Here’s the story of her piano learning journey through the covid-19 pandemic...
As the covid-19 restrictions started taking over our lives in the early months of 2019, my student’s hope of having her Grade 1 Exam in mid-2019 seemed to fade. She had more or less prepared 3 exam pieces and was just left with a few other smaller sections to deal with.
Lessons went onto WhatsApp and zoom calls during the circuit breaker with the help of her parents. We had to adapt with the new way of teaching and learning with occasional signal lags and just the fact that I’m not there in person to guide her hands on the piano.
Although it was tough, we managed to set our sights in jumping to Grade 2. We covered more sight-reading, theory, and some dynamics which I could hear through my headphones. At the end of just a few call sessions, she was able to sight-read much better and faster than before, and we covered a lot of theory to help with her transition to Grade 2.
It was around July when face-to-face lessons finally resumed. We were overjoyed and so ready to put everything into learning the Grade 2 syllabus! She learnt her first two pieces in the span of around 3 to 4 months, which may sound like a lot, but her skills have upgraded drastically. For example, staccatos became more pointed, and accents became more prominent.
And thankfully! News of the online exams have surfaced: Performance Grades Exams for January 2021. To be honest, I was apprehensive about it at first, though we decided to give it a try judging from my confidence in her piano playing skills. She spent a month learning 2 more pieces, and another month and a half polishing her performance skills.
It was 3 to 4 sessions of recording, when we finally we made it! We got the perfect video! No mistakes, just her playing the piano based off what she had been taught.
So you may be wondering, what brought her to get a distinction in her exam? On the surface, it may seem like her eloquence in her introduction speech, or her expressiveness on the piano. However, she worked hard to get to her level of expression and performance. She woke up early on her own to play the piano almost every morning, and diligently implemented all my suggestions on dynamics, tone and fluency into her pieces. In addition, her parents showed their utmost support by dolling her up, preparing her introductory speech, and her room for the recording.
I’m so happy and proud of her, and not to mention how glad I am for her parents’ support through this journey. No matter what result she’d had gotten in actual, she put in her all and tried her best, which is what really matters in my eyes. She truly deserved her distinction.
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