Once a year in March some music teachers require their students to preform two pieces -usually memorized- in front of a judge. The judge has a piece of paper with which to critique on, and both of the pieces of music the student will be preforming. So basically you go into a room and get all nervous and play for a person you've most likely never seen in your life and then (after your pieces are done) go through a torturous time of waiting for your score - oh! that's right, I didn't tell you that the judge also gives you a rating on how well they thought you did.
The ratings are from 1-5 with 5 being superior (the top-notch). In some areas the scale is flipped to where 1 is the best and 5 is the worst. Anyway, the goal of federation is to get a gold cup - a trophy that sits in your bedroom and usually collects dust...the more trophies you get, the more dust you get. :)
You can obtain a gold cup by earning 15 points. It takes a minimum of three years getting "fives" to get fifteen points. The trophies go all the way up to 90 points. Every 15 points the trophy gets bigger, so if you go all the way to 90 points, you've got one huge trophy! Most people, however never attain that level, so a 90 point trophy is rather rare! :)
This is my tenth year of playing piano for federation and I still got really nervous today. I also got to accompany a girl on the piano while she played violin. This was my first time to do that for federation and it was a really neat experience! I really enjoy being able to utilize this special opportunity and get advice from different people on what I should work on and be paying closer attention on in my music! Needless to say, I'm SO glad it's over! :P
I haven't been feeling well the past week, so mom went into all the rooms I played piano in and used wipes on the keys after I finished practicing or preforming!! She's amazing and so sweet to do that for me(and all the kids that played after me)! :D Thanks momma!!
Okay, now that I've totally overwhelmed you with way more information then you ever wanted to know about federation . . . on to something else!
February pretty much failed for memorizing verses for me . . . I don't even have a legitimate excuse! Isn't that terrible!? :) Well, I thought that even though I didn't do February, I could still do the rest of the year. I might even be able to catch up on those lost verses later on in the year!
Without any further ado, here is March's first verse!
Isaiah 26:3 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee."One of the reasons I picked this verse was because our Spanish class had this verse as one we had to memorize. Of course, that was in Spanish, so I thought it would be good if I memorized it in English too. This is an amazing verse that speaks of God's love towards us and the promise of perfect peace when we completely trust in the Lord. Here's the verse in Spanish as well.
Isaías 26:3 "Tú guardarás en completa paz a aquel cuyo pensamiento en ti persevera; porque en ti ha confiado."Lord willing I'll get a chance to write more soon!!!
Psalms 104:33-34 "I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD."
