RCM Grade 10 Piano Requirements

Given that it has been almost five years since I did my grade 9 RCM piano exam, I've decided that I have got to set a deadline for the grade 10 exam, and the deadline I have set is August of 2013. As such, I've been starting to buckle down on technique. So, today, I made individual slips of note-cards with a single technique exercise that I need to do written down on each. The grand total? 288 slips. I got somewhat tired when I had finished counting!

12 major scales
12 harmonic minor scales
12 melodic minor scales
12 different places to start the chromatic scale
9 different formula pattern scales
9 different major or minor scales in octaves
9 different staccato scales
4 scales separated by a 3rd
4 scales separated by a 6th
4 scales separated by a 10th
12 chromatic scales in octaves
12 major solid four-note chords
12 major broken four-note chords
12 major alternate-note four-note chords
12 minor solid four-note chords
12 minor broken four-note chords
12 minor alternate note four-note chords
12 major arpeggios
12 minor arpeggios
12 arpeggios of the Dominant 7th
12 arpeggios of the Diminished 7th
12 solid Dominant 7ths
12 broken Dominant 7ths
12 alternate-note Dominant 7ths
12 solid Diminished 7ths
12 broken Diminished 7ths
12 alternate-note Diminished 7ths
12 major alternating scales in octaves

Actually, my math must have been off, I probably just miscounted my cards, that comes out to 303...Either way, that is a lot.

Tomorrow, I figure out the flute requirements!

Mother's Day

The past week or so leading up to mother's day has been hard for me. Several nights I have actually dreamed about my mom. Many of the dreams included her very sick, but one included her healthy...like she was during my first year of university, only I was the age I am now. I've spent a lot of the past week or two in that state of wanting to go to bed all day, looking forward to it, but then when I get to bed, afraid to close my eyes and sleep, even if I am exhausted because of the seroquel and whatever else is going on. It's a careful balancing act of which book I should read until I cannot keep my eyes open any further or whether I should watch an episode of Bewitched or I dream of Jeannie on Youtube (my dvd/cd player on my computer is messed up...again...) and hope that it tires me out enough. A very riveting book that I was reading this past week I unfortunately couldn't read right before bed, because it made me dream that I was a murderer...so, not exactly good news for needing pleasant sleep! 

We had a display of pictures of "People who mothered us" at church today. I found a picture taken when I was just shy of two weeks old, of my mom and I. I am presuming that I was that age, because we are all dressed up, me in this tiny little red lacy dress and a pair of knitted booties and my mom in a navy suit, and I know that my parents only missed one sunday church service after I was born...and I was born on a tuesday. My guess is that they probably took pictures of that special day, my first time going to church. There are pictures of my dad and I on that day as well, but I'm asleep in them. For the one with my mom, I am awake. It is one of just a handful of pictures of just my mom and I, and despite the fact that I'm sure she didn't find it a flattering picture, given that it was summer and hot and she had given birth only two weeks previous (think swollen legs made worse with the angle of the camera, exhausted looking eyes, and a slight hint of a double chin due to water and baby weight gain), it is very special to me. What I see in the picture is love, and a great sense of joy and pride. And as the baby in the picture, all there is in my eyes is a sense of security...as there should be.