I haven't posted anything for three months but that's partly because I've not done much at all. Oh, apart from take grade 5! It was a bit last minute as we needed some extra candidates to make up numbers for a special visit session so I thought if I had the exam coming up I'd be forced to practise. I did manage some extra practise although not as much as I should have done but got through the exam with a merit (84/100 - Trinity) so I was pleased with that. I now join the illustrious group of Grade-1-a-thoners who have achieved grade 5.
I changed exam boards for this one and used Trinity rather than ABRSM. There is some overlap on the pieces but the main difference is that you can choose which supporting tests you do so I did improvising and sight-reading instead of aural and musical knowledge. The improvising was a bit of a challenge and while I had practised some techniques it did feel like I was winging it. I followed the chord patterns but I ended up playing at half speed to what I had intended so that dragged it all out a little longer than I'd planned. Scales were a little ropey and I missed switching a couple of levers so there were some strange notes here and there. I did feel quite unprepared at this stage. I do find the less prepared you feel the more nervous you are likely to become. So advice for those who are nervous is practise even more than you feel you need to! I may be more understanding now with pupils who do no practise because they say they've been too busy but if that is the case then don't expect to give a decent performance when it counts.
My next harp events are a couple of weddings for friends and family so I need to get my general repertoire back up to standard. My singer friend, Karen, has given me some folk songs for voice and harp so we'll work on those and hopefully get a performance in at a local venue. There are plenty more orchestra and chamber concerts coming up so I'll hopefully get the forthcoming performances bit sorted again. Tomorrow morning I will make a rare appearance at church as I've been asked to play the piano for the newly formed village choir who are singing in the Easter service. I like accompanying but have to work hard so that I don't sound like I'm wearing flippers as I work my way blindly around the keyboard. There are just two pieces, Mozart Ave Verum Corpus, a beautiful four part choral work which requires smooth gentle accompanying, and subtley shaped phrases to support the singers, followed by Oh Happy Day, a gospel version that needs to be as funky as possible. I just hope I get the styles the right way round!
