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Saturday, August 13, 2005

Fellowship let's fellowship

:)

I so look forward to band fellowship every week. It's so refreshing to start a band prac with God in mind.

A guitar is not a must, the human voice is just as beautiful.

Darn, there's TWE performance, SAS performance and St Pat's Alumni performance tml all around the same time.. And since I got tickets for the St Pat's one I can't go for TWE!!! AHHH!!

Miss TWE so much.. Fortunately there' Junior Band Fest to save the day this sat. At least i'll get to see the sec 1s in action. =) So exciting and promising.

Quite worried for SAJC's preformance for JBF. The only thing that can make it so far is Copa, the rest are quite sad. Save me from the unmuicality of Shenandoah, technical insecurity of Beauty and the Beast and BLASTING of Jag. We're so going to 'Jag' ourselves if we continue like this. Anyway, think Julius is actually very mature just that he's not showing it all the time. And he definitely has a passion for what he does.

My piano teacher taught me chords today!!
Woohoo! I'm finally learning it after enviously watching others do it with ease. Going to apply it. So fun lah! Ms Ann was using 'Heart of Worship' to demo somemore. =) Only got 2 more lessons with her.. Better remember to write out that card to thank her for being the craziest teacher alive. =)

Parent-meet-teacher sessions are so necessary yet a twist of the truth. I wish everyone could work harder, smarter and motivate each other to eliminate the reason of mediocre results that pbk uses against us. I'm for Saturday band pracs! A 5 day week is just cramping everything into the weekdays so it looks as if we're spending less time in band. But it's the same lah. And Saturday's atmosphere is so rejuvenating, relaxing and refreshing. Really enjoyed those sat-like pracs in december when I came down to join the J2s last year.
Wonder how small lion's doing now.

-I have to pen this down today-

I guess i'll never get used to being in a small section. When everyone gets beautiful big cards, boxes of presents, picture perfect section photos, section outings, I watch. It just hit me flat on the face during band dinner that I thought I could survive small, afterall it's into its 5th year, but that's not really the case. Granted, being small has it's benefits. You get to plan your own practice schedule, there's lesser admin stuff to do, you are the most pro player in your section etc. But you have fewer people to learn from, fewer people whom you spend your time with to develop lifelong relationships, fewer people who understand the joy of playing your beautiful and unknown instrument, basically it's lonely being down there and up there too.

But I thank God for the core group of friends I have. Really appreciate them and seek to expand this core by merging with other cores and loose fragments.

How I wish to know what it's like to be in the trombone section, the percussion section, saxophone section, horn section, flute section, clarinet section, cornet section, euphonium section. How do the tubas and oboe feel I wonder? Went for section outing to Downtown East with the TWE trombone section 2004 last year. It was great fun man.. Selly was being his usual skinny self with 9 juniors! 9 man! And I went on a saxtion outing with TWE saxophone saxtion 2004 last year toPasir Ris Park. We were just spinning, climbing, running, jumping, throwing, eating. Big sections rock lah. Is this how it works? Even after all the quarelling and whatever nonsense at the end of it all when everyone graduates you just can't help it but to hug everyone who has been through thick and thin with you in your section. I've hugged 3 people in 4 years. First hug was the best! My dear senior. Second hug was lukewarm, long story. Third hug was pleasant, my junior. Guess I should be contented that I have people to hug. Haha.

What will Band Dinner 2006 be like?

I pray for Nina's and Rui Qi's piano exams.

I pray for Dai Jie's sore eyes and Dorcas' headache to be healed.

Thank you God for a pure heart.

I pray for that small lion. :)

a ranting by Eugene at 11:18 PM

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Load off my mind

Just took my Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music Grade 8 Practical Examination for Piano. That's a really long exam name..

Please pass please pass...

0730am (Sleepily excited)
Got up extra willingly this morning to get one and a half hours of warm ups. My mood was fluctuating man, peaceful then nervous, excited, desperate. So I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed. Actually i've been praying for this exam since I signed up for it.

1010am (Gearing to go)
So there I was, 40 minutes early at my music school. Got some words of encouragement from my teacher, the principal and vice principal. Hope I don't let them down; they've always had high hopes for me since I started with them in primary 1. Vice principal gave me a studio to practise in, and the piano was a YAMAHA can.. My home one is a Yamaha, Lilian's one is a Yamaha and i've only been practising on Yamahas. Anyway, my warm ups were good but my teacher's friend commented that my scales were like a speeding bullet.

1050am (Freaking nervous)
AHH! The examiner came out of the room to go to the toilet. Haha. Her name was Dr. Sarah B-something and she looked in a good mood. 4 agonizing minutes later she came back and strted discussing bout some Indian mango and Indonesian mango with the principal.. Save me can.. Was nervously eavesdropping on their conversation. Oh, the Indin steward guy was quite friendly, kept on smiling and beckoning me to go into that fateful room.

1055am (Trapped between 4 walls)
Cautiously went in trying to put up my best i'm-a-friendly-person-please-love-me-smile. The examiner was nice, let me test out the piano, which i've tested out countless times already. Surprisingly the 2 octaves of C major sounded good during testing. :) (Confidence boosted)

"What shall we start with today?"
"Scales."

As you can see, my replies to her questions were quite sad.. Think I was too unfriendly.. Darn. But there was this irritating sore throat which refuses to go away even after doses of Nim Jiong Pei Pak Gao.

Anyway, as usual, I cocked up on the first scale, but it was at the descending part. Usually I cock up on the first note. Scales were good, think I sounded confident. Hicupped a few times at the chromats and scales in thirds but they were relatively ok. (Prediction:18/21)

My pieces were Sonata in D minor by Scarlatti, Sonata in C major by Mozart and Arabesque in E by Debussy.

My first was like a tornado.. Flying and whipping everything in its path. Didn't know I could do running notes that fast, and as a result I missed quite a lot of notes. But general structure was there, a few burps. Think my dynamic range was quite sucky, just showed that I didn't control properly. My teacher said it sounded ok from outside. (Prediction:20/30)

Next, Mozart would have just killed me. Haha. This was the worst out of my 3 pieces, why did he have to write so many semiquavers with trills. My music had quite a lot of coughs, occasionally stumbled, but think I sounded happy enough. Why do I always stumble.. (Prediction:18/30)

Finally and thankfully and forever gratefully.. Wooh! This was good man! Negligible hiccups, musical, maybe a tad too much rubato? Wooh! The music just flows and flows, think this was my personal best for all the times i've done this. Debussy rocks man! :) Really love to do these kind of late Romantic stuff. Save me from Baroque (Scarlatti) and Classical (Mozart). The triplet and quaver part was so smooth, was so surprised in the midst of the performance that I was thinking "This is a miracle! God is in control!" Wooh! Oh the Tempo rubato part.. and the ascending triplets, chord structure! Ternary form. If I don't get good marks for this I so totally jack myself lah. (prediction: Hopefully 25/30? ok.. try to lessen my disappointment if I get sucky marks.. 23/30)

This was a major screw up. Sight reading never fails to pull my marks down. I can't sight read for nuts. There was the good and the bad. Time signature was 7/8 ignore the fraction sign. Key was in C major can! Basically I was blindly hitting the keyboard to get it moving and the rhythm correct. If I got one note right it was a tyco shot. (prediction:11/21)

Aural is the thing that will make or break me. I was whacking away to answer everything and singing was a little out of tune. Darn. I couldn't answer the relative key of F# Minor! Oh man. Got it when I reached home: A major right? So no work offered for that part.. Guessed Baroque period for the piece, it sounded baroque to me, hopefully it's right. Modulation was another stab in the dark, even cadences was groping the fish in dark water(hun shui mo yu). (prediction: unknown.. to play safe let me just give myself a just-failing mark 11/18)

It was over quite quickly. 25 mins? then submitted my termination form. So sad.. Must do something nice for my teacher to thank her for being so funny and guiding me along. I've been in that school since I was 7.. That's a long time. Hopefully I don't have to go back to re-take Grade 8 but further my theory or get a diploma.

And when I switched on my phone received a msg (1051am) from Jojo going "Jiayou Jiayou!" =) Thanks man. Haha. Switched off my phone just before I went in at 1050am.

Predicted total: 18+20+18+23+11+11= 101 (pass!) (by 1 mark!)

Ok.. hopefully I pass.. If I get 99 i'll be so freaking sad.. Haha. But no matter what I get I thank God for seeing me through this time in my musical life and as I take a break to do my A Levels may God be with me and continue to show me the way.

I dedicate every note, right or wrong, especially those of my 3rd piece to Him and hopefully it was a sweet sound to His ears.

If I pass I'll treat Jojo, Jeremy and Lilian to lunch! Thanks for all your encouragement and your piano (Lilian). Must thank Koi for his help in getting my trills done too. =)

If I get a distinction we'll go to Sakae man! Haha. But that's quite far off. Haha.

3 months to release.

Thank you God for my 3 friends. =)

Thank you God for FOP! How great is our God! Sing with me! How great is our God!

Thank you God for taking this music exam with me. =)