A.I.M.

So every spring, my piano teacher has all her students do something called A.I.M., or Achievement In Music. It isn't exactly a competition because no one wins, but you do play for judges and they give you a score. You memorize two full songs that you play, and they should both be different kinds of songs. Like one could be fast, and the other slow. Or one happy, one sad. That's kind of how mine are. One of them is L'Orage (The Storm), and the other one is Allegro Burlesco. The first one is all serious, and there are a lot of crashes and other things that make it sound like a big storm. The other one kind of reminds of clowns, because it's more upbeat and everything. The judge scores you on things like memorization and accuracy, interpretation (how you play the song), dynamics (h0w loud or soft it is), and other musical conventions (crescendos, decrescendos, accents, etc). After you play your songs, you go to a different judge. You play a technique piece, which doesn't have to be memorized, but shows that you can read the music and do what it tells you to. Then they ask you to play different scales that you need to know and see how well you can play them. You have to have good technique, remember all the sharps and flats, and not trip over your fingers. You also have to do chords, chord inversions, arpeggios, and cadences. It's kind of the same thing as the scales. You have to use the right fingerings, sharps and flats, and play them like you know them. Before you go to any of the judges, you do a written test. It asks you about musical vocabulary, musical history, and a lot of other musical stuff. You need to know how to find key signatures, the order of sharps and flats, how to form different kinds of chords, etc. Then you do an ear-training test with your teacher. You have to tell the difference between major, minor, and phrygian scales, and major, minor, dimished, and augmented chords just by listening to them. You also need to recognize intervals. (2nds, 3rds, minor 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, and octaves). A.I.M. takes a long time and a lot of work to prepare for, but in the end you're better at what you do, you know more, and if you work hard, then it's easy and you're prepared. I've been playing piano since I was in second grade. When you start learning to play piano you're mostly just learning how to read music and what different notes and symbols mean. As you play longer, reading the notes is just second nature and your fingers know exactly what to do. Each time you finish a book she tells you to buy a new one that's another level up. You also get to learn some fun songs that you've heard before, either on the radio or from a movie, play, etc. My favorite part about playing the piano is that I can learn songs that I can play and sing along to. That's kind of what makes all your hard work worth it, is something that makes it fun for you. I'm really glad that I play piano because I think it makes me a better, more hard-working person, and I think it's really fun.