I spent the last year and a bit rehearsing like crazy for my grade 8 Classical guitar exam from the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London) in April of this year. It's the final step before starting the last three phases - Diploma, Licentiate and Fellowship.
So I practiced all the scales, arpeggios, interval scales, broken chords and dissected those three pieces I had to perform for the exam. I played over and over all those troubled areas, stretching my fingers to really fine-tune (no pub intended) all the mistakes.
I tried to sight-read as much as possible. One month before the exam I sight-read almost an hour a day. Sight-reading gives me the chills, I see a new piece of music in front of me and I instantly freeze. So I really tried to do as much of it as possible, just to get my nerves used to the idea. Unfortunately that didn't really help much as fear and doubt took over my sight-reading section in the exam and once again I failed that part.
But, I was able to score almost full marks in everything else and get a distinction! I will be forever thankful. I guess hard work and practice really does make perfect (or close enough)
Sometimes I wonder what this fuss is all about in life. Everything has its' own way to working out. But I guess it certainly helps to do our part as well.
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