[Harp-L] Re: Another Entrance Exam

[Colin Epstein <colin_epstein@xxxxxxxxx>]

Congratulations, Tinus!!!

After reading your frustrating story last year, I
really felt bad that some people at the consevatory
couldn't widen their vision to include your
instrument.

I'm so glad to hear you gave it another shot and got
in.  Way to go!  You keep doing those little dances. 
You deserve it.

Again, congratulations, and thanks for sharing your
story with us.

YAY!

--
C

> > From: "Tinus" <tinus@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] Another Entrance Exam
> CC: harpon@xxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 01:12:01 +0200
> To: <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> 
> A year has come and gone since the last time I wrote
> to this list, a
> year in which I have studied hard. One year since I
> did the entrance
> exam, got accepted to and thrown out of the
> conservatory all in one
> afternoon. (Read the full story on my site
> http://www.tenhole.com )
> 
> Last year I wrote that I was going to go to school
> and be free from that
> lingering wish to go to a conservatory and for the
> main part of the year
> this was true. I was learning loads of new stuff. 
> Things like writing and arranging polyphonic pieces.
> Arranging for the
> piano. I had lots of fun and was so swamped with
> homework that the idea
> of any other school being a "real school" was sort
> of ridiculous.
> 
> However as the end of the year drew closer and the
> entrance exams for
> the conservatories were getting nearer I started to
> feel that itch
> again. Friends in school had already signed up for
> the exams and my
> teacher kept pushing me to do the same. When the
> piano player of my
> school combo told me he was going to try I couldn't
> think of any excuses
> why I wouldn't too.
> 
> The conservatory I was going to apply for asked that
> you send in a CD of
> recent work so that a first selection could be made
> from the applicants.
> I got together with a pianist with whom I regularly
> play to record a few
> standards. We did "All of Me", "Softly" and "You
> Don't Know What Love
> Is". I also added a demo I did for EHQ and the EHQ
> track "Tja Tja Plus"
> (available on the site for download
> http://www.overblow.com/ehq ).
> 
> The online application form gave me a bit of a
> problem because the list
> box in which I had to select the instrument I was
> going to play
> obviously didn't include harmonica. Like last year I
> decided to pick
> trumpet and hope for the best, luckily this time
> there was room to put
> notes on the form and seeing that this time the form
> would be
> accompanied by a CD any mistakes like last year were
> unlikely.
> 
> So the long wait began. Would I be invited to play,
> would my piano
> player friend get invited to play? We kept mailing
> back and forth to
> hear if the other had heard anything yet and a month
> passed before the
> piano player got the message that he was invited.
> The next day I got an
> email too.
> 
> "we would hereby like to invite you for your
> entrance exam Harmonica"
> 
> A fear gripped my heart, I was going to play in
> front of a committee
> again. The four weeks I had to prepare flew by and
> before I knew it the
> exams were there. My friend the piano player had his
> exam a couple of
> days before me. He was accepted. This made me even
> more nervous, because
> if he had been rejected it would not be a disgrace
> for me to be rejected
> too. 
> 
> De last day before the exam I didn't play harmonica
> anymore I just did
> breathing exercise in the hope that I could remain
> fairly calm when it
> was time to play.
> 
> The morning of the exam, a beautiful sunny day.
> The first test was taken in a computer room, I
> listening test.
> Intervals, Chords and things like that. I had
> trained on things like
> that the whole year but there and then I didn't do
> too well. Next the
> written test: music theory. No problem what so ever.
> The third test was
> a difficult one; solfege, singing scales, melodies
> and rhythms as they
> are written. I did very bad on that.
> 
> The man who was testing looked at my results and
> said "well, the playing
> is the most important part".
> 
> After 2 hours hanging around in the hallways of the
> conservatory, it was
> my turn. I was introduced to the band I was going to
> play with and we
> talked about the form of the pieces and how I would
> like to play them.
> When I got out my harmonica the drummer said "you're
> not going to play
> that are you?".
> 
> I said "yes I am" and I was glad to see that they
> seemed impressed
> rather than skeptical as I had feared.
> 
> I set up my amplifier (and forgot to check the tone
> settings) and
> counted off. We played "A Felicidade" and all went
> well, except that
> halfway through the piece I suddenly got the idea
> that I had never
> played this number before and didn't actually knew
> what the chords were.
> Apparently all the hours of practicing paid of
> because even though I
> could have sworn I didn't know the song I appeared
> to be playing it
> without any problem. The only thing that went wrong
> was that instead of
> playing through the whole theme after the solo, I
> somehow stopped right
> in the middle of the theme instead of going to the C
> part I had mistaken
> the end of the B part for end of the tune. The next
> song was my favorite
> ballad; "You Don't Know What Love Is". I have played
> it a thousand times
> and will play it many more times especially after
> playing it at the
> exam. It went well.
> 
> The last tune was a fast one; "Blues For Alice", a
> terribly difficult
> song to play on the c harp and I didn't feel that I
> did a very good job
> of playing it. No great mistakes though and I
> managed to get some good
> bebop lines in.
> 
> That was it, I had played fairly well and all I
> could do now was hope
> that it was enough. I looked up to the table where
> the committee was
> sitting and was relieved to see, as last year, only
> smiling faces.
> 
> I was asked to wait in the hallway while they
> discussed.
> When I was called back the first thing the director
> said was; "You're
> accepted". It didn't really register, we discussed
> who would teach me
> and talked about the diatonic harmonica and how
> tones are produced on
> it, what I could work on during the summer and when
> I left they told me
> "see you in September". It still didn't register.
> The band members met
> me in the hallway and congratulated me, the people
> that were to play
> after me congratulated me and it still didn't
> register.
> 
> Dazed I found my way out into the street. Outside I
> started calling
> people to tell them I was in. Slowly it started to
> sink in and when I
> got my teacher on the phone I was on the verge of
> crying and while I
> told him all the things that had gone wrong it
> dawned on me that it
> didn't matter anymore what had gone wrong, I had
> been accepted to one of
> the leading jazz schools of my country. And this
> time the director was
> right there and he would not be calling to tell me
> that he really didn't
> want a harmonica player in his school.
> 
> I am so thrilled that I keep on breaking out in
> short yelps of joy and
> do little dances whenever I think nobody is
> watching. I keep on walking
> about town trying to find people I haven't told
> about 
=== message truncated ===>
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