♯ ♭ ♮ 𝄞 𝄢 The joys of writing an Exam!𝄡 𝄤 𝄟 𝇐 𝇑 𝇞 𝄦

November 02, 2019: Grade 1 ABRSM Theory test has gone down in history of as the only test I have written in my life when I absolutely enjoyed preparing for a test and writing the test! I drove to the test center "cantabile"(Italian for "in a singling style"... my new found knowledge on musical terms! 😉), totally carefree and happy. I wondered why I didn’t approach all the tests of my school & college years in the same spirit. I am sure that’s a question or a thought all of us can ponder about…I was entering an exam hall after 21 years.

I pondered that fundamentally, all of us are happy at heart but it is the environment of intense competitiveness especially encouraged  in India that puts us in the rat race at a very young age till we realize years later that it just robs us of all the simple joys of life—and writing an exam is one such simple joy!

The sight of 100’s of students at the exam center with an equal number of parents looking tensed made me pause a bit and wonder if I was underprepared to be in such a joyful mood! I was aware that I was the odd one also because I was amongst the very few adults past the age of 45 who was taking a music theory test (and Grade 1!!).

I felt like a kindergarten child in the company of seniors taking higher Grade tests except that my seniors were a good 20-33 years younger than I! 😊 I was the only adult in my room (other than the examiner) & both of us wore an amused look knowing I was the odd one in the room. I took more time in answering the questions than some of my sub-12 year old peers –some of whom were ready to walk out of the exam room within 20 minutes. I admired their confidence and the speed with which they wrote their answers. Clearly, they are accustomed to writing tests day in and day out! I will confess though, that I am feeling miserable about making a couple of mistakes and that I was aware that I was entering wrong answers—this amused me  further because, I realized that the student and the child in me was still alive, with a desire to excel! 😊

Coming specifically to the Grade 1 Theory test…I am very grateful to my teacher, Bidyut Chakraborty, whose easy- going style of teaching gave me the courage to write the test. It was a casual question that he posed to me a couple of months ago, asking if I would like to write Grade 1 theory test and I found myself saying yes, without a thought! It took me about 3 weeks to prepare for it with a full time job, travel and other pursuits.

I am very glad I wrote the test—all of a sudden, while preparing for the test, all my doubts about the fundamentals of keyboard started to get clearer…For the past 1.5 years, I have been playing without truly understanding the concepts (thus, with poor outputs) and that constantly put me in a state where I made lame excuses for not practicing –it often also put me in a state of mental avoidance where I would resent attending classes despite Bidyut being such a wonderful and undemanding teacher! Thanks to him, I now find myself more confident, with a yearning and desire to practice and get better at playing—simply because my theoretical concepts have suddenly become sound. So much so, that I surprised myself by telling that I would love to take the practical test now---all these years, my pet line has been, “Oh, I am learning for my pleasure and not to prove to anyone.” Sure, I am learning for my pleasure, but the real fact is, tests do make us surer of ourselves and put us in an orbit of enthusiasm, interest and confidence. And that is why I would recommend everyone to take a shot at it..it can only benefit us. Thank you, Bidyut Sir, for your constant encouragement! 😊