Competitions

So i haven't posted anything in exactly 19 days, which doesn't seem that long really, but it's been a full couple of weeks and I've had several ideas for blog posts that I've failed to get around to doing. So this might be a long one. You have been warned...

Let's start where we left off; the stress-inducing Eisteddfod. We won loads of the events on the day and I'm sure you'll all be proud when I tell you that I came first with my beautiful recorder piece! We thought we'd finally broken our 10-year losing streak and actually come first, and we were all screaming and cheering... okay, there were only about 5 of us who were enthusiastic. But for us, the atmosphere was electric.

We dared to dream as they announced the 3rd and 4th houses, and then our house was called out... second. Unsurprisingly, and probably also very unreasonably, there were tears. More than you'd expect. But only from us year 12s, the rest of our house were the epitome of apathy, not even cheering for our epic (if I do say so myself) rendition of Resistance (by the legendary Muse, if you didn't know, and if you didn't,shame on you!).

Anyway, we were relieved, to say the least, that it was over, and that we had achieved our highest placing in at least the last 10 years. So disappointment, here we come? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Our determination definitely paid off in the end, if not as much as we wanted it to.

And so we gracefully segue into the next event of my life that I decided to share with you (aren't you the lucky ones!), my audition for the Margam music competition. My music teacher told me last year about a competition for young musicians, where the top prize was 100 pounds, so I decided to enter. But only 3 people entered, so it didn't go ahead.

But this year they upped the prize to 300 pounds, and I decided to enter again, fairly confidently; I thought I was in with a good chance, because of the lack of interest last year. I was told it was a simple audition where I had to play 5 minutes of music- easy, or so it seemed...

I arrived at the church where the auditions were held, and was soon met by the other competitors... all of whom were dressed for something much more than the casual audition I thought it was. I even said to one of them "I didn't know everyone would be so nicely dressed, I feel a bit of mess" to which she looked me up and down and said "haha,yeah...". Awkward is not the word...

I was there on my own, because Dad had to take my sister to gymnastics, so I was sitting in an empty pew, feeling very left out of the cliquey, everyone-knows-eachother little world that is the Bridgend music community. I was trying my best to stay calm in the face of lots of musicians that seemed much better than me already, when one of the organizers stood up to give an introduction including that each competitor will play for 8-10 minutes... and I freaked out. I had prepared 4 and a half, to be on the safe side, and now found out that I was supposed to play double that.

I sat and watched the first performers, feeling my morale rapidly diminishing with each oh-so-perfect note. At last my parents arrived, bringing with them my disruptive baby sister, who started off on fine form, throwing a plastic toy onto the stone floor during a Bassoon piece (which, by the way, is not and will never be a solo instrument, and the same goes for the Tuba).

By the time it was my turn to play I was feeling suitably nervous/panicky/sick. The first piece went well (Clair De Lune) but the second one was far too stressy to have a hope of going well. If you've heard Danse Macabre, you'll know that it's not a piece to calm the nerves, and it went quite badly wrong. Needless to say, I didn't get through to the final, but I'm chalking it up to experience... and I'm not at all bitter... honest...

I was going to write about something else, but this post is already long enough and uninteresting enough, so until next time :)
Oh and well done Wales! :)