National Day recording

So I had my National Day recording today and it didn't really go well for me. I went there and I met the SSO, SCO, and all the soloists who were going to perform later. This would be the Singapore EXPO, and I was in one of the conference halls.

The atmosphere was quite fantastic, seeing everyone there, musicians. But I could safely bet that I was the youngest there. I think.

There was an issue between me and the SSO harpist, because she needed the piano bench, and she took it from me, and I had to sit on the normal chair. Then I realised it was too low, much too low for my comfort, and so I stood up. Then the admin saw me, and they took the piano bench back from the harpist lady, and she was like complaining and saying that she needed one too.

How political music can be. But that's life in the music circle.

In the end I was a little concern because I didn't want my relationship with a fellow musician and stranger to be ruined over such a small thing, but they managed to solve the problem by bring another chair and placing this huge mat on it so that it was tall enough for her to play on the harp.


They were recording the song "Starlight Troopers", and mine was "Eternal Sun", so I had to sit on the piano bench for about one hour. And Mr. Shane Thio was like, "recordings go like this, they would drag on for sometime, and then the whole thing would end about 1-2 hours later".

Those brass players who were mostly Eurasians were quite funny. So Ye Cong (the conductor of SCO and this orchestra) was like, "This part, rreeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzzzz, violins, bar 284" Then the angmohs were like imitating his voice and trying to learn some Chinese words, at the same time making fun of him.

Then Ye Cong kept calling for play at bar 69, and everyone in the room definitely knew what the number symbolised, and all of them were like trying not to let others know they KNOW about the number. Except for the brass ensemble, and one fat french hornist actually said, "Ooooh, 69!" You could almost feel the stifle of the laughter which was aboout to burst out. They were quite talkative, talking crap and copying Ye Cong at many points of the rehearsal.

Then my solo came, and I actually screwed up the first time I played it, because I didn't expect the orchestra to be playing so slowly, and the composer himself, Law Wai Lun, had to rush over but before he managed to come from half of the hall to my side, I managed to recover. That wasn't recording yet. Then after that the second try was better. And the third time was the recording. So at first I thought he was going at the normal speed again, but then Ye Cong slowed the whole orchestra down and I was like rushing the whole first page. He said, "Jonathan, watch me whenever you're playing the first beat." And that I did, but the playing was so not in sync with the orchestra that he had to retry that part just for me again.

Damn Paiseh.

But otherwise the musicians I realised some of them really quite dao. Maybe I was also quite dao towards them. But, whou, rubbing shoulders with adult musicians are really something.

I rate my day 7/10