Yamaha Guitar Course Grade 8

By De Ming

The rain poured heavily against the glass of the car. At that moment, the car stopped and my mother asked my sister and me to get off it. We hurriedly jumped off the car and walked towards the building. I held unto my guitar case tightly and strode towards the receptionist. “Where is the guitar exam held?” She pointed to the stairs and muttered an “Up”.

Once my Mom arrived, we walked towards the stairs and began our ascend to doom. At the top of the stairs, there was this hall where parents and students sat and walked around. I caught sight of a counter and begin walking towards it. A lady was there and she asked me if I wanted to register. Since I was early, I decided to do so later. I sat on a chair for a couple of minutes before deciding to face my fears and bang it.

Once I had written down my Free Choice songs, I was led to the front of Room 15 where a girl sat playing seriously. I took my guitar out of its case and begin tuning it. At that time, the door opened and the girl was called in. It was my turn then to practice and practice I did. The girl walked out and a Malay guy walked to my corner. As he was about to start practicing, he was called in by the examiner. Thus I had to wait some more.

At long last, the door opened and I was called in by a Malay man who was around his thirties. I stepped into that small room and adjusted the stool. I passed my papers to the examiners and they told me to play Allegretto and Waltz. The good news was that I was dead calm.

Before we get to that I think it would be fair to explain a little about the exam syllabus. There are three set pieces, songs which must be played by all and three free choice, songs that you choose. Out of each category, the examiners will pick one. We had to practice all though. After that there were chords, sight reading and scales.

My Allegretto was close to perfect and I was really proud of it, but unfortunately Waltz had some hangs in between and was a little jerky. After that was sight reading. To be really frank, it was hard. Teacher never gave me such a hard one even during practice, but I believe I did quite well in it. After I place the paper down, the examiner started to play some chords and he told me to follow. So I did.

My chords were something to be happy about and at last came my most feared moment, scales! I only memorized it this afternoon and I knew I was going to die. And I died. My scales were all wrong. There were too many mistakes and until this moment I can still remember the older, Chinese examiner telling me to execute the B flat. It was a disaster. Oh well, it was my fault in the end.

After all that, I walked away a happier man. Now, my holidays truly begin.