I am currently preparing for two exams this year- my grade 5 tenor saxophone and grade 7 flute. I have previously done 3 exams and all of these have proven my theory.
My first proper instrumental exam was my grade 4 flute last year. My hated song: Comic Song. It was the last song I learnt out of the three and, even though it looks very simple, it, for some reason, caused me a lot of grief to play. I look back at it now and want to cringe, because it looks so simple, but it was my worst then. And besides, it was a pretty lame song, anyway.
My next exam was my grade 3 saxophone. My hated song was called Plaza De Toros. Now, I don't know why, I just never liked it. I didn't find it fun and I didn't like the sound of it. My instrumental teacher loved it, however. I'm pretty sure I got a pretty good mark for it, regardless.
The next exam was my grade 5 flute, towards the end of last year. This is what I think about when thinking of my theory. My hated piece was Handel's 8th Sonata in F Major, Movement 2, Allegro. This piece was the death of me. I detested it. Now, actually, it's a pretty nice piece and I don't hate the piece itself. I just hated playing it. I, and the other girl in my flute group, had great difficulty playing this song. It made instrumental lessons dreadful as we would stuff up almost constantly and our teacher would get frustrated and yell, almost constantly. We would go through our scales and other pieces and then she would groan and say, "Now, get out the Handel...." and the other girl and I would internally panic a bit. It was awful. Come to think of it, it took me awhile to like another grade 5 piece of mine called Rumbah. I did like it in the end though, and actually enjoyed playing it. Basically, the preparation for that exam was awful, but the result at the end was good.
Now, I am supposed to be doing my grade 5 saxophone at the end of August and there is an obvious hated song. It is called Saxsequential. I actually kinda like the piece, it's fun and lively, which is a contrast from my two other pieces, which are quite emotional. I cannot play it though. The articulation, the dynamics, the swung rhythms (actually, I find that quite easy), the random accidentals, the entire second half of the song. My other pieces are fine. One is quite good, the other can be good if I play my top notes well. My scales are fine and I'm sure it won't take too long for me to get the hang of the aural tests again. It's just this song. If anything lets me down in this exam, it'll be this song. I've been practicing it this morning and playing it through slowly. It's strange, but with this piece, sometimes I'll play it at home and it'll suck. I'll freak out in my lesson, play it, and it'll be fine, even good. Then, I'll play it at home and it'll be pretty good. I'll turn up to my lesson and it'll be terrible. It makes no sense. Ugh.
For my flute exam, it's harder to choose, as I don't have all my pieces yet. I have a feeling it will be my study, though, called Boiling Point. I don't like it, already. And, again, my instrumental teacher loves it. It feels... weird to me. It's interesting and unusual and it doesn't look very difficult. It's not really difficult, but for some reason, I find it hard. I cannot play it well at all.
Oh well. I'm pretty sure blogging about the pieces I can't play isn't going to help me play them any better.
Guys, my computer's sound isn't working. I was trying to watch the TVTropes video of the week, but I couldn't hear anything. When I press the volume buttons, I could hear the sound it makes to tell you you've turned it up, but no videos are making sound. How am I supposed to check the rhythm in a section of my sax piece and then laugh at the TVTropes video and ship the main guy and girl together (they have total BST, guys. Cannot wait till they do that trope) when my sound isn't working?!?
Also, there is ONE chapter of a manga I'm downloading that won't work. ONE CHAPTER. Sigh. All of the others work fine. Why is this one different? Hm? It's in a different format to the 17 chapters before it. Why would you do that? The chapter after it works fine too. So dumb. Gosh. I guess I'll download all the other chapters and read that one online, even though I hate reading manga online.
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