The other day I talked about the festival that was taking place this weekend.

I wrote this in a meme, but not in my blog. On Saturday, I was supposed to be there at 8:40am because the competition starts at 9:00am. I woke up at 7:40am when my alarm went off but I forgot that I always have my clock fast. So I thought, YES! I have enough time to sleep for a little while longer.

And that’s what I did.

Until 8:30am.

When I realized it was 8:30am I freaked out, got dressed as fast as I possibly could and sped off to the hotel where the festival was taking place. Luckily it only took about five or so minutes to get there and I got in at 8:50am.

That’s pretty damn good even if I do say so myself.

I spent the morning helping out the judge and hanging out with Fiona and Rebecca (they were there to help too). I stepped out to see Chayan’s voice solos. Turned out the voice room was ridiculously far behind schedule so I had to sit through a bunch of other kid’s solos.

And some of them were bad. I mean, really. Really. Bad.

I feel bad saying that, because they’re kids and they’ve got a lot of guts to stand up there in front of a whole room of people and sing on their own. But man… a few of them were bad. I felt like I was at karaoke.

Anyways, I got to record one of Chayan’s solos. I ripped the audio from it so I could post it here! I didn’t want to post the video because I don’t think that’s appropriate. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but he’s like an 11 year old kid. So I think it would be really weird and wrong to post it on my blog, haha.

So this is Chayan singing Dragons, which he got second place for!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

After his voice solos it was time for lunch. For some reason I always look forward to lunch at the festivals. Bev (my piano teacher) always makes it and she makes sandwhiches, eggs, crackers and cheese and vegetables with dip. While we were eating I bit the inside of my lip. HARD. REALLY HARD. It still hurts. :/

Next it was more helping out in the room and then running off to see Chayan’s piano solos. He had one at 1:30pm and he was playing first. So I’m waiting there in the room for him and I don’t see him anywhere. They have all the players lined up and were ready to go and I see him in the doorway. I tell him to get his book out and grab his piano bag, haha. I was so nervous. ~_~

He played his first song (Castle on a Cloud) really well. The hardest part for him was pedaling, because he only has a keyboard at home. Therefore, he has no pedal and it’s not touch sensitive so it’s hard for him to do dynamics sometimes too. He didn’t place for that one, but he did get an 88 which is still a really good mark!

My mum came to see him, but she was a little late so she missed his solo. I showed her him singing his voice solo on my camera. She met Chayan and then her and I went to Timmies for tea, haha. I felt bad kind of ditching everyone who was working, but we honestly just sped through the drive-thru and I was back.

So I worked in the room we were taking care of until Chayan’s next solo, which was also in that room. I was so nervous, haha. I don’t know why, but I think having my own student there makes me more nervous than performing myself. I want him to do well and feel proud and it’s hard because I know what he’s capable of. Sometimes, that doesn’t always come through in one shot.

Anyways, he played his next song (Light and Blue) really well. I felt relieved afterwards and told him he did a good job as he sat down, haha. I have a video of that too (Fiona took it for me) so I ripped the sound again.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

He scored really well for that one, 94… but the person who got third got a 94.5. Can you believe that? He came fourth by POINT FIVE. I wanted to make sure he knew so that he knew how well he did and how close he was. And he did play it really well. The tempo was great (and that’s usually one of his weak spots) and he kept it for the whole song. The one thing the judge said was that his left hand was too loud for the second part. I guess that’s true, if you listen to it. But I wish she would have given him third. I think he really deserves it, but I also know how hard he works. Not that the other players didn’t deserve what they got. But you know, when it’s your own student, you obviously hope for the best.

Anyways, that was the festival! I’m so happy he went and I really hope it didn’t discourage him from going again.

Tomorrow (or I guess technically today) is the music festival.

I have to be at the hotel at 8:40am and I’ll be there pretty much all day long. From there, I have to go to the campground.

Only one of my students ended up going, but this is the first time I’ll have any of my kids performing in it, so I’m really excited to see him play! He’s doing two piano solos and two voice solos. I hope he does well, because I think if he doesn’t it’ll be a blow to his confidence.

He’s really talented, but sometimes he’d rather do things his ‘own way’ instead of listening or reading the music. But hey, that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s good to have your own personal flare.

So basically, this is what happens at the festival. You have a group of kids who all play the same instrument (there’s competitions for piano, voice, guitar and drums) and who are all in the same grade and around the same age. Classes usually have at the most around ten to twelve students but some classes are a lot smaller. Each participant plays their solo, is marked by an adjudacator (all of them have a lot of experience) and then the top three scores win a trophy. Everyone gets a ribbon and a score sheet with comments.

Usually you go into two categories. So for piano, my student is doing pop (where he’s playing Castle on a Cloud) and traditional (where he’s playing Light & Blue, from the lesson book). I don’t know what he’s singing in the voice categories, but I’m going to try my hardest to go watch those.

The festival is run voluntarily by a few conservatories in the area. Many (not all) of the teachers work there for the weekend to make sure things run smoothly. The instruments (for the most part) are taken from our conservatory, so that’s even extra work. I didn’t help take the stuff over (because I was at work) and I can’t work there Sunday, but I’ll be there most of the day tomorrow helping out the judge.

It’s going to be a long day.

The festivals are always really fun, but I mean, you can only hear ‘Little Chug Boat’ or ‘Irish Wedding Dance’ so many times before you want to throw a brick at the piano.

I’m going to try to tape my student’s performance! So hopefully I can put the sound of him playing on here (not the video for obvious reasons).

So everyone reading, wish him luck! He’s awesome and it really doesn’t matter if he gets a prize or not. The point is he did it and went. He was apprehensive at going at first, but I hope it’ll be a really good experience for him. It’s always nice to have a place where you can show other people your skill, especially after working so hard for it.

But, on the plus side he’s definitely a little performer.

The totally weird thing that happened with my SHOXX magazine and a piano performance (haha, that sounds intense) of the Christmas song, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.