Sorry, I know I’ve been a bad site owner lately… but I do have something to blog about today! Yesterday, I went to a music festival called Solo and Ensemble. There, you play either a solo or ensemble on your instrument in front of a judge, and they give you a rating of 1 - 4 (1 being the best) and if you earn a 1 or a 2 you get a medal. My friends and I have been practicing for this “contest” since December. My saxophone teacher gave me a solo piece, and my friend who also plays the sax played a duet with me. Yeah, it was fun. But BUSY. Here’s an overview of my day:
9:30 AM: Wake up. I know! It’s way too early for a Saturday…
Noon: Leave for Solo and Ensemble, ready with my “uniform,” saxophone, music, lunch, and iPod. My duet is at 1:16 PM. It takes about 30 minutes to get there, and you want to be early so you can warm up and find your room.
1:16 PM: Get called to play my duet. But my partner isn’t here yet! Tell the ushers, and then see my saxophone teacher, who tells me that my friend is still playing in a quartet because the judge was late. “Okay,” I think. “This shouldn’t take long.” Psh. I am so naive…
1:45 PM: My friend is here! Yay! We can finally play our duet!! We practice once, then head into the performance room. I realize that I accidentally wrote the wrong name of our piece on the sheet. Sigh. I have to tell the announcer that. But she’s nice and doesn’t really care. My mom, my friend’s mom, and our teacher are watching. We look at each other and I give the cue to start.
1:48 PM: We finish our duet. I think it went well. The judge comes over to us, and he’s smiling. That’s a good sign. He tells us that our tone was “beautiful,” we played the rhythms perfectly, and all this other positive stuff. He says that he has nothing negative to say. Hmmm…. I wonder what rating we’re going to get? 
1:50 PM: The announcer gives us our rating. A 1! Yay! My mom (of course…) takes pictures…sigh… Then we head over to trade in our tickets for medals.
2:00 PM: My mom and I pack up our stuff and head for the car. We have about 2 hours until I have to be back for my solo. We head over to McDonald’s (ugh!) and then just drive around for a while.
3:45 PM: We get back to the Solo and Ensemble place and go back to my warm-up room to get ready for my solo. It’s not fun. There’s a loud baritone sax playing on my left, and a high-pitched flute on my right. Sigh. I hope I play soon!!!
4:11 PM: They call my name. This is so much more nerve wracking then a duet… you’re all alone. But when I walk into the performance room, the judge seems nice so it takes away some of the nerves.
4:14 PM: I finish my solo. I did pretty well, but I messed up a few times. The judge gives me some critique about nerves and pinching off the high notes.
4:18 PM: I’m waiting to get my rating. The announcer comes out and… she’s holding a blue ticket! Yay! I got a 1! I trade it in for a medal and my mom and I race outta that place before we go crazy.
5:00 PM: We get home. I collapse. It was a good day.
Posted: February 3rd, 2008 under Personal, Random.
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