Bach Chorale Modified Full Score

Alright. Here's what's been going on with me for the past few days. Including all the snacking and stuff. Bach Chorale Modified has been so much fun!
The whole thing is scored for 4 violins, 1 cello, and 1 piano. If you can see clearly, there are four sections, each with a different rhythm, and probably in dance styles that stretch centuries. And if you look closely, you can see lyrics and some percussion too!

What a week.

Such a loser at blogging, after not posting for a week and leaving my readers bitterly disappointed. Ok here were the day's events.

The day started at 5pm on Saturday, where we were supposed to meet at Little India. Liyoung, Kakiong, Zhongren were there to greet me cos I was the last to arrive (came from my cousin's house at Serangoon after spending time with Finale). Our objective? To buy props for the up-coming Literature play that would be on Tuesday.

Pardon my English if you do spot any grammar mistakes, because I've not slept a wink for approximately 22 hours.

Ok here is the prop list:

Watches
Hourglasses
Calender
Fake Arm
Fake Blood
.
.
.
.

Just realised there are other groups reading. But heck. Well we managed to get 4 of the items we needed from Little India, then after that we went to Dhoby Ghaut to buy some cloth from Spotlight, and some more prop materials.

We only need one item now, and that is Fake Blood. Any ideas?

We headed for Dhoby Ghaut station and we met up with Clinton, and 5/7 of the group was finally together. Headed off for Serangoon, where we were going to meet up with Shide (6/7 of the group) at his house. Reached his house at around 8pm and started work.

We did a reading of the script, then KFC delivery came and we ate for half an hour, locked some people in the basement, switched off the lights and had a huge laugh all about. Oh, in case I forget to type it here, Shide's house is a gazillion storeys high. Well, what do you expect, a Shide-ish house for someone like Shide. huge.

After the dinner, we went up to his room and rehearsed from 9-12am, and then we were planning on how to leave. Unfortunately taxis were at their peak hour, and MRTs and buses were all like, gone?

So everyone decided we should stay over, and decided to play with the Wii for probably an hour before sleeping. Which didn't really happened because everyone spammed the Wii for an hour and a half, and someone then discovered that Shide actually had Grand Theft Auto IV, which was based super-heavily on New York City.


Ok here are the facts: GTA IV has a rating of 10/10 from almost every game magazine, and it is wholly reserved, because we got a freaking shock at the graphics and how freaking realistic everything was. Sparkling waters, wispy clouds, things that actually immediately move when we hit them.

Anyway memorable moments included the part where Zhongren revved the helicopter all the way over Brooklin Bridge and landed on one of the suspension columns, before disembarking. He then proceeds to fire at everything below him, flinging grenades, firing bazookas, and continuously sniping.

It's really addictive, and no one got a sleep that night, but all memorised our scripts anyway :)

But it was so inspiring that Clinton Zhongren and I, on our way back home, had to imitate a bank-robbery escape. Imagine three people in the drizzle running, shoes pounding hard on the cold pavements, and shouting, "How much have you got there?!"

"Seven...seven hundred!" "Great, I've six fifty here, let's find a place to divide them later!"

Ok whatever we looked like a bunch of madmen. I think we were.

THe rest of the week? Well basically Thursday was the day I allocated to finish up my Bach Chorale Modified, which means no more dragging. I finished 1/6 of it that day, so I decided to spend the whole of Friday doing it, and I finally finished the whole thing at around 2.30am in the morning.

My diet's really terrible I realised.

Mcdonalds, instant noodles, KFC. Everything needs to be fast, to be quick, to be handed it on time. No delays, quick quick quick and more quick.

I'm thinking whether I should join the singing contest for my church. Actually maybe no, because I've NO TIME.

Ok now, on to engraving.

Will post my entire Bach Chorale Modified here tomorrow or some other day.

Love you girls.

This Week in this post

Instead of talking about EOYs, I will be talking about some assignments (really fun ones) I have for this week.

1) Dr Edwards's Bach Chorale MODIFIED: Ok what we're supposed to do here is we are given a Bach Chorale written on piano. And we're writing it for 4 violins, 1 cello, and 1 piano!

We're allowed to change the rhythm, the register, the note value, the articulation, the dynamics and anything but the pitch.

Great. (something evil up my mind)


2) No other assignments except I've been creating them my own. Well of course ever on-going is my work on a piano concerto in a late Romantic form. Hopefully by the time I finish JC 1 I'm done with it. And it would by then have been revised over and over.

3) Yesterday in the shower I thought how easy it would be to write a string quartet but then I decided to put it in the recesses of my mind because I got too many things.

4) BUT IT'll be much easier to write a violin sonata why not? Because I have no good lack of melodies in my head and with thematic organization, NP!

And then now EOYs.

I'll be honest with all of you.

Ever since I started working on moles in Chemistry, I've never understood a SINGLE THING AFTER THAT. I've never understood anything at all after we started moles. I've been lost in oblivion.

Just like, poof, ok now I'm at a blank. So everytime I'm at Chemistry lesson I would just sit at my chair and look at what's happening around me - all the symbols and shit passing by while everyone seems to be getting it and writing it all down.

Don't blame me for not studying - no matter how many times I've studied it's all hopeless. In Secondary 3 everytime I mugged Chemistry I just can't link anything together.

It's this, you know...

like...indescribable phenomenom.

I know I can study Mathematics, but yes, that I'm too plain lazy. But I'll study them (luckily) during the break before the EOYs.

I think everyone takes it too heavily. Like, "EOYs EOYs".

To which all my classmates will say, "Johnny you piece of s---" Haha, love you guys.

Ok anyway I really have to talk about the day that we had a winning streak. Or at least I had a winning streak. It all started when we were having an English lesson after school ended.

And I was supposed to present my English Oral Defence, together with Bryan Choong and Benjamin Low. (who were coincedentally my RE group in my class - Hongrui was in another). Maybe we were too busy hm. Anyway yeah, in the Oral Defence you're supposed to defend the Raffles Programme and how good it is.

The thing was, I haven't done anything on the Powerpoint at all, I've not started, not put any thoughts to it. All I had was my thumbdrive.

So I was like, "Ok Mdm, I need to set up first. " Alright, so I get to "set up" but apparently I took too long, so she decided to get out of the class for a while to go show her face in some Literature seminar.

And that was when I started doing my presentation. As in like, seriously doing it, creating new slides blah blah blah. Ok not something to be proud of but the problem was that there was no problem! Which really reminds me of a song I would like to put here to thank all my friends who were there along the long long way of ten minutes.



Thank you guys! I managed to complete the whole thing and with the thumbdrive I got the pictures!

The thing was, it was a successful presentation if you were asking.

Second one of the same day was the Dick Lee Biography Presentation/ Trailer that we did the day before until around 8.30pm.

Ms Chew kept asking questions and we all defended them really well, plus she went on with our RE project, the one on the National Day song.

And the last item of the day was Nigel, Joseph and me. We decided to walk in for Rafflesian Spotlight, which we did at around 4.30pm. Our little act was to let the audience select any body of text, and we would sing it.

And we did. Harmonized so perfectly, Nigel's melody was great, and Joseph's guitar instincts were at their best. Judges laughed till they literally hit the ground. "Other groups spend so many years trying to harmonize, but you guys...you guys just did it perfectly in less than, what?"

Well, we've got the class to thank!

Oh and before I go, I have to announce a Primarily Piano concert I'll be performing in tomorrow at 7.30 at YST Concert Hall! I'll be playing the Griffes Scherzo so do come down and support me if you guys want to.

settled in ibiza after coming from frankfurt

I just realised my posts are rather sparse. They don't give any actual detail, any actual meat, any thing. Let me give you real detail about the Spain trip.

Alright I'm very accustomed to traveling actually, and if I'm going to have to pack things for a trip myself and go travelling myself, I'm pretty sure I can do it.

3-collared T-shirts (should have gotten 4), three white plain collarless shirts to be worn for sleeping or the most casual wear, three boxers, three packets of underwear (disposables are freaking useful on a overseas trip - don't have to wash just throw away) and 4 Levi jeans, 2 performance clothings, one performance pants, and finally 2 pairs of shoes (performance shoes and outside shoes)

For girls it definitely will be more difficult, with all the neccesities and whatsoever - makeup, performance gowns, blah blah blah.

So I didn't have to check in any luggage at all, just having a hand-carry luggage and a slingbag with me. One pair of shoes amazingly stuffed inside the luggage, snuggled nicely.

Alright here's what to watch out for when travelling - don't bring any liquids, just drink from the airport. But for domestic flights it's really easy to smuggle water bottles through because they don't screen you at all. Otherwise, big airports like Frankfurt, Singapore, New York, yeah just don't even buy water bottles before you get in.

And when you do buy from the duty-free shops after passing the check-point, remember you have to drink it all up before you can board the plane.


While on the plane, act coy with the stewardess and get favour from them. Just kidding. Be polite and add-in some wit in your words, and when you do have to go for toilet breaks do strike up some conversation with them while waiting outside the toilet. They will be super friendly, and I'm serious most of them are quite genuine and kind and willing to help, lah.

There's definitely no need to press for the 'steward help' button if you can just wait for them (I never did since I turned 12.) ...but when you do press it they come immediately.

I took lots of peanuts and bread on the plane, and washed them all down with water. Really great stuff. Watched two different set of movies already, because I left on SIA on 29th August, which means they showed a set of movies and shows (more than a hundred), and I came back on the 8th September (an entirely new set of movies). And great, no pictures of the planes.

I've recently been talking to my classmates about the turbulence, and about the mini-orgasms that possibly could have occured for some of my friends. I've told Dr Hecht that I rather wait to perform than sit through a turbulence. I'm wrong, I think. Sitting here in the comfort of my chair I think I rather sit through a turbulence than perform.

But I guess when you survive more turbulence and realised you were never going to go unconscious or explode into pieces, you get less worried. But sometimes I do have an image that God is holding the plane in his hands, and once when I travelled from Majorca to Ibiza I thought of that, and surprisingly I slept through the turbulence and all the way till landing.

Nice, huh?

Ok my flight plan was this - First to Frankfurt (3rd time in a month, after Ettlingen competition), then after that to Majorca (where Chopin took his break to write his Preludes, he went there with George Sand - it looks really dusty and windy to have a nice, cosy winter there.) And then finally to Ibiza - of course, buses will be provided when you travel between the terminal to the aeroplanes in the smaller airports, because there's not enough space for all the planes to be beside the terminal itself so we can walk via a duct.

If you realised most times when you do go out travelling probably the only way of getting into the aeroplane was through a huge duct which we would walk through, this long cuboid tube that twists and turns and leads to the plane itself. And has a distinctively nice smell.

Well in domestic travelling you'll have to take a bus to the plane itself, and then board up a staircase. Watch out for your luggages then! Everyone will be climbing up the staircase then so yeah just don't bowl over, because the winds from the turbines can get really strong. But you feel great once you're at the top of the staircase beside the plane, 'cos the wind is blowing in thy hair and thy hand is on thy luggage, proud and standeth tall.

No major food will be provided on the domestic flights, as I had from Majorca to Ibiza. Just had a piece of bread, and watched Mr Bean from well, a shared TV-screen by 6 people.

Skip the major boring parts.

Reached Ibiza, and we were received by one of the organizer's mum, and another guy who was part of the organization team. But first, a map of Ibiza.



Ok, three important places to note. Click on the map - San Antonio, where the contestants' hotel is, Santa Eulalia, where the judges' hotel is, and finally San Carlos, which is located in small print. If you draw a straight line from San Juan to Santa Eulalia, and look right of it, where you see a crossroad, you can see San Carlos exactly there.

For the first two days in Ibiza I stayed with Dr Hecht at Santa Eulalia, before we went to San Carlos (the competition venue itself) and then I joined up with the contestants.

Of course, some pictures of San Carlos and the places I have dwelled around in San Carlos.

Lots more pictures to blog - including the places I blog, the benches at sit at to compose outside the concert hall, and wonderful beaches.

First days again

Ok I owe you guys a freaking update on everything. EVERYTHING.

So we started off on Friday, the day after I attended MEP and the concert featuring the young talents of Singapore. Great. Fantastic hit to my ego, ego points currently at 0.

Ok pardon me if I get typo errors, but I would just like to say I'm having a little problem trying to negotiate this keyboard because I still feel a little woozy from the 12-hour flight from Frankfurt all the way to Singapore.

For all the hype and stuff, there were only 5 contestants in my category. A visually-handicapped girl who was 10 years old beat me to second, and a reasonable good guy got first.

Well, welcome to the crazy world of music.

And Spain was really freaking memorable. On the first few days I was staying in the judges hotel.

Ok update you later.

SPAIN SPAIN

Fine. SOmeone asked for an update so I will update you guys a little about Spain. Firstly, I would like to announce that I didn´t bring a camera there so I don´t get to share the sights with you! THE FREAKING SIGHTS ARE WONDERFUL!!! Ok, so half of you should have already clicked and left this blog. (reverse psychology)

Secondly I need to explain how I got this computer - it´s eight Euros for one hour, so that means altogether 20 dollars for one hour. That´s how I got it.

Ok some updates on the Competition - for my category there are only five people competing. So if I don´t win something (the results are tomorrow), I will really really quit performing and spend the rest of my years in recluse.

Actually I felt I did EVERYTHING that I was supposed to do, all the nuances and all the pedalling. And I listened to the acoustics around me, and it worked fine. But the only problem was I made some stupid slips that were totally unnessecary. Like, you know, the left hand working fine and the right hand suddenly slipping.

I hate my composure sometimes. On the performance stage.

I have the hotel room to myself, entirely, so I spend most of my days journeying to the competition centre itself by a free bus that takes everyone along. On somedays though I stay in the hotel room composing, and on that side I do have good news.

Unfortunately (Fortunately) you guys wouldn´t get to be hearing another improvisation from me because there are only 5 pianos around this whole city and everyone really takes turns to go to them.

The environment here is freaking nice also because everyone has breakfast together, and I have made some really good friends from my category already. One from Porto, and the other from Mallorca. :)

I came here with Dr Hecht (as already mentioned previously) but he´s staying in the judge hotel, which of course we can´t access because we are contestants.

To be honest I haven´t even touched any beaches or swam yet because I simply don´t feel like exposing my body to the freaking sun. Í´m tanned enough thank you, if I want to get more tanned no one can see me anymore.

Tomorrow is results day, and I can hard-hard-hardly wait lah...my first international break. No, seriously, if I´m not going to get anything I´ll be feeling depressed. Like seriously depressed. Capital D Depressed...The beaches are beautiful, there´s a wonderful Sun here, and a really cool breeze that floats across the island.

The only thing I´m not looking forward to are the flights. They really are turbulence-attractors. Nearly shit in my pants the last time I was on the plane.

I´m looking forward to Singapore too - Rafflesian Spotlight! Of course I´ll be hoping to come back with my first international break. Wouldn´t disappoint you guys!!!

Off to play Grand Theft Auto now, originally was supposed to be, but saw Fiona´s tag on blogging. Just had to.

Love you girls.

2 days to Spain

Just done showering - I came back at around 10.45 today after a 8-10pm piano lesson with Zhang Aidi. Played the whole Spain program. Can't really say I'm feeling tired, because after a hot bath one always feels refreshed. It feels damn good sitting here though on the 22nd storey.

Cock my head to one side, and I see all the way till the tall hills of Malaysia, which are about a few hundred kilometres away from here, but still taller than all the HDB blocks in front of it. I wonder what's going on in those hills now - sometimes this sense of mystery gets the better of me, you know? It's like, sitting in front of your desk at 1am and then wondering, what's out there in the dark? What is it like out there? I got an experience of that in Germany, passing all those huge hills and mountains at 10pm.

And then you start wondering, why are they so dark, so black? I mean, what's in them? Of course, nocturnal animals la. But isn't it always so fun to think about what creatures seem to lurk in those forested areas, covered by Mother Nature herself.

Another 2 more days before I leave for Spain...Feeling pretty hungry now. Should I eat?

Recently I went to the library and saw the book about Journal Writing. Not much inside can be used for online journal writing, so I didn't take much notice of it. Until...nope. No until. Never saw it again.

Which reminds me that I should be in bed reading the book that I borrowed. Jonathan Shin does follow book series, and there's one I follow really tightly. That's the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. I love his style of writing! Anyway talking about styles I'm trying to combine both the styles of Chopin's simply pianistic writing and Rachmaninov's strong harmonies into my as-of-now still shitty composing.

But I like the method I'm using. Although it's super slow I think it's super effective. I mean, why not, learning it by yourself simply by looking at other composers' works, dissecting them, looking at them from the macro then micro scale, and then back again.

Comparing them, then using all these things. You're ready to roll.

I'm real glad though that we have finally signed up for Rafflesian Spotlight. Never knew our class people had this talent. You see, we're able to sing any given lyrics. ANY given body of text. Then give us 30 seconds, and then it's ready. It's an entirely presentable song.

It's really a talent. To be able to listen, while at the same time create new melodies with these harmonies. And one doesn't even KNOW the harmonies. Please do join me applauding Nigel, Joseph. It's fun to know that lots of other people want to do what we're doing, because it's special.

Had a rollicking time with Kakiong and Liyoung in the jamming room also, me on bass giving the Dm, F, G, F, and just putting them on near-max volume insane mode, Kakiong on the whining leads and roaring rhythms, and Liyoung with split-second perfect drum playing. Just loved the part where he threw his stick into the air, and sent it crashing down directly on the beat.

We were probably all drooling on the floor and screaming, but I knew after that I was totally spent in dad's car. Just drooping my head with all the fatigue of playing. It's a totally different story 12 hours later though.

Quiet.

Reflective.

Introspective.

Just the sound of music in my head, waiting to be placed on paper. As I have told lots of people, every musician can have the most wonderful melodies in their head. But only the composer can put it on paper.

Guten Nacht.

Found my first-ever photo taken with Dr Hecht

My first ever photo with Dr. Hecht! I found it in my only thumbdrive I ever had. Here it is:

That was when I played Debussy Reflections of the Water for him (which I screwed up pretty badly - bet it was mosquito music) and then after that Granados Allegro de Concierto.

This photo was taken in Secondary 2 by my mum I think.

K that's all, hope you guys enjoy the blog music. I simply hate the recording though, because it was done in a super enclosed room. And it is COMPLETELY improvised so I didn't think of any segments of it before I played the entire piece.

But I personally I think I've done an alright job of blowing up the whole piece, so now there's larger fragments and more virtuosic stuff in it, albeit the whole thing's still organized. I'll record that version after I come back from Spain.

From Me to YOu

I feel great looking at the bloghits decreasing exponentially. So fun! It's been a week since I last posted, all the more the reason.

Honestly I feel very stupid going for Chinese lessons. I don't hand in my work, not because I don't KNOW how to do the work, but I find myself distracted every time I attempt to start on it. just like now, when I'm supposed to be doing Chinese work, but I'm blogging.

Then again I find it neccesary to justify my own actions by writing this letter to you readers. Every single day, every single Chinese lesson I'm made to stand (with a dozen of my classmates at the back of the class) for nearly 45 minutes to an hour. Reason is because we basically didn't do our work. Well, fair enough, teachers also have a hard time trying to mark our papers and constantly chase us for our work.

I think partly the reason would be that the school is CRAZY.

That Raffles Institution, in order for it to keep its position (while others WOULD argue it isn't, I'm paid to say this so, please don't argue) of one of the top schools in Singapore, constantly spams its students with assignments, homework, CCAs. What do you expect from a top school?

I just find a serious degradation of life and morales in this school. My GPA has fallen gracefully from 3.5 to 2.0 in Secondary 4. I can't keep myself dedicated to schoolwork. There's this, impending sense of doom, you know, this chaotic inner feeling that I'm feeling. I'm experiencing.

Just me, of course. I don't think my schoolmates and classmates will feel it, but it's just me. I don't know how I manage it, but at the same time I find this inner joy in being able to do what I'm able to do.

You can't fault me for that - I find great joy in practising music and just spending my time in Chemistry lessons whirling my brain around with musical fluid. It's this inner peace, you know? I can do all of it with great abbadon, and no one is going to stop me or anything.

But time and again we'll have to constantly remind ourselves. You know, I don't mind my classmates at all, neither have I ever, ever bore a single hate for anyone of them. It's just the school, bearing down on us, MOE, not caring for any of our interests, insisting that we must finish it or die.

But luckily, I thoroughly enjoy what I'm doing at NUS. It's a love-hate relationship between MOE and I.

And then I'm dealing with this utterly powerful desire they call love, inside. Sometimes it becomes so important, other times it doesn't. Sometimes when I think about it, I really do cry! But then otherwise it's really bliss.

So once again, I'll be flying off to Spain on my birthday. It'll be quite nice, celebrating my birthday on the plane, hope the candles don't accidently fall off and burn a hole in the aluminium plates of the plane. Maybe then we'll have just a little turbulence...a teeny-weeny one. More turbulence would be ok, you guys can handle it.

I mean, you can't drop out or anything, you'll just have to stay with the plane. And if you die, too bad! We don't care about your interests or anything, we'll have to be realistic. We've got a name too man, a brand name we need to show everyone that we have yet to drop anyone from our school.

Look, seriously, I'm not in a pissed-off mood. I just want to poke at the school system...they make life really tough for people like me. 15 years of age, previously the prettiest face in Sec 1-2, now an enemy of Mama Lion. And already starting crumble at the fortress defences.

Pictures from Germany!

From left: Uncle Wai,Auntie Geok, Auntie Emily, Uncle S.S, Me, then Clarence. In Frankfurt on Day 2, before we play soccer. Taking a stroll through the real woods, by a huge field.

Both standing on the bridge that crosses over the river that passes through Ettlingen. That is in Germany.

In the concert hall itself.



Will post more in a jiffy.

Before France

My recent fascination with Rachmaninov was fueled in Germany, after I bought a CD featuring two of Rachmaninov's piano concertos (No. 2 and 3)from a music school in Karlsruhe.

Shall continue with the Germany Anthology - A collection of short blogposts.

I shall fast-foward to the day Clarence played - couple of whoops from the audience and a total of three stage-in outs. After that he got really popular for some reasons - his Scriabin was so powerful that the entire grand piano moved when he played the last few chords.

And his Schumann was simply magical...when we all got down to listening to it you could hear everyone stifling their breaths. Really beautiful.

Non-musical stuff include driving and shopping at nearby town of Karlsruhe (nearby being 8km, ok being 50km, far being 100km). The taxis in Europe are insane, because the taxi fare rises by 10 Euro cents every second. Which means for every second, erm. It's 20 cents. You'll definitely go insane if it goes on Singapore dollars.

One taxi trip in Singapore that costs $40. Heard that? HEARD THAT??

Uncle: Thank you. Trip is, let's see...$40. PLus a surcharge of $5.
Me: But...but Uncle! $40 is...
Uncle: Ok enough, lah! We just travelled from Bukit Batok to Chua Chu Kang only what!
Me: Uncle, can use class funds?
Uncle: What that.


Then after that I bought the very kool manuscript paper, with 12 staves altogether. The special thing about is, the manuscript paper is arranged like foolscalp! As in, you can tear them off from the top, not like a book arrangement.

The food portions were as usual, large and salty. And the clothes were also equally large. No salt, thanks.

Not surprisingly I decided to go and shop, simply because I was lacking a jacket that I could wear in Germany. I looked pretty hard though for a costume that could fit my size, because all of them looked like bath robes on me. Only a person like Zhongren could buy clothings in Germany.



Personally I can't remember the arrangement of the trip, simply because I didn't keep a travel log. But I believe after Clarence played we all took a drive to France.

To FRANCE!!! Yeap. Aunty Geok and Uncle Wai picked us up at our hotel, and 6 of us squeezed inside the Mercendes-Benz and headed towards France, which was about 100km away. We went to Strasbourg, which was located at the very east of France. (We were at the very west of Germany, so the trip was possible)

Was really amazed that I could be in another country in this trip, because I was expecting ourselves to be stuck here in Germany for the rest of the week.

Did some shopping again, but I was really depressed because I didn't bring enough Euros. You know, Germany and France are just total opposites. In Germany, everything was large, salty, visually-unappealing.

But in France the clothes were small, non-salty, and visually-appealing. Just check out Lilliput and Brobdingnag.

Will talk about France later in the evening, when PM Lee gives his National Day Rally.

Days ! @, #

I'm back! Bet you guys have been waiting with intense trepidition for my next post. My next post is now!!! There's been lots to post about and I'm pretty sure I have time to snuggle in now to write a post about things that happened in Germany and things that have happened in Singapore.

Firstly I would like to confirm that I brought not prizes back but lots and lots of experience and fun. Yes, suddenly it didn't matter at all that I didn't win anything. Winning REALLY isn't everything guys, although I'm certain some people die to win in some situations.

I wouldn't give a day-to-day commentary of what happened in Germany, but I've got a hell lots to say.

The trip on the plane from Singapore to Frankfurt was alright, we spent the first hour pass the Check-in shopping for perfumes and watching a match between Manchester United and if I haven't forgotten, Inter Milan.

The plane ride was alright, but I was always waiting for the food. Didn't sleep at all throughout the 12 hour flight, because I was watching Ironman, 10 000BC, How I Met Your Mother (which was seriously funny), SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Kaspian. Listened to Liszt Piano Concerto and wrote some notes down about it, touched down safely.

On a hindsight the return plane trip was worse later, because we were seated at the tail (which means more turbulance) and we descended once for 3 seconds. A heart-stopping experience totally.

DAY !

Our first stop in Germany was for Aunty Geok's house, who was the sister of Uncle S.S (Clarence's dad). So Aunty Geok drove us from the airport to her house somewhere in Frankfurt, and I got my first experience of the long highways of Germany. It wasn't really interesting at first, because we were travelling at about 8pm (and it was dark everywhere).

Germany's really environmentally-friendly by the way. You see, instead of using the normal stick and light method Singapore uses, Germany is efficient enough to use reflectors!

You know like, reflectors, along the highway. Reached Aunty Geok's house, went for our first taste of German dinners - the first of many to come. During the dinner I met Aunty Geok's husband, Uncle Wai. Uncle Wai runs a Chinese restaurant in his town, and they get pretty good business!

We ate at an Italian restaurant, and the servings are really. really. really. huge. In Singapore we would have shared it for three, but here in Germany it's just one. One plate for one person, one ring to rule them all, hello Sauron.

So after that when all was done and eaten, we were ready to head home. BUT THERE WAS DESSERT! Everything was really good you know. There was only ONE thing we didn't like - all the Singaporeans at the table didn't like (consisting of me, Clarence, Aunty Emily and Uncle S.S). And that was the SALT.

You see, the Germans love salt alot. Deutschland bies un Saltzland. Everything's so salty, that at restaurants, instead of three holes for pepper and one hole for salt bottles, it's the other way round.

I never really go to high-end restaurants much, so I wasn't confused at all. But Clarence's parents were already so used to it that they spammed salt all over their plates before realising it wasn't pepper they were putting, but salt.

And More Salt. AND MORE SALT.

So next time when you come to Germany, don't be surprised if you come back home with a tongue that is numb with saltiness. But it's pretty alright, because the Germans are smart enough to compensate it with BEER! It's pretty amazing how I've not TOUCHED A SINGLE BOTTLE OF ALCOHOL IN MY ENTIRE LIFE OF 16 YEARS. THAT'S BECAUSE I MADE A PROMISE TO MYSELF I'M NOT GOING TO TOUCH ANY!!!!!

So as expected I didn't drink any in Germany, as will happen in Singapore. Sorry, I know I'll suck at company functions or dates. I'll skip the red wine, you can have the whole Shiraz to yourself, milady.

Had a wonderful dinner (thank you Aunty Geok and Uncle Wai), then we went back to their cosy flat to sleep. It's not shocking to realize that Frankfurt at night in the mountains is a really dark place, because light is kept to a minimum. So went the lights were turned off, it was just total darkness.

Oh yes, I was sharing rooms with Aaron, the older brother of Bryan. Both of them were of course their sons, lah! But I realise I get along better with Bryan, maybe because we were both of the same age, we both played soccer, and we had common topics.

Showered, off to bed, total darkness. Hey, no hands!

DAY @

Next morning, I woke up to the sounds of an alarm clock. Aaron's a working guy - has to get off to work by 6.30am. I was pretty jet-lagged then, and he gets grumpy in the morning. Most importantly, he didn't know I was sleeping in his room! (We were on a double-decker bed, I was sleeping above)

So he started mumbling in German because I woked up and said good morning. Maybe he asked me to go back to sleep, thinking I was his brother. Maybe he cursed at me, (oops) but after 3 'Hellos I'm not thy brother' I think he finally realised, because he apologised profusely.

Yes, in English. One day isn't enough to learn German words that include cursing and go back to sleep. And maybe sod off.

Before lunch, Clarence, Bryan and I just had to play soccer. Instead of going out to tea with the adults, we reckoned that playing soccer would boost our spirits up. Clarnece hasn't seen me play soccer, but he told me he was a good goalkeeper. Which I could believe totally, because apparently he played for a tournament once, and the Woodlands Rams coach scouted him and told him that he was interested in him.

"Once you are ready, just give me a call, and we can discuss things anytime."

Unforunately/Fortunately, he's a musician, and he didn't take up the offer under the advivce of his parents. Well, he played goalkeeper throughout the tournament and not a single time did a goal go past his hands.

He must be a great keeper to do that. But I'm still wondering which pianist would use their hands in sports! Pretty dangerous yeah.

So anyway I guess he was rusty, but Bryan was good, and most of the time I was playing a 1 versus the two of them. Scored three goals to nil. We saw two German kids aged around 5-7 skateboarding in the same basketball court, and we decided to call them over.

So it was now 3-2. End of the day, goals were scored on both sides, although I'm pretty sure we scored more goals. But one of the German kids accidently fell down and blood was just streaming from his elbow and his knee.

Being Singaporeans and German we were, two of us thought we were doomed while the other guy knew we weren't.

Well you'll know that in Singapore (and Singapore only), when kids just fall down their parents start screaming and filing lawsuits.

"You twinkling bastards you made my son bleed! I'll see you in court! You watch out you ***, you ****, you *****."

In which case we hope that this would work:
"Uncle I treat you to a nice bowl of laksa...can?"
"Really? Katong Laksa can?"
"Can...why not. I mean, you know we can settle this right...why trouble ourselves?"
"Oh yeah..."

Anyway the German mother came over and said it was very normal for the child to fall over soccer balls when they were young and that it was ALRIGHT.

ALRIGHT? Holy crap, now I'm hoping every mum whose kid I have indirectly injured is German. But anyway we helped the kid dress up his wound, so we cleaned the wound and poured water over it, and dabbed it with tissue paper. Nice and easy.

We set off for another long ride to the small town of Ettlingen.

Facts about Ettlingen:
-Population: 38000. Heard that? 38 000 only!
-History: 1250 years!
-Food: Salty!
-People: Damn nice! We greet each other on the streets, and no matter where they go people will always acknowledge you. Just like your flat storey! Smile and greet at your neighbours, once you're out, no one knows you! Anymore!

Arrived at the MusikSchule at about 3pm, and started practising immediately. Every room has an upright piano (how I miss YST. Every room has a grand piano), and some of them suck like crazy. But throughout the days I managed to single the very special and good ones, and requested to practise in them.

Got our nametags and the package for the entire competition, the briefing dates and everything.

The next few days were a blur, except for Clarence's performance. I remembered thought telling myself when I get back to Singapore I wasn't going to blog about these practising days.

Shall blog more tomorrow.

A Gorilla is An Ape - Going Germany

I didn't go to school today not because I caught some disease from Chua, but because I have a run-through later in the evening (so I need to prepare). And I'm taking this day off also as a musical/spiritual retreat.

Posting this paragraph after my second run-through! I find myself getting more and more confident, although I've learnt from this run-through to control my tempo and maintain precision plus accuracy.

Laser-beam accuracy.

Otherwise I'm off to Germany in a couple of hours - tomorrow 11am. During DMP week I'll be leaving for Spain for the Ibiza Competition.

I have such a exciting life...Wouldn't be blogging for a week then. I'll be back on August 10, just as the city is burning with nationalistic pride. Hope the tarmac doesn't burn.

To be honest I've been trying very unsuccessfully to download Operation Flashpoint since this afternoon. Operation Flashpoint IS a complicated game. Complicated games are for complicated people.

I'm complicated.

A gorilla IS an ape.
Hopefully there will be more than one people doing the send-off tomorrow morning, otherwise it'll be a bore. And I'll get all of you guys souvenirs. By the way to ALL MUSICIANS TO ALL MUSICIANS.

ANYONE OF YOU WANT SCORES PLEASE SMS/CALL before 11am tomorrow. I will write them down and try to buy the second-hand/new scores in Germany, armed with €1/2K. Just enough to buy an xBox. :)

barry manilow in hellboy 2

I felt compelled enough to do a Google search for "Jonathan Shin" again and at the same time (call it 'might as well'), "Zhang Aidi".

Well guess what. Girls are seemingly more popular people. Fact is, girls blog about girls more than guys blog about guys. That's the only reason I can think of. And I think it's the only reason. Also, guys can blog about girls but girls cannot.

Which is why I'm increasing her 'google hits' by typing this post now. Google can be a bitch sometimes.

I managed to catch Hellboy 2 at 11.10pm with my dad, two days back. Hellboy's attitude rocks, and Selma Blair (playing Liz Sherman) was cute.



Just had to post this song. It's the 'theme song' for Hellboy 2, (spoilers alert). Currently a top song in my head! Some people may say it's a wimpy ballad, but I just find the tune strong and touching at the same time...

Showering Cold

Cold showers really bring the best out of you.

The evening turned cold and there were clearly showers outside the MRT train I was in. I was already partly shivering from the sweat which I got a few dozen minutes ago while playing soccer back in RJC with a bottle-cap, alongside MEP counterparts.

We went on our seperate ways, and I decided to settle down later back home with simply a cup of hot Ceylon (Sri Lankan) tea, several biscuits, and after my dad's request, a banana.

It's like how I previously yearn for warm Milo whenever I am drenched in cold sweat, and would always be grateful to anyone who would hand me one. Nowadays I go for tea, after the SPI week when I frequently went for tea and a burger in the morning, before the day started.

My dad bought the teabags a week ago, and I learnt how to prepare them for myself, in case I suddenly felt this urge to fill my guts with a little warm liquid. Boil the water, pour it into the cup with the satchet, add in a spoonful of condensed milk, and TA-DAH!

Set for life.

The LRT was crowded as per usual at 6.30, and thankfully with the shirt I managed to get everyone avoiding me like they thought I had chicken pox or something. Why not, just look at what's above the neck...

I got a couple of stares, particularly because the shirt wasn't really the opaque kind today, and it didn't look like it came from Bibi and Baba anymore. Constantly pulled my shirt outwards in case I became a walking M18 - not advisable. Everyone on the LRT train looked really grumpy and shitty, either from a bad day at work, or from the weather.

The guy beside me was constantly nodding off, and he was standing up. I sort of sympathized with him, because I remembered how I actually slept standing up, and accidently collapsed on my knees after they couldn't support the slumbering weight.

But he got a little to engrossed with nodding off because he did 3 in 10 seconds for a minute - a grand total of 18 nods in a minute. Bet he had much to agree with whatever/whoever he was dreaming about. On the flip side he left at Admiralty thankfully, otherwise I would risk embarassing myself if he placed his bald 18-year old head on my really wet shoulder.

Not good, really.

Got home, served the net, looked at my email. Drank the tea, off to shower.

Cold showers really bring the best out of you. The weather was really cold, and I just waited for the heater to deliver the warm water. After 5 minutes waiting I decided I might have as well just dump myself.

It begins with the dousing. It's really cold - probably 10-15 degrees today. And then by the time it trickles to the feet, the entire body starts to shiver. When the showerhead goes on full blast, there's this profound stillness. I felt fortunate I got the chance to feel this vivid experience, because everything was so real.

I realised again I was a pretty lonely person. Again, because when there's two people in the house only life sometimes gets lonely. But life never gets boring. I feel lucky to be surrounded by people who are genuine and nice.

Of course shit happens, and detractors do appear. But whenever I think about that, I realised that we do need our challenges, be them easy or difficult.

It's really important to maintain this positive attitude in life. Even when the cards are down and everything looks shitty, that's probably just that slimmer of light somewhere there. Unfortunately we have to find it ourselves. That part sucks. But yeah, we will kickass.

Suddenly after that shower I feel cleansed. Fresh. New. Clean. Partly we can save some electricity by not using the heater, but if allowed it could offer some spiritual cleansing.




Shin's recipe:
-Showerhead
-Shower Place
-Cold water (prefebly 10-15 degrees cold)
-Lots of preparation before you douse yourself

Good luck larh.

Performances on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

I haven't blogged much in the month of July for a good reason.

It's because of the many things that I can look forward to other than blogging! Yesterday I went busking at Vivocity (with a license) along with Ben Wee, Zhiyi, and Haotian. Alright so we were a quartet who had only 2 pieces on our repertoire - Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1st movt, and the Tango from the Scent of a Woman.

So our guide for yesterday was this Malay Sec 1 guy from Whitley Secondary School called Ricky, who brought us around to our performance venues.

Our first performance had stands, because I was smart enough to liase with Bishan Park Secondary School band for 4 stands, to which I was hailed as "great" and "fantastic" and "lord". No, the last one doesn't count.

Marched in with the four stands a-blazing, and started with the Tango. Initially we argued that the Tango sounded nicer and wouldn't chase the parents and shoppers away, so we decided to play the Tango first. And then they could suffer with the Eine Kleine.

It was ok, although there was lots of wind blowing into our scores, which rendered us helpless when the 2nd page of Tango flew into the sky or the 1st page of Eine Kleine got stuck into our faces.

Wasn't that bad, but it nearly did.

On hind note we snubbed the prize presentation at the end without intention. We were too busy. I'm serious! We left our guide shell-shocked, although we did give him Miss Shen's hp number. Shit. We shouldn't have.

Tomorrow I'll be having a performance with the Sec 2 boys playing Schumann. And I'll be playing a Faure Impromptu solo. This event is called: National MOE MEP Concert.

Where will it be? Anglo-Chinese School (Independant)
What time will it be? 7.30pm
Who is it for? Since it's the matinee performance, it's for kids aged P5.
Does life suck? No.

On Tuesday, there will be the 'actual' performance, which means it's open to non-kids. Young-at-heart people will definitely be allowed to watch it though. So everyone, cash in ON THIS ONE! Watch the tuesday one if YOU DON'T WANT TO BE WITH KIDS!

Tomorrow I'll be wearing ear plugs and carrying a toy handgun to intimidate small kids should anyone question whether I'm carring a bazooka in the silver casing. I shall scream yes and then take out the bazooka and play it on stage.

Achtung! Might kill you.

On Wednesday, I would be having a lunchtime recital at RI, where I will be performing my competition pieces. So RI guys who are reading this, do come down on Wednesday 1.35 to support me at the Gallery...or intimidate me also.

I know I'm jumping around many topics, but just saying, I've watched the Dark Knight.

It was great.

Especially the part where...spoilers coming next week.

Referring to my title, I lurve performing.

These Days

I had no choice. I was forced to do this!

I really don't know what to type now. I've missed school for 2 weeks! Missed school last week because of Summer Piano Institute, missing school this week because there's no school. The school missed me!

Now friends, that's what they call, smart.

I'm sure they literally did. While I was walking today towards the physics lab to take my physics concept map test I saw RISE members in their break playing soccer! Being the zany ass I was I decided to run with my adidas(TM) bag on and my Disney(TM) jacket with a polo t-shirt tucked in into a Levi(TM) jeans and play soccer.

Didn't know fashion models could play soccer while in their costumes. NOT.

After my physics test I bumped into my ex-Chinese teacher who questioned me about the recent facial erm. facial...whatever. Pimples. She suggested that I must sleep early and drink lots of water and wash my face.

Why not. I do that every day!

Which brings me back to how I like to imagine my class being so lonely and quiet without me. You know, it's part of the ego process - to know your presence, and to quote Mr Teo, to acknowledge your presence. If anyone's going to presume I'm being emo here, you're wrong.

Which really brings me to what Ricker Chan from Australlia commented about the infamous Facebook photo/MSN DP I posted. If none of you have seen it, here it is:


Embarassingly stupid, that is. But it was a near imitation of the Beatles haircut, which really was a mop-top.

We interviewed Dick Lee today! With that I shall hang with a cliff-ender.

1st two days

Correction, Summer Piano Institute.

Besides this entire week has been a joy. Didn't kill me much, although there were unhealthy moments. Last Saturday was Christopher Taylor's concert, where he played the People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a near one-hour long piece in a theme and 36variations form. I had the score with me throughout, thanks to Dr Chang!

Yay. And I got to know everyone at the meeting and tea session that was a few hours before the concert.

Taylor also played the Goldberg Variations, composed by the man in the limelight this year, Johann Sebastian Bach. Here's some trivia:

"...[the Count] ... often stopped in Leipzig and brought there with him the aforementioned Goldberg, in order to have him given musical instruction by Bach. The Count was often ill and had sleepless nights. At such times, Goldberg, who lived in his house, had to spend the night in an antechamber, so as to play for him during his insomnia. ... Once the Count mentioned in Bach's presence that he would like to have some clavier pieces for Goldberg, which should be of such a smooth and somewhat lively character that he might be a little cheered up by them in his sleepless nights. Bach thought himself best able to fulfill this wish by means of Variations, the writing of which he had until then considered an ungrateful task on account of the repeatedly similar harmonic foundation. But since at this time all his works were already models of art, such also these variations became under his hand. Yet he produced only a single work of this kind. Thereafter the Count always called them his variations. He never tired of them, and for a long time sleepless nights meant: 'Dear Goldberg, do play me one of my variations.' "

Ok.

I'm continuing this after 2 days simply because I've been struck lazy recently.

Today is MONDAY, start of the APCG week, where there's no school. I shall continue writing about the Institute week.

During the tea session where we were introduced to each other everyone of us peeps were shy so we didn't talk much, but at the end the situation changed. So we were all handed packages containing our nametags and access cards, and schedule for the WHOLE WEEK.

Mr WeiBoon is a genius. Now it's easier to follow. (I have yet to pay him ticket money, cannot keep owing people money)

The next day (Sunday) we - YST people - watched a rerun of Dr Hecht and Mr Tiu's duo concert, played with the most detail as per usual. Had individual practice for the next 3 hours before I went for the Scherbakov concert, the last piano concert of the 2008 Singapore Piano Festival. Went for the pre-concert talk, which featured Pianophiles like Mr Phan, Dr Chang, and two others I can't remember.

Concert was rad, but I felt the transcription of Beethoven's 9th symphony was too boring for me to take. Orchestration is a huge factor in maintaining interest - with the different timbres and colours for the human ears to engage in, orchestration definitely is a big part in the business.

But once we have an exact copy on the piano, with no attempt to ornamentate it or even make it more 'showy', this is the result.

I slept halfway through the 9th.

Shall stop blogging here...

These Weeks

Utterly killing me, these weeks.

Next week would be the Singapore Piano Institute held at YST, where I will be taking classes with Mr. Gabriel Kwok from HongKong. And then I'll be involved in a final project, (with the imbalanced Zhang Aidi, who has been a really tough contemporary [which is really great!]) titled "Fantasies and Impromptus".

I'll be going for Christopher Taylor's Concert on Saturday, where he will be playing Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated!. And a pre-concert talk by Dr John Sharpley about this piece.

I currently have a ticket to sell for this concert, and anyone interested in getting this ticket and watching this concert, please buy it from me! It's $45.

Then after that I'll be preparing to go to Germany - I still have one more piece not yet HEARD. Liszt's Sonnetto del Petrarch - the second one.

And then I have to prepare a masterclass with Mr Tiu on Tuesday.

An interview with famous Asian/Singaporean composer Mr. Richard Lee, otherwise known as Mr. Dick Lee (Yes, an interview with Mr Dick Lee) on Wednesday.

Then following that a Mozart performance on Thursday.

And on Saturday a performance at the Concert Hall, playing Griffes.

And finally, a poster of this Summer Piano Institute - my promise to put pictures has been fulfilled.



There.

I reckoned talking about Dr Vivian Balakrishnan visiting our school today and giving an amazing lecture would take up lots of my time, so I'll not put in here. Maybe after next week.

Animal Hair

Must remember to thank Melissa for the Carnegie Hall mug, otherwise I'll be branded as an ass (soon enough).

With the extra mug, I can now drink water more often, at the same time drink a cup of fresh milk, and then put it in the sink, and take another mug to drink water, before remembering I drank water with the other one already, and I must save water. And that there was still one more mug left to be used.

But all the same, thank you for the mug! I didn't get a souvenir last year from New York, so this was it.

On to more matters about the hair, I went to snip off my locks of hair today at the salon. (No, hair salon, not piano salon. No piano.) Usually my mum would accompany me for my haircuts, so they were obviously puzzled and were hesitant to cut my hair before my mum arrived. Well, they could wait till I pass out of hunger and then obviously float somewhere else, but luckily they didn't.

So I told my mum passed away already and then they were shocked and sympathetic at the same time. Can't believe they recognised my mum and I after only about ten visits over 6 years. Hardly believable. The assistant lady boss said my mum was probably a woman with a quick fuse, which I could hardly disagree, and smiles were exchanged sympathetically.

Had my mane shaved off, now I look like a lioness. A Chinese one at that - the guy barber talked to me first in Malay while I was reading Dick Lee's biography at the side. I honestly didn't know he was talking Malay until he told me later, after I spoke back to him in Chinese.

"我以为你是马来人...对不起阿boy..."

Which I had replied with a wave of a hand and he flew aWAY...

How I wish he did - he didn't though.

Rewind back a few hours, I re-listened to Monday's recording and practised again. And then went downstairs to buy seafood-flavoured cup noodles. MUNDANE.

While I was boiling the seafood-flavoured cup noodles I thought of 10 reasons why people wouldn't want to be me, and 10 reasons why people would. And then I realised it was impossible because everyone would have their own suitable lifestyle, and everyone's lifestyle's different.

Like how almost every other musician I know has either a dog or a cat, or a dog and a cat. Well, do musicians with pets develop better as musicians? To have a non-human being in the house, to understand the mannerisms of animals in order to aid music?

Recently I went to Miss Julie Tan's house to have a small chit-chat about food and music (what else) and got to play with the Westie, and her name was Heidi.

Now seriously, this dog's really really cute, because the moment I entered the house she started jumping around me with a nearly human smile. In fact, Heidi could have even been a baby - human mannerisms of sneezing, lying on the floor upside-down and waiting to be scratched, and staring at the ceiling in the cutest fashion that even I was lying on the floor tummy-rubbing the dog.

And Miss Tan talked about their really constant beats (in terms of gait) and their jumping trajectories. I thought that might have been over-analysing, but it was true to a certain extent. (Give me my History L3 mark NOW.) Well it goes to say that some of music's deepest yet simplest facts can be taken directly from nature.

I left the house thinking (blah blah blah I'll skip the philosophical crap).

Crap is meant to be shared, so I wish some of us musicians would spend some time with non-human beings and nature, hopefully being able to discover something that could benefit one's intepretation of music.

Have a good week ahead!


P.S. I found a few locks of Mum's hair still stuck in her comb - miss you mum!

Paying attention

I was feeling amused yet sad at the same time while I was garbling my Chinese speech on food, music and love.

I didn't know if Mdm Wang did it accidently or something, but before I said my words she told everyone to do their 作业! Which meant I had to talk to an entire class of bowed heads, concentrating on their work. And I guess only a few who weren't interested in finishing their work was listening to what I said.

Really didn't have the intended message I wanted to give, firstly because I didn't manage to complete the music section of it, and the little poem I wrote at the end didn't have the build-up to it.

So I was kinda getting the feeling of my non-existence (emo) on the stage.

But it's alright, I think I've been doing my own stuff too when people were talking too. But she usually tells everyone to stop doing their work when someone talks! This time she told everyone to start doing assignments.

Ok then after that I went for MEP Masterclass with Dr John Sharpley. And he talked about how the dissonance being beautiful, and not just only for pitches, but also in terms of rhythm. And there was probably one more but I forgot.

Really great masterclass! I think for the first time everyone was paying attention to a masterclass given, but it was partly because the group listening to it was pretty small and 'concised'.

Soccer for half-an-hour with my newly-bought small Size 3 soccer ball, and Bryan Choong the Ironman shown with his never-ending spirit. Where he faced off with Thunderleg Leonard, who fired a volley at Ironman's chest (and the ball promptly bounced back to the Thunderleg). Leonard fired again, this time bouncing off Ironman's knee, and for the last time Thunderleg fired, before bouncing off the never-wavering Ironman - into goal.

And such is the power of Bryan Choong. And the Guy Spirit.

Went off to RGS Strings afterwards, bought a loaf of bread along the way. The choreographing was pretty corny (for guys like me who failed to realise that the theatre actually enhances the music, so it was worth it). But corny it was still.

Lanabel, who played as solo violinist yesterday, showed flawless technique and a strong tone, but the orchestra was at some point of time trying to catch up with her. I believe better ensemble coordination would work out for a better performance of Mozart's G major Concerto.

There was a lack of orchestral balance though - 10 cellos against 7 violas, 10 cellos against 9 Violin 1s. At some point of time, the cellos overpowered the violins (18)

In Mozart the feeling of an elegant, light orchestra was compromised. It may have been reversed had the entire orchestra engage in a more articulated and talkative manner, in order to complement the soloist.

The entire concert was fuelled by their enthusiasm, which provided for a comfortable evening for me to chill out, and at the same time, be amused.

Thanks RGS Strings...

Ok that's all I'm going to write about Raffles Strings concert, because I'm going to John's house to practice Quintet.

And then to SSO's Gala Concert at 7.30pm. See you'll!

No title! (due to lack of creativity)

I woke up at 4am to an ironically cold, wet and windy Sunday. Rainday would be more apt...

The evening before I was having dinner with my dad, Clarence, and his parents. We were having this dinner because my dad wanted to thank Clarence's parents for being my soon-to-be caretakers in Germany, where we would be facing some yummy competition.

Unfortunately my defences are still under construction, and I'll continue my practice in a while.

Meanwhile there were many life lessons that were brought to the dinner table yesterday, especially from Clarence's mum, in which she shared some of her life stories with us, some of them tragic, some of them thought-provoking. I wouldn't share it with you guys here on this table, because I think everyone present would prefer it to be kept private...

Meanwhile we had dinner at Siam Kitchen (my first time there) where I had beef noodles. And spent the rest of my time feeding myself with crackers that were provided on the table. And then 'cooling' it down with sips of warm water every now and then.

My failure to post pictures has often been a bane.

It IS still a bane, sadly.

Anyway after we had dinner together, my dad and I proceeded to the basement level of Causeway Point, where he went to the DIY shop, and I had the most profound melody I've thought of in a while, which I promptly jotted down/typed in my handphone.

No guarantee of its success however, it depends how I use and develop this melody which shows how successful it is.

When I went back home I caught the second half of LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring at 10pm, which I watched till 11.45, and then flipped to Channel 8. Continued watching this Chinese/Cantonese show called Magic Kitchen starring Andy Lau, Jerry Yan, and Sammi Cheng. Some story combining food/cooking and love.

A little divertion: Currently I have this blue Imation thumbdrive which has an 'Yu' written on it in white ink, and I suspect it's John YU's. John, if this is yours, do acknowledge it by tagging on my tagboard and saying its yours!


So after that I had this same melody continuously stuck in my head, but I did get home in the end to jot it down on manuscript paper. It is sad however that I spent nearly an hour of sleeptime being plagued with these beautiful sounds that I wanted to wake up and write down. Maybe I was just being superstitious, but I woke up and shut the manuscript book so I could continue sleeping. Well, I did slept half an hour later.

It is definitely for a string instrument, but I thought it was more suited for the cello, because of its breath and space. I might even write it for trio, now that I think the violin has enough richness to try this melody out.
Seriously, I wasn't thinking about what happened 2 days ago! Just a thought that developed while I was typing this out.

There really are only three things going in my mind now - my performance in Germany and my practice, my overdue homework, and my 音乐作品s. (In order of importance). And 还有另外一件事，但我觉得在这里写有点没味道.

Is something pissing Jonathan Shin off again? On the contrary, no. Just something's that's been bugging me for the past few 星期s.

谢谢.

Rehearsal at my house

Yeah, we can open a Philharmonic orchestra here. Why not call it Jonathan Philharmonic Hall!

For the first time in eight years I have opened my house to musicians. Congratulations to Kwek and John Lee. Unfortunately I haven't prepared any prizes.

So I thought I called all of them to come at 10am, but unfortunately Theo didn't, and he came at 9am. I woke up at 8.56am though, thinking about what I needed to prepare, and I decided to read this book I borrowed yesterday.



It's really a collection of stories or dialogues that are 1-2 pages long, and are really hilarious. Like, interviewing a cow, a chicken and a pig on animal cruelty after creating a translating machine.

Here's a small part:
"-You've been incarcerated in this slaughterhouse your entire life. How has it affected you emotionally?
-I am cow. I eat grass. Grass on ground. Me move mouth down to grass. Chew up grass.
-Do you think animal slavery will end in your lifetime?
-Eat grass, rest. Eat grass, rest. Sleep.
-Do you feel that animals deserve the same rights as human beings?
-Grass on ground. Eat it all up."

Alright so after I woke up I received a handphone ring from Kwek, who asked me to open the door because he was outside. I opened the door, and he was , indeed, outside.

And he proceeded to sit at the sofa while I cleared up the living room space to make room for the trio that was going to play later. While he read Ant Farm, I proceeded to play the NAXOS Griffes CD. I'm addicted to it - Hansel and Gretel, Symphonie Phantastique - really fantastic pieces.

Proceeded to play Lalo's Spanish Symphony with Theo, and then sat down to talk about music matters and future plans. And of course a possible collaboration and the Lounge.

We waited till 10am for John Lee to arrive, because that was the planned time. (Ryan Kwan and Haotian didn't come, because Ryan didn't have his scores, and Haotian was MIA). Interesting fact: Theophilus took Ryan's scores for Violin II, and Theophilus didn't bring his scores.

But we did rehearse it in the end. I only had the second, third and fourth page, and we did a run-through of the piece, rickety-rackety run-through. For about 45 minutes.

And then we did improvistory trios that were worthy enough to be placed on scores and then published and then to be shipped around the world. We got from Romantic style to really Modern works that went to Dada-ism and Abstract. Which Theophilus Kwek wasn't able to join in on - which made him felt left-out.

After that John and I sight-read Mozart's four-hand works, which promptly made Kwek feel isolated. Lol, we didn't even meant it that way! So of course I got around to showing them some of my works I've kept for over the past few months, and my recent inclination to finding new SOUNDS and TIMBRES that I can use.

Some of the works have kitsch melodies, so they aren't really nice.

Played 10 secs of RISK, and then spaghetti.

Really fun day.

A Pipe Dream

I have an itch to create another MusicLounge, but it failed pretty badly the last time I did it, partly because I was solo-ing the whole thing, and also I was pretty busy.

If I do set-up on this time, it would probably need a few people to maintain it. Then again, how would it be run? Will we be covering everything about music under the sun?

Will it have readers?

Maybe I'll have some of my uni colleagues publish something. And I'll pull in some people too.

I believe this weblog we're going to create would be accessible to teenagers who dwell in classical art music.

We'll put latest concerts in it, videos, threads, teenage reviews, methods, whatever.

The scope is getting wider though.

-.-

Well, a pipe dream thus far, but I'll solidify it. Meanwhile, back to finding my musical identity.

We missed Monday Munching again!

It's been a creative week for the past few days, except it tapered off by yesterday. I wonder, is it neccesary for one to have a composition teacher before one can start off on composition?

This afternoon I decided to take a listen to the entire Griffes music collection (from Dr Chang) while I was chilling off. It sounded really unique, neither Debussy nor Ravel, nor Schoenberg and Scriabin. Uniquely Griffes.

Monday's lesson was cool again! But all my short-comings have returned - should I master it my life would be made easier...



Recently I was doing some shopping with my dad at OG for new shoes and shirts, when we stepped into a lift. Which we shared with an Indian couple, with a child. So the child was roughly 4-5 years old, (old enough to walk).

This lift had metal bar handles at its three sides, and the dad didn't notice enough to stop himself from putting the kid on the floor. And the kid did something natural enough - walk.

I wasn't really paying much attention too, just that I saw this kid walk towards one side with a slanted gait, and then-

Well moral of the story is, don't listen to what notes can come out from the impact, just look at the impact itself.

-And there was this resounding Bb that was jarring yet whole at the same time, a sound which is very difficult to forget.

Then there was a steely silence, at which point the kid took his time to register which Lego(TM) block had hit him, and which part it hit. So while I relished the still-ringing sounds, I saw the Indian woman (otherwise the mum) give a shocked gasp.

After the kid identified the Unidentified Floating Object, he promptly ran into the opposite direction, which meant directly under his dad's belt.

I didn't bother to see what happened next, because the lift door open, and we stepped out into the bright lights, and a huge torrent of shrieks flooding from behind me.

OG didn't make my mood any better! After we spent a little over $100 we received a coupon to get a oyster pearl. At first I kept refusing to go and collect this useless oyster pearl, but my dad said just go and collect.

It was authentic, but there was this next counter which said you had to attach it to some kind of jewelry chain which you can choose from at your own leisure. So at first I said, "I'll just have the pearl."

And then the saleswoman obviously wasn't counting on me to say that, and she asked me where my mum was. So I said, "Nvm, I'll just have the pearl. It's ok."

"Well, it wouldn't look good like that, you'll have to attach a piece of jewelry to it so that it looks nicer..." And then proceeded to bug me on where my mum was and that she should be making the choice.

But they're just doing their job, so I'll forgive them. Except no more pearls, thank you.

Horse Die Come Down Walk

Ok recently there was the Singapore Music Teachers' Association (SMTA) Piano Festival, where I was working as a helper.

It was uneventful, because I was repeatedly slotting sheets into scores and passing them to the adjudicators inside the Recital Studio, who had to bear a little NachtMusik.

Other than that, I just had dinner with Dr Hecht again and my dad at his house! We're spending so much more time there, and we were patting his two cats, Barney and Max.

Max's the more active one, and nearly toppled the wine bottle on the dining table while we were preparing dinner. Basically Max's just more active. And Barney apparently has three positions - one at the couch, in the balcony, and under the curtains. So the biggest decision of his day would be where he would be sleeping for the next few hours.

That's ALL he has to worry about, because Dr Hecht feeds them so often they're so fat, and they don't have to worry at all about starving.

Otherwise, the cough has gotten worse.

Originally I had many things to talk about, but I'm simply beaten up now. Like, how I went to send Sze and the NYSE girls off to New York with Sec 3 Suck-Ups and Lumpy. While we had all the taupoks and all the shoving around last year, the girls were taking photos, photos and more photos.

They were supposed to be off by 6pm, but I came at around 3pm for lunch with my dad, and then he went off at 4pm. By 4pm I settled at one of the seats in Terminal One near Row 3 and took out my trusty manuscript book.

Which I filled with continuing motives. So the first Nanyang girl came, and then they all came in quick succession. Terminal 1 really looks old now, with its light dimmer than usual. Maybe they were trying to save electricity, but it looks really run-down.

So there was a mini-argument between a couple and a father of a girl. You know how usually there are rows facing back-to-back? Well, I was at one of them, and behind me on the seats were a suitcase and a violin. So this couple couldn't find a seat and moved away the violin.

The father went, "You think it's right to do that?"
And the guy said, "No one's seating here."
"But don't you think it's wrong, since the girl has already placed her instrument there?"
"(Shrugs)"

I thought I might as well tell the daddy that the situation would be different if Sze were there. The dad looked at me like, "oh-wait-how-do-you-know-sze" face, so I just repeated what I said. And he couldn't agree better.

Isn't it cow sense that the girl might just have gone off for a while, and she might be back to sit down later? And please treat instruments more nicely next time, Couple. Anyway I think that case belonged to Jingting, but I'm not really sure.

But if my cello were there, man, I don't think I'll do anything. I'll just smile at the guy. Why bother to reason with him. As the Hokkien saying goes, when the horse dies, just get down and walk.

If he takes my seat, I'll take another! Life's too short to trouble over such things.

Me eat Food, hear Music. Me love them both

I hardly get tired of blogging - you get to reach out to so many people outside at the comfort of your own desk, your own home, your own fan. Erm, and computer. My own, of course.

And after reading Theo's latest post I can say safely that if he doesn't stop blogging we're all going to lose our writing jobs. And I NEED MY PAY. Well if he succumbed to the nuffnang ads he would earn enough to buy a bungalow tomorrow.

Halt! Everyone has his/her own strengths, and I'mma work on my own strengths, which are astutely minute and minutely astute. (Where the heck did that come out from.) So anyway I was working on my post about the parallels we can draw between music and food yesterday.


A couple of weeks ago I was dining with Piano Teacher at home along with my apprentice cook Dad. The adults were drinking the red wine, when Dr Hecht started talking about different kinds of wine and oils and their depths.

Obviously you can see where I'm heading to, but I'm here to draw you a clearer picture.

So yesterday while I was practising my piano I thought of the quote again, and I realised Sze actually mentioned it before! When the run-throughs were slacken and deproving, he would always bring in the analogy of the cook.

The cook cannot enjoy and savour the steak, only the diner can. Which basically means the cook can't lose his concentration and start drooling at the steak, because he's the one who's responsible for PRODUCING it, while the diner is responsible for CONSUMING it!

Just like the musician. We cannot slacken and enjoy this music we're producing, because that would cause us to lose our focus, and focus is neccesary in a performance! It's like a hole that expands when one's focus increases, allowing more ideas to come through and formalise, and lastly be translated into vibrations to the audience.

So there. The chef has available to him the different kinds of colouring (ooh), oils, wine, salts, peppers, and sugars, icings, toppings. And just like us, we have the pedals, tones, ornaments, phrasings, dynamics.

Of course, chefs can inject 'soul' into their products, and of course, we can too. But what makes it more challenging for us musicians would be that we get to do it ALL IN REAL TIME! And this process repeats thousands of times in one performance -
Prepare, Play, Listen, Prepare, Play, Listen, Prepare etc.

This applies to all musicians out there - we mentally listen to how a note would sound like, prepare it, and then play it, then we listen to the previous sound,and then we prepare it again and etc.

So that's what makes music more challenging than food in a way.

Of course, there's only ONE chance for the food to make it. Once you taste the end product, that's it, you're graded. And that's what makes it challenging for the food section too!

In music, when you have a memory lapse or you improvise (otherwise play a wrong note), you still can make up for it through the rest of the piece.

Yay! Italicized parts are things that I wish to share to some musicians blogging about music constantly. It's a joy to see fellow musicians talking about sounds and the human mind, body, and soul.

Monday Munching delayed to Tuesday. Today.

Monday Munching - Food and Music has been delayed due to some technical problems. We'll be back later today...

Meanwhile here's something that caught my eye from an unsuspecting junior:

"Anyway, the camp was DAMN boring. [No offence to the EXCO members]

It was also the first time I was having rehearsals with the whole ensemble. Then the conductor, Mr Sze made me sit at the 3rd row. What the HELL lah. I mean, I can't even play the piece, as in, I can't even follow the rest, then he go and put me in the front.

And the rest of the Sec 1 noobs are sitting at the last row. I mean, if you sit at the last row, you can fake and pretend to be playing. (that's what Clarence and Andrew did) Then when I was playing, I made a very small mistake and he started shouting at me.

Down, Up, Up bow! Even if you are a Sec 1 you are not exempted!

That's what he said. Anyway, after that rehearsal, we had a meal at Mac, and we had ANOTHER rehearsal. Then I forgot to bring my pencil. Mr Sze shouted, "Pencil check!" and half the ensemble didn't raise their hand. You know what he said? "To the field!"

What kind of music CCA is this man. We ran like 5 rounds and did 80+ push ups. JUST BECAUSE I DIDN'T BRING THAT STUPID PENCIL!"


I'm not surprised I didn't think of this when I was in Secondary 1. We were disciplined, and we understood what discipline meant and how things worked. Aaaand pencils are very important things juniors...without your pencils how are you going to write important things in your scores?

Well honestly we seniors didn't do a good job of disciplining them, but nowadays Secondary 1s are getting more and more defiant. And some Secondary 2s also, but they're less defiant in general.

In life challenges are what makes it fun. But there are times when challenges cross the line of rationality and discipline, then the fun is gone.

Dreams 2

I've lost the battle! Sickness and Disease 1 Jonathan 0.

Moral of the story: never play soccer under the sun and then under the rain, and then under the sun again IF you're a person who's never been in such situations before.

Unfortunately I've been in these situation so many times, but I don't know why I got it this time. And secondly, after playing soccer, don't start eating Pringles and crackers. They always seem to be 'heaty' as what the Chinese always say.

I figured I got the cold, and I was hacking away and shivering.

So I got a call from Shangxuan on Friday night at my cousin's basement, and he told me to arrange a work for his Church camp for Viola, Keyboard, and Voice. The piece? Fly Me to the Moon, a work which I had previously arranged and performed with my friends Daniel and David last year.

I was in a dilemma - to continue my work or start on this new project. Anyway I did the latter, and then the fever developed. As I dive into this pool of self-pity, please do pass me a towel after my swim. I did the arrangements, and then on Sunday night was the performance at the Church Camp.

Well by then I looked like a walking piece of shit, and the performance was a bit liao-lui (as what my dad said - thanks for watching dad!) I realised I was sharing the back-stage with a Singapore Idol finalist - some lady who looked familiar enough.

Ok I'm done with the self-pity part.

When I went back home my dad put some Vicks in a cup and poured boiling water into it, and asked me to inhale deeply the fumes to clear my lungs. I did that, and in seconds menthol filled my system, and my tongue felt sour and spicy at the same time.

I started coughing and spluttering all the SHIT that had been in my body for the past week. Yay. We did it again, and by sleeptime I was better already. Took a spoonful of cough syrup, and off to bed I went.

Maybe being feverish really gives you fantastic dreams. Because I think I dreamnt about 8-10 dreams in a row, like floating in the air, and flying around in the clouds. Erm, literally flying. And huge, large plains and more and more of nature.

Lots and lots of colours. It might have been the menthol in my brain, causing these effects. I don't really know. When I'm not sick, I shall inhale the fumes again, and if I do have these dreams, I'll call you guys up. :)

200th anti-climatic post

Here's my 200th contribution to this blog-newspaper called I-talk-you-listen. There are other writers but they have been on continuous leave so I am the only guy writing in this column.

I'm going to my cousin's house in a while to play Marvel-Capcom, DotA, and Warcraft III. And I'll be staying overnight so I'll probably use their upright piano at the basement of their house to complete some mysterious and magical work. Shh...Ok maybe not so mysterious and magical after all already but it's fun experimenting with different shades.

I can't wait to go back to school to jam with my friends! I'm starting to turn into a Benjamin Liu except that at least I still go to school. But I'm a realistic person, and I know that school is the only thing that can get me any future, so I still have to get through this.

RISE Camp 7

I shall ask for a one-month no pay leave to blogger.com. If they do agree, my readers will be a little disappointed. If I do have (self-depreciating humour).

I just went for my second-last RISE camp/ maybe even last RISE camp! I hope it's the former. Nothing much to write about it, since the Secondary 4s weren't required to play. So we just stoned around, and when the Secondary 1s, 2s and 3s were playing, the Secondary 4s played soccer.

It got boring after a while, particularly since I wanted to play soccer AND music. I didn't get to play music, so I was disappointed. We had fun thinking about what had happened over the past 4 years, and some very quotable quotes from Mr Sze and from our fellow RISE members.

The famous 'stand down!' was brought into play, and we laughed like there was no tomorrow. Thing was, we were supposed to go lights out by 12am, but some of us climbed over RI's formidable walls and went to 7-11 to get some breakfast goods like bread and instant noodles. I got bread. We weren't supposed to do that, but RI's adminstration doesn't think of us as teens that are tired and hungry by 12 after the night games. So they lock us all in. And one knows that when one is hungry there is a limit, and we reached that. ALright, maybe we didn't have a limit, just that we were really hungry and everything.

On the second day's night we played Mr Sze' nightgame, where we followed bearings that led us to passwords where we could call a handphone number that was placed on the paper, and then say a password. We had two choices of password, and one would lead us to an easier quest while the other a difficult one. Pretty straightfoward, but there was one in the swimming pool which I dived into to get the password.

That part turned out to be screwed after some group before us displaced the passwords and instead of the passwords being INSIDE the pool, it floated up. Our group got screwed anyway for having it floating on the pool.

We lost in the end, because our group was particularly slow. But our Group's Group 1 was first! So we balanced out in the end. Yay!

Now we shall wait - currently listening to Beatles's All Together Now

The June of 2006

This feels like I'm in June 2006. I don't know how to describe it, but coming close to it would be elation and joy.

Well, only one person knows how I felt in the June of 2006, and I'm feeling it again.

What a good feeling that is