Congratulations Nicole!!!

Oh My God!!! It was so unbelievable when I opened the envelop at the Unit Penilaian in Penang yesterday morning. My student, Nicole, who sat for her ABRSM piano practical exam in June scored 141 marks out of the total of 150 marks! Well done ,Nicole!

She broke my teaching record for these 8 years time. Because none of my student had this kind of result before. Well, I did help them to get many times of distinctive result for their lower grades, as promised, but none of them got a high distinction which hits over 140 marks!!!Furthermore, Nicole is my 4th grade 8 student. My first student got only a pass, with 108 marks few years back. And then the other 2 were actually my close friends, but they gave up to sit for exam due to the "sacred" sales job. I admitted that i did feel suspicious about my ability to help my higher grades students to achieve better result. Or, maybe I am just ok to handle the lower grades students? But thanks to Nicole, your hardwork means a lot to me, at least for my reputation in Butterworth:)

I am going to introduce a bit about Nicole. She was a student of mine when I was teaching in my secondary school as a temporary teacher in 2001. I was planning to "dig" some of my students to my music lesson by giving them my contact in classes,spreading the information that I am actually doing music too. And then Nicole came to me and asked if she could learn the cello under me. To be frank, I am not that pro until the extend that I can conduct cello lesson. I told her frankly, but she insisted to learn under me. I was so bad that she really follow my style to go after the best choice of every equipment or machine to work on something, i.e. she bought a handmade cello for about RM5k! This drove her mum crazy with a big roar, but her father seemed supportive( well, her father is an Arien as me, maybe this is the reason).

Nicole had been learning for quite some time under me, i think for at least one year. And then, she suddenly switched to my piano lesson one day. She was in fact a very ordinary student of mine, at least for that time. She had bad habit, bad posture and also bad technique. But she had something very crucial in learning everything --the passion!

She dares to ask me questions, goes into details, and she does research on net, about the technique, the musical interpretation, and she shares youtube clips with me to ask for ideas. This is much appreciated, as none of my students have the passion to do so due to massive homeworks, tuition and extra classes. Whatever I taught her, she really tried at home.Though she progressed slowly, but i knew she is somebody one day if she keeps this going.

Last year, she took the 7th grade ABRSM exam, and scored a high Merit, 128 marks. I was not surprise, but i thought she could do it better. She had the whole package to obtain a distinction actually. Unfortunately, she had a serious break-down during her exam, for her very last exam piece, the jazz (click on it to watch my version).
Hence, the most confident music became her lowest scoring piece. If she didn't turned back and asked the examiner to allow her to restart the whole thing at the end of the music, she might get at least another 3 marks, and hitted the distinction. I strongly believed that she did learn a lesson last year.

But it was a good news for her, as before this, she only obtained a pass for previous exams. When she came for my piano lesson, she was in the 4th grade standard. I didn't force her to sit for exam, but worked really hard on her technique by teaching her a few Czerney Studies. Her hardwork really paid off. Then I had decided to take risk by registering her for a 7th grade practical exam after one year, and she obtained a high Merit!
I called her up when i received the marks and the comment slip, by telling her that she failed to make it through, for the break-down, so, just 2 more marks to pass. I was bad, huh? She was so sad and disappointed, but after that, i told her that she actually had 2 marks to go to get a distinction. She screamed like hell on the other side of the phone and decided to give my whole family a treat on this, and we only had the chance to enjoy the "treat" last month:)

Well, being a part time Dj and stage host, playing with words is a must for me. I am not naughty and bad, but it's hard for me not to give people surprises. This year i did it again by telling her that she failed, 9 marks to go, sorry and blah blah blah...
I could tell that she was so upset and sad, but just acted like nothing, I laughed in the car when driving back to mainland. My mum sided me and agreed to give her a joke when she came to collect the comment slip. But guess what, how disappointed were we when she said she couldn't come due to transportation problem, her whole family were sick and needed rest. I suspected that they were too disappointed, because they spent so much on her piano lessons( double lesson per week, 1.5 hours each time!)

But then, my mum started to feel worry because many people can't stand for failure and kill themselves before getting the real result under this sort of "surprise". I felt the same way, and got her supportive dad's contact number. Her dad started off the conversation on phone by saying that i actually didn't need to call to respond on her failure,as they all didn't bother and really appreciate my help. I could feel that her dad was so disappointed actually.And i could feel the anger through his fierce voice. Sigh...
Then i told him that i just played a joke with Nicole, and she got a high distinction with 141 marks actually, 9 marks to go to get full mark. Her dad was so surprise and happy, i could really feel it, trust me. After hanging up the phone, Nicole called me within 10 seconds...

" Hey, teacher, what happened? What did you mean? What are all these?"

' Hehehe...cannot meh? I thought you didn't bother and really accepted the result with rounded contentment'

When i told her the real marks, i heard she cried in the car, with tears of course!

Awww...I was so bad, wasn't I?

But what to do? If i didn't play this that big this year, I won't even have chance to do so in the future, as Nicole is heading to Canada for her study after one week! Sorry, but i have to admit that, i didn't feel regret on the joke,muahahaha!!!

Well, congratulations to Nicole.
You are actually the most passionate student of mine for for classical music for these 8 years. You know, scoring a distinction is quite impossible for ordinary candidates, not to say getting 141 marks in grade 8 exam. You knew you did make a lot of mistakes during the exam, but they were minor, and you covered everything like a professional according to the examiner! The examiner loved your natural playing and the message you conveyed!

Trust me, it's nothing to do with me for your distinctive result. You paid fees, I must return back with my experiences, methods and knowledge. You deserve all this! I wish you all the best for your future study, stay healthy and be strong and be safe when you are in Canada.

I hope Nicole is not the only student of mine to score this high mark in the future. Really, it's about my reputation!!!Muahaha...