Time to lighten up posting a little bit. The blog has been a current flood of stress, debate, songs, moments with friends, events, and the like. So for now, I'm going to blog about something I don't normally blog about... piano, and three summers ago (still the best summer to date, last year's comes in a close second). I dug up my old piano journal, and it's what I decided to blog about.
background: waaaay back in the summer of 2004 (when I was an incoming FRESHMAN - note, I'm a senior now), I joined the 10 anniv. A1 recital, and I was given a piece to play to accompany the ballet. Learning this piece gave me nightmares. It was not the musical director's fault, as I got the piece six months before. And four months practicing, I still couldn't get it right. I practiced it so much, that I memorized the piece a month before the recital, but I couldn't play it through exactly correct (with or without the piece in front of me). What made it worse was when I learned then that we were only 5 taking this special group class, and I was the only girl in the class. Needless to say, I HATED going to rehearsals, which were twice a week for three hours, and for the first few meetings, it was spent in UTTER SILENCE.
Each of us was required to write a journal, and a "notes" section. My 70+ entries worth of journal just contains self critiques and variations of the phrase "I'm dying... get me out of this!". The "notes" section was just a collection of mottos I had made to keep myself sane. I went over it today, and I couldn't stop laughing. I decided to blog them, for your reading enjoyment, with added notes.
1. patience is a virtue - this must be constantly exercised in the progress of learning, mastering, polishing, and memorizing my pieces for the recital. particularly: nocturne. slow practice, it takes patience, but JUST DO IT.
--- according to my journal entries, this was exhausted talaga. scattered all over 70 journal practice entries is how much I wanted to throw the piece in the trash can.
2. dont laugh of shake your head when you make a mistake, this applies even if the piano is horridly out of tune. really. still applies even if it is in your system to burst into hysteria.
--- there was this one rehearsal in which I couldn't stop LAUGHING whenever I made a mistake, I really don't know why. i just couldn't.
3. listening to pieces repeat over and over again 20 times for an hour is frustrating, but bear with it. you must NEVER attempt to stall the person who plays before you. it might backfire and this might happen.
--- there was this other rehearsal in which i really didn't want to play, so i stalled the person who played before me. this person ended up repeating over 20 times. I would have rather gotten it over with by then than listen to it repeat one more time.
4. don't ever, ever, positively, absolutely, without question freeze! Never! Don't ever let it happen... EVER! EVER! EVER!
--- there was this other, other rehearsal wherein I froze completely, and the dancers had to repeat. They were super mad, and I was super embarrased...
5. don't wall climb. you could miss a rehearsal and 3 days worth of practice.
--- I wall climbed with my friends a day before one rehearsal, and needless to say I couldn't move my arms the next day. I barely got through trumpets rehearsal and I just had to cancel piano. That was the worst phone call ever, telling my teacher WHY EXACTLY I had to cancel.
6. practice makes permanent. whatever you practice will be done during the performance
--- the trumpets motto. i still love it. during rehearsals, I was humiliated, frustrated, and on the verge of quitting. (I didn't, I didn't walk out. Although I threatened to the year after, but it's another story). But after May 28, 2004 , I delivered really well, and as for my little group class? it was the center of my kwento for months.
A1s on it's 13th annual recital now, and this summer is THE LAST IN CCP MAIN. I'm so jealous, and frustrated that I couldn't join it. Apparently, I was too late to enroll. Crap. Ah, who cares. Me and Trish will watch FRONT ROW. BEWARE... hahahaha :)
background: waaaay back in the summer of 2004 (when I was an incoming FRESHMAN - note, I'm a senior now), I joined the 10 anniv. A1 recital, and I was given a piece to play to accompany the ballet. Learning this piece gave me nightmares. It was not the musical director's fault, as I got the piece six months before. And four months practicing, I still couldn't get it right. I practiced it so much, that I memorized the piece a month before the recital, but I couldn't play it through exactly correct (with or without the piece in front of me). What made it worse was when I learned then that we were only 5 taking this special group class, and I was the only girl in the class. Needless to say, I HATED going to rehearsals, which were twice a week for three hours, and for the first few meetings, it was spent in UTTER SILENCE.
Each of us was required to write a journal, and a "notes" section. My 70+ entries worth of journal just contains self critiques and variations of the phrase "I'm dying... get me out of this!". The "notes" section was just a collection of mottos I had made to keep myself sane. I went over it today, and I couldn't stop laughing. I decided to blog them, for your reading enjoyment, with added notes.
1. patience is a virtue - this must be constantly exercised in the progress of learning, mastering, polishing, and memorizing my pieces for the recital. particularly: nocturne. slow practice, it takes patience, but JUST DO IT.
--- according to my journal entries, this was exhausted talaga. scattered all over 70 journal practice entries is how much I wanted to throw the piece in the trash can.
2. dont laugh of shake your head when you make a mistake, this applies even if the piano is horridly out of tune. really. still applies even if it is in your system to burst into hysteria.
--- there was this one rehearsal in which I couldn't stop LAUGHING whenever I made a mistake, I really don't know why. i just couldn't.
3. listening to pieces repeat over and over again 20 times for an hour is frustrating, but bear with it. you must NEVER attempt to stall the person who plays before you. it might backfire and this might happen.
--- there was this other rehearsal in which i really didn't want to play, so i stalled the person who played before me. this person ended up repeating over 20 times. I would have rather gotten it over with by then than listen to it repeat one more time.
4. don't ever, ever, positively, absolutely, without question freeze! Never! Don't ever let it happen... EVER! EVER! EVER!
--- there was this other, other rehearsal wherein I froze completely, and the dancers had to repeat. They were super mad, and I was super embarrased...
5. don't wall climb. you could miss a rehearsal and 3 days worth of practice.
--- I wall climbed with my friends a day before one rehearsal, and needless to say I couldn't move my arms the next day. I barely got through trumpets rehearsal and I just had to cancel piano. That was the worst phone call ever, telling my teacher WHY EXACTLY I had to cancel.
6. practice makes permanent. whatever you practice will be done during the performance
--- the trumpets motto. i still love it. during rehearsals, I was humiliated, frustrated, and on the verge of quitting. (I didn't, I didn't walk out. Although I threatened to the year after, but it's another story). But after May 28, 2004 , I delivered really well, and as for my little group class? it was the center of my kwento for months.
A1s on it's 13th annual recital now, and this summer is THE LAST IN CCP MAIN. I'm so jealous, and frustrated that I couldn't join it. Apparently, I was too late to enroll. Crap. Ah, who cares. Me and Trish will watch FRONT ROW. BEWARE... hahahaha :)
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