I survived. Bill called through and told me my grade - which is what he'd tipped I'd get after the exam - a B plus.
Which I'm actually fine with, because the nerves thing... so much more exposed than an ensemble situation. I'm still figuring out how to perform my best under those conditions.
Without seeing the score sheet, I know I lost points on the following:On the other side of the coin:
- >> My "#9" lost it - pox diatonic sequence.
- >> My Sight Reading was described by the Examiner as "a fair effort" (ie, I wasn't pissing in the dark, but I need to work on sight singing a lot.)
- >> My first piece - Music For A While - which (annoyingly) was easily my best piece in the last few months, bore the worst of my nervous tone as I settled in. I'd say it was the worst I've sung it in the last two months.
- >> My lyrics got muddled in the Mozart Aria - which was a very new bit of repertoire - and I delivered the recitative a bit slowly for the same reason - I was still thinking out the lyrics.
- >> My Aural was perfect.
- >> I performed the Wolf leider the best I have ever sung it.
- >> I performed the Alfred Hill song the best I have ever sung it.
- >> I recovered from the early nerves through solid technique.
Cool things were:I was really happy with the exam on the day - even though I knew my High Distinction or Honours had slipped away as various points sheared off; I was happy with simply being in control of my voice enough to get it together.
- >> I was far less nervous than in my last exam - Grade 5 - and my tone was so much more free.
- >> The examiner asked me where I was going to audition for Uni. Meaning, audition as a classical singer. And she's on faculty at ACU and Melbourne. And that is kinda cool.
- >> Bill said he hoped I was going to do Grade 8. (Which I am.)
Now that a little time has passed, I'm not exactly pissed off with myself for not having a perfect result - but I know the things I missed, I could have nailed... the feeling is one of motivation. Now that I've done two exams, I have a real sense of what I have to do to go on - I obviously have a tech gap to fill with sight singing, and I need to get my technique solid enough that "first song nerves" are not perceivable in my voice - and it'll be interesting to see how it feeds into my non-classical pursuits.
I'll probably break down my result in more detail when I get my report in the post...
Addendum: I now have the results - will scan the notes in soon.
