Adventures of a Pianist and Sonatina Performance Outfit

Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in a Piano Performance event known as The Sonata/Sonatina Festival. It is open to all ages to perform as long as it is at least one Movement of a Sonata or Sonatina. It was a lot of fun. Only three of my siblings could be there, and I felt a little out of my element. I enjoyed all of the other selections that others in the program played. They were all lovely! I favored a piece by Haydn that I will hopefully be adding to my repertoire in the future. (After I finish working on the 3rd Movement of the Moonlight Sonata that is) I was second to last, which is pure torture. You have to sit there waiting, and waiting . . . and waiting, till it is your turn. You have time to think, stress and let everything get into your head. Several of the other pianists before me had mistakes in their pieces, one boy in particular I was rooting and praying that he would make it past the next stanza. He kept going backwards to a fixed point. My Piano Teacher always tells me “jump to a beginning of a phrase forward. Always jump forward if you lose your place because it can be so stressful to go backwards and you can get stuck on the same spot and continue to get more and more frustrated”. Yah, we have talked about this a lot. But guess what I did under pressure?

When my turn came to play, I walked up on the stage and bowed. Yes, I had to bow. I was so uncomfortable about that. As a girl who is very feminine, I really wanted to curtsey, and as I bowed to myself in the mirror at home before I left, I cringed at how awkward it looked. Thankfully I had 10 other pianists to watch bow before I had to, so I kind of got a good idea. It wasn’t too awkward looking I hope. We didn’t have any chance to warm up, so I had kept my hands in gloves up until the last minute, trying to keep warm fingers. When I put my fingers on the keys, I started too fast. I should have taken more of a breath before I started. It started well, and halfway through I breathed a sigh of relief that I motored through the parts that had been giving me trouble before quite easily and with the inflections that I wanted. Then I got to a well know part and froze. “I know there is supposed to be a G somewhere here, or at least something in the vicinity of a G, um, um, um,” my heart was beating so hard. “Oh yeah, jump, jump!!!” So I jumped to one of my practiced landing spots. And guess what, It was backwards!!!!! I was like, “Oh what!? I have to play this whole line over again!!!??? I was just getting towards the end. With only a little hiccup at the previous freezing spot however, I made it through to the end. I was so thankful! It could have been a lot worse seeing as how I jumped backwards instead of forwards. After sitting back in my seat, I had a hard time from keeping myself still, I was so wound up my legs and hands were shaking so hard! It didn’t help that I am too short for my feet to solidly touch the ground. I felt like I was falling off those slippery leather seats.

When the program was over, I was told by my siblings and teacher, that the moment when I paused was so short, it was almost unnoticeable. It felt like 30 seconds to me but whatever. I am just glad it is over. I usually really REALLY enjoy performance, but this one shook me up a little. We did get to go to a specialty Nut and Coffee shop downtown afterwards for some specialty chocolates. That really helped! I didn’t let it affect my mood though. Ain’t nobody got time to mope about it. I had already performed the piece twice before with fabulous results, so I am fine with the whole thing.

I loved my outfit though! This is, hands down, I think my favorite skirt right now! I just love the romantic floral print. It was actually one of those ankle length vintage things that I picked up at a thrift store. I hacked off a foot of it and hemmed the bottom. So happy with the outcome. This is also my new favorite belt! It is so gorgeously cool! The jacket, although slightly eclectic, I think the cut fit into the WWll look I had going. The fit of it gives the appearance of more of a blazer but with that army jacket flair.