Piano Lessons

Piano lessons went very well today. We (my teacher and I) spent the first 20 minutes of the lesson discussing the books I had, if I planned to continue piano after grade eight (I might as well do grades nine and ten, because I can) and more importantly, my exam results. Just so I can brag again, I got eighty-eight on my grade seven Royal Conservatory exam, and my comments sheet was on my teacher's bulletin board, which made me feel special. She said she was very happy with my mark, and she sort of went through the comments and discussed them. She said that if I felt as though the examiner didn't make too many positive comments, it was because he marked me so well and needed to make some constructive criticism.
I was so relieved to get a good mark, because the guy was pretty snobby and he made me super nervous - he wouldn't even let me try the piano before I played! He just went straight into the exam and said "Would you like to play your studies first, or your repertoire?" which was an odd question to ask, because I had marked it clearly on my form. So I said, "Um, could I try the piano first?" and he put on this sort of affronted how-dare-you-ask look (I might be exaggerating a LITTLE) and said, "Oh, well, we don't have very much time and we can't do that for everyone," which basically, I think, meant "You're no special case, why should I?" which made me kind of mad, because I wanted to play a formula pattern and a cadence, that was it. It probably took him longer to refuse me than it would have for me to try the piano. Even concert pianists try the piano before they play! Boy, I was mad. But the rest of the exam went pretty smoothly, except I had false starts on two of my pieces (I'm still kicking myself about that). I was so relieved when I got out that I started to cry, which was stupid because it went well. One of my teacher's other students had a really bad experience with him so I'm glad it was okay.

Anyway, that made me feel pretty cool, and then we started this neat piece with a key signature of six flats (ouch) called Puck. I'm also doing Sonata in C minor and a Sonata by Beethoven, as well as the Pride and Prejudice theme and a couple Pirates pieces. Probably Two Hornpipes and the Davy Jones music box theme, or Davy Jones playing the organ. An hour-long lesson sure didn't feel like long enough! But I'm really glad I had such a good first lesson.

Then we went to the library and I finally got some reading material, and got slurpees before we came home. It's our Wednesday tradition, we always get slurpees. School went well today, probably because there was less of it (Wednesday is a half-holiday - I only have science, math, quizzing and a couple other little things) but I decided to stay home from Mike's tonight because I need some down time. To blog, and read The Golem's Eye (Bartimaeus trilogy, second book) and eat Reese's Pieces. And maybe do some quizzing.

Other good thing - I got to sleep in this morning! Yay! I got up shortly before nine, which was really nice because I was tired. I did have a strange dream, though. We were dropping off my friend at her house, and for some reason we stopped at my other friend's house and got her to walk my friend home. Which was odd. And the sky was an odd creamy white sort of shade, and there wasn't a sun. I just remembered that part. Then for some reason me and my dad slept in a house with no roof, and my quizzing booklet turned into a computer with no internet, which disappointed me because I wanted to check the Arwen-Undomiel forums. Then it ended. Weird, eh?

Oh, and I found out the Crocodile Hunter died! He got stung by a stingray! That's so sad! And he has a wife and two kids, a boy and a girl. It was really bad luck, people don't often die from stingray stings, but he was swimming above one filming for a TV series and it flicked up with its tail and got him right in the heart, I think. I read it on CBC.ca, I'm pretty sure. I feel so bad for his family. I remember him from about six years ago...I was at my grandparents' house for a week with two of my cousins, and we watched the Crocodile Hunter a lot, and my cousin did a really funny imitation of him - "This is the most poisonous snake in the world - I'm just gonna hold it up REAL close to my nose" - complete with Australian accent, and...I don't know...for some reason that makes me really sad.

But I did find an ad for the Edmonton Homeschool Band in our Education Unlimited newsletter, so I emailed the person in charge and hopefully she'll send me back some information. I hope there's a spot for a piano in their bands! Or maybe if there isn't, she can refer me to a homeschool jazz band. Anyway, it looked pretty interesting.

I thought my posts would get shorter when school started, but they're really long now. Weird. Anyway, I'm gonna go read, and eat candy.

~Sil

P.S. Oh yeah, I forgot - the roof got done today! It looks really good, with new shiny black shingles. And Amazon STILL has not shipped my special limited edition LotR DVDs. Amazon!!! Hurry up! I ordered probably a week ago!

~Sil