Post Performance

As promised, I'm here to share the unforgettable experience of performing on stage for the first time :)
I arrived at about 5min past 7 after having my dinner, which I had difficulty finishing because of the butterflies which kept fluttering in my stomach. Jin arrived at the same time too. Was so glad to have her company cos she helped to distract me from my anxiety by chatting with me about anything other than the performance later.

The cafe was deserted except for the waiter who was having his dinner. After identifying ourselves, he asked us to take a seat. I then remembered Lewen (my teacher) saying that I could practise a little before the start. Hence, we went to the keyboard room behind the cafe. There, we saw a guy practising and I guessed he should be one of the performers too. It turned out that he's also my teacher's student and that night was to be his ETP (end-of-term performance?).



As I had no idea how to use the headphone, I lowered the volume and tried to recall the chords while Jin snapped a few pictures of me on her mobile. Soon after, a group of people entered who turned out to be another group of performers. Lead by their teacher, a rather good-looking guy, were his three female students. They seemed to be in their very early twenties. Gary, the guy I mentioned earlier, and me looked comparatively more senior. Haha!

The moment that we were waiting for finally arrived slightly past 7.30pm. By then, HF & partner and some other supporters of the rest of the performers had filled about a quarter of the capacity. I was glad that it wasn't a large crowd!

Being the first performer of the evening, I mustered my courage and went up the stage as the emcees introduced me. Lewen helped me with the functions of the keyboard while I tried to get used to the high chair. The cafe looked dark from where I was, under the spotlight. Although I had my music score in front of me, there was no way of referring to it because I had the mic to take care of, the strange looking keyboard, the weird sitting position (height) and talking to the emcees at the same time. All of a sudden, I really felt like a performer! LOL. Except that I'm a very inexperienced one :D

Adding on to the emcees' introduction of my song and me, I thanked my friends who had come and told the audience that I would be performing a cantonese number by Gigi Leung. As the applause faded, I began and only managed to play a few stanzas when I faltered and hit the wrong chords :(

"Oops! Sorry!" was my reaction. I was very grateful to the two emcees especially the lady who reassured me that since there were only 5 performers that evening, I had ample time to try again. So malu! (I thought) haha!
I began all over again and managed to play the interlude without any mistake! There were a few minor errors but I was able to recover from them and moved on without stopping. As I was playing and singing the last verse, I was suddenly aware that my performance was coming to an end. When the applause came on, my mind was in a blank and I gathered my file kind of hastily and stumbled off the stage. Yes, I almost tripped when I stepped off the platform stage :S It was like I had a blackout or something LOL.

All I could remember was that I muttered "sorry" to my teacher (for making those mistakes) before hurrying back to my seat. I told Jin that I could not recall much of the things I had done just moments ago. Did I forget to sing? Did I complete the song etc. Gosh!

We stayed on to listen to the other performers. The one after me was Gary (graduating from Stage 3) who played Silence all these years with Lewen singing. Lewen also performed her own composition, a jazzy English number titled Sunrise Sunset.

I sure am looking forward to my ETP this year end! However, I'm still unsure of what song to perform :?

p.s. Photos courtesy of Jin :)