I performed my Grade 3 Clarinet exam on Thursday 13th of November.

I made a bad decision by not listening to Nicola’s advice. She, my clarinet teacher, suggested that I should do my best pieces first, with the purpose of playing myself into the mood as it were, thus giving me confidence for the rest of the exam. Instead I thought I’d first do the parts with which I have difficulty, leaving my favourite ones to the end thinking that by doing so I would leave the examiner, Claire, with a good impression.

Unfortunately, this led to me failing to do exactly what the examiner asked. By rushing into playing the scales, trying to get them out of the way as quickly as possible, I made important errors. In fact I made one in the first of my scales. At the end of it I realised my error. This unnerved me, even though it was a small mistake, I lost confidence and didn’t recover from it for the rest of the exam. By the time I played the piece of sight-reading, with which I chose to end my exam, I was tense, out of breath, light headed and feeling faint. I felt as if I could burst, unable to breathe out. As it transpired, as soon as Claire dismissed me at the end of the exam, I walked out feeling free of all nervousness, a transformed man. I desperately needed a break to recover my composure.

I sat in the reception lounge, slowly dismantling, cleaning and stowing my clarinet. Gilly, my accompanist, couldn’t wait for me as she had to leave before the end of my exam to teach. I was alone with only my thoughts and a grandfather, waiting for his grandson’s exam to finish. I tried to make small talk until I felt ready to drive home to be alone for the rest of the day.

I had been told that I would need to wait about 2 or 3 weeks after the end of the examination period to get my results. That would mean around the second or third week of December.

To my surprise, early Tuesday morning, the 25th of November, Nicola phoned me. I was in the shower at the time. Luckily I have an extension telephone in the bathroom. I chatted to her, listening to all the details, but taking little in. Well what is the bottom line? I PASSED!!! I will ask her to repeat them at my lesson on Thursday 27th. She gave me the detailed breakdown of the results of my recent clarinet exam.

Going back to the time when I published the second edition of my book, “Paranoid Schizophrenia”, I tackled and passed my Grade 2 Clarinet exam in the summer term of 2013.

For that exam, I was also extremely nervous. I hadn’t thought I could be any more nervous than I had been on that occasion! Well, I was! Now I know the full meaning of suffering “butterflies in my stomach”. They prevented me form performing at my best for this (Grade 3) exam.

For the Grade 2 there had been a different situation with the examiner. He told me what to do. He was in charge. This time I preempted things by giving Claire a letter setting out what parts or pieces I’d like to do and in what order. She was happy to oblige.

I’ve talked to some of my musician friends, asking them if they too were nervous. Well they were. Some told me that they were extremely nervous! The only way they were able to cope was to do their best pieces or parts first, which they thought gave the impression to the examiner that they would do well and make the examiner feel positive for the rest of the exam. Similar to what Nicola had recommended I do.

I observed that the examiners are not fickle but mark each section without bias before going onto the following part.

What I think really happens is that when the students do their best pieces/parts first, they feel positive giving them the self-confidence to play at their best for the rest of the exam.

The order I chose to perform my exam was to do the scales first, followed by the three pieces, the aural tests, finishing with the sight-reading.

The various parts of the exam fall into the following categories:

1. Play three prepared pieces, each one chosen from three different lists,
I chose to play:
a. “Ave Maria” by Franz Schubert, I scored 21 out of a possible 30. The pass mark is 20. Similarly my scores where:
b. “When Your Hair is Like the Snow” by Scott Joplin, 23/30, pass is 20 and
c. “Study in G” from a book called ‘Elementary School for Clarinet’ Number 3, page 14. Where my score was 22/30. Pass is 20.
So for all my prepared pieces I passed, scoring enough to help me in other areas where I didn’t do as well.

2. Aural Tests:
i. To tap the pulse of a piece of music in 2, 3 or 4 time, stressing the strong beats. Then state whether the music was in 2, 3 or 4 time. (I’m usually good at doing this).

ii. To sing, as an echo, three short phrases, limited to the range of an octave in a major or minor key played by the examiner. The echoes should follow each phrase in strict time without an intervening pause. The key-chord and tonic will first be sounded and the pulse indicated.

iii. To recognise a rhythmic or melodic change to a four-bar phrase in a major or minor key played twice by the examiner, with the change being made in the second playing. The candidate will be required to recognise and tap, sing or describe the change. The key-chord and tonic will first be sounded and the pulse indicated. The examiner will be prepared to play both versions of the phrase a second time if necessary.

iv. To identify certain features of a piece played by the examiner. The features will be confined to contrasted dynamics (p/f {i.e. Soft or loud}), graduation of tone (crescendo/diminuendo), articulation (staccato/legato), recognition of tempo changes (rallentando{slowing down}/accelerando, etc.) and recognition of major and minor tonality, of which the examiner will select one or two and advise the candidate accordingly before playing the piece. Questions on the selected features will then follow. Candidates are encouraged to use Italian terms in their answers where appropriate.
Here I scored 12/18. The pass mark is 12.

3. Scales and Arpeggios,
I failed this section, scoring 12/21. The pass mark is 14.

4. Sight-reading.
I passed, scoring 15/21. Pass mark is 14.

As you can imagine I was ecstatic upon hearing the good news. I’d passed! I was also surprised we’d been given our results so quickly!