Musically Diverted

So to take a break from the current actrocties of the world, other things have been on my mind: State Solo contest. Each year, all the musicians from all over the state meet in Cedar Rapids to perform for judges and to have their performaces rated. Each person can perform a solo, in a duet, trio, quartet, vocal or chamber group, select strings, brass emsemble, etc. Nearly any form of music is acceptable performace material, and is welcomed by all the judges.

This year I am in 3 events: a quartet, our school's chamber group, and my solo. I am writing this right after my solo (which I got a 1 on! But more on the scoring system later) which went pretty well and am about to be off to perform with my chamber group.

It becomes nervewracking not before you perform or when you warm up, but when you walk into the room and are followed by 8 of your friends and your parents as they all settle into the desks and chairs and wait for the judge to get situated. THAT'S when you start to feel butterflies, during the awkward moments before you begin playing. The minute after you introduce yourself and look to your piano accompaniast to begin, you feel nothing. You feel like time has stopped and nothing is around you or inside of you. But the moment you take that 1st breath to start your song, you get a sense of warmth and feeling that progressivly builds and encompasses your mind as you read the notes on the page.

Then you just play and pray that you sound decently okay.

After your performace, the awkward moment strikes again as you finish your last note, with your bow in the air, and everyone looking at you, while trying not to burst out laughing at how bad you just thought you did. But in reality, you proabably just did so much better than you thought. That is always the case with contest.

Regardless, you find out your scores later in the day. The scoring system is on a 5 point scale, with 5 being the worst and a 1+ being the best (and only attainable through playing a solo; the highest you can get for an ensemble is a 1). And it was weird, a friend of mine last night brought up the point that the AP exams are graded in the exact opposite manner which I found interesting. I remember I was thinking about what he had said before I began my first note during the begining awkward moments of my solo an hour ago. I remember thinking it was funny how two different competitive situations could grade so oppositly.

After that random thought, I began to play and all went well.