Lessons 7-9

The Summer semester officially ended yesterday. Since the last time I wrote, I have had two piano lessons and one organ lessons. Also, a recital and a piano jury evaluation.

Piano:

Piano lessons were great. I have been focused on polishing Etude in E minor O. 28, No. 4 by Chopin and Serenade for the Doll by Debussy. Polishing a piece is way more difficult than I thought. When you perform, there are no do-overs. You play once. And if you don't play well, you remember it, and everybody else does too. Of course you tend to remember the worst parts instead of the performance as a whole.

The voice teacher at the Dixie puts on a recital at the end of each semester. My piano teacher thought it would be fun to have a few piano students play a number during the voice concert. I was nominated as one of them. The last time I played at a recital, it was called a "piano party" it was at the public library in the conference room and there were refreshments.

Out of 31 pieces performed that night, mine was first on the program. Talk about baptism by fire. The performance went well, and I am happy with it. The rest of the concert was great too. The voice students all did well. It was fun to see the different levels of professionalism from beginner to pro (there were a few women in their 50-70's). The concert hall seats about 300 and there is no sound system. A number of singers could still fill the entire space with their voice. It was great.

My piano jury was a couple days later. I had never been through the process before. I prepared both songs I mentioned earlier, announced and played them for three of the music faculty. I played in the same concert hall, so in effect, it was me, a 9' Steinway "D", a 300 seat concert hall and three EXTREMELY knowledgable music professors. They asked a question or two when I was done, and I left. I don't be able to read the comments they wrote on my evaluation form for a few more days. I was actually more nervous after the jury than before.

Organ:

Plans seem to be changing a little here and there. The music dept. chair told me if I want to take organ lessons from credit, I have to take them from someone else. Not wanting to go against the grain right now, I accepted the fact and set up an appointment to meet my new teacher. I met with her yesterday. It's fun to speak with someone as passionate about organ as I am; it makes me seem less like a weirdo, and more like someone normal.

The BYU organ workshop starts the first week in August. My new teacher is attending, and has a meeting with the organ department chair at BYU. She is going to ask him what the best route is for me, seeing as I want to attend BYU's organ program. I may be able to start working toward credit at BYU even though I would be attending at Dixie. Anyway, plans haven't been set it stone and they will likely change in the next two weeks.