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!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Saturday, February 9, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, February 8, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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?
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?
Friday, February 1, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
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!
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!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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!
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!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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!
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!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
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.
"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.
Friday, January 18, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Piano lesson Number 1, Descriptions
It's been surprisingly 4 days since I last posted. I must say time passes very fast. Yesterday I had my first lesson in 6 months with Dr. Hecht, and the only words I can talk about it would be that when you were creating music with him, you would forget that you have stopped breathing, and when it ends the beautiful curved sounds fade away into the world around you, and then total silence.
He taught us (combined lesson with Aidi) some cool pedalling techniques and 'secrets', and we absorbed all of them. Now to put them into practice.
Life's not really stressful, now that I have managed to handle YST and my studies together. Now it's just my sick and dying (her being 80% bedridden) mum that the whole household has to take care of. How terrible.
But I'm looking forward to life entirely devoted to music, which is why I feel a need to practise piano now!
Feeling a little tired and lifeless. Before I end, here are some words I have been described by my friends during CLE lesson, as all classmates have done in this CLE exercise.
-Talented in music
-Positive outlook, outrageously talented
-Gaily optimistic and spontaneous
-SIAO (:
-always brings laughter at any time of the day, a joy to have around
-boisterous
-idiosyncratic
-knowledgable
-power packed, always high
-exciting
-humorous
-lively
-rather insulting joker (oops)
-outspoken
-crazy, mad , senseless, but BAGUS
-AWESOME
-energetic
-spontaneous (otherwise known as random)
Rather superficial unfortunately, but it's ok since these are the only characteristics I display in class...and most people don't read my blog anyway. At least in 4L
He taught us (combined lesson with Aidi) some cool pedalling techniques and 'secrets', and we absorbed all of them. Now to put them into practice.
Life's not really stressful, now that I have managed to handle YST and my studies together. Now it's just my sick and dying (her being 80% bedridden) mum that the whole household has to take care of. How terrible.
But I'm looking forward to life entirely devoted to music, which is why I feel a need to practise piano now!
Feeling a little tired and lifeless. Before I end, here are some words I have been described by my friends during CLE lesson, as all classmates have done in this CLE exercise.
-Talented in music
-Positive outlook, outrageously talented
-Gaily optimistic and spontaneous
-SIAO (:
-always brings laughter at any time of the day, a joy to have around
-boisterous
-idiosyncratic
-knowledgable
-power packed, always high
-exciting
-humorous
-lively
-rather insulting joker (oops)
-outspoken
-crazy, mad , senseless, but BAGUS
-AWESOME
-energetic
-spontaneous (otherwise known as random)
Rather superficial unfortunately, but it's ok since these are the only characteristics I display in class...and most people don't read my blog anyway. At least in 4L
Sunday, January 13, 2008
It's an Ok-Day
They usually call this kind of days an ok-day. And I shall call it an ok-day too. That's because there were the mix of good and the bad things. First thing to start off the day, a faculty meeting at YST. Well it's been days since I last went back, and we got new assignments plus we welcomed back Dr. Hecht. Happy new year Dr. Hecht!
After that Aidi and I were given a two piano piece...Shostakovich. Probably my first piece from Shosta after his Preludes Miss Hahn told me to play to get use to atonal music.
Came back home, slept, went to tuition at 5pm. Thunder did sound beautiful, after being over-exposed to it during tuition hours. Two blackouts and two fixes after, mu tuition ended at 7pm.
Was supposed to watch AVP at 7.30, but until 8.00 I was cut off from the TV after I was found eating in front of the TV. Not that's something you don't get anywhere. Practised Schumann, but had one of the pages thrown away and was told by my mum to stop playing Schumann. Not a good excuse for tomorrow's would-be lousy performance.
I'm also playing Bruch Romanze with Jonathan (Koh) after hearing it and asking for the score. Sometimes music can get so good you can hardly refuse it. Bruch is one of them - indeed a good Romance, with the beautiful motive repeating over and over again...
After that Aidi and I were given a two piano piece...Shostakovich. Probably my first piece from Shosta after his Preludes Miss Hahn told me to play to get use to atonal music.
Came back home, slept, went to tuition at 5pm. Thunder did sound beautiful, after being over-exposed to it during tuition hours. Two blackouts and two fixes after, mu tuition ended at 7pm.
Was supposed to watch AVP at 7.30, but until 8.00 I was cut off from the TV after I was found eating in front of the TV. Not that's something you don't get anywhere. Practised Schumann, but had one of the pages thrown away and was told by my mum to stop playing Schumann. Not a good excuse for tomorrow's would-be lousy performance.
I'm also playing Bruch Romanze with Jonathan (Koh) after hearing it and asking for the score. Sometimes music can get so good you can hardly refuse it. Bruch is one of them - indeed a good Romance, with the beautiful motive repeating over and over again...
Saturday, January 12, 2008
There's a start to everything
I am officially a Noogeroo fan. That's Nigel's blog. This happened because someone deleted/locked her blog and we couldn't read anymore.
Our RE meeting yesterday was a stark difference from the previous RE meeting we had. It was, without doubt, more productive. And of course as music producers we strive for productivity!
As all of you can see, Ben Low and I have the same timetable due to the same subject combination. So it was possible for us to do some planning and composing for the National Day song. Yummy.
Now it's the lyrics.
I have received some comments about my recent blogpost "Boys on the MRT", and have been pointed out that I have written with a stereotypical view of neighborhood school students. However I wish to clarify that I was merely talking about the much-used general public view of neighbourhood schools. Here's the supposedly offensive statement:
"Meanwhile standing 2 metres away from me were a group of 2 Upper Secondary guys and 2 Lower Secondary guys from a school with blue uniform. I was as usual people-watching/listening, and they were to none of my surprise, the usual stereotype of neighbourhood schools.
"
This does not mean that all neighbourhood school students exhibit such behavior, but to say that the students mentioned in my blogpost have shown this behavior that has been generalised - repeat, generalised - as typical neighbourhood school behavior as seen from the public eye.
Sorry if there were anyone who were insulted by that post. Do note I will take more care with my comments in the future.
To follow, here's a news article from senior writer of Strait Times, Janadas Devan.
Here it is:
Alright I'll be honest - I am an Obama supporter, maybe without any political basis, but I simply love his idealistic views. And his oratorical skills are coveted...I'm also frankly not prepared to see a woman as commander-in-chief of one of the world's powerful nations. The famous incident of Hillary Clinton shedding tears (for those of you who don't know, please READ the news..) at a coffee shop when answering a question simply made me doubt her ability of being President of the United States of America. Perhaps the pressure was simply too huge for her to take. Which means tougher times, and more tears ahead to come.
However, Mr. Devan has cleverly pointed out in his article about the differences between the idealism of Mr. Obama and the 'bread-and-butter' realism of Mrs Clinton. In my own opinion I feel that one indeed needs to have a little bit of both to be a well-rounded person. (Which reminds me of what Benjamin Yap said a few days back, about how Buddhism encourages a person to lead a well-balanced life.)
Mr. Devan also mentions the exitpolls that showed Mr Obama 'drew his support chiefly from the well-off - people who earned more than US$55,000 (S$80,000) a year - and the young.'
That clearly means that the rich have in fact more time to think about new ideals, and a new life in American history, while the middle-class and poor have to concentrate on surviving and as what Mr. Devan mentioned, one "cannnot do without bread".
Once again from all the articles I have collected and all the policy plans that Mr Obama has created, I do feel that his Presidential plan has a good balance of realism and idealism, trying to look ahead for visionary ideas yet keeping in touch with the real world.
Does this apply to Singapore? We have yet to find a proper balance, and many youths are still complaining about the rigidity of the Singapore system . As much as the PAP are trying to help the poor and bring stability to the country's economy, they are also trying to look ahead with extra new ideas and things like that. Just think about the F1 night race.
Another few days back, the Strait Times published an article by a female writer within talking about whether Singapore is ready for a non-Chinese Premier. 40 years ago, there were the racial riots between the Chinese and the Malays, and just like in America, 40 years ago there were the racial riots between the whites and the blacks. Today, America has shown for the first time that the African-American is no longer an outsider of the society, and through the example of one being able to have the first real shot of being the most powerful person in America, America has proven that it has forgetten about the past greviances between the whites and the blacks.
Well, let's say tomorrow we're going to have an Indian or a Malay become Prime Minister (considering all the proper steps have been followed within the government.) Will Singaporeans have any major objections, and will any riots follow?
I don't know.
And then there's the gender problem. In the 2009 American President race, serious contenders have included a black and a woman. Should Hilary Clinton be voted as President, the world will see the first woman president ever of again, one of the world's powerful nations. Will the international committee be disturbed by that? I should not think so. But of course, for every yes there would be a no, and for every man a woman, for every yes a no. I believe that there would not be a lack of people who disagree to a woman president, but it would not do much impact though.
This week has been a tumultous week, following Mr. Obama's win in the Iowa caucus and subsequent 3% defeat in New Hampshire. Several comparisons were drawn between the Americas and Singapore, and some have left an imprint in my mind.
Will 2009 be one of America's most historical year, the year of the firsts?
Our RE meeting yesterday was a stark difference from the previous RE meeting we had. It was, without doubt, more productive. And of course as music producers we strive for productivity!
As all of you can see, Ben Low and I have the same timetable due to the same subject combination. So it was possible for us to do some planning and composing for the National Day song. Yummy.
Now it's the lyrics.
I have received some comments about my recent blogpost "Boys on the MRT", and have been pointed out that I have written with a stereotypical view of neighborhood school students. However I wish to clarify that I was merely talking about the much-used general public view of neighbourhood schools. Here's the supposedly offensive statement:
"Meanwhile standing 2 metres away from me were a group of 2 Upper Secondary guys and 2 Lower Secondary guys from a school with blue uniform. I was as usual people-watching/listening, and they were to none of my surprise, the usual stereotype of neighbourhood schools.
"
This does not mean that all neighbourhood school students exhibit such behavior, but to say that the students mentioned in my blogpost have shown this behavior that has been generalised - repeat, generalised - as typical neighbourhood school behavior as seen from the public eye.
Sorry if there were anyone who were insulted by that post. Do note I will take more care with my comments in the future.
To follow, here's a news article from senior writer of Strait Times, Janadas Devan.
Here it is:
Alright I'll be honest - I am an Obama supporter, maybe without any political basis, but I simply love his idealistic views. And his oratorical skills are coveted...I'm also frankly not prepared to see a woman as commander-in-chief of one of the world's powerful nations. The famous incident of Hillary Clinton shedding tears (for those of you who don't know, please READ the news..) at a coffee shop when answering a question simply made me doubt her ability of being President of the United States of America. Perhaps the pressure was simply too huge for her to take. Which means tougher times, and more tears ahead to come.
However, Mr. Devan has cleverly pointed out in his article about the differences between the idealism of Mr. Obama and the 'bread-and-butter' realism of Mrs Clinton. In my own opinion I feel that one indeed needs to have a little bit of both to be a well-rounded person. (Which reminds me of what Benjamin Yap said a few days back, about how Buddhism encourages a person to lead a well-balanced life.)
Mr. Devan also mentions the exitpolls that showed Mr Obama 'drew his support chiefly from the well-off - people who earned more than US$55,000 (S$80,000) a year - and the young.'
That clearly means that the rich have in fact more time to think about new ideals, and a new life in American history, while the middle-class and poor have to concentrate on surviving and as what Mr. Devan mentioned, one "cannnot do without bread".
Once again from all the articles I have collected and all the policy plans that Mr Obama has created, I do feel that his Presidential plan has a good balance of realism and idealism, trying to look ahead for visionary ideas yet keeping in touch with the real world.
Does this apply to Singapore? We have yet to find a proper balance, and many youths are still complaining about the rigidity of the Singapore system . As much as the PAP are trying to help the poor and bring stability to the country's economy, they are also trying to look ahead with extra new ideas and things like that. Just think about the F1 night race.
Another few days back, the Strait Times published an article by a female writer within talking about whether Singapore is ready for a non-Chinese Premier. 40 years ago, there were the racial riots between the Chinese and the Malays, and just like in America, 40 years ago there were the racial riots between the whites and the blacks. Today, America has shown for the first time that the African-American is no longer an outsider of the society, and through the example of one being able to have the first real shot of being the most powerful person in America, America has proven that it has forgetten about the past greviances between the whites and the blacks.
Well, let's say tomorrow we're going to have an Indian or a Malay become Prime Minister (considering all the proper steps have been followed within the government.) Will Singaporeans have any major objections, and will any riots follow?
I don't know.
And then there's the gender problem. In the 2009 American President race, serious contenders have included a black and a woman. Should Hilary Clinton be voted as President, the world will see the first woman president ever of again, one of the world's powerful nations. Will the international committee be disturbed by that? I should not think so. But of course, for every yes there would be a no, and for every man a woman, for every yes a no. I believe that there would not be a lack of people who disagree to a woman president, but it would not do much impact though.
This week has been a tumultous week, following Mr. Obama's win in the Iowa caucus and subsequent 3% defeat in New Hampshire. Several comparisons were drawn between the Americas and Singapore, and some have left an imprint in my mind.
Will 2009 be one of America's most historical year, the year of the firsts?
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Humilty with Opera and Video
I have many things going on in my head now. Like, how to spend the four hours free before rehearsal tomorrow. And what am I doing in 2nd tier of MEP Composition Class. Probably one of the most unexpected things of the year. After the entire music album, after all the compositions, I only made it into 2nd tier. Well, life's unfair, and I believe I will have something to get out of this! The feeling's a little bitter though. What a humbling thing.
If all the instructions and guidelines for 2nd tier, will it restrict my composition? I hope not.
Anyway it will be unfair to leave my readers without nothing, so here's something for my readers from Literature class today. We're doing parody.
Oh and before I show you the video, and end this post, here's an advertisement. Who would be interested to go out to watch an opera with me on the 26th January? It's Verdi's La Traviata and for more information do contact me. But before you'll ask please do note that operas do cost some money and I got mine for $38. However there's good news. This opera is ranked third after Madame Butterfly and La boheme in North America as the most performed opera.
So if you'll interested, call it a date or musical experience, please do contact me.
To end it, here's Rowan Atkinson!
If all the instructions and guidelines for 2nd tier, will it restrict my composition? I hope not.
Anyway it will be unfair to leave my readers without nothing, so here's something for my readers from Literature class today. We're doing parody.
Oh and before I show you the video, and end this post, here's an advertisement. Who would be interested to go out to watch an opera with me on the 26th January? It's Verdi's La Traviata and for more information do contact me. But before you'll ask please do note that operas do cost some money and I got mine for $38. However there's good news. This opera is ranked third after Madame Butterfly and La boheme in North America as the most performed opera.
So if you'll interested, call it a date or musical experience, please do contact me.
To end it, here's Rowan Atkinson!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Another traffic accident on the PIE this morning. The jam stretched for nearly a kilometre, what a waste of economic resources.
Thinking about the situation in Jakarta, where the traffic jams can make sure you get to work 3 hours late, I suppose I'm fortunate this one only got me 10 mins late. What was much more fortunate was it was raining at that time, so that means no assembly. It's a good balance, because usually when it is raining that would be more accidents and that means more people getting to school late, which would not apply simply because attendance taking would take place half an hour later. Now check that out.
Recently some of my jokes have been circulated around, much to my amusement and other people's amusement. I hope they are cheered when they hear the jokes. Or otherwise feeling a little racist.
Originally what I planned for this post was a satirical essay on traffic jams and Singapore goverment. But unfortunately or fortunately after some consultation I decided not to. That's because I have other work to do. :)
Meanwhile, what do you think of this skin?
Thinking about the situation in Jakarta, where the traffic jams can make sure you get to work 3 hours late, I suppose I'm fortunate this one only got me 10 mins late. What was much more fortunate was it was raining at that time, so that means no assembly. It's a good balance, because usually when it is raining that would be more accidents and that means more people getting to school late, which would not apply simply because attendance taking would take place half an hour later. Now check that out.
Recently some of my jokes have been circulated around, much to my amusement and other people's amusement. I hope they are cheered when they hear the jokes. Or otherwise feeling a little racist.
Originally what I planned for this post was a satirical essay on traffic jams and Singapore goverment. But unfortunately or fortunately after some consultation I decided not to. That's because I have other work to do. :)
Meanwhile, what do you think of this skin?
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Boys on the MRT
This evening I was talking on MSN to friend Fiona, who mentioned to me about the social cleansing of youths in Central America, where the police (I repeat, police) physically assault or kill youths that they reckon as street vermins.
Street vermins are classified as wearing baggy pants, having a tattoo, and having a baseball cap worn backwards.
After thinking about that - and forgetting about the ethics behind it - I could relate it to my experience in the MRT. These days I usually take the MRT back home. So today was no difference. The train was a little filled with students, about 4 in every carriage at one point of time. I was looking out into our country, and headed for Jurong East. Meanwhile standing 2 metres away from me were a group of 2 Upper Secondary guys and 2 Lower Secondary guys from a school with blue uniform. I was as usual people-watching/listening, and they were to none of my surprise, the usual stereotype of neighbourhood schools.
Their speech was peppered with vulgarities, and one of them took out a biology textbook, flipped to the pages on sexual organs, and started talking very loudly about their thoughts.
Hey, it's ok to talk about that. That is, if you talk softly and don't affect others. That is, if you don't embarass yourself and your school. That is, if you don't embarass your country in the scenario should there be foreigners around. That is, if you're still very much immature and have no sense of respect.
There are many reasons that hamper me from getting my message across to all my friends and readers - one is that I'm talking simply because I'm from an 'elite' school and today I feel like I'm in the mood to criticize other schools.
Maybe that's the only one. But I'm talking from POV (point of view) from a 15-year-old Singaporean. I have had 15 years of life on this Earth, around the same as some of you out there. Including those guys on the MRT, maybe older - I believe by now they should have understood their limits and what is proper behavior.
Well the reason for proper behavior is simple. After all the reputation of one's school is in one's hand, and as I like to add, one's country. And at the end of the day, it is basically your own reputation. Imagine if your future boss saw what kind of employee you were - not a least sense of respect, understanding.
If this blogpost is turning into the lecture, I would like to say it isn't! Of course, we aren't going to physically assault or kill the guys on the MRT just like the police did in Central America. But I just want to sleep in the knowledge of that this blogpost has helped someone out there be a pride of his/her school, country, oneself someday.
Street vermins are classified as wearing baggy pants, having a tattoo, and having a baseball cap worn backwards.
After thinking about that - and forgetting about the ethics behind it - I could relate it to my experience in the MRT. These days I usually take the MRT back home. So today was no difference. The train was a little filled with students, about 4 in every carriage at one point of time. I was looking out into our country, and headed for Jurong East. Meanwhile standing 2 metres away from me were a group of 2 Upper Secondary guys and 2 Lower Secondary guys from a school with blue uniform. I was as usual people-watching/listening, and they were to none of my surprise, the usual stereotype of neighbourhood schools.
Their speech was peppered with vulgarities, and one of them took out a biology textbook, flipped to the pages on sexual organs, and started talking very loudly about their thoughts.
Hey, it's ok to talk about that. That is, if you talk softly and don't affect others. That is, if you don't embarass yourself and your school. That is, if you don't embarass your country in the scenario should there be foreigners around. That is, if you're still very much immature and have no sense of respect.
There are many reasons that hamper me from getting my message across to all my friends and readers - one is that I'm talking simply because I'm from an 'elite' school and today I feel like I'm in the mood to criticize other schools.
Maybe that's the only one. But I'm talking from POV (point of view) from a 15-year-old Singaporean. I have had 15 years of life on this Earth, around the same as some of you out there. Including those guys on the MRT, maybe older - I believe by now they should have understood their limits and what is proper behavior.
Well the reason for proper behavior is simple. After all the reputation of one's school is in one's hand, and as I like to add, one's country. And at the end of the day, it is basically your own reputation. Imagine if your future boss saw what kind of employee you were - not a least sense of respect, understanding.
If this blogpost is turning into the lecture, I would like to say it isn't! Of course, we aren't going to physically assault or kill the guys on the MRT just like the police did in Central America. But I just want to sleep in the knowledge of that this blogpost has helped someone out there be a pride of his/her school, country, oneself someday.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Eh, where's mine?
I was stumped by a surprising statement from a reporting Daddy returning from the Bukit Panjang Library. The case? I have just racked up huge debts totalling $4.80 from my overdue books (three in total). Not a good start to the first weekend of the year! But I shall not write off - at least, that quickly - that 2008 is going to be a bad year.
It was entirely my fault (hey you don't get this that quick in a year) simply because I forgot the due dates and I didn't place that slip of printed paper on the wall.
Anyway that was yesterday's matter. Simply because I stopped blogging yesterday and I decided to continue with today's blogging. It's tough, but life's like that.
You would not believe what happened today in school. Story goes like this - once upon a time RI Secondary 4s were released for recess, and we were lazing around like we always had since we were Secondary 1. Ho ho ho, and guess what. Benjamin Yap my deskpartner receives a plastic bag with his Chinese name pasted on it.
So we were like, what?
Soon it became apparent that the sender was from China, and the sender was a secret admirer (cues for gasping). You readers would be asking, so how the hell did he get that? Well recently in a school trip quite a lot of RI students went to other countries for educational purposes, and our dear Benjamin was one of them.
Contents of the bag numbered huge, and there was a Jay Chou original (with seal-of-quality) DVD in it. Which must have cost a bomb. And a love letter to go with all the presents. (sh...) There were a few romantic stuff, those that I wished that no one would ever give me (no sarcasm here). But it would be weird if anyone else received an apple for Valentine's Day.
Anyway ahem back to our protagonist Benjamin Yap - about five of us were crowding around him and looking into the bag. There were notes no doubt, and the girl left behind an email address and also a telephone number (I think.)
For losers like me I thought it was pretty nice of the girl, but we realised it was a love letter when we saw the words, "I think you are handsome boy." Well maybe it's a little superficial but who cares. I think you are nice boy is nicer.
But oh, Jonathan Shin, stop acting like that. It's going to make you look so...stupid.
It was entirely my fault (hey you don't get this that quick in a year) simply because I forgot the due dates and I didn't place that slip of printed paper on the wall.
Anyway that was yesterday's matter. Simply because I stopped blogging yesterday and I decided to continue with today's blogging. It's tough, but life's like that.
You would not believe what happened today in school. Story goes like this - once upon a time RI Secondary 4s were released for recess, and we were lazing around like we always had since we were Secondary 1. Ho ho ho, and guess what. Benjamin Yap my deskpartner receives a plastic bag with his Chinese name pasted on it.
So we were like, what?
Soon it became apparent that the sender was from China, and the sender was a secret admirer (cues for gasping). You readers would be asking, so how the hell did he get that? Well recently in a school trip quite a lot of RI students went to other countries for educational purposes, and our dear Benjamin was one of them.
Contents of the bag numbered huge, and there was a Jay Chou original (with seal-of-quality) DVD in it. Which must have cost a bomb. And a love letter to go with all the presents. (sh...) There were a few romantic stuff, those that I wished that no one would ever give me (no sarcasm here). But it would be weird if anyone else received an apple for Valentine's Day.
Anyway ahem back to our protagonist Benjamin Yap - about five of us were crowding around him and looking into the bag. There were notes no doubt, and the girl left behind an email address and also a telephone number (I think.)
For losers like me I thought it was pretty nice of the girl, but we realised it was a love letter when we saw the words, "I think you are handsome boy." Well maybe it's a little superficial but who cares. I think you are nice boy is nicer.
But oh, Jonathan Shin, stop acting like that. It's going to make you look so...stupid.
Friday, January 4, 2008
Shh. Castles can fly...
Yes of all the things in the world, I was the Chinese Rep. Even though I feel it is embarassing to tell you readers that I have left Higher Chinese simply to join Normal Chinese, I believe it is neccessary. But I don't know why. Maybe it's simply helping me to sink the fact deeper into my head by telling everyone. Or maybe I would forget and you guys would be there to remind me that I'm in Normal Chinese, I'm a goner.
Well we have to admit we are all different, and I have my own pros and cons. So you're good in let's say, photography, but not that good in Literature. Something around those lines. For me, I'm pretty much English-educated - thanks to my dad - and it is obvious when you listen to me speak to my mum. She's more Chinese while I converse with her in English. So it's a beautiful mix. That's when Singlish comes into play.
So guess what was today's main theme? Castles can fly!
Of course.
But after some serious reflection I did realise I learnt that there's never a shortcut to anything, and that shovels are fun equipment. My favourite part was digging a trench, although our captain put all 10 of us (or more) in charge of putting a huge structure of the entire town, of which we called in Raffles City.
So we combined two pre-built 1 metre mounds of sun and started shovelling more sand to increase it's length and size. Well we had a structure more than 2 metres long and nearly 1 metre in height. And then we embossed R-A-F-F-L-E-S into the structure, before I came up with the idea of placing a small platform at the right bottom of the structure and write the words 'city' there.
And there were orders to build a moat around the entire city, and so the 6 captains of yellow zone planned with the mayor to start digging the trench. So Bryan and I started shovelling and throwing sand off until the trench was quite deep. Lol. Relatively for the small people, it could have been 60m deep.
Anyway...latest news to come in. Our local comedian Jimmy Nah has just passed away!
R.I.P Jimmy..
Here's a link to his article in the Strait Times: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/320685/1/.html
Ok I shall stop my post here and post more tomorrow...I'm feeling a little sad yet happy knowing there's Raffles Trail tomorrow.
Night, readers!
Well we have to admit we are all different, and I have my own pros and cons. So you're good in let's say, photography, but not that good in Literature. Something around those lines. For me, I'm pretty much English-educated - thanks to my dad - and it is obvious when you listen to me speak to my mum. She's more Chinese while I converse with her in English. So it's a beautiful mix. That's when Singlish comes into play.
So guess what was today's main theme? Castles can fly!
Of course.
But after some serious reflection I did realise I learnt that there's never a shortcut to anything, and that shovels are fun equipment. My favourite part was digging a trench, although our captain put all 10 of us (or more) in charge of putting a huge structure of the entire town, of which we called in Raffles City.
So we combined two pre-built 1 metre mounds of sun and started shovelling more sand to increase it's length and size. Well we had a structure more than 2 metres long and nearly 1 metre in height. And then we embossed R-A-F-F-L-E-S into the structure, before I came up with the idea of placing a small platform at the right bottom of the structure and write the words 'city' there.
And there were orders to build a moat around the entire city, and so the 6 captains of yellow zone planned with the mayor to start digging the trench. So Bryan and I started shovelling and throwing sand off until the trench was quite deep. Lol. Relatively for the small people, it could have been 60m deep.
Anyway...latest news to come in. Our local comedian Jimmy Nah has just passed away!
R.I.P Jimmy..
Here's a link to his article in the Strait Times: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/320685/1/.html
Ok I shall stop my post here and post more tomorrow...I'm feeling a little sad yet happy knowing there's Raffles Trail tomorrow.
Night, readers!
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