Practice, really makes perfect

Shannon's perfect score for her
Grade 2 ABRSM Theory Exam

When I asked her how much she thought she got, she said 90. I said No. She had a look of disappointment and said 85. Again I said No, one last guess. She quietly mumbled 80, with a strong tone of frustration in her voice. I repeated No. Then I said, “You got 100!!”

She didn’t believe me. She demanded proof. She called me a liar. I showed her the message Celest sent me from Japan where she was holidaying with Nigel. Our music teacher texted her in Tokyo with the good news and a picture of the result sheet.

Her frown turned into a huge smile, the biggest grin I had seen on her face in a long time. She still didn’t believe me and insisted that mummy got it wrong. She turned her face away from me – but I could tell the grin was still there.

Looking back on her preparation for this exam, even though it was a relatively simple Grade 2, there was a decent amount of nagging, scolding and so on. But overall, I think she was quite enthusiastic about it and generally followed the instructions the music teacher gave, which was to keep doing each and every test paper (from the previous years) again and again until she got them perfect. This meant that she would have done each paper easily 8 to 10 times, each time with less and less mistakes.

Music theory aside, this was a lesson for her in perseverance which we can easily use as a teachable moment for her that if she set her mind to something, she can attain perfection – it is within reach for those who are willing to work for it.

Our Shannon is a fighter – we’ve seen her try and try at various things, fail, get frustrated, cry, but then be able to have the emotional strength to wipe away the tears, pick herself up and continue until she succeeds. I think all of us possess this capability - we just have to be able to access and harness this for ourselves. I will always remember that hue smile on her face and remind her about it each time she feels that things are too tough.