8:35A.M.
Good morning, ma’am.
Good morning. Take a sit please
There I was, sitting on the piano seat on the 5th floor of Kuching’s prestigious five-star hotel, the Merdeka Palace. Looking out the window, over the Merdeka Square as I took a deep breath, wiping my sweat drenched hands over my laps when a lady that looked in her sixties signalled for me to start.
Can you play for me the scales of D-flat major please?
Seconds later, my shaking fingers were dancing along the keys of the D flat major scale. It was not until halfway that one my finger slipped of a black key and the rest of the scale went haywire. Damn, what the hell, the keys were as slippery ice! Who wouldn’t slip? I had to make out the missing keys in the mess and fakingly stamped on the finishing D-flat note, only to hear the examiner saying, ‘Can you play that again for me please?’ How nice of her to give me second chance but HELL, the second time was as bad. And worst still, she HAD to give me the hardest of all scales (at least in Grade 5) — the E-flat minor. Talk about luck.. Argh!
Luckily the other part of the scales went smoothly and we proceeded to the first piano piece. That, too, was total crap. It was okay in the beginning but I slipped in parts here and there and even stopped halfway searching for notes. So, overall, it was crap. Cursing, I went on to the second piece which was well, OK and the third which was also fairly fine. Whew!
8:45A.M.
Next, it was the oral test where we’re required to sing from memory, clap to the tune, state the time and answer questions, blah blah. The examiner politely asked me to stand aside facing away from the piano (standard procedure). I shakingly stood up and took the left side, which was right in front of her table. A quick glance saw that she gave me 22 marks out of 30 for the first piece. Not very high, yet not very low so I was like, wow.. After that poor performance, she gave a pass for the first piece. How nice. I glanced further down and try to make out the marks for the second piece, which was, if I was not mistaken, around 26(/30). Not bad eh? And that was all, I wanted badly to look at my marks for my scales, which I presume, would certainly be below the passing mark. But she had a paper over the mark sheet that blocked everything below. So, what the hell, here goes the oral test.
8:47A.M.
This may be my last piano exam, hence the title, because I may not take Grade 6 next year, in fear of not being able to cope with SPM. But oh well, so much for the last exam. Hope I’ll pass.
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