MusICian

ok, i have effectively fallen sick. although the gum around my wisdom tooth isn’t swelling so much now, my mind has overworked and now it’s paying the price. been working too hard and too much these few days! my only ‘do nothing’ day was tuesday. oh wait, i didn’t really do nothing. in fact i did loads this week. oh well.

one more day and theory exams will be over! that also means that my CDA mid term test will be over too. and that ALSO means my presentation and German oral test is getting extremely near! i’m quite dead. totally burnt out. i hope i have energy to last the weekend.

anyway, all the best to my NCHS sec 1s taking the theory exam tmr!

ABRSM grade 3 theory exams this coming saturday for the sec 1s. i’ve had enough headache for my own CDA exam on the same day and at the same time. just finished marking their papers, and the careless mistakes were… horrendous. so many innocent marks slaughtered for nothing! 2 more theory sessions with them… i don’t know how much difference that’s gonna make, but i’m willing to see them through the final revisions. whether they’re willing to pay attention is another thing. it depends on how much is their desire to pass.

CDA presentation, German Oral Test and Film and History project 4 deadline next week, and Lit Stylistics presentation and Film and History long essay deadline the week after. i’m kinda dead studying and working out those deadlines. haven’t had time to meet up with my groupmates for discussion! so tiring… i hope i’m more productive these few days.

soccer this morning was great! was on form for maybe 15 minutes, after which i was too tired to perform well. i guess i pumped in all my energy in the opening 15 minutes. after a short break, i was back running all over again. the workout was good, and i happily scored 3; 1 trademark, 1 lucky, 1 i forgot how. haha. and surprisingly i managed a lot of headers, and saw about 3 shots wreck the post. accuracy is not bad today compared to my usual form! felt good about it

my new ligature isn’t fantastic, but it’s quite good already. just that it isn’t as good as my current ligature! although it also looks cool. the 2 new mouthpieces i bought on ebay are quite good in their own way, but i’m beginning to understand the weaknesses of the gold plated mouthpiece. the charles bay nuance is, as expected, good. almost on par with my redwine! but i’ve gotta get new reeds, that’s for sure. i ain’t gonna play well with my current few dead reeds!

ok, enough updating for now. gotta read Dr Chng’s article for a productive meeting tomorrow in school! >_<

having dinner with poh yih and joe yesterday after band brought be back to my sec school days. i was reminded instantly of the days hongliang and i were still in GESSBand. from the days we were only small fries, to having some form of authority in sec 2 while we were still constantly ‘bullied’ by our seniors, to our carefree sec 3 days when we will skip class just to go see the band members on practice days. all those days ended when we got our ranks and posts; all the horror began.

i was promoted drum major, a post that i’ve always wanted but also a post that he’s almost bound to get. mixed feelings wrecked our minds; i knew he was trying to avoid getting the post, but little did he expect he wouldn’t get a decent post. i felt like i was presented the post out of charity, and he felt left out without some sort of a status.

very soon, we drifted apart.

looking at poh yih and joe now reminds me of those days. i’m real glad they are both drum majors now. both of them deserve their post. i look at them and i’m glad they avoided the disaster that came over hongliang and i 8 years ago. and i really hope that the two of them will never lose their friendship. for those people who know hongliang and i, don’t worry, we’re ok now. in fact, i think our friendship is better now. just that i know i spent a miserable sec 4 year without real friendship to talk about. all these for a chance to hold the mace on the parade square.

if you guys are reading this, thanks for having dinner with a poor soul like me (haha), and promise me you will not lose your friendship. and let’s have a good year ahead of us

after some hard work and constant embouchure changing, the concert was a great success both for the band and for me. for the band, it was finally a good concert that didn’t disappoint our concert-attenders and it marked a successful debut concert with Mr Leonard Tan. his musicality and style came alive, his capabilities as a conductor apparent through our huge improvement. we hail our heroes, Mr Leonard Tan and our capable executive committee!

it was a great success for me as i made my debut on the Eb Clarinet. no major disasters, no humiliation. i played my heart out and all that i’ve practised did not go to waste! a pity though, i think my teacher did not show up at the concert. nevertheless, i really enjoyed myself this time round, and it was a really memorable concert for me.

a big thank you to all who came: my mus’art buddies desmond, huiping and hansel, hansel’s junior, my sweetie and my students from NCWO, victor, joyce, poh yih and manting. i thank you all for coming despite the exam period! and i really hope you people have enjoyed watching the concert as much as i enjoyed performing!

after this successful debut, i carry my confidence to mus’art, and i hope to excel in my playing on the Eb Clarinet, while maintaining my playing for the Bb Clarinet. after all, playing the Bb Clarinet is still my expertise! and i really really hope i’ll be good enough to do a solo for the next InTempo. it has always been my dream! and i shall start by looking for suitable pieces… i have a few at the back of my mind already. haha.

NUSWS rocks~~!!

haha, don’t be mistaken, i’m not the one getting married. not these 2 years, at least! attended stanley and kat’s wedding dinner today at Orchid Country Club, that place that brings back loads of memories… of my days in SAF central band… dining-ins that i never fail to miss somehow even though most of my peers NEVER attended as many as i do. my performance uniforms are used so many times i don’t remember having time to let them collect dust. oh well, i’m just the suay guy who always catches the arrows shot by my superiors with the wrong parts of my body.

eventually, even just before i clear my leave for ORD, i was still down for the parades and dining-ins. SUAYness.

saw so many familar faces today, and it kinda warms my heart to know that they are all doing so well in their lives. but it kinda saddens me that many of them cannot be bothered with me. well, i was never a popular figure, so i guess i should expect such treatment. it’s ok too, i’ve got my own bunch of closer friends

finally saw the legendary tze siang again. haha. and he’s intending to make a comeback in playing the clarinet! so happy. it’ll be such a pity if he stopped totally… i hope to be learning lots from this legend. haha. and a certain ’snoopy’ will be so happy to see him playing again. hahaha. guess only shiyu and ruixiang knows who i’m talking about

wedding bells… they looked so happy today, stanley and kat! and i heard they’ve been together for 11 years. that’s a long time! i don’t even know that many couples who’ve been MARRIED for 11 years. oh well. but seeing their blissful looks, i’m so happy for them! and i wonder discreetly when will it be my turn to hold a wedding dinner… hmmm…

meanwhile, here’s to stanley and kat, and may they enjoy everlasting bliss and a lifetime of love

i shall start off by declaring that i’m now stuck in the central library till i either finish my essay or they chase me out! haha. just finished watching ‘enter the dragon’ by bruce lee for my film and history module. so many stereotypes! shall comment on that in my group forum instead of here. went for dinner with zong geng, and we chat about loads of stuff. we talked about how difficult it is to find some good friends in our faculty, and it’s not because the people in our faculty are stuck up. it’s just how our faculty works! we take such a wide variety of modules that we seldom meet some friends who we see all the time. and it’s tough to keep in contact with friends from previous modules because we’re just so busy with our own other modules.

that’s why an ECA in university really helps! it sure helped big time for me and zong geng; we made many friends there whom we see every practice. well, ok, not every single practice. these friends of ours, regardless of faculty, have seen us through thick and thin in our music making and also in our outside lives. we wouldn’t have otherwise made these friends if we didn’t join NUSWS.

and we talked about forgiving someone. we both know it takes a bigger heart to forgive someone, and the person who forgives also is the person who has learnt to let go. and to let go is to gain more freedom! haha, so philosophical, right? but it’s true. and i realised how much courage it must’ve taken me to forgive that incident with my ex. and i feel glad about it, because i really feel so much less burdened after that! that was long ago anyway.

my friend’s become so different from the person i knew from the very first NUSWS welcome tea i’ve attended. so… enlightened! i’m glad that my friend is happy now with the way he lives his life. that is truly very important.

another meaningful incident yesterday brought me to realise how much my friend cares about how i felt. this is a different friend (in case readers are confused), and this friend has been like a big brother to me. gave me loads of opportunities to improve my skills, let me try the Eb clarinet, got me the opportunity to use one of the finest instruments i never dreamt i’d touch! he said sorry to me. he was sorry that i was upset because playing the Eb clarinet caused me to lose my original embouchure, and hence tone, on the Bb clarinet. yup, it’s true that i was upset, but frankly, i have never blamed my friend. i am, in fact, still thankful that he let me try out on the Eb, as this proved to be a major milestone in my music learning; to cope with the changing of embouchure! i will eventually balance out my playing and become a better and more versatile clarinettist, and many thanks to my friend for providing these opportunities for me and paving the otherwise rocky road with his genuine generosity and big heart. i’m really touched to have a friend like you!

if only every one of us can just take that extra little effort to make someone happy! i question that and i ask that of myself. there is nothing quite as precious as love and friendship, and i don’t mean love only in the relationship sense. interpersonal relationships are built on such wonderful little feelings. make this extra effort to please your loved ones today! it may simply be a verbal ‘thank you’ or a simple pat on the back (don’t molest hor). just let them know you care, and you will realise how much impact that little action will make on yours and their lives

spread the love, my friends