On December 2nd, 2011 Lauren will sit the Grade 4 AMEB Classical Piano Exam.
This is destined to be an amazing day.
I can still hear the words of the first Primary School saying to us on Lauren’s second day of grade prep…..words to the effect of…..”take Lauren home, enrol her in a Special School and expect nothing of her because she is not capable of learning anything much”.
Grade 4 Piano exam tomorrow……This effectively means that she completes Level One Piano and is now considered a qualified piano teacher for young children (or beginners). Not bad for a young person who apparently is not capable of learning anything much! So forgive me for being emotional but tomorrow is destined to be an amazing day regardless of how she goes.
So tomorrow after the exam (and of course after Lauren gets Sushi!!!!) we will drive past that school, as we have done on a handful of other significant days. We will pull over the side of the road, wind down our windows and Lauren will hang out of the window and yell out as loudly as she can “You were wrong”. And then the two of us will sit back and laugh our heads off…..just like we have done in the past. And we will feel such a sense of pride and satisfaction for what Lauren has achieved.
I must add that while I am always proud of Lauren, I am particularly proud of this achievement. Why? Because 3 years have passed since the last exam and that is a very long time for any person to stay committed to a single grade of anything, let alone an instrument. It has taken three years because of the unexpected change of schools when Lauren was in Grade 5 when the wheels nearly fell off (again) and Lauren gave up on a lot of things. She very nearly gave up on the piano…..she certainly wanted to! Very few people know that but me who had to deal with Lauren’s total disengagement at the time.
In completing Grade 4, Lauren has had to cope with a change in piano teachers and this provided yet another opportunity when it would have been easier to call it quits. But she persevered on. And now we are here….and if the examiner was to give a score for perseverence Lauren would get an A+ with Honors.
But naturally she will be marked on her musical preparation. She has learnt 5 pieces of which she will be expected to play 4. She has learnt over 80 scale routines (right hand, left hand, hands together, contrary motion, arpeggios, chromatics etc). While she isn’t asked to play each and every scale or routine, she has to be ready to play any that are requested. She then has to play new unsighted music and then do an aural which tests pitch and rhythm. So it is a huge exam – all in 23 minutes (so Lauren has to snap out the answers quickly and use every bit of time available to show off what she knows). So Grade 4 Piano is not for the feint hearted and countless lessons and many hundreds of hours of practice are what brings us to this point. For this reason I am very proud of my girl.
Tonight I video taped her playing her pieces. I will upload them for your enjoyment (although it might take a day or two). She must have got a bit spooked by the video because she did slip up once or twice but hey, that is cool. They are in the Videos section for viewing. Anyway, enjoy!
GOOD LUCK LAUREN! WE ARE ALL PROUD OF YOU!
The Grade 4 Piano results are in……
Last Friday we received the most exciting news. Lauren sat her Grade 4 AMEB Piano exam on Friday 2nd Dec and on Friday the results arrived….. Lauren got an outstanding B+. We have been spoiling her rotten ever since because we are so proud of her. Grade 4 is no pushover for anyone let alone for Lauren with her Intellectual Disability and Autism. I swear I could burst with pride! How is that!
Not bad for a child (and her parents) who were told on the second day of grade prep to go to Special School and accept that Lauren does not have the capacity to learn much in life! So I guess we have proved them wrong yet again! In fact, after the exam Lauren and I drove past that particular school (as we have done a few other times when Lauren has proved them wrong before) and we wound down our car window and Lauren shouted out at the top of her voice, “YOU WERE WRONG!!!!”. She is so funny and to see her crack up with laughter upon doing this is simply priceless.
If you want to check out Lauren playing the piano why don’t you go to the video section. I have not been able to load all the pieces on but there is enough there to show what a fine pianist she is. I am so proud!
Dianne Winbanks