Maybe better luck next time

I had my entrance exam at the Conservatory of Ghent. We got stuck in the traffic so we arrived late. My dad was very stressed about it. The first part in the entrance exam was something that didn't have anything to do with music. You had to write a philosophical essay and write the explanation of words that didn't have anything to with music like parliament and city hall.

The second part was divided into two and it was the written part of the theory exam. First there was a part where you had to write down melodies, chords, intervals, scales or rhythms the teacher played. The second half was just general music knowledge.

The third part was the singing a capella and prima vista of a piece. As I am not a singer, I did my best and the teaches saw it very well, they don't expect you to be as good as a singer as my instruments are the percussions.

The fourth part was then when I had to play infront of teachers and other members of the conservatory. I was asked to play the timpani piece, the marimba piece, the snare-drum piece and the set-up piece. I played really well the marimba piece and the timpani piece. As for the set-up I started off too quickly and I was stressed so I couldn't keep it up. The snare-drum was fine. I then had to talk with the jury and they asked me a few questions about my musical career and so on and I handed in a motivation paper. They said to me that I was very talented, musical and that I had a sense of rhythm.

I got the bad news the following day. They announced all the ones that got throgh and I wasn't one of them. I was quite sad of not being taken but on the other hand I understand that I need to improve a lot in my snare-drumming. What I mean by this is that I have the academy level in playing but not like conservatory level, could be improved. I've heard now from quite a few conservatories that I have the talent and that I should maybe change teacher because he is not good enough (I have to agree with this).