Today marks exactly twenty years since I sat my Grade 8 AMEB piano exam. This was the culmination of a year or so of preparation and in certain ways my highest achievement as a pianist, certainly in a piece-of-paper sense. I played seriously for another year or so, graduated Level VI of the Suzuki programme, and then took the foot off while I went about finishing high school and all of that fun stuff.
Of course, I had a long way to go as a musician. It was much later that I joined the church band, and I was pretty hopeless at that to start off. I could barely read charts and couldn’t improvise to save myself. Jazz was still another world away. I’d not written any songs. So I spent the next few years building on the foundation and filling in some gaps.
But then university. I had a serious but short-lived attempt at aiming for AMus, and did not get far at all. Life had moved on. Then it moved on to marriage, and then children, and while I was fairly active in church music, classical music became a rarity. Technique was lost, and playing became a frustration, though it was still always a pleasant diversion when it did happen.
Then 18 months or so ago when we moved and the piano was in a less intrusive location in the house, I began fiddling around again, dusting off a few old pieces, and eventually learning new ones to a reasonable standard (the Willing-To-Put-On-YouTube Standard). This year, aided by Current Events, I have had even more time to regularly practise.
Noticing all this, Bec suggested that I look at the Certificate of Performance exam. This was added by AMEB in 2009, now the highest Level 2 exam, designed as a bridge between Grade 8 and the Level 3 Diploma exams (AMusA and LMusA). After strong resistance Bec convinced me it was a Good Idea, and so here I am with a genuine musical goal for 2021.
The first thing I want to know when someone tells me about their exams is their programme, so here is mine:
- List A: undecided (hopefully Bach, and at this stage probably Prelude & Fugue Book II No 2 in Cm)
- List B: Beethoven – Sonata No 9 in E
- List C: Schubert – Impromptu in Gb
- List C: Grieg – Wedding Day at Troldhausen
- List D: Debussy – Reverie
Every time I look at the Beethoven, I think a three decade gap from 8 to Certificate is more realistic. And every time I look at Bach, I remember why I’ve played so little of him. But at least the Debussy is a bit kinder, as far as necessary technical proficiency is concerned.
Thought Too Indefinite 