A Successful Second Step

Yiang Shan whispered in my ear very secretly on Wednesday,

I got in.

Then she grinned very widely and clapped her hands.

Congratulations, YS, for getting into NAFA! =D

It's nice to see people so devoted to one path and having a successful second step.

Xinfony VIII

Wednesday was Xinfony VIII, Xinmin's band concert. We played in it as alumni band members. Was glad the audience enjoyed the pieces we brought them. Due to certain issues we have with the school on the requirement of rental of the band room for practices and the fact that we are simply unable to afford the cost nor are some of the alumni members recognized to be contributing although they have been going back to teach the junior members in some way or other, this was technically X-winds' last concert in Xinfony. I don't know what other developments there will be in the near future, but instinct tells me we would still have a chance to play together as an alumni band, though it might be quite some time later.

Alright, away from upsetting thoughts and disappointing feelings with the school and on to the concert day itself.

I had totally forgotten to inform my parents about this concert and had to SMS mother to tell her I was going to be home late because I was playing in a concert. After successive some-or-other-concert, my parents have ceased to attend. They just get bored after a while so I don't force them to, either. A typical message to my mother would sound something like this,

I'm not going home for dinner tonight... Have band concert... Forgot to tell you.. Will be back late.

It sounded so casual I was giggling at it when I told Carol. No, I'm neither that experienced nor skilled. I just had more experience playing in front of an audience so I don't get as nervous as before anymore. At least I don't feel the need to shit when I go on stage and am able to eat dinner before going on stage. Have I told you the time I almost skipped dinner to practice a part before concert? Oh yeah, I have.... Haha, talking about it reminds me of YZ because I believe she was the one who implanted the memory into my mind.

Met up with Shuping at City Hall MRT before we got to Victoria Concert Hall by cab. Being there brings back a lot of memories. It's really like our second home, after having played there at least 7 times. Because I am now completely unable to appreciate the dynamics and interplay of band music, there shall be no commentary of how we played as compared to rehearsals.

Right outside the door where performers enter, we found the person who is supposed to guard the door, playing solitaire on his computer. So Pearlin secretly tried to take a picture of it:

Green-screen solitaire (behind reflective mirror) with Yaoming being very kaypoh

3 ghostly figures standing at the balcony. Only that ghosts don't do the V-sign like the one on the left:

me, Pearl and Carol

Performing alumni percussionists:

From top, left to right: Pearlin, me, Carol, Yiang Shan, Zhiwei, Jiaxing

Random picture of Zhiwei and Jiaxing:

Somebody was saying they are like big bosses then we are like the paparazzi taking pictures of them. That's because Pearlin was trying out different photo-taking positions and she said the view while standing on a flight of steps was good:

Pearlin, taking a photo of me taking a photo of her

me, taking a photo of Pearlin taking a photo of me; Shuping posing behind on the top right hand corner

Then out of nowhere she suddenly saw this space underneath the steps and said she wanted to take a picture of her hiding there:

Pearlin looking constipated

Alumni band outside hall after our pieces

Percussion members (both performing and attending) and Daniel (senior, conductor, alumnus)

Whoever took the above picture likes the ceiling a lot.

XMSB percussion alumnus:

First row (from left): YZ, Ying Xin, Carol
Second row (from left): YS, me, Pearlin
Third row (from left): Biing Yih, Jiaxing, Zhiwei

I believe Manshan was there that night too but she wasn't there to take a picture with us. Then from Anderson JC percussion, Fiona was there too but did not see her because my handphone battery went flat after we exchanged a few SMSes. She had spotted me playing and later on messaged to ask if it was me. That girl also could not recognize Zhiwei who was also playing on stage. Oh there are 3 of us in the picture who was from AJCSB - Jiaxing, Zhiwei and me.

I'm glad the group of us are still quite close.

Wow. This is the first time I've written an entry on a concert that has near zilch mention about music.

Quotes at Band practice

Pearlin, after I mentioned to her we have 6 French Horns in the band,

The band is horny!

Me, after watching Pearlin rock on the balls of her feet, tried to do the same and found it painful,

I don't have any balls to rock on.

Kah Siang, referring to Pearlin and me,

They are like 881 sisters...

I'm flat, she's not.

(undesired) Band practice

Wah lao. Band today.

I just want to go home, study and play on piano for a bit. Solitary style of music-making today is desired, not in the mood for "the more the merrier". Unfortunately that will not be the case today.

Sigh. When did I start dreading band practice itself and the hours leading to it?

Happy 18th Birthday!

Yiang Shan turns 18 today. Happy Birthday!

YS's mature for her age, is serious about her future, responsible and have leadership qualities. As proof of her maturity, read this:

(may vary slightly from original)
YS: I very fat leh. When I hit my stomach, the fats wobble like sea waves like that... hahaha...

Dear Yiang Shan,

On your 18th birthday, I wish your fats won't wobble like sea waves anymore.
Happy Birthday!

Love,
Stephanie

Ruifang's 21st birthday celebration

Attended one of the funniest birthday celebrations yesterday. Ruifang's turning 21 very very soon, in less than a week.

I was the first to arrive there although it was already 15 minutes past meeting time. Ruifang arrived next, sporting a very nice haircut.

"My face look very round hor?! Maybe if I do this then face looks slimmer..."

She asked me to delete the photo above. Hehehe! =P

Very, very slowly, people started to arrive. YZ came from work, in full black attire - Shirt, pants, shoes, blazer, watch, bag, mascara - everything was black.

RF, me, YZ

The red shirt is the gift they got me for my 21st birthday.

8pm. This is about 3/5 of the number of people who were suppose to arrive:


Halfway through conversation, RF's friend-in-striped-tee doing that "what the fuck" hand-sign. Eh I thought this hand sign was only known in ping.sg? Is it universal or something. RF's friend-in-orange-tee posing at the back. I don't know what is Frankie doing.

Frankie, Friend-in-orange-tee, Friend-in-striped-tee

As you would be able to tell, I have since forgotten all their names. Heh. In fact I forgot their names 30 seconds after they told me.

RF's female friend 1, Frankie, Friend-in-orange-tee

Friend-in-striped-tee and RF's female friend 2

I only remember this very pretty girl's name - Amelia.
I think.

Top of Gui Zhi's head

Two of the dishes:

YZ's some-salmon-dish

Her salmon was bigger than mine, so I was warming her dish with my camera flash.

Gui Zhi's some-grilled-dory-thingy

Had some finger food after that while waiting for 4 others to arrive. We couldn't order heavy desserts because there was the cake later on which RF didn't know about. Gui Zhi called the friend-in-orange-tee on the handphone although they were only 2 metres away from each other, to discuss some matters regarding the cake and finger food because they didn't want RF to hear. I was very blur, didn't know the cake was a surprise and was asking why are they talking on the phone.

Finally the staff of essential brew brought the cake up and we started singing only "Ha-------" (pronounced "heh", the first syllable of "happy"). When we lunged into the song, another group of people at the other end of the area started singing with us. Because both our group and their group are situated at extreme ends, it seemed as if the whole level of diners were singing. Oh this group of people is somehow related to our group I suppose. Ruifang and some of them with us knew one of them in the other group.

Immediately after we finished the song for RF, another cake was brought up for another another group of people, tucked away in a little corner. So we sang them a birthday song too. =D

"No no! You must make a wish!"

Hope she had an enjoyable early birthday celebration. Glad that she likes the scarf we got for her.

Cake was fantastic. A layer of chocolate fudge on top.

By the time I finished the cake, I could not stand the air in my stomach (a side-effect of gastric pains) anymore and went to the toilet to let it out and also to shit in the process. By the way, our table was directly in front of the toilet and I kept seeing the inside of the toilet.

And the group of people in the room in Essential Brew were making funny sounds. Male go "woo-woo" then after that a female screamed. People at our table started thinking all over the place. Tsk, young people these days! *shakes head*

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I walked the entire of Vivocity yesterday for 4 hours while waiting for 6pm to come so I could head to Holland V. Legs very tired.

Was Plateau Serenade a dish at Essential Brew? Had it once with pingsters at an outing there, but when I asked them again they say they don't serve the dish. Hmm. Why? For then only?

Holland Road Shopping Centre, though small, has some very nice shops inside. Some of the prices there are slightly lower than other places. Others are not.

X-winds rehearsal

Yiang Shan, my XMSB percussion junior and current X-Winds percussionist, messaged me today,

Tomorrow band practice at 7! Please don't pang seh me (already)...

I haven't been to practice ever since they started rehearsal again back in November 2007. Didn't know she still obediently goes back every week. Heh. Ok, X-winds percussionists who read this blog, should we all go back for rehearsal tomorrow and keep her company?

Xinfony VII

Xinfony VII happened last evening. MZ, YZ, RF and Carol came to watch us. This is the first time I have played without YZ, Pearl and LY. This is also the second time I have played with Jiaxing and Zhiwei (I think) in this alumni.

I don't know how we sounded because I don't know how to listen anymore. We got through with no major mishaps, although after a few years of performance, one's idea of a "mishap" alters considerably and nothing is really a mishap anymore. If it happens, then tough luck, get over it and go on to the next note/section already. According to YZ and MZ, X-winds sounded good, better than the rest, in fact. I asked them if we sounded far too loud because even during rehearsal, Daniel our conductor, told us that the hall cannot stand our volume. However YZ said that we were loud but rich. On a personal level, I guess I screwed up some and covered most parts adequately.

I got the impression from them that they did not really enjoy the concert because of various reasons. Firstly, the band was not that good, with being out of tune, being messy and simply the disappearance of the melody. All these points to one very obvious thing, that the band is not listening to each other. If everybody were listening, they could spot being out of tune, they would know to come in together and they would watch out for the melody, lowering their volume when necessary.

I will not say that the alumni was listening to each other. When you are on stage with hundreds of eyes staring at you, combined with insufficient practices (or inattentiveness during practices), all you can pretty much concentrate on are the notes on your scores and ensuring that you do not screw up the parts you previously had no problem playing.

Everything flows, from one section to another, one note to the next, one dynamic to the other. There is a reason why musicians find themselves physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted after a concert or rehearsal. There is much to concentrate on, there is a lot of multi-tasking. (I often wonder if anybody realizes this, that musicians multi-task constantly. Once I lost the ability to listen properly, I gradually lost my ability to multi-task as well.)

The second reason they did not enjoy the concert was the fact that the pieces were all long and slow pieces, very much typical band pieces. This was a vast difference from the last concert where there were a number of pieces the audience could identify with. However, that is not to say that the pieces should be only those the audience know, or that all band pieces are long and slow. Perhaps there should have been more exciting pieces. Now I wonder if our concerts in the past were also of this genre and if the audience fell asleep while listening to us. Interesting that only 4 years after graduation do I realize the importance of engaging or entertaining the audience. I am oddly pleased, though, that the band is venturing once again into these band pieces. In my opinion, these are the pieces that truly challenge the individual player and the band as a whole.

Thirdly, there was a problem with the air-conditioning in the hall. Hall was stuffy.

Fourthly, wrong placement of percussion ensemble, featuring Mr. Pan Huei Yuan and percussionists from the Singapore Wind Symphony, in the programme, especially when great changes in instruments arrangement are needed. Gap in programme while re-arranging instruments back before X-winds went on stage resulted in audience being noisy. Not to mention that I was not exactly happy when I went on and found no stands in front of the vibraphone or the bells. My ratchet was also squashed beneath the Xylophone leg. Took the next 15 seconds to re-arrange quickly but ended up having to do some squeezing and instruments moving during the pieces itself, which is not a good visual image for the audience.

Did I mention that the alumni had to give up our seats backstage to the percussionist guest players? We ended up standing around or seating on some chairs placed around backstage. I am aware that I sound grumpy and calculating, but if I do not remember wrongly, it is the band which requested for the alumni to play in the concert because they did not have time to prepare enough pieces to cover for the whole concert. If it is as such, then I am irked that we are placed 2nd class. I am also extremely irked that the assistant band conductor referred to the guest players as VIPs - Very Important People. Alright, alright, I know, formality and politics in the real world. Fuck the real world. I suppose that the alumni are not important enough.

Ok, I am just feeling dissatisfied. Am fully aware that it is not the guest players' fault, for they are the guest players and guests should always be treated with respect.

One thing I do not fathom though. It is the band's concert, their (our) Xinfony, why do they have to invite guest players, to play an entire percussion ensemble at that. There is probably a good reason behind it, but I simply do not like the idea at all. Like what YZ said, it made things look as if the guest players were the highlight of the concert instead of the school band. But oh well, it is their era, their concert and their Xinfony.

The 5 alumni percussionists:

Biing Yih, Jiaxing, Zhi Wei, me, Bao Zhen

Yiang Shan, Man Shan and 2 other juniors joined us in playing but we were unable to take a picture with them. Many thanks to them for their help!

The uh, don't know how many generations of percussionists, all graduated:

Jiaxing, Yizhen, Rui Fang, Bao Zhen, me, Zhi Wei, Biing Yih

Saw Alvin too but he didn't drop it for the concert itself, just the rehearsal. He was saying that the band has become commercialized and running like an organization. The band members don't look happy playing. Things are happening because the teachers want it, not because the students want it, which should not be the case.

A look inside VCH. Of the many times I've played here, I have never showed you all how it looks backstage.

These are the steps to stage right:


This is how it is like, looking down from the steps:


This is Frankie:

This is how it looks like after entering the door towards backstage (i.e. the door in the 2nd picture of this series):

Shuping giving me that look

And this is how the corridor behind Shuping looks like:

Juniors thinking I am taking a picture of them

The other end leads to stage left.

This is Han Yong and Ray:

Han Yong's head is very interesting

Have I mentioned that one of our oboist came in for rehearsal wearing the no.4. I was very happy looking at the uniform. He was very exhausted though. Wondered how many girls stopped him on the way to the hall.

Am just kidding about the girls.

I was toying with the idea of just playing an ensemble with the percussionists we are close with, not too many people, just a few. No proper instruments, no practice place. Feasible?

Upcoming concert - Xinfony VII

It is a full week before XMS's concert next week. I have been (sort of) practicing for a couple of months but I am really not ready. Reason being that the past practices I was never serious. Somehow the concert always seemed far away and I did not feel the need to take things seriously. I have improved and learnt more today about the pieces and my part than I have ever learnt in the past 2 months. This is really really bad. Is it possible for me to miraculously master my part in 1 week with maybe a day of practice? It is virtually impossible for me to get my hands on a xylophone until concert day itself.

Alright, a little publicity.

Xinmin Secondary Symphonic Band will be having its annual concert, Xinfony VII, this coming Friday, 13th July. For some reason we always get weird dates. I remember there was once the concert was held on National Day. National Day, for goodness' sake! Anyway I'll be playing in the alumni band, X-winds, and we will be taking control of the 2nd half of the concert. I have no idea what time the concert starts except to guess that it is probably in the evening around 7.30pm. Similarly, I do not remember how much the tickets cost except that it is above $10. What I know for certainty is that we are playing in Victoria Concert Hall (VCH), as we have done so for as long as I remember.

I am not sure what the main band is playing, but they have an impressive 7 song repertoire (around there, plus minus 2). The alumni will be playing Bugler's Holiday, Jericho, 童话.

Ha, some publicity!

Anyway if anybody is interested to come (despite the lack of information) and pressurize me so that I will screw up my parts and enjoy yourself laughing at me after that, please contact me. I would love to know that you are in the audience, watching my every move.