The Adjudicator

...(story continued)

8:15: The Adjudicator realizes the directions she has received are wrong and she needs to backtrack two miles. She was hoping to arrive in time to look over the list of students and have sufficient time to sign all of the forms before hearing the young musicians.

8:25: The Adjudicator arrives at the site of the evaluations—the home of one of the music teachers whose students will be playing—and has five minutes to sign her name (three times for each student) about 65 times.

8:30: The first student comes into the room, obviously full of trepidation. The Adjudicator, looking up from the roster of student names, tries to put the young musician at ease.

"Good morning, Emily. I'm looking forward to hearing you play!"

After the Emily sits at the piano, she adds, "Can you play an F-major triad for me?"

"We didn't learn triads," Emily says, meekly. "But learned chords."

"OK, how about playing an F-major chord."

The little girl flawlessly plays an F-major chord, and demonstrates some other skills. Then it's time for repertoire.

"What is your favorite piece that you're going to play today?" the Adjudicator asks.

"Mrs. Cow Takes a Nap."

"Wonderful! I like 'Mrs. Cow Takes a Nap'," says the Adjudicator with enthusiasm. After "Mrs. Cow," which takes about 30 seconds, Emily moves on to "Black Key Bounce," which takes about the same about of time. Emily learns that she did fine, and has passed Syllabus Level I.

8:50: The Adjudicator hears more "lower division" students, who play such pieces as "Whirly Gig," and "The Sewing Machine." Since all these pieces are over in less than a minute, the wise adjudicator learns how to write quickly. The Adjudicator keeps a "cheat sheet" nearby to insure that she won't have to waste precious seconds trying to think of the right adjective. On a 5 x 7 cards are the words: sparkling, exciting, bouncy, dreamy, eerie, etc.

10:15: The Adjudicator takes a break. (The break was supposed to start at 10:00, but since some of the students froze up when trying to play their pieces from memory, the evaluations are behind schedule.) The host teacher has kindly provided a mid-morning snack, a delicious, high-fat, high-carb Danish and a cup of coffee, which, alas, the Adjudicator doesn't have time to drink before the next student comes in.

10:20: A surly boy comes in, who announces that his teacher didn't make him learn scales or theory and, well, he doesn't really like to practice. The Adjudicator who received specific training in adjudication, knows that her most important role is to be encouraging.

"I'm looking forward to hearing you play! What piece are you going to play first?" she says with a smile.

Of course she already knows, by looking at the adjudicator's schedule, that he's going to play "Little Monster," (I'm not making up the title) and her "thought bubble" says, "Let's get this over with, you little monster." But the Adjudicator maintains her cool, and unlike the Vice President of the United States, who doesn't mind a little profanity now and again, she says something encouraging, like "That was very good the way you brought out the dynamics to make it sound like there was a really scary monster!"

11:30: After hearing four or five more young students, the Adjudicator asks an especially timid girl to play the G-major scale. After numerous false starts, she gives up, and the Adjudicator says,

"Let's come back to that later."

The girl then gives a fine performance of "The Whale and the Sardine" bringing out some of the subtleties of this minute-long piece. When the Adjudicator asks her to try the scale again she flounders. In a gentle voice the Adjudicator asks,

"What note do you think the G-major scale begins on?" (emphasizing "G" as she speaks).

All of a sudden, tears stream down the girl's face. Bringing to bear all her skills as mother, teacher, and amateur psychologist, the Adjudicator comforts the student, and by the end of the audition, there is a hint of a smile on the girl's face. Now the Adjudicator is 30 minutes behind schedule.

12:30: The Adjudicator enjoys a lunch prepared by the host teacher. It's a delicious meal of chicken Kiev, having about 50 grams of protein, 1,100 calories and 100 grams of fat. The dessert, a home-made cobbler, is exquisite.

1:00: Some students at Levels IV, V and VI audition. They play pieces such as "Gypsy Dance," "Lydian Nocturne" and "Li'l Arabesque." The Adjudicator can always find something positive to say. "Good, steady tempo," she writes while listening to the student, though ironically, the second she writes the "o" on the word "tempo" the youngster's tempo becomes distressingly erratic. "Nice job of memorization," writes the Adjudicator, only seconds before a memory slip brings the performance to halt.

2:20: The Adjudicator notices that the paper cup filled with jelly beans her host so kindly placed on the desk is now empty, although she has no memory of eating them herself.

3:20: A couple more "early grade" students play. After struggling with her music theory, one girl tells the Adjudicator that she'll start with "Mrs. Cow Takes a Nap."

" I like 'Mrs. Cow Takes a Nap'," says the Adjudicator with a smile, although with the morning's caffeine completely worn off, the "thought bubble" is saying "I wish it were 'Mrs. Adjudicator Takes a Nap'."

However, the Adjudicator does manage to stay awake for another performance of "Mrs. Cow" and writes meaningful comments ("be sure to bring out the melody") and gives the student encouraging feedback ("nice job of memorizing!").

5:05: The last evaluation of the day. A girl named Kiley plays the Etude in E minor so well that the Adjudicator is in a good mood again and is quickly able to come up with encouraging feedback. ("Nice attention to dynamics!")

5:20: The Adjudicator and the teacher have a "teacher conference." Again, the emphasis is on positive feedback, not "Why the heck don't you make your students learn their chord progressions?"

7:00: After checking in to her motel, the Adjudicator goes to a Mexican restaurant. Having heard 18 students play scales, arpeggios, chord progressions and musical pieces, she'd really like a beer, but she's dining alone. On the other hand, there are other people in the restaurant, so she's not really dining alone. She orders a Negra Modelo to go with her Enchiladas de Pollo.

9:15: The Adjudicator goes back to the motel and calls her husband to give him a report on the day's adjudication. Tomorrow will be a easier day, she says. Only 14 students to hear.

10:45: After reading a bit, the Adjudicator falls asleep, and dreams about Mrs. Cow.

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