stressful week of CCTs

I haven't been able to blog for some time due to the CCTs, constant band practices, and a stressful piano exam. So let me just recount this week which has pulverised my mind, body, and lower lip. Why lower lip? Find out.

Monday: Chinese CCT. For once, it was easier than I expected. The textbook-related cloze was like; ignore the passage and follow the han yu pin yin. The cloze was normal difficulty, and the comprehension was quite ok too. Even the ke wen shen lun ti, which I usually get 0 for was answerable.

Tuesday: Mathematics CCT. This completely killed me. I can guarentee that at least 50% of our batch will fail. I don't even want to talk about it; how my value of E for the x-coordinate geometry question was 2/9, how on earth should you find out the value of a and b for a cubic graph, how 45 minutes was a rubbish timing for such a difficult paper...

Wednesday: Break from CCTs! But had to mug & mug & mug Biology and piano aural. I mean, is Baroque polyphonic or what? Or is that Romantic? And does BbHh + bbhh = 1:1:1:1?

Thursday: Biology CCT. Easy. No big problems, lucky I learnt Klinefelter's Syndrome (XXY) for that karotyping question. Then came the afternoon. PRACTICAL PIANO EXAM GRADE 6. Let me give a blow by blow account of this nightmare.

PART ONE

Walk into the music studio. 30 minutes early. Register with the steward. Sit down. 10 minutes pass. Some other guy comes into the studio and registers. He's taking Grade 7. Another 5 minutes pass. The steward gets up and calls that other guy. He's rather pale in the face, so I say "good luck". No reply. 15 minutes pass, with faint chords enamating from the exam room. Door opens. The guy comes out with a rather strange expression. I go in. First sight of a elderly foreigner. I say "good morning". He replies in turn. I give him the examiner's record sheet and make myself comfortable at the seat.

PART TWO

A few seconds pass. He asks me if I would like to start with scales or pieces. I say scales, Group 1. After a few major scales, he then says G sharp melodic minor. I stare blankly at the keys. I put my fingers on G sharp. I run my fingers over the piano a few times, then start playing. Ooops. Thats F sharp. I try again. Wait, G sharp melodic minor doesn't have D does it? Try again. Finally get it correct. The brittle "thank you" breaks the silence which follows. Chromatics: fine. Diminished 7th scales: fine. Arpeggios: not too good.

PART THREE

Now, exam pieces. First piece: too fast! Due to fast opening, I messed up the morents and semiquavers in the middle of the piece. Second piece: ended on Eb instead of Bb on the last chord of first section. Sounded completely terrible. Too little crescendo for the second part. Otherwise, OK. Third piece: Pretty fine, no major mistakes except for an overexaggerated rubato bit.

PART FOUR

Aural. What fun. He asks me to imitate his lower hand melody. I look confused. He then corrects himself and says its the upper hand melody. I ask him if I can whistle instead of sing, and he is agreeable to that. Now, this melody started on C, and went up and down. My whistling range is ONE octave of C to C (or maybe C# if I push it). So, couldn't do the higher notes, major mistakes in tuning. Sight-singing: fine. Analysing a played piece: was it Classical? Or Baroque? Then, sight-reading. Started melody fine, left hand completely unsure of what to do, right hand melody wrong notes, so thank goodness I ended on the correct chord. I leave the room rather flustered yet relieved.

So... did I fail?

Friday: Intensive sectionals for band. My lower lip kept hurting towards the end. Just noticed that Wen Jie has his own mouthpiece and ligature!!! I'm still saving up! Then, when I asked him where he bought it and how much it cost over MSN, he replied "somewhere in Jurong" and "donno". I mean, these kind of things take a large lump out of your pocket money and you don't remember how much they cost??? Or is it that you don't want to admit it?

Saturday: Ok, more hardcore sectionals. My lips, still recovering from yesterday, died during the first 30 minutes of playing. BM not happy with me. I hope my lower lip revives by Mon or I'll get prosecuted during concert by him. (he sits right next to me!!!) Band practice on Fridays AND Saturdays is NOT a good idea.

All in all, a stressful week. Looking forward to March holidays, but even that is jam packed:

Friday & Saturday before hols: 2 separate performances for the SAME event over 2 days. (we're guests for RJC's concert A Tempo)

Monday & Tuesday of hols: Band camp!!! I am really looking forward to this. Unless of course this is one of those hardcore sectional practice in disguise.

Thursday & Friday of hols: 2 separate musical exchanges with St Joseph Institution & Anglican High School. Please, may we NOT get owned.

To top that off, there's still the road to SYF!!!

Band is starting to become fun... unless my lip hurts. Seriously. When I can play, band is fun for me. When my lip grows tired, I play worse and worse, and get scolded more often, and thats not fun.

Goal: Train lip stamina!!!