If.

Another long day from Jonathan Shin.

This morning started with church ...-.- ok just after I started typing this my dad goes,

"I'm going to sleep now!" (9.43pm)"Huh so early?"
"That's why I have no pimples! Muahahaha"


You suck, dad :)

Ok ahem this morning started with church, and I was standing up the entire session with my dad because we came late and didn't manage to find any seats, so we stood at the back for the whole time. I was thinking about how Andrew said my church was so cool, along with the cross at the top of the building that could be seen on Google Earth.



Today was All Souls' Day, where they commemorate all the departed brothers and sisters just like my mum.

Originally upon entering the collumbarium I thought it was All-Chinese-People-Stand-In-Front-Of-The-Collabarium-To-Pay-Respects-In-Chinese-Language Day, but it was not to be, for my discovery that it was All Souls' Day would come later.



Yeah. After church I went back home just to relax and nap and watch Arsenal score one goal in the recorded match yesterday. Yesterday I totally went delusional, because when Arsenal was 2-0 down against Stoke, I switched off the TV.

This morning I was so praying to myself that Arsenal came back 3-2 against Stoke for the whole of this morning without looking at the papers. Lol. Of course we lost.

Two of us piled into the car before driving down Bukit Timah lane towards Henderson Road to get me contact lenses. In the end when we came out we didn't get anything, partly because contact lenses cost so freaking expensive.

We then went to Ikea just to eat, and we wanted to get light bulbs plus a floor mat, but in the end we didn't. Just ate and ate and ate.

Got to Serangoon, lost 3-1 to Nigel (my cousin) in water rugby/soccer/waterpolo, had dinner (THAT'S THE MAIN POINT, not the game), and then back home. National Treasure, then back here.

I've been trying to imitate Neil Humphrey's writing style for a super long time, except that I keep failing because in the first place the context is different. He writes on specific articles, while I write on days of my life. I'm better than me.

Well, we can start by writing on a certain topic. What topic shall we choose today? On why we borrow books from the library and don't read them? That's only for me.

What has caught my eye recently?


Y...


Seriously seriously seriously. Oh yes, on how messy my study room is.

It certainly has become much cleaner over the recent times, because everything is now placed in drawers and shelves and everything. But my end-of-years are still hanging around, red ink over green papers, blue ink over white papers with tons of lines on it. And then there's the usual manuscript paper filled with tons of scribbles and black dots everywhere, some of my sketches.

I hardly find the need to organize everything. If I can find it, then it's organized. If I can see it, then it's organized. But then again there's a limit to what my brain can do.

Then we're back to the need to organize.

Jump topic. To the process of composition:

I first start out when I'm in the shower. It's good time to sing melodies that sound worthy. Usually there are in Db, Ab, or A major, or Gb major.

After that when my hair is still wet and not dried, I rush over to any paper I can find and then write it down.

I have learnt my lesson, this time, I write the exact harmony along with the melody, and the rhythms. When I was younger, I couldn't be bothered, and thus probably half my output disappeared.

I think it's a gift, because I don't really need a keyboard to write basic ideas, so I can figure out harmonies and melodies with a kinda ease. But when things get complicated and sometimes you need a spark of inspiration, the keyboard comes to play.

Mostly, I find the keyboard as a tool of editing, because I write all my rough sketches through mind, when I shut out my ears and open up my mind and process the entire harmony and melody.

It takes up probably 2 gigabytes just to do this, and I only can do it when I use my hands to cover my ears, look like I'm praying really hard that the ground will open up and eat me, and then use my right hand to quickly write down whatever I just thought of.

After doing this, I'll probably at most come up with one page of music that sounds ok enough but definitely definitely not performable. That's when I bring out the keyboard, and do all the minor editings and the instances of magick.

Slowly but surely, each page is carved out, but the going really gets tough, because I struggle to make connections between themes. It really takes a smartass to do that. I'm not a smartass yet.

BCM took approximately 6-8 hours to complete, most of them done at night, under the cover of the study light in my room, with my dad sleeping. I was caught sleeping out with BCM still in my hand, TV still on, and dad back from work.

Never a good situation to be in, but the BCM never got a touch of drool, which is great.

I remember two months ago being a super crazy month, because I was like spamming cup noodles and practising piano (I don't know for what, maybe cos of Ibiza and Germany), composing stuff, and doing nothing else.

No wait, composing UNDER THE TABLE! oh yes. Bryan and Ian would certainly remember that.

I'm planning to submit my composition to ABRSM. Apparently there's a composition competition going on, and the top prizewinner gets 1000 pounds. No high hopes, everyone probably has their composition teacher, and I'm doing empirical methods still. I'll probably be laughing my ass off if I get anything.

If.