Yeah!! Recitals are finally over! I must say that I am very glad I went through with it because it has been quite an experience. I felt that the ones I did in TJ were more stressful. That's because we had to play for 20 mins each for 2 instruments. However, there were some stressful points for this recitals as well.

First, my teacher wanted me to play from memory. I alway find it a challenge to do so. I find it especially challenging when I have 2 similar passages in different keys. I get the notes mixed up. Nonetheless, playing my music from memory has taught me to listen to myself more. It has also taught me discipline as I went about memorising my music, amidst all the frustrations. Quite happy with the memory part of my pieces though. At least I didn't stumble on that.

The thing about recitals is that you never play as well as you prepared it to be. I can play my music beautifully and confidently in front of my teacher and at home. But when it comes to the actual thing, not all things fall nicely into place. I would like very much to have played better, especially not to miss my last note of Gershwin. It was quite a challenge, having to leap to a black note (Bb). I've practiced this part so hard, yet under stress, old mistakes surface. It was the end of the piece, the climax and I would literally liked to have ended on a good note, but I didn't. What's done is done I guess. Things like that do happen.

I enjoyed my other music mates' recitals too. It's great to have a class talented in different areas. Quite unlike in TJ, where most of us were pianists and guzheng-ists. I'm sure all of us got to better appreciate and learn a thing or two from each other's art forms.