Memory

Since childhood I experienced many things, Some made me angry, some made me cheerful, and there were also other things that made me regret or disappointed! But there was nothing like this one, because it was unforgettable to me.

When I was in the six-grade, I participated in the Asian Pacific cup Saxophone Competition. I had always played in a band before, so it was my first time to be a soloist on the stage and I felt nervous about it. For the competition, I especially chose a difficult sonata and I listened to this piece of many different players’ playing on the Internet.  Being the saxophone leader in my band for a long time, I thought I had to win the competition.

A sonata means a piece is played by an instrument with a piano. For that we actually need a pianist. But it is expensive to hire a pianist. However, my piece was too difficult for an elementary student to play, so I could not ask my friend to play it with me. In the end I decided to ask my music teacher to help me to record the piano part so that I could practice with the recording by myself. When I told her about the competition, she told me that she could help me to play at the competition and asked me to practice at her place. We started to rehearse after I had done my part well. Because the piece was very complicated, it was difficult to play together perfectly even we were both very familiar with our own parts. My teacher kept telling me how to play the rhythm correctly, where to play with great passion and emotion, and when to turn the music into softer part. Finally, I did it very well and I was satisfied with the recording we did in the end.
On the day of the competition, when I was playing on the stage, my sound was not with perfect resonance as usual. This was because I missed a part of the music. And for the mistake I was self-blamed until I finished my playing that day. I felt that I let my teacher down. So I did not have the mood to wait until the final announcement. In the end I got the second prize for only 0.5 point lower than the champion. I felt disappointed for days even I got the prize. And it becomes the most unforgettable experience in my life.