Antonin Talks About Fears & Festival

Hello and welcome to a sunny first Saturday in February at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is February 3rd.

Hi, everybody. I'm really glad to see you another week. Today we're going to talk about my fears and Festival.

On Monday I had Festival. Just to make this clear, Festival is not the same as a recital. Festival is something to help you get better at piano by you playing in front of a judge who gives you a rating on your performance. A recital, on the other hand, is supposed to help you play better in front of people. This was my very first Festival and I felt nervous.

They started with my sister. I could see her almost crying while she was playing her songs. I was worried that I would cry as well. My sister didn't play absolutely perfectly. She missed a whole measure and she didn't play some parts correctly. But, overall she did really well. 

(Mom note: The bigger win for the 6th grader is that this was the first Festival she didn't cry about ahead of time and try to get out of. We gave her huge props and kudos for her bravery to sit down at the piano tear- and pre-event tantrum-free. While her face contorted through the myriad of emotions coursing through her body, SHE stayed the course and kept playing despite the few initial hiccups. For a recap of her fear of Festival journey, check out the post Festival-ly Failing Forward.)

After she played, it was my turn. This was my very first Festival. I wore my regular church clothes and as I was walking to the piano, I felt a little bit nervous because some of my parts were as perfect as I wanted them to be.

I sat down at the piano. I played my first song, which was called, Once I Caught A Fish Alive. It's a happy, fast song. You keep a steady beat. I picked this song because it was a fun song to play. Everything went pretty well until the first part of the down pedal (where you put your foot down on the pedal). My shoe wasn't cooperating with the pedal, so I had to restart the down pedal part, and finally, it worked.

After the first song, I felt even more nervous than before. I thought I was probably going to get a rating of a 4 or a 3 and now I would probably have a bigger chance of getting a 3 or a 4. (The highest score you can get is a 5, called a "Superior.")

My second song was called The Grand Finale. I picked this song because it had to be at least 8 measures and it was the only song in my book that had 8 measures. I played it and it went perfectly. There was nothing wrong with the song while I played. When I finished I felt accomplished. And you will never guess what me and my sister both got. We both got the highest rating you can get - a superior!

I felt a big wave that drowned me in joy!

The lesson about fear is this: Don't get too scared that you won't even try because if you won't try you won't let a good thing happen - like getting a superior in Festival!