kind of disappointed. I had wanted to win, but it wasn't a big deal. But then... he called out my name. My name. Like. My name. MY name. I wanted to scream and dance around like a chicken with it's head cut off. Okay, unpleasant imagery, terribly sorry, but really, I was unbelievably excited! I couldn't believe I had actually made it to state! My teacher was super excited too (especially after the concerto fiasco this morning). And so I had done it. I was immediately texting my boyfriend, calling my mom.... it was an awesome moment.
In fact... my dad and I were so excited we celebrated with some Starbucks and their awesome new petite desserts (they're so cute and yummy), and then my dad took me to Barnes & Noble and told me to go get a book that I wanted to buy... which of course, happened to be a music book. ;) It's the piano solos from the new version of Pride & Prejudice (okay, I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but the music is gorgeous).
So. That was my day. Filled with too much piano for my taste. But it was quite marvelous and I had a wonderful time. <3
Have a blessed Sunday!