Harping On: Day 56

My sleep was disturbed by a frightful dream in which I'd completely missed my exam. My day didn't start too well when I realised I was going to lose my chauffeur. It was clear that Chris preferred his bed on a Sunday morning rather than a trip with me and the harp to Cambridge so with no one handy to replace him I had to drive myself. The afternoon run to the Corn Exchange was looking unlikely as well as Chris said he wanted to bottle his cider. Such are the highs and lows in 24 hours of show business. I did a little run through of the pieces then packed away the harp and collected my other essentials for the morning. Becky, fellow coach at Palace Band and sponsor from Day 26, recommends that players eat a banana beforehand as they are great for releasing energy slowly and can help you keep calm. I also packed a Cream Egg for after the exam as my advice is if it goes horribly wrong then chocolate will make it all better again! Music, tuner, slip of paper with programme order, lucky mascot (distant relation postcard) and I was ready.

Necessary gear for grade 1

It was a beautiful day and I arrived at the same time as Maureen and Robyn, two of the other lever harpists. We chatted about how we were and how we felt. Maureen had realised that when you get nervous your fingers get slippy, something that we'd not been affected by until now. We discussed how much we disliked Rondo, apart from Robyn who’d made the sensible decision to pick an alternative piece early on. The place was buzzing with musicians, some having done their exams and some warming up. Amelia was already warming up on her harp with Rohan. Rohan's own percussion exam had been ok although the tuned percussion stuff had not gone quite as well as she'd have hoped. Rohan had planned our exams with military precision and when the examiner was having a tea break moved all of our harps into the exam room. We warmed up on Rohan's spare lever harp when it was our turn next and otherwise hung around chatting to others. After arriving very early this morning Maurice had to go back home as they'd left one of the door lists behind. Arriving back at West Road at 8.27am he then had 3 minutes in which to warm himself and his horn up then go in. Thanea, I learned, had not been happy with the oboe so switched to the cello at some point early on. She then stuck with both instruments and took one grade 1 on Friday and one this morning! I hope her sponsors realise they will have to give her double donations now!

Harps and harpists warm up

Of us harpists Amelia went in first. After what seemed like an age she came out looking very relieved. She said there were tiny slips but she was pleased. Rohan disappeared into the exam room and brought out Amelia's harp, setting up Maureen's in front of the music stand. In went Maureen. I had a little warm up and then saw Thanea racing towards me with one of the clarinettists. “Steph! We've got a broken clarinet!” she cried! The clarinettist, Layla, said “I was just playing it this morning and it came apart in my hands!” “I've heard that before from many of my pupils” I replied. Anne was around so had a look as well. A key had fallen off of the top joint. It's a common problem and one I have seen many times before. We checked the case to see if the screw had fallen out but both of the necessary screws were still attached to the joint. The top screw had worked loose allowing the key to fall off. Easily sorted. I fixed the key back into position and Anne pulled out a tiny screwdriver to screw the offending screw back in. Layla thanked us with a hug and went off cheerfully to do her exam. I say cheerfully but I couldn't help wondering if that was the last of her excuses to get out of doing the exam. Maureen came out of the exam room and Rohan disappeared in to get my harp sorted. Maureen said Rondo didn't go to plan and she had to restart it a couple of times. There were a few too many slips so she asked the examiner if she could play it again. The examiner thought for a bit then said “ok, go on then!” Maureen said it went much better on the second time. It was then my turn and in I went. I said hello and handed my slip to the examiner. We didn't have to do that but I thought I'd make a good impression by being prepared. I began with scales. C major first, nice and easy because my harp was already set in C. Then B flat major. Ok, two flats, B flat and E flat so that means, er, which levers need to be up, er, move the A, no that's not A, and then a tumble-weed floated across my brain. I should have practised this more. I had another look at the levers but couldn't quite distinguish which were which. I was about to start and realised I'd moved a G lever. I moved it back and set off. The last two notes were wrong and I grimaced and carried on! “Would you like to do that one again?” she asked. “Yes please!” I flipped the erroneous levers and did it again. The rest of the scales were fine and the pieces all went very nicely. I didn't get too nervous but remembered thinking during one of the pieces that this was it, I was now in the exam but then remembered not to put myself off and get back to concentrating on the pieces. The sight-reading was easy-peasy and I was able to play it twice in the 30 seconds. The aural was also fine and apart from possibly beginning the pulse test twice as fast sorted it out and think that was fine. It went by very quickly and Jan, the examiner, asked me what my regular instrument was. She said if she had taken up the grade 1 challenge she would have picked the harp. I thanked her and left with a big smile on my face. Rohan greeted me as I came out. I told her it was fine apart from B flat major and she raised her hand as if to swipe my stupidity! She went in to bring my harp out and I packed it away whilst chatting to others who had since arrived. I was delighted to have found a new chauffeur! Rohan offered to take all the harps to the Corn Exchange and we left them all neatly lined up for her.