a musical day ahead

I had to do an impromptu performance yesterday. With the imba Zhang Aidi, during Studio Class.

I mean, I couldn't believe it! Dr Hecht stated it was from 7-10, but I didn't realize all of us year 1s and year 2s had to perform. So anyway I didn't practise (neither did Aidi) for the half-an-hour between our lessons and Studio Class. And that meant I was looking towards a performing disaster.

Bach was a performing disaster - I didn't even know whether I was in the correct bar, but I was playing all the different progressions until it sounded good enough to head towards the end. But yes, I wasn't even conscious. That was because IT WASN'T MEMORIZED!

And so I was solely concentrating on the notes and not the correct mindset and 'feel'. There you have it, a musical disaster. Mozart was better, and the imagery that Dr Hecht put to me yesterday for a final attempt to help me do well in juries was fantastic enough to make me smile and think about the operatic actions and the laughter. And finally, Chopin etude, which I've already played through a couple of times.

Wish me good luck for juries tomorrow! Meanwhile, I can't wait. I have this immense urge to perform for them now, them being Dr Hecht, Mr Tiu, and the director of the Conservatory, Mr. Bernard Lanskey. After my juries, I would be heading back to school for some jamming, and then soccer, and then REHEARSAL from 6.30 to 9.30pm!

Shiok, shiok, shiok. What a musical day. I'll be skipping school to prepare for my juries though, so anyone from 4L who sees this, please tell the teachers! And if you don't understand what a jury means, it means a performance in front of members of the faculty and they will check one's progress throughout the entire year through the means of one performance.

That's it. Tomorrow I'll show them my progress. However, I wouldn't like to over-estimate, and I will continue practising now!

Detention #2 (NO! A series about detention! It wasn't done on purpose!)

And of course, how could I have forgotten about the touch rugby game played by RJ girls for training in RI?

It was a combination of softball and rugby, where they had to pass the ball around and there was a girl who ran around the bases. And of course, the famous scene, when this pretty RJ girl in uniform (the only one in uniform) ran around the bases, and when she went for a touchdown at the final base, she dived, and lo and behold! her skirt flew over and I saw no evil.

Ok I didn't see any evil, because Norman saw it and told us. NORMAN SAW EVIL. He told me it was white. And when I looked there, obviously the girl had pulled back down her skirt, but she was covering her face in laughter. And all the girls around her collasped into laughter.

Damn. Evil comes only once in a while, and you hardly get to catch it until you're around 30.

Detention #1 (no series planned)

My plan backfired. It wasn't really a 'plan'. It was a I-need-to-eat-my-lunch-NOW case, and so I missed 20 mins of Assembly period to go eat my lunch at RJ. I managed to avoid the prefects doing their rounds at RJC, but when I got back to RI for the Assembly, I met into Miss Goh, and she referred me to Miss Jacqueline Sim, who made me go for detention, and then to Mr. Tan Wen Seng. Good thing was that they didn't shout in my ears, otherwise it would have been unbearable.

So I got one demerit point for truancy - one step to being John Lennon at 16. Or 15. Except I have yet to get laid (which I'm not planning to do so until I'm 30) So unfair really. I've never been to a detention my whole LIFE!

I wouldn't complain it's unfair or anything, because after I told my dad about the detention he said good that I ate my lunch and that I had to take care of my health.

Otherwise it would be Assembly wise Pound foolish. Had I not eaten, I would have FALLEN ILL! :O So for detention I had to write a reflection letter, and tomorrow I would be making a speech with 3 other guys during morning assembly about why one shouldn't pon assembly. Actually being in the process it really isn't meant to humialliate us, just to tell you guys that ponning really sucks. Because when I went for the last few parts of the Humanities quiz, it really was damn fun.

Moral of the story? Always have a heavy breakfast at 5am so you wouldn't have to look like an idiot at 12.30 and run off to RJ to quickly get your stomach filled.

Originally I could have gone home to practise piano at 3, but I got home at 6. I have juries this Saturday. And I have nothing to worry about already. I've gotten over it, and I need to work on my priorities. But yet, I have so limited time to practise. I only have tonight to practise, and none tomorrow before I go for my lessons. And string ensemble rehearsal on Friday is from 6.30 to 9.30. I get back home, practise till 12am. Entirely possible. And then 10am would be my juries. 6 hours to sleep, and 2 to practise, before taking a bus to the Conservatory.

Fine. Settled.

After this Saturday, I'm free. I can compose music. I can read lots of books. Play music with friends.

But concentrate, concentrate on Saturday.

Concentrate on my music.

Spiralling ribbons from the sky

I feel comfortable sitting here in this chair. Air-conditioned, although my legs are tired. Beautiful Prelude in D major. All the brilliant intricacies, intertwining harmonies, suddenly to regret and then to hope. Suddenly to Theophilus-talk.

Listening to Dr Hecht teach Bach is so soothing.

Math Error Analysis was ok. I can say maybe I can get 4/7. For Chemistry, I don't think that would be the case. I feel like drinking water now. Just pure refreshing water. Mountain water. Flowing from above.

Flying over an evergreen forest with snow and sleet. Beauty of nature.
Bach - language of humanity.

Spiralling ribbons from the sky.

I should stop writing like this - they may be to my viewers' displeasure, although it is my pleasure to write like this.

Peace

One day a woman came to see the Buddha (the great spiritual teacher who lived several thousand years ago in India) with her dead child in her arms. Grief-stricken, she had wandered from place to place, asking people for medicine to restore him to life. As a last resort, she asked the Buddha if he could help her. "Yes, he said, "But you must first bring me some mustard seed from a house in which there has never been a death."

Filled with hope, the woman went from door to door inquiring, but no one could help her. Every house she entered had witnessed its share of deaths. By the time she reached the end of the village, she had awakened to the realization that sickness and death are inevitable. After burying her son, she returned to the Buddha for spiritual instruction. "Only one law in the universe never changes," he explained, "that all things change and all things are impermanent." Hearing this, the woman became a disciple and eventually, it is said, attained enlightenment.

All things change and all things are impermanent. I should start embracing both Christianity and Buddhism at once.

I'm at peace. And that is important, for only in mental peace can one achieve his fullest potential. I shall clear away all distractions, and work on my priorities. I shall stop using excuses not to do work, and I shall list all my current priorities.

1. Study for Chemistry CCT, even though it's too late, I shall do my best.
2. Practise Mathematics Differentiation, which I've been doing for the past few days, and I'm confident for tomorrow's quiz.
3. Practise for juries on Saturday. I shall work on my 2nd and 3rd movement of Mozart.
4. Type out my English summary for my speech

I'm still the normal Jonathan Shin, but with clearer priorities. This shall serve as a reminder for me to lead a balanced life. I shall go to church every Sunday, and I will harness the power of meditation to guide me through my toughest times. I would still talk to friends, for I'm not selfish, and I do not strive to better others, only myself.

I shall not let them down - I shall not let him down - I shall not let her down - I shall not let myself down.

I realised I wrote

I shall eat a banana for lunch.

I realised I wrote a modern art-music piece called Tribal Dance for the Land of Hi. It's so damn coincedental that Clinton mentioned to me about him planning to write an abstract work called "Hi", and that we were working towards a musical at the end of the year for the Literature Comedy Project. And our project was supposed to revolve around Gulliver's Travels (I supposed). So if you did read the last book where he met the Yahoos and their tribal behavior, you would understand why the music was so coincedental.

The music itself is pretty awkward - an atonal piece that starts with a mere hint of G minor and alternating time signatures to signify gathering people and the pitterpattering of feet. There's the chief's entrance. Well it could have been inspired by Debussy's Island of Joy, when Clarence went on story-telling mode for the piece.

I shall have a banana for lunch.

Perhaps the banana might console me, and it looked like it could lah. Hopefully.

Abstract

It's important to be both pragmatic yet briliantly optimistic for life. It's important to understand that the only thing that comes with a 100% guarantee in life would be death. Expecting a death is never easy!

I'll constantly remind myself to stay strong, and never let myself go astray...

My juries are next week, and yet I'm not ready for Mozart 2nd and 3rd movement.

Lit presentation on the Theatre of the Abstract was neat - an impromptu performance flows pretty naturally. Clinton and I were pretty organized, and Ms Chew apparently thought we gave a very good dramatization of Endgame. She wants us to put the presentation up on the LitWiki.

Which I've yet to locate :X

Other than that, I'm simply lost these days as to what to blog about. No wonder the lack of tags

What else.

I realised I start every post in nearly the same fashion, or at least I think I do. That's because I've a boring format!

We did the orchestration for the Introduction for Flame of Youth this RE period today. And Bryan and I played for 5 hours.

And...

My mum went back to hospital.

And what else. Hm.

Musical Fun

Jamming is so fun. Today I played for 3 hours with Graham, Joey, Glenn, and singer Yee Xiang. Graham rhythm, Glenn lead, Jonathan bass, Joey drums, YeeXiang singer. We tried Vindicated at first, but it didn't work out well as expected because of the range for Yeexiang. Anyway Daniel's band budged into the room and watched us play for a while - we got some hackles but they softened afterwhile when we really got down to the music.

Then we moved Vindicated two steps down so that we could let Yeexiang reach some of the high notes, but Campus Superstar contestant stepped in and helped us out a little bit. I sang a favourite song of mine - Somewhere only we know, but we didn't continue much of it. I guess Vindicated was the song of the day.

After that it started getting really cool, because we played some blues hillibilly, and walkingbass, and there were really awesome solos from Glenn and Graham. So we were just jumping around and singing/screaming our heads off, thanks to Glenn attempting some of the high notes. Really fantastic, the feel.

Anyway I was being 'sorried' and pitied because I only played oldschool music - I guess I can be a more useful bass player if I had learnt to adjust my ears to the insensitivities of contemporary music. Suddenly music wasn't simply about sensitivity, but all about feelings and emotions.

But suddenly it wasn't - I found out that the sensitivities needed in both contemporary and art music were the same, except only on a different volume scale. There was still a need to maintain how loud the bass was going to be, momentum towards the next phrase, previous harmonies that have to be cleared and evaporated from the environment before one can move on to the next notes - the upbeats that had to be clearly and carefully placed. It is perhaps, more subtle. More difficult to see.

And then there's the issue of code-switching. For me to be able to switch from contemporary and art music would be a skill - a technique to my musical wellbeing - something I can put to good use. But of course, being proficient in everything can mean not being an expert in one.

I still have to develop my piano playing, a never-ending process. And discover new things I can do with the bass, to provide the best sound that the audience would want to hear.

Last but not least, I would like to congratulate the RE team for completing our first phase - composition of piece. We would be working on orchestration, and move to our final phase, that is recording, in the few weeks to come.



Wanted: People who can sing and play an instrument at the same time, can harmonise, loves music from the 1950s - 1990s, all at the same time, in Raffles Institution.

Happy birthday to Mervyn!

Ok. I'm seriously going to get down to blogging.

Anyway today was Mervyn's birthday, and we were of course, celebrating his birthday. But it was SO SPECIAL! He played a Haydn Piano Concerto with Dr. Hecht, and he wrote his own cadenza! Now that's completely cool. I wouldn't want to say now that I could compose a cadenza as well as him, but I don't think it's impossible. For goodness sake, he's only ten, and I probably have five more years of musical experience compared to him.

Well, life's unfair, and I definitely hope all the best to him in his music endeavors!

Ok I'll update somemore.

Mr. Gregory and an Accompaniment concert

Today rocked.

Ok anyway we started with Mr. Sean Gregory's workshop at 11, replacing Dr. Edward's normal theory class on Saturdays. It was pretty cool, since we were doing African rhythms and aesthetic exercises. We clapped in different rhythms, stamped our feet, hit our chests and thighs, and snapped our fingers.

And then we went on to improvisation, where we had different melodies for each section created by him.

Anyway last year he came to do a workshop with the freshmen, and I was totally fascinated by his African tunes and rhythms. We were taught on stage to do a rainsong for the audience last year, and it was beautiful, with all the rich harmonies of African tunes and complex rhythms.

I probably still can remember a little of the melody.

So today we did another song, this time a dinner song from Ghana. So there was the call-and-answer, something that went like - 'yeah, yeah, mo-ba-co ni-wco-shway'. Anyway it was damn funny that I accidently did the harmonization thing, because I actually forgot the starting note for the melody, and coincedentally sang a third higher -.- So much for trying so hard.

Anyway the harmonies were extremely beautiful. I still can remember it now! And I wish we could do it again..."yeah yeah, mo-ba-co ni-wco-shway"...(fades away)

Oh for the raindance thing last year, we had people pitterpattering with the fingers, and others doing different sounds like wind blowing and the singing. And then the haunting melodies and the rhythms and harmoines. Ok. African ROCKS.

After that we finished the workshop, and I went for lunch with Alan. So I ate Subway and he ate chilli-spammed wanton mee, which after finishing he was simply red and sweating like crap. Out came the tissue papers.

After that I went to the library to read on orchestra playing and the Beatles Anthologies, before taking a short nap in the library. I headed home after that. But there was more to come!

Clarence sms-ed me about a concert this evening - 'Everyone needs Accompanying'. Ok no words can describe the amount of fun I had there. Ok firstly Fiona came to watch also (clapclap) so I wasn't going to be soloing there and enjoying the music all by myself. Secondly, I realised my colleagues were so fun! Akkra was singing a lovesong! - Dream a little Dream. It was so funny watching him sing, because of his usual character. I mean, his usual character is quite nice and clean, but when he was singing it was simply terrific. And then Ying Han sang also! Simply cool. Beautiful.

And Debussy's Romance was my favourite classical piece for tonight. Simply because I'm writing one that sounds alike. Sh. Fiona's was Tchaikovsky's Waltz-Scherzo. Du Rui played it! I've seen him around, but he does say hi. Yay.

Then we headed back home, and now I'm here, starving. While some people get to eat fried things mixed together called ngoh hiang/wu xiang. AND fries.

Chedule

Finally I can log on to Blogger. I've been offline so often (shouldn't it be online?) that when I signed in I found cobwebs on my display picture!

Now here's the punchline: Jonathan Shin finally gets caught by pangs of headaches and hopefully not fever! So I thought I was Superman and able to do loads of things at one time. Unfortunately not. Let's take a look at my schedule...

Monday (which has already passed)
-School (7am to 3.15pm)
-CCA (3.30 to 6.30pm)
-YST (7.30 to 9.30pm)
-Shower, Dinner, Composition (10pm to 12am) Oh, and add in Heroes.

Tuesday (which has already ended)
-School (7am to 1.30pm)
-YST (7-9pm)

Wednesday (which has yet to end)
-Schoool (7am to 3.15pm)
-YST (4.30pm to 9pm)

Thursday (which is tomorrow)
-School (7am to 1.30pm)
-MEP (2.15-5.15)
-YST (9 to 11pm)

Friday
-School (7am to 12.30pm)
-YST (2pm-5pm)
-CONCERT (7.30pm-10pm)

Saturday
-YST (11-1pm)

Ah. My schedule for the entire week. Enough to freak you and I and the entire human race. Gruelling but worth it. There's hardly anything worth to type out here anyway. Other than that I screwed up Philosophy and Mathematics. However I did well in English comprehension and Literature Dramatic Recitation. Yay! Full marks for Vocabulary, and in my fantasy world I get one extra mark for getting all correct.

And Dramatic Recitation - 18/20! Cheers to Byap and Norman.

Today's piano lesson was absolutely ZIBEI! After watching Zhang Aidi (who is only Secondary 2) play both Bach and Chopin, while I only played Chopin, I feel so ashamed to be in the room. Sian. Must practise hard but must keep healthy.

So NOW I know why Chopin died so young. Probably must have been practising too much!

Why do Colours have Concerts

And we shall all ask this question together - why?

Well it is a question directed to perhaps anything that ever existed in the whole universe. Basic questions like, why does my pencilbox contain pencils? What are the pencils there for? To write? Why must we write? So that we can communicate? Why must we communicate?

(Stumped)

Oh yes, we communicate so we can fulfil the human nature to socialize. (Figure that out yourself! Sorry...)So why do we have to socialize? Because it's human nature? Why does human nature exist? Well, because we're created that way? Why were we created?

Shit. Truly stumped. Crap.
WHY DO WE EXIST?
WHY DOES ANYTHING EXIST?
WHY DOESN'T THEOPHILUS GIVE US AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION?

PLEASE, don't mind the last question. But in any case if I did mentioned it then never mind, but Byap and I were talking briefly about it during Mathematics lesson. It was brought up to my mind again when I read my friend's blog this evening. (Although I don't think it's in the same context.)

Some interesting things happened yesterday on Wednesday - I started seeing (imagining? now that's a different story) colours that came along with the sounds I heard, which led me to a confused state during two-piano class, no thanks to the brilliant range of tonality and dissonances provided during a climax of Della Joio's Aria and Toccata. So I started seeing(?) rainbow colours and streaks and different hues of blue green purple yellow brown red orange in all shapes and assortments.

And I got a BIG headache.

Something I can use to my advantage :) Another skill I can access in my musical arsenal.

Chopin's Etude was entirely understandable, just that I need some good psychomotor skills. I realised it used every part of my mental strength and body coordination and both ears. I had to keep the melody like bells (something which I've already noticed in the beginning), take note of the pedal (something I will not tell you guys here as it is too complicated to type out), take notice of the pedalling of the hands, take notice of the harmonic progressions and follow according to the progressions, and listen and listen and listen.

Try that man. Anyway I'm glad I've been told of this in one lesson, which gives me time to prepare it for next week's lesson. It would be tough, but entirely worth it. Why not, if it can make the piece better than it sounded before?

Once again, advertisements for two concerts that I'll be featured in. One would be the April 4th Primarily Piano concert (where I'll play as the FIRST guy). I'll be playing Mozart's K330. Yes, that cute piece that is in reality extremely detailed.

And then Shostakovich's Concertino, which I'll be playing as 2nd piano accompanying Aidi who's on 3rd. No, 1st piano. That would be on the April 15th.

I'm grateful for the all the concert opportunities!

Suay~

What an unlucky day today. Well to start after 8 years we changed the position of the house clock, and at exactly 12am it fell off the wall and crashed into the floor, shattering the glass and instantly waking the entire family up.

The next morning I woke up pretty fine, even though I ended up sleeping at 1am and having to wake up at 5.15am! I was tossing and turning around in bed, going so much as to sleep the other way, my head at the end of the bed.

Went to Bishan Stadium with the help of a friend I met at Bishan MRT, and then I got to enjoy the morning mist that emerged from the huge field beside the stadium. Fresh grass...no sound of crickets, just the clean fresh smell of a new morning.

Anyway it was Track-and-Field meet at Bishan Stadium for Raffles Institution, and for me it wasn't really that much fun, considering I was never one who had a mind to run quickly and escape from a couple of imaginary cops. The really nice part that made me want to cringe with nostalgia (cringe?) was the entire time the Morrison house got together at the stands. And that was where I met all the 2G guys back again. We relived a couple of jokes, like Neelia Rohc, Jaren's forehead, and the like. So we were indulging in much fun and laughter for the first hour, although the fun died down when some of us went away.

Kope~(d) a guitar from a Hulletian and started singing with the guys, before attempting to leave early. I did succeed 2 times on passing the NPCC guards, but of course I came back. I never had the intention to leave early, anyway. But just to show them that their plan wasn't foolproof afterall - wasn't really a waste of time though - I did the attempts just before we ended. :)

Got back to RI, played football with 4L guys. What a fantastic bonding session for us once again - we did some passing and playing together. However I did get burns from the sun afterwards - the field was emitting extremely hot air, so much so that we could see the hot air rising from the grass. Mirage? Illusion? I don't know what to call that.

Ate lunch with those guys, before we headed off back home. I came back home to see my dad's head bandaged - he fainted and knocked his head against a door. Apparently he didn't eat much in the morning, saw them draw blood from my mum and was feeling emotional, so he blacked-out.

Hope that doesn't happen to me anytime, though I did hit my head against a sharp corner at home a few hours back.

How unlucky...

(Sleeps)

No updates since last Sunday! Saddening for the readers, but good for me. I get a break, a break, a break a break a break OH YEAH! Yeah we had school till Thursday, where it was the RI Community Day - RISE went to AWWA Elderly Care Centre. I wouldn't want to dwell too much on that, except that when my dad read the email Kaicheng sent out on the e-groups, he mentioned that those guys who were constantly playing must stop the 'bochap' attitude - doesn't simply apply to music-lovers or non-music lovers in RISE - everyone has a responsibility to make the event successful.

I shall not do a public scolding here - not like I want to - but I'm glad at least I know the reasons that they have acted the way they've done. I'm contended to know that I've did my best to understand the reasons why they have lost interest...But they did a good job as station masters anyway! Ok that part is true other than playing soccer behind the main screen...

That day before was Dr Hecht's lesson on Bach - I played Prelude and Fugue in D major. Learnt a new finger action - and new imagery (which is never-ending and part of what makes lesson fun) for the fugue. From angel voices from the balcony to proclaimations...Baroque music is certainly beautiful although Ben Low and Bryan think it's boring!

Recently I've been listening to Sigismond Thalberg. I don't know what's the reason but he's virtuosic enough. It might have been Ben's Liszt's Harmoniques that made me interested in the Romantic virtuosic playing since this week...

Thought of so many things to talk about but I forgot all of them. Will definitely talk about them tomorrow.

Kaicheng just hummed to me a tune for a video he's creating (yumyum - nope not on food, definitely for CCA) and I had to copy it down on manuscript. UNFORTUNATELY, it was all much syncopated, which led me to have a hard time writing it down on paper.

But it was fun though.

And I liked Oblivion Part 1...

Elaborations

For my lovely readers, something from me -

Numb

I'm done for the day.

I've returned.

I'm back.

I'm tired!

Well for starters I was asked to sight-read Schumann's Piano Concerto has an orchestral pianist so that the rest can get a feel of it. I managed to get the structure of it right, although 1/3 or more of the notes were wrong. I was extremely disappointed not to have been able to apply what I've learnt - hand pedalling, voice leading...


15th March Saturday________________________________________________________________
And today I'm blogging for Saturday.

Early in the morning I woke up to the sound of my mum asking if I was going to miss theory class with Dr Edwards. Of course I wasn't - I've been waiting for this day for a week to test out my composition. But anyway I used 45 minutes in the morning to figure out the progression for TWO bars nearing the end of the piece.

Not really effecient, but I managed to sort out the final part. Unfortunately this made me 7 minutes late for theory class - I ran from the Kent Ridge Bus Stop all the way to Sem Room 7. Luckily, Dr Edwards had yet to arrive.

He was having Composition auditions...so I was early!

Ok anyway so I was asked to play my composition first. After I finished the three page work we all went through a pretty detailed analysis of my composition. I realised most of the things that were pointed out were coincedentally nicely in place - I didn't plan them or anything. Maybe it was subconscious. Only the 'sets in two' were planned.

Dr Edwards pointed out two opposite ends of the compositional spectrum - Continuity and Variety, or otherwise known as Coherence and Interest respectively. I guess the key is to hover around the middle of the spectrum - keeping a level of coherence and continuity, while also trying to provide variety and keep the listener interest.

It's like how I told my RE teammates about conventionality and originality. After me was Zhu En, and then Andrea and Aidi. Andrea did about 8 too (like me), and it was really great to see my counterparts' compositions. I agreed with Dr Edward's point about it looking easy, but when it came to playing...it was really difficult. But anyway I think experience does matter - learning and adding new techniques and new colours to your compositional arsenal allows for more ideas and also development of the composition.

And later that day the Conservatory was holding auditions for people coming into it next year...anyway the Ensemble rooms were used for warming up. A couple of dads peering into Ensemble room 4 (I was practising there) but heck. I was once like that too - I mean the warming up part!

Went to eat Mcdonalds at the Engineering Block with Sue Yi, Wasin, and Akkra soon after. Akkra spammed chilli sauce on the small plastic plate so much so that the whole thing spilled over simultaenously and formed a nice circle shape that looked like a red blood cell...And Wasin was eating his McWings and making noises like 'mmm...' and 'ahhhh...' and 'oooohhh...' Prizes for guessing he was eating McWings.

Attempted to copy him at the Chocolate Sundae I got for $1.50, but he said I was too fake - heck I ENJOYED the sundae more than his wings. I still win Wasin! :P Ok just kidding we must be respectful to our seniors. When we went back to the Conservatory though, we had lots of fun. Well, Akkra and I, that is. We were acting as singer and accompanist going for audition with an invisible auditioner. I started shrieking and screaming and Akkra started to forget his notes, and we laughed lots. Like Akkra improvising 'Mary had a little lamb' and 'Mary has no animals'. Hey at least we got away with something to learn ok!

Failed to convince my mum to let me go for the cello concert though by Ralph Kirshbaum. Lots of people were saying it was going to be good, but unfortunately I couldn't go...

But I did start to copy the Elaborations on another piece of manuscript.


16th March Sunday________________________________________
This is for Sunday, that is today.

Yesterday night I had a very cool dream and a frightening bodily experience.

We'll start with the physical experience. Somewhere in the middle of night, my entire body suffered paralysis and I was unable to gain control of my arms and legs. Something we all call, numbness. So it was as if I had pins and needles everywhere. My ears experienced an increasing loud sound, much like thunder. It climaxed to a boom that was extremely loud. My head started to tilt towards the left, and I had totally no control of my neck muscles.

So it was like me lying on the bed, entirely paralyzed, and my ears hearing an increasing crashing sound, while my head involuntarily tilting towards the left. While all this happened though I was trying my best to be conscious of my own movements and actions, but it entirely fail through - it was obvious I had no control.

Immediately after it stopped I quickly tried to massage my arms but it happened again. First was the numbness that set in into my torso, legs, and arms and hands. Then after that the booming sound in my ears. It sounded like a fighter jet engine - right beside my ears. And then my head started tilting left again.

All this really happened, and I shall take note of my sleeping position at night again.

In my dream however, I was able to stop and control time - much like the Heroes character Hiro. Anyway by regulating my heartbeat I was able to control the time around me. In this case I was in a 100m-sprint. At the start of the race I breathed so slowly and felt so conscious of my heartbeat that everything around me started to slow down. And then I started running to the end. And then at some point of time I was in New York trying to steal an item, by I remembered clearly being surrounded by the police. They started shooting bullets at me, and I closed my eyes and started being aware of my own heartbeat. The bullets did stop right in front of me, but I couldn't move at all.

And that was when I panicked and told myself that if my heartbeat started going right up the bullets would go straight into me and I would die. However I just couldn't move - and maybe that was when the paralysis hit me. I'm not sure which one came first. Maybe they both intertwined - scary enough though.

Morning came, and I went for my jabs at the Ang Mo Kio clinic I visited earlier this week with my cousins. Younger cousin Nigel told even younger cousin-brother Julian that it was going to hurt a lot, and he had to take 6 jabs. -.- Now that's mind-numbing.

Anyway I managed to suppress the fear emotion - probably because of the many performances I had been in and the nervousness I had felt - didn't feel frightened at all. And it seriously was an ant-bite. The pain came AFTER the ant-bite though. My arm started to go numb, but it's much better than thinking about the injection. After massaging it though the pain lessened throughout the day and it's clearly much better now.

Shall finish copying and editing the Elaborations, and they'll be up pretty soon!

Phne post 1

Ths post is special becos im typing it from my phne. How fun! Of course it wouldnt be lng as im nt sure if i need to pay bills 4 internet usage. Indeed a historic moment for the readers and i!
Yay. Meanwhle just keep reading n ul be entertained.
A phne post

chaIR! just...just look it backwards

I've decided to spend my half an hour waiting for the Korean drama my aunt and grandma are watching to end so that I can practise in peace.

So I've decided to be in the shoes of a random object for today - originally wanted you guys to take part in a poll to decide what object I should be in my blogpost. But since I've decided to use this immediate time available to me, too bad buddies!

Let's see...should I be an eraser? Should I be a piano? No. Too boring - you guys would just click one of my links and fly away. Should I be a...pair of glasses? A toilet bowl? A cloud? A building? A bed? Nope. Too many possibilites for bed. Hardly anyone of them not graphic. I shall be a chair...


Good evening.

I'm a chair from Raffles Institution. No, not chairman, neither a chairlady, just a chair. You can call me seat, for short. Although I've been stood upon many times, they still call me a seat.

I'm afraid to launch into Theoglish, but that language just reflects my education - imagine listening to all kinds of information; from physics - Maxwell's Third Law of Thermodynamics and Newton's Third Law of Motion - to chemistry - The entire Periodic Table and different kinds of chemical equations - to biology - "You got balls meh?" and "Eh fck you lah".

My brain capa- Oh! Sorry I didn't mean it by THAT kind of biology. I learn about the deoxyribonucleic acid and extremely complicated phrases like 'Each type of base on one strand forms a bond with just one type of base on the other strand. ' Simply shows how useful Wikipedia is.

Anyway, my brain capacity is larger than anyone can really expect. All these years of learning have made me quite sure that if I sat for A-levels I could be on my way to Cambridge or Oxford. Unfortunately, SIA doesn't have seats catered for chairs. Or seats.

And if you think this is lame, it's NOT!

It's a sad life being a chair. I shall be direct - I have to smell the same ass over and over again for the year! If only I got to smell an ass that's like a flower - although I know a seatfriend of mine who gets to smell such an ass. And that's not all - often I have to endure huge amounts of pain in order to satisfy the sitter. For one, I often have to balance on just two legs with a 50kg weight on me - that's being a HUMAN!

And sadly, I'm not a human. I've heard of friends who are often flipped over on the heads and stomach, before being flipped over on their four legs. This huge amount of pain - being turned over and stamped directly on the head over and over again, is I hardly need to say, a terrible ordeal.

The school that I reside in - Raffles Institution - has half an hour breaks.

Let's do a little calculation - the humans do about 10 of such flips in a minute.

30
x
10
____
300

THREE HUNDRED TIMES? That's like being hit on the head 300 times in less than half an hour. No human could have survived that.

Unfortunately for us, we can. Our hard plastic exterior enables us to withstand such pain. However, we cannot last long - I've heard of seatfriends who have died in such a tragic manner. Just like in 2005 - 5 humans apparently threw chairs around in the hall so much so that a chairhead broke asunder! The pain we felt can be reflected in the hall name - "AHH!" - Albert Hong Hall.

Many of you human bastards don't understand what I'm going through - what we're going through. We're just chairs - not human beings. Look, we admit, you're bigger, you're better. But that doesn't mean you can simply stamp, kick, throw us all around for your own pleasure!

So stop being assholes (figuratively) and just...just SIT on us!

Imagine if all these were true.









IT IS!



Alright that's seriously the end lol I'm now a human. If you liked this post, please vote for it at this website Funniest Post Competition

Thank you!

Forgetful forgetful

Might have as well show you guys the first copy of an incomplete Chaconne on a Groundbass of Bach. Extremely messy, but the process of editing is fun and also enjoyable. For copyright reasons I'll just put one page of it.



Understanding the composer's process of composing has always been a source of inspiration to me - reading on how the Beatles start a piece from jamming and then solidifying their ideas. Not as if mine's good, but heck. We're always learning anyway.

No big stuff on going, except I lost my ez-link card on Friday and when I was going to YA on Saturday I just realized that that was the case. Because I tapped my wallet on the machine but it didn't work so yeap. Opened it, holy crap, nothing's there.

I panicked for quite a moment before I suddenly realize where I left it - in the Hullett Memorial Library. So I went there this morning to collet my card, and they punished me by asking me to write lines. Anyway this morning I broke all of the rules possible in the library - I entered the library with PE shirt, I brought my bag into the library, I was talking very loudly to the librarian.

So the woman librarian asked me, "Are you Secondary 1?"

"No."

"Why don't you follow the rules then?"

Ok fine I didn't follow the rules simply because I was in a hurry to hand in my Chinese homework to my teacher. Ok Mdm Librarian? She was pretty naggy anyway and constantly repeated her words that were coated with vile sarcasm and dry of wit. So much for leaving my card behind to book a project corner.

Next time I'll just get my friend to continuously remind me to take my card out whenever I book a project corner. I'm a pretty forgetful person!

I'm not doing anything productive at the moment.

1) Finish practising A major and 2nd movement of Mozart.
2) Finish Chaconne.

Alright let's get to work people.

Shin Chaconne on a GroundBass of Bach

I got to hear Bach's Chaconne in D minor for Solo Violin Bwv 1004 yesterday in YA class. We had an 'assignment' for the week - to write four elaborations of the ground bass provided by our dear Bach.

However since we're having March holidays now, I've decided to do about 20-50 of them, and I've already started on the first...six already. Not bad, considering I didn't use keyboard and when I played it I just had to make minor edits. Also partly training one's level of concentration and ability to 'hear' the note inside one's head.

I've developed them over the years, and now I must say they're quite reliable, except it takes a burden on your brain and also limits the range of colours you can put onto the score. With the keyboard I must say it's defintely much easier.

I know this is about homework, but...

You know, music just rules.

Topsy-turvy

Today's one of the most topsy-turvy days I've ever had! From the start at 8am all the way to 6pm - I was constantly bombarded with different kind of feelings. Class camaraderie, class stupidity, class miscommunication, class fun, CCA EXCO meeting 1 and EXCO meeting 2.

It was mixed into all these 10 hours that I could hardly register and think that all of these could have happened in one day!

And so it began - in PE lesson. We were having our 2.4 warm-ups, and today was another one of them. The class was divided into two, and one half would be the timers and the other half were the runners. After all of the first half finished running, it was time to switch - our class big guy Shide was in my group, and all of us in the group had a plan to 'pace' him. Which meant that we ran behind and beside him. However after two rounds of 'pacing' our kind PE teacher started getting a little genuinely angry.

It could possibly be the way that we took and look at these trail runs - something just for fun. I think our PE teacher actually meant us well to use this time to exercise and prepare ourselves for the actual run in the coming weeks. He told the whole class that he would be talking to us next time we saw him. Scolding? Perhaps.

After the PE class was English, where I had a rather fantastic mood after I saw my group through altogether with a 3.6, equivalently to an A. 4.0 is A+. I was feeling pretty glad - I previouly mentioned two posts back about this thing we have been working so hard for. Bugis Junction, Central Library, and hours trying to prepare.

Truly a great feeling to lead them Zhongren Ian and Bryan.

The mood was altogether destroyed soon after though - for the term-end celebration we had today, it was marred simply because of miscommunication between the monitor (who didn't come in the morning) and the class itself. I shall not recall this terrible incident.

After that was Mathematics, and I was lost for a full hour as usual. Should have brought more manuscript paper along - Trignometry without any visual aids suck so much that I specifically called up Kingkoil for a portable mattress to bring. And my Trigonometry itself sucks so much that all the vacuum cleaner companies have attempted to buy my brand of Trigo - sucks the most. Anyway for the quiz itself I had an amazing total of _.

Immediately rushed to complete my Literature work in the library, and successfully typed out a 700 word essay in 45 minutes thanks to nice, structured planning at home. I handed in though, my THUMBDRIVE to Miss Chew, who thankfully accepted it but told me that she wasn't a printing machine. Wanted to ask if I could pay her though...:X

Attempted finishing two of my essays, but only succeeded doing one over the course of one day. Shall hand in all of my Chinese work on Monday.

String Ensemble EXCO meeting was enlightening, and I'm sure all of you will be looking forward to a revamp and lots of fresh things. Basically dumping the old EXCo away and putting on new clothings that smell good. We'll all put on new clothing that smell good together...

Of course, I will be blogging about juicier stuff in the next few days!

I did it RI's way...

Our English Reading Programme ended today, with our Ray Charles Biography Angle Presentation given out with much bumps but nonetheless we got our point across to the masses. (numbering 24)

The group consisted of Zhongren, Ian, Bryan and I, me being the leader. We literally did the preperation last minute, with a rushed Saturday 9am meeting at the Central Library at Bugis. We finally got to talking at about 10, as the library opened at 10. So we rushed to get the books needed at the basement, then proceeded to the 7th storey to have a good view and more importantly, a good and refreshed MIND!

So we discussed and read through the script, and then finally at 1.30 went for lunch. At Bugis's Mcdonalds. It was on a whole a rather short and RI-like project, as we left everything to the end and rushed like there was no Godzilla at Bukit Batok. (Therefore we were pretty fast)

Another presentation I was involved in today was the earlier Philosophy class, where our group consisting Leon, Zhongren, Jun Sean and I, Jun Sean being the 'leader' also attempted to follow the Do-Your-Project-Like-Rafflesians-Do rule book, and we left things to 1am.

Well, I sent him my slide information at about 1am when it was instead promised to be sent by 1pm, essentially putting me 12 hours late, which would mean minus 5%. Thank goodness Jun Sean isn't a RI teacher. I'm sure MOE wouldn't want teachers who would possess the ability to produce contagious laughter.

Having wrapped up these two presentations, there's one last project left for the week: Literature Dramatization and Literature CRP. That makes it two, but I put one there so that whenever I look at it, I feel more relaxed.

Ah...I'm now more relaxed.

Disgraceful RI guys act

I like to watch how RI guys react to every thing and action during mass gatherings. Just like in the Lecture Theatre. Just like in the canteen. Just like in the classrooms. Just like in the Hall.

Just two days ago during the Prefectorial Investiture, the Secondary 4s were treated to a comfortable yet fantastic view of the Hall from the Gallery situated one level above, a privilege that we all enjoy once we have endured 3 years of wearing white tight pants that occasionally grow tighter.

Sexual innuendos aside, I managed to witness one of the largest (racial?) jeering I've ever experienced in RI. Well all of us were on the top floor, and all the prefects were being 'invest'ed into the investiture, so naturally the names were read out and the photos of the prefects shown on a huge screen in front of the hall.

Last year in the campaigning I believe there's a need to mention that this guy from China - surnamed 'Wang' - had his campaign line as 'Vote for Wang, never let you down'.

Unfortunately for him I suppose his message went out the wrong way, and everyone was absolutely frenzied by his pronunciation - Vote for Whang (Wank), never [let you down]

So whenever he went on stage to give a speech, he would always be met with thunderous applause and a couple of cat-calls and wolf-whistles. Now on that day of Prefects' Investiture, his presentation was followed by an Indian who went with the prefectorial avatar of Groundbreaker - probably someone who would break new ground in whatever thing he chose to do. Unfortunately he didn't strike with the general masses, and on that day we were chose to see the ugly side of RI boys.

Anyway there was as usual much cheer and joy when Mr. Wang was 'invested'. Unfortunately after him was Groundbreaker, and it was juxtaposed with the sudden hushes, jeers, and 'boos' that rang around the Hall. It was pretty clear that the Headmaster was attempting to force out a smile on his Chinese face, but the entire event continued anyway. Well the representatives from the other schools were probably as amused as some of us, but deep inside I believe they know they've just seen a disgraceful act.

Moscow 2040

It is inevitable that one day somewhere someone would get tired of blogging and recording his thoughts. Nonetheless, there are also times where somewhere someone would find some liberated time to do so.

On Tuesday there was Dr Hecht and Mr Tiu's two-piano concert recital, and I feel a review of it would be redundant as we already have one from a distinguished reader of my blog; Dr. Chang Tou Liang!

Yeah he wrote a review in the ST on the excellent concert, which was published on Wednesday. Needless to say I read it and thought some of my friends (and even myself) can pick up lots of review writing tips from this medical doctor and music lover. The recently-formed review-writing disease has strucked some of us, but well, it's all for better music appreciation and improved English skills.

On Thursday during MEP we did our last 2 hours of composition test, of which I changed poems 3 times and finally settled with the one I started with, using 45 minutes to write melody and an accompaniment that was a mixture of Debussy-Reflection-of-the-Water and Jonathan-Shin-Crap. The melody wasn't at all good. I would feel more comfortable putting the blame first on the text though. With good text comes good music.

With bad text comes uncomfortable melodies and 3 weeks wasted.

After MEP with much abated breath my dad and I went home to catch the results of the Youth Olympic Bid. In the end, it was fortunately Moscow 2040! Singapore will host 2010. Yay...

Anyway before that my dad was attempting to convince me that it was definitely Singapore. "Prime Minister Lee, who earns hundreds of thousands of dollars a minute, surely wouldn't be there to waste his own time, would he?" And besides, they wouldn't organise such a huge event for 100 secondary schools to come down to the Padang to view the results. More importantly, Prime Minister Lee and Ng Ser Miang have visited Switzerland so many times over the past few weeks.

Well honestly speaking my dad rarely goes wrong on predicting politics, considering his wizened age and political mind. :)

If PM Lee were reading this, I'm sure he would be nodding his head too in agreement.

(Eh how he know! So clever...)

always look on the relaxed and forgetful part of life...

I'm pretty sure someone had hynotised me. And they should have awarded me a phD for most number of items lost in a day. Just yesterday I was in the Conservatory for theory lessons when I went to practise so afterwards.

After 3 hours of practice and a 1 hour recital by Hannah and a few chocolates provided by Hannah, I was off to head home from NUS. So I went across the road to catch bus 96 (I missed the first one because I was eating Pocky and thinking I was definitely waiting for bus 76). Well after 5 seconds of wondering I made up my mind that bus 96 was flying off to Clementi MRT and not the non-existent 76, I took off from my seat and took just one small step towards the bus.

Well, there's a twist to every story; the bus driver moved off!

So I figured I was going to wait for say, 20 minutes.

I was wrong - the next bus 76 was there in a mere 20 seconds. The nice thing about it was that it reached Clementi MRT faster than the one I missed previously. Heehee.

Anyway I believe you all had this gut feeling that 'something' is missing from your bag but you can't think of what it is. And sometimes they are the most obvious things. I realised I was missing two things. One was on the MRT, and the other was today. This morning!

I forgot to bring out with me a file which contained all my theory work (thankfully I've retrieved it back because Qin Ying passed it to Tarin, who would subsequently pass it to me tomorrow). And the thing I realised I had forgotten to take out from the practice room was the PENCILBOX.










PENCILBOX!!!

Yeah I didn't get into big shit but that's one life lesson learnt -

Always bring two pencilboxes and two files!


In any case my pop music idols are the Beatles, and I think I've found my literary idols! Well they are Monty Python (a group), and I bet some of you readers have never heard of them. Well they're from the 1960s, *groans from the public* and yes they're witty and clever! Your idols have to be smart somehow anyway.

I watched a couple of their sketches and skits, and also some of their movies! Two of which I shall put here for all you guys to watch and laugh.






Song for today was 'Always look on the Bright Side of Life!'

Which was interesting how I used it to deal with my seething mad mood during Mathematics Tuition. Tomorrow we're going to sit for a Math test, and we were going to be tested on Circular Measure and Probability! So there was this RI guy who was also in the class, sitting beside me.

I started on Question 1 at home, and started doing Question 2. He started from another worksheet, and in half-an-hour's time switched to my paper from Question 1. My Mathematical Orang-Utan mind was no match for his, and very soon he was on par with me! (At Question 6)

In any case I resolved to beat him by finishing Question 6 faster than him by 7pm, but failed to do so because my watch was 10 minutes early. He was mumbling a thousand numerics out of his mouth, and I hardly could concentrate! Some mantra he had there...

"sinetwopointzeroeighttimeshmm...timescosineninepointfourfourthreeseventwo.hmmmmshithowtodothisineedtogotothetoiletandshit dividedbytwotimesfourteencosinesixty hambugerturkeychickencrapwithcheeseandfrenchfriesbaboonflyflytwentypointeight"

Anyway so I decided to breathe in and breathe out and count to ten. Something you guys must actually try and concentrate when you'll are pissed! And then I started to sing "Always look on the Bright Side of Life", which calmed and relaxed me. And so I gave up trying to beat him, but in the end he left early at seven. I realised I should try doing things at my own pace.

Well, it may sound crappy, but after all one should take concentrate and do things naturally so he can do it at his best! Just like before any performance, I breathe in and breathe out, and run through all the details, and be responsible for my performance!

Maybe they should give me a phD for relaxation also...

Happy Valentine's Day (one day late)

Before I type out this post - here's to everyone everywhere in the name of love. A favourite pop number of mine that's definitely one of my top love songs. Now this song must be good...here it is.



Love Is All Around - Wet Wet Wet

Anyway I rarely celebrate Valentine's Day partly because...yes you've probably heard this a THOUSAND times over so I'm not going to elaborate any further. Lest you die of shock and the police start looking for me. Now for those of you who are wondering what creative answers I could have put as my reasons for not celebrating Valentine's Day, you're in for nothing!

That's because I'm too busy to celebrate.

(General Audience to go 'Aww...')

Yeah I heard the song when I was about ten and was very intrigued by it. Well at that time with a lack of vocabulary and bad grammar AND bad sense of music I guess all I could do (I bet you guys did that too) was to mouth some random words that sounded like it.

"Love is all around me...and so the feeling grows" (Actual)

(Mouthed) "Love is (mouthed) or around me...and so the (mouthed)goes"

In any case I hope all of you will enjoy the song that I enjoyed very much.


I'm planning to join Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition! Well at least I can think up of one story and submit it for fun. If it wins I'll be pretty surprised though, because the stories I write are usually used to pick up animal crap upon completion or otherwise placed in the toilet for beauty wiping. If you hardly know what that means, to put it in a harsher way, toilet paper.

But I guess I can still give it a shot, after all the free time I have when I finish practising my piano and during breaks.

You know my life doesn't have much interesting things nowadays when I talk extremely random things like what I'm doing now...

Our National Day Song Project is still ongoing! Did some editing today and listening.

What else?

Brain Blank

All of you must have heard of the concert on Tuesday. Well, it was pretty good, but personally I thought there were definitely things that could be improved on... So to artistic perfection, still a lifetime more to go!

Which was clearly underlined on Wednesday's lesson, where Aidi and I did Haydn and Mozart respectively. A lesson filled with well over 100 details (literally) that can be applied over our constant daily practice. I believe all of us at YST have worked pretty hard over the past what, 10 years, to deserve such an education.

In any case I don't think it's easy to get a piano teacher like Dr Hecht or Mr Tiu.

Anyway, I've been plagued with major headaches these few days and they usually happen before I sleep! It's a clear sign that I'm exhausted, with all the work and the music what-not.

My mind's currently blank now because of the 20-minutes-a-line treatment I gave to my Mozart. Man, piano practising and learning at a completely new level.

On a brighter note, Mrs Tan wouldn't be coming tomorrow and my timetable goes like this - Chemistry, Physics, Math, History.

After Chemistry and Physics would be recess, and since there would be no Math and I don't take History...something special is happening. If there weren't any CCA tomorrow, I could go home at 10! And reach home at 12 and sleep till music theory in the morning the next day.

But that would be too dumb and lazy. Anyway I promise all of you readers that I would post more after I get my mind clear from all the work.

Promise!

Why I Would Not Be Able To Go Out And Yet Still Feel Very Happy Thanks To My Music

How delightful it is to read Theophilus's latest post: Why I Love My Music (dated Febuary 8, 2008)

Well frankly I've never thought anyone would post about their relationship with music over the years, but since someone has done it, I think I'll give it a shot.

Mine started at Yamaha where I was placed in Gifted Class - if I can remember correctly - at Clementi. Seems like I have came a full circle now that I realized my music journey started at Clementi! Well anyway the connection is that now I go to Clementi MRT and then take the bus to the Conservatory.

Back to Yamaha, my faintest inny-winny memory of it was in this huge room that was carpetted blue and lots of children around me sitting with Electones. And beside all of us were our parents. They gave us manuscript charts and magnets, where I learnt my C, D, E, F, G, A, B. At home I would practise placing the magnets on the different lines and in between.

This all happened at Bukit Batok. And I was 4 at that time. And then one day my parents spotted a newspaper ad, obviously by NAFA, that asked if you wanted "your child to be a Mozart?" And my parents thought that there was no harm for me to sign up for such a programme. I auditioned with Mdm Yan, and I was asked to do some auditory exercises and singing. I made it, and very soon I was having lessons with her very near Bishan and RI.

See! It's all coming into a full circle! The connection now is that I study in RI.-.-

Meanwhile after a few years I went to Miss Elizabeth Tan, still at NAFA, where my first performance came in a form of 4 hands with my partner, and we played some piece called Collecting Tea Leaves. After much sweat (a ha ha pun not intended) I got to shake hands with the President His Excellency S.R Nathan. Just in case he reads my blog I have to put all these courtesies in!

Holy crap! I realised another thing -.- I shaked hands with him in my last performance with NAFA, and that was Yellow River Concerto Mvt 4 for the President's Challenge. Now things are starting to get creepier. Boo.

After 4 years in NAFA, I finally got taught by the head of SYT (School of Young Talents), and that was Mdm Fang - a name I believe many of you should know. Or many in the music circle. Under her I won a couple of awards and performed in several countries, and this in turned gained me lots and lots of experience. After 7-8 years in NAFA, I auditioned for the Conservatory last year in March, and I've not looked back since.

Theophilus examines the factors that contributed to his love of music over the years, and puts forth his views about the importance of technical training versus musical enjoyment when a musician is in his learning phase. (Thanks Theo for addressing yourself in third person...)

Admist all the history of this first part, I have to admit that my literal skills are nowhere as close to Theophilus's, or maybe I just don't have the time :O just kidding. But anyway, I believe taking up music for some is a path of continuous discovery, where at some point of time one discovers something special that one has never realised.

I would have to agree from my POV about his assumption that 'no child likes practise' but I believe however there are some kids in this world who are gluttons for mundane practise and punishment. However, I disagree with him that this spills into a distaste for classical music. For me, I don't think I've ever had a distaste for classical music, and the awe of such complex yet at the same time simple music has never been absent from me. Maybe it's just the way my ears are tuned, or the over-the-top exposure I had, but it has never left me.

But I'm pretty sure that parental guidance is one of the basic key things that is needed in the beginning stages of learning anything, be it music, math, languages, art, computer. At Yamaha my mum would sit beside me and point out the notes that were on the score. She would also make me pay attention while I clicked buttons like there was no tomorrow on the Electone. Surprisingly they never billed me for the tons of Electones I jammed.

At NAFA, when there were times Miss Tan had to demonstrate how to play a certain part and I had to stand up and make way for her to sit, my mum would pinch my ass so hard that I winced and would try my best to hold back tears while playing a phrase.

The 2 hours reserved for my practise time were often torturous, for I constantly looked at the clock, but I knew I still loved the music and everything around it. There was the abacus to count how many times I had practised the Hanon exercises, and I know I've done a hundred of them before.

See, practice makes perfect.

And then comes the self-interest, whether the child is interested in it or not. I believe that if you want to do something you might as well put in your best. Here's a quote from Mr Raymond Lee - "Do your best, in whatever good you chose to do"

So there goes.

And then lastly, maybe a little talent would be needed. As what Benjamin Saver mentioned in his 2003 letter for the 2nd World Piano Conference that I attended in 2003, that '99% would be hard work, and 1% would be talent'.

All these little things along my music journey have made me into what I am today - it has affected my life in a huge way, particularly the constant practising from 8pm-10pm when I was in primary school and the need to study for PSLE. Very recently was the integration of my another life of entirely music into my present study life, which was such a huge change that I buckled several times along the way.

Of course, several new ideas and concepts that were introduced to me have changed the way I viewed music, one of them which I'll share with you here later. I've met significant music teachers around the globe, and one of them would be Mr Mark Ray, whom I had a masterclass with in Manchester. Sadly he passed away in a drowning incident in America, and it was extremely sudden.

And then last semester I had lessons with Miss Hahn for 6 months, and I was introduced to the Taubmann technique, one which requires full body mapping and understanding. With this knowledge in mind, I'm able to understand the physical part of piano playing. She also implemented Eastern methods into piano playing, such as the use of chi, something that is hardly mentioned in the piano performing world.

Try this at home. (If this sounds corny to you, at least try it!) Call a friend or parent, and ask that both of you should approach each other with the right arm stretched out, palms facing each other. Both of you should close your eyes. With palms facing each other, each of you should experience/feel a tingling sensation. If there isn't any of such feeling, don't panic! However, if there is, that would be the feeling of 'chi'.

And I believe this simply because of the fact that after every performance that requires lots of effort, energy, and emotion, I can feel this tingling sensation in my palms, and sometimes it would be very hot!

Well, believe it or not, I'm simply sharing my ideas and experiences in my life with music. There is still one more phrase that I feel would be necessary to copy from Theophilus - However, it is thanks to devoted parents, caring friends and experienced teachers that we are able to play, enjoy and create music!

Thus ends my thoughts and feelings on my life with music.

Chinese New Year (no photos included)

The usual Chinese New Year thing at Malaysia...unavoidable. But it was fun!

I spend 2 days and 1 night at Malaysia, and basically spent the first day doing nothing. We arrived in Malaysia at 6, particularly because I had a piano lesson at 3pm till 4pm (and then after that I left not being able to hear Aidi's lesson) because I had to rush to Malaysia for gathering. You know, one has to try to avoid the jam.

Unfortunately we did not manage to avoid the jam, and we spent nearly 45 minutes from Woodlands Checkpoint all the way to Malaysia Checkpoint (generic), and I saw a
couple of ang-mohs walking along the Causeway, some backpackers I guess.

As usual, no pictures available, simply because I do not know how to take pictures with my phone and transfer them to my computer. I'm very SDRAWKCAB!

Now that's one more reason why you can call me dumb and lame.

Anyway I got bitten by the usual mosquitoes at night, and when I came back to Singapore, I realised I suffered 26 mosquito bites, to my legs and to my arms. This goes to show that I'm tasty.

I'm proud to say then that the next day I spent 2 hours without a keyboard working on the first 30 bars of my planned sonata in F major! I can still remember what Tianyi said about composition - that usually we start by imitating other composers before we developed our own styles. I once sent her an mp3 of my 'MEP composition 1' and she thought it was a Bach prelude or fugue. Unfortunately it wasn't, and I wasn't very surprised nor annoyed when I heard that, but I understood a very important principle.

Searching for an own style is a process that I guess all composers would have to go through the moment they move to more original works. So I'm going through the process now. Should it be more modern (note: not contemporary)? Or should it lean to the more 'classical' styles? Or should it even be the much more original fusion? We'll see in a few years.

Back to the Chinese New Year celebrations, there was the usual offering of hongbaos from the elders to the younger children. It's no longer the queuing up, but now they approach us! What a move from old Chinese tradition...Ate the black sunflower seeds (lots of them) and of course some roasted Chestnuts. Probably one of my favourite food.

A scare happened somewhere at 8pm when everyone was watching TV and the aunties were chatting. And so it happened that my cousin's son Bryan was climbing on top of the sofa. Just a few minutes ago though, he was playing with me and everyone was commenting how he liked me so much (yay plus points). Now he was STANDING on top of the sofa, and no one noticed him, including me. I was sitting on the sofa too with my grandmother, and Bryan was standing in between.

And then it obviously happened - the inbalance hit him and there was a terrible sound of bone against tile. Obviously bone was harder and the tile shattered. Just kidding.

It was a face-plant and he landed on the floor with a loud thud. We flipped him over after 3 seconds, and he started crying like there was no chicken in the backyard. And there really wasn't, so he kept crying. They did the usual superstitious things, for example taking the metal knife and pressing the flat part (duh)on the bruise on his forehead. Another aunty took a hard-boiled egg and pressed it against his bruise. Anyway after all the sweat and crying he was ok (luckily) and we all were relieved.

Several superstitious things again, and I learnt some new stuff. Like the babies shouldn't kiss - in case one couldn't talk in the future and it 'passed' on like a disease. Trust me, it sounds reasonable considering we think like super superstious people.

Card games were the usual, we participated in blackjack (with money), but unfortunately no mahjong at all. I guess it was still alright.

I returned to Singapore at about 3am, bringing my grandma and aunt into our house! Welcome better organizational skills, goodbye dust and mess. They told us that our house was very big, which was something I didn't think about. But it's no wonder the first day I saw my flat with my cousins we played hide-and-seek. That was 8 years ago!

What are you guys doing on Valentine's Day?

After a 3 day hiatus that have left many readers disappointed about the lack of updates and pictures, I've decided that there's got to be a day where I do my blogpost, and that day was today.

So it's one day before Chinese New Year! Nothing much, but I'm looking forward to my CNY celebrations - that's because I go across the Causeway and we play mah-jong, daidi, eat peanuts and delicacies, tons of ba-gua, and of course, write a couple of short stories! (At least that's what I've been doing every time I go across)The last time I went there I wrote 3 chapters of a story I was planning to read for myself (about 2000 words - handwritten!). This time, I'm going to try writing a short skit. But a concept must be done up first.

The past few days have been spent doing the same old things - attending Saturday classes with Dr. Edwards, where we studied Liszt's Liebestraum 3 in terms of harmony, compositional techniques, and music theory. So we came about thinking out aloud how Liszt managed to bring us from Ab major to B major so comfortably. He mentioned that composers usually add just one more sharp or flat in order to prevent the event that we modulate too suddenly and all of us die in shock.

So we were all thinking - from A FLAT, how did we go to B major? (which is a 'sharp' key). And then I realised...that the flats of Db major (Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb) correspond to the sharps of B major (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#)! And that proved altogether that Dr Edward's 'theory' was right - that composers usually add just one more sharp or flat. In this case, Liszt added one more flat (Gb) from Ab major to form Db major, and Db major's flats corresponded exactly to all of B major's sharps.

Now if you don't know what I have been talking, it's ok, because I'm quite sure musicians reading my blog would understand what I'm talking about. It's quite simple and elegant actually.

Sunday was Math Tuition day, and I did circular measure to prepare for the quiz on Monday. This time, I'm pretty confident that I would score very good marks for the quiz. Yumyum.

Remember last week when I said that I was going to perform for the concert next week? (12 Feb) Here's just a reminder that I'm still performing, and all of you can go. It's free by the way. This is the URL to the list of performers and items that day - http://scmapp.nus.edu.sg/events/details.asp?e_id=519

Meanwhile, yesterday was the studio class, and I played Faure in it. It was good, and of course we learnt lots and lots of things that simply can't be typed in here - the things we learn are found far and few outside of the Conservatory. However, we had a perfect analogy from Dr. Hecht that I could suggest to other musicians to think about.

That as musicians we control the vibrations we make, and like Harry Potter, while he controls 'magic', we control sound. So that means all of us have this craft, and that we are to refine this craft and produce wonderful music to give to the audience. As a pianist, we make use of the pedals and produce organic music, vibrations that can evolve and devolve, can rejuvenate and can sadden. We collect and send out different qualities of sounds in different forms - waves of sounds across the hall, rings of sound, thousands of different colours and shapes.

So hard to describe here...

What are you guys doing on Valentine's Day?

Crazed people and Concert

Well guess what. RISE was released 45 mins earlier! Story goes like this - we were rehearsing Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and the score was recreated, rearranged, and repasted by our conductor Mr Sze. He challenged us to find any errors in the scores (in total - full orchestra). If we should find at least 5, we would get an hour's break.

And lo and behold, all of us were busily scrambling to find mistakes, for an hour's break is so rare that your neighbour's pig would fly. "Pizzicato missing here," said some of the violinsts. And cries of "Theme A is bolded while the rest of the theme titles aren't!" started filling the air.

In the end, Gil Seob spotted two, and the rest of the orchestra filled it in. Our rehearsal started at 4.00, and very soon we were off at 5.45, and we went for our 1 hour long break. Till the end of the rehearsal.

That meant tons and tons of extra soccer, and of course the usual dirty used-to-be white tights long pants that is everywhere. Before the rehearsal, (the 45 minutes we missed at the start) some of RISE were playing Twister TM, and the spinners rigged some of the results in order to watch some fun.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the game explanation:

Two items are needed - a Game Mat of 20 circles, 5 rows of 4 different colours: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow. And a Spinner, which looks like a clock, except that it has 16 circles around its face. They are Right Hand [Red, Blue, Green, Yellow], Left Hand {R,B,G,Y] Right Foot {RBGY], and Left Foot [rbgy].

So when you spin the needle, it points to, let's say Left Foot Yellow, the participant of the game would have to put his Left Foot on a Yellow Circle. So we keep spinning and spinning, and the person who has his butt come into contact with the ground loses and is out of the game.

Some of RISE decided to rig the spinning (Some is unnamed due to fear of revenge) and called out awkward out-of-place circles, and we managed to get some of them tangled up so much that they had to concede defeat. Of course, we got in multiple contestants and had some guy fun, but it's out of print. It's no wonder girls don't play this game...

I'm most likely performing on Febuary 12 at YST, two days before Valentine's, so if any of you are interested, please do come with your girlfriends or boyfriends or spouses! Any children are to be left behind at home. Aww.

Thank you to everyone

You readers rock man...thanks for all of your encouraging words on my tagboard. My mother is currently back now at home resting. Let's hope she gets better!

Meanwhile we redid the chorus again due to some musical faults, and yeah we managed to find a good audience in Geoffrey. RISE beat RIGE 5-3 in soccer! I was one of the defenders and out of 10 tackles I definitely succeeded in seven, but was unable to clear the ball.

I will post more next time due to my current restriction of time.

I'm feeling tired and drained. All the piano practises, compositions, and studies have left me emotionally drained, although I can do much more. And yet I am feeling more drained because of the heavy knowledge that someone so close to you can be gone...

I have a thousand and one things on my mind currently, and my head is spinning. I feel emotionless sometimes, and sometimes sad and terrible. There's a bitter heavy feeling in my throat, and my head burns. I was trying not to breakdown in the LRT, but when I got back home it simply flowed out.

It's been 15 years, and these 15 years have mould me into the person I am today - an aspiring musician, a beautiful optimist, and a fervour for life. It's too fast man. It happens to everyone - everyone has to die anyway. And as Norman said, it was only a matter of time. Then I asked again, why does it have to be me? Can't it be someone else?

I've always thought about this day, but I never realised it would be so soon...For those who know me beneath the surface, I'm naturally a realistic person, but I've always thought I could handle this day when it comes. Afterall, everyone faces it, and it was, yes, only a matter of time.

But the thought of it...is too overwhelming and empowering.

I hope you live, mum.

Home alone

I've just finished my Mathematics assignment, and I'm surprised I did. Well for those of you who did manage to you, my mum has been warded in hospital yesterday! So that means I get to enjoy a new lease of freedom and life...which I did by making my first Milo.

It was pretty diluted, because I added too much water, but I still ate it with biscuits. Anyway for those of you who are shocked by my nonchalant behavior, you simply don't understand what it means to live under the hands of my mum. Well, yes you get protected, but most of the times I realised I was being spoon-fed and I didn't have the opportunity to show that I was independant. So now I can.

Without my mum, here are the things that I can do:

Practise my piano for long hours without having to stop for her to watch TV. Although she does record.
Practise oboe, which she doesn't want to hear in the house. Unless she hears it all the way from SGH.
Do my work peacefully, which means with more concentration.
Study well
Do more composing from 8-11pm. And practising from 1-5pm.

Yesterday night I went to La Traviata. Quite a touching opera, but I was longing for some climaxes in Verdi's music, especially when there were parts that he could have shot the singer to a higher note to create a more impassioned mood. The last time I caught Nancy Yuen was in the Marriage of Figaro, where she played the female protagonist role. She was fantastic yesterday, coping with the jumps between the middle range and high F. However, there were slight intonation problems, especially when she sang the same notes with the orchestra.

There was a slight incident when I went into the wrong row (GG), and I picked my bag up from row FF (which was below). When I reached the end of the row, one of the stewardess stopped me and asked me to show my ticket in order to know what row I was supposed to be at. I was originally at FF, and I left my ticket at FF 40. Anyway they did a search and didn't find my ticket there, so I had no choice but to point out to her which person I was sitting beside with. A couple on my right, and a father-daughter pair on my left. Anyway it was kind of obvious because there was only one empty seat there when the interval ended, and it was definitely mine!

I noticed that my hits increased when I posted pictures -.- which means I have to post more pictures in the future in order to further increase 'publicity'. In any case Nigel discovered that long time ago but I don't have a handy phone camera that I can use and send into my computer. Neither am I allowed to bring a digital camera anywhere outside without permission.

Meanwhie, thanks to everyone who polled and tagged!

Studio Recording Pictures

Apparently we now have to recompose, rerecord, and reperform all the works we did for Greenwave 2007 Competition. This is in order to facilitate the act of sending our songs to all schools in Singapore. The school recently also informed our group that we would receive all $1000 of the cash prize. So each of us gets $250.

I suspect that there's a reason for this though, but I'm not going to say it here. It's up to the school to decide anyway.

I've been talking about it for so many months, but none of you have seen anything about it on this blog. Here are some of the pics from our 2hour studio recording.


That's Daniel on the drums.



Me on the piano for the instrumental recording. We did the overdub later



David on the guitars. Extremely blur all 3 photos so far.


From the left: Jinghui on the stool, Daniel pointing a finger, and David with the black Stratocaster/guitar



Choirboy Ian, also my classmate. Harmonised with me when I was singing. The shorter one is me


That's Ian and I again. Another view.

Following this is a picture which might shock you, and it did to some VJ girls whom I talked to during the fair - they said it was distracting and embarassing. Here it is:

That's Benwee in the background, and of course Zhiyi in the foreground.


An idea of how small the studio recording room was - we had a budget for booking. Under $100 for the recording.



Ian and I again.

And again.

This time with the nice recording guy.

And to top it off, our CD cover, which is rather anti-climax.


See you guys in my next post!

Greenwave End

What an interesting day today was. Today concludes my 2007 Greenwave Project with Jinghui, Zhiyi and Benwee. To recap, our project product was an album of 5 songs, all of which aim to generate awareness (which has been mass-generated over the past few months) among the masses.

The 5 songs were entirely composed by us, and all the lyrics were written by us.

We submitted this product, and we won the Merit Award, which earned us $1000, of which $600 goes to the school and $400 goes to us, and thus each of us gets $100. Due to my inability to donate this $100 to environmental causes (because of disagreements within the family), I have decided to use this money to fund my next music producing project for this year's RE work. I hope it doesn't come into use though - there are people that I have to treat :). Well, to lunch, movie, anything. That is if someone in the family permits. (Aw...)

Meanwhile the prize presentation held at Marina Manderin today started at 8am, and I had to wake up at 6am. Very rare that I wake up that early. In any case my alarm was set at 6.30, which meant that the alarm started ringing when I was leaving the house.

How about THAT.

Was driven there (groans) and saw Jinghui at the lobby, waited for Zhiyi and Benwee. Took our seats and waited for the guest-of-honour. The guest-of-honour for the day was Mr Khaw Boon Wan, and we did the usual thing of shaking hands and receiving the prizes. After that, we proceeded to stand by our booths and talk to any interested people. We were approached by a Miss Koh, who talked about a competition held by the NEA called Songs of/for? the Environment, which is in fact our project title [Green Crochets - Songs for the Environment].

An embarassing thing happened earlier in the day though, when the MC pronounced our group project title wrongly. "Green Crowsheys - Songs for the Environment by Raffles Institution."

So much for all the deciding of the title and the fear that someone would pronounce in wrongly.

Back to Miss Koh, she talked about this NEA music-environment competition, of which the winners' songs would be sang by professional singers, and then distributed to schools around Singapore. Then she approached the subject of copyrights, of which we were not sure who owned the copyrights to the songs - us or the school? Well I was not ready to talk about that, because we didn't know that copyrights would be an issue. Copyrights are indeed such a complicated thing - the statement was enforced by the Deputy Headmaster of our school later when he approached our booth and we told about it.

Anyway she gave us her namecard, and we would probably be hearing from Miss Shen about how this thing will go ahead.

The minister skipped our booth, which was not ok because we spent hours trying to coordinate our demo. -.- And arguing with Miss Shen.

Well in the end of this 12 months we learnt alot, yada yada yada googoogahgah [add reflections that can be thought about personally and that are too long to be placed here.]

See you on my next post!

Of superpowers and soccer

I was treated to a small conversation on the human mind yesterday evening, a topic a person like me would rarely engage in because of the terrible simplicity of my speech. However if made to think I would produce some witty one-liners, like the one I heard the day before.

"Even the houseflies in Malaysia are stupid." Now that's one geniunely racist one-liner.

A memorable question from this week would most definitely be, "If granted a superpower for a day, what would it be?"

Well I thought it would be pretty nice to be fly. Please do accomodate me as I engage in some unrealistic talk for a while. Simply imagine being able to open up my 22nd storey window and lift off, before flying around Singapore to see everything and around you. The glory of thousands of people looking up at you floating in the air, before you proceed to push yourself up onto the roof of the Maybank tower in the Central Business District.

You show off your new powers in class, as you float around the room in circles, and the classmates stare in awe. They probably would want to covet those new-found powers of yours.

And there's no more worries about having to face traffic jams. Simply pack your bag, make sure everything is securely fixed to you, and off you go flying to school. You land in the middle of Raffles Square, and just imagine the look on everyone's faces.

But there's probably something you can do to help the world with that power of yours. Fight crime, save people (probably attempting to commit suicide), and use the power to raise funds for the environment and animals!

Flying is also useful when you left your Shostakovich score at RJC, in which I can simply fly there now and land in the middle of the field beside block J before flying to security room and getting the key to rehearsal room.

Now that's what flying is all about.

Meanwhile my dad wants to have the ability to look at people in the eye and make them happy! Now that's another power I want. But I'm only granted one so I might as well have some fun for myself and others.

Supposed to blog about more fun stuff, but unfortunately I'm watching football online with my dad. Will do the blogging tomorrow morning.

A natural reaction

It's obvious why one shouldn't tell John Lee a couple of jokes.

Because if you tell them good enough, and he laughs, he might just fart. And a pretty loud one at that.

Let me tell you a story at YST - I went for a YST concert and met him and Enzhao in the concert hall. So me being Jonathan produced some vibes strong enough to make them laugh (hard). Before the John Lee did something so natural that the whole hall looked at him - to my utter embarrassment.

Lesson 1 of the Day, never tell jokes to him. In any case this happened a few months back.

Feeling better now, though I have to play a little bit of Mozart for tomorrow's musicology lesson. But it's going to be fun. :)

We had the final round of Secondary 1 auditions today! The candidates ranged from Secondary 1s to a Secondary 3 exchange student from China. Yep. Welcome to all new RISE members! Remember, once a RISE member, always a RISE member.

Yumyum.