shades of grey.

now whoever thought playing bach could be so intriguing and exciting.

and so difficult to memorise.

posted by guitar123 @ 8:22 PM 0 comments

today was the last day of sch!! hurraH!!!

well just as i expected, the last 2 days of sch were probably the most tiring of all, especially with yesterday's longggggg ocs visit. but anyway now i have freedom to do a lot more stuff in a day, and not have the constrictions of sch to restrict my sleeping hours and focus of energy.

so as the holidays enter, along comes the major stuff we need to complete, such as EE, TOK... good thing my EE is on music, at least i'd have the interest to actually go get it done. and of course the usual musical pursuits, composition, ATCL.. it'd be fun.

then after that its off to mission trip in phillipines from 6th to 17th dec, and beijing with my family from twenty something to twenty something, then its some random guitar practice from 27th to 29th dec that might prevent me from attending fully my church's youth camp at the end of the year :(

and we'd all be J2 already.

and speaking of guitar practice, theres gonna be a major revamp for acsi guitar orch. new teachers, perhaps new learning styles, with the introduction of solo guitar playing back into the orchestra programme, which i'm in great support of. and if rumours are true that Y1 - Y4 can only participate in sec sch cad and Y5 & 6 in JC cad, then.. well if theres a will theres a way i guess (including planting some people on stage who cant even play guitar at all just so that we'd meet the minimum number of people required to enter). nxt year will be a blast, and i'd do all i can as 'Senior Student Conductor' (lol) to get the guit orch to as high an ability level as possible.

and after letting the guit orch try my arrangement of danza brasilera today, i'm pleased to say that i've completed my first good guitar orch transcription!! woohoo i feel overjoyed. i REALLY hope they like the piece.. it sounds not bad already.

posted by guitar123 @ 7:44 PM 0 comments

today was quite an eventful day.

it feels good to go out when you have energy. something that i have been lacking for the past few weeks. i first went to borders to look for guitar cds, and after half an hour of browsing bought 2 cds - a Segovia Dedication cd, which had english suite on it (not as great as i expected tho) and a naxos cd with norbert kraft playing concerto de aranjuez, and two other concertos by lobos and some guy whose name i cant remember.

and man. i totally agree with john duarte in the cd's commentary that the concerto de aranjuez is the most successful concerto composed in the past century.

after that met brendan and ryan at marina square to catch death note. and of course talking lots of nonsense and raising kbox venue proposals during lunch haha.

and today marks the day where i've watched my first movie this year.

and as someone who doesnt watch movies often, anythings fine, how terrible the movie actually may be. death note is actually quite a meaningless show, the story line reminds me of mathematical axioms o.O. the show also has a demon who can be so freaky and humorous at the same time, and a main character who is ur typical hot jap actor who is as bad as medea. and the show ends in a cliff hanger, come back nxt year for more. lol.

then i went to cut hair.

well had quite a bit of fun today. yay.

posted by guitar123 @ 10:23 PM 0 comments

today i shall attempt to blog in points

1) i really should get a good night's rest.
2) i want to learn basic compositional technique
3) tommy emmanuel is pro.
4) his music is simple, but its the amount of emotion he puts into his playing
5) and his incredible ability to improvise
6) even when he has no formal musical training
7) which makes people like me have mixed feelings
8) the esplanade library is a hazard to use.
9) the more i learn the more i realise i dont know
10) the future for me is uncertain
11) army is drawing near.
12) and i need to train my 2.4
13) that means uni is getting nearer too
14) who knows where i'd go.
15) but its nice to trust in God because he has a purpose for all of us
16) but my personal desires may not always be in line with God's purpose for me
17) so i shall pray more.
18) human desire is part of us but with it comes a whole bundle of problems.
19) lubricant for the left hand such as vaseline or facial oil is beneficial when playing the 3rd movement of la catedral so as to prevent friction burns
20) and i need a lottttttt more stamina to play la catedral
21) the harmonic language is a mystery to me

okay next time i shall just go back to blogging in prose. too many points already

posted by guitar123 @ 10:16 PM 0 comments

i thank God for the results he has given me today. sure i'm not the top for anything, as my mind so dearly craves, but what God has awarded to me today was above my expectations already. i cudn't ask for more.

sure, there are many reasons that i could have to be disappointed, among them the introduction of this elitist 'dean's list' thing.

but then again to be disappointed would be to be ungrateful to God and what he has granted me. i'm also happy for others who are happy with their results, like zeke and brendan. and of cos congrats to those ownage pple like ame haha.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men - Colossians 3:23

posted by guitar123 @ 5:03 PM 0 comments

so.

its been two days of relentless tok sessions and i'm pooped. not being in sch for so long and then suddenly going back to 'routine' isnt always fun. and besides, i am so not a morning person. the only time i feel awake and ready to do something is right before i sleep. woohoo.

anyway some of the tok focus was boring, some okay, some downright draining, but i think the last speaker was a nice guy. liked his 2nd vid.

but one thing i remembered.. that good art evokes a sense of wonder.. and perhaps that quite a good measure.

wonder if i'd ever be able to create it.

pushing, trying.

posted by guitar123 @ 10:27 PM 0 comments

hello!!

today i'd like to blog about an article i read in the straits times today by tan seow hon.. its on page S17, review, titled 'True love? Look no further than friendship'. yeap it basically talks about how love has become overrated in our society, and yeap how the first thing that comes to people's minds when they hear the words true love is romantic love. but the writer of the article suggests a different type of true love, which is that of strong friendship.

one of the things the writer mentioned was that "We do not share our deepest secrets with our business associates; we may eat a satisfying burger with an acquaintance, but it is with our best friend that we think of sharing with great relish the description of our discovery os something mundane like delicious food." and i think thats quite true, considering i talk the most and do the most out of point things when i'm with my closest friends :D

so perhaps while i'm not so gifted in the area of romantic love, (eheh) if true love is having rock solid friendships, then i've definitely experienced it already. i think the friendships i wud have made in acs wud last me for quite some time.

buargh and tagboard has mutated into some dunno what cPanel thing.. dunno if it is a scam to get u to reveal ur password or what.. haha i have a good mind to dump the tagboard again. haha

yeap thats my thoughts for the day. cya.

posted by guitar123 @ 9:32 PM 0 comments

SO.

its all over. but the end isnt as sweet.. the end of last thursday was sweeter haha.

music was quite okay. i spent quite a while cramming in all the bartok and world music stuff.. and i guess it paid off. the music exam was really fun.. we all had to bring cd players cos the exam tracks are on the cd (u get to play them over and over again. haha but u onli have abt half an hour per track) and my awesome cd player i loaned from ziqiang cant work if it ain't plugged in. so i got to sit nxt to a socket point hahaha, amidst a comment by mrs li that i was lucky it wasn't raining today. lol.

after music we went to vivocity.. AND.. aiyah dun go lah. so crowded.. plus shops also not say veri good (well at least not those on the 2nd floor which we walked through) and now harbourfront's going to be terribly crowded because theres nothing to eat at vivocity except for carl's jr, which was probably terribly crowded too, not to mention the building looks like our school in the early stages of construction. walk down a corridor and u see shop posters being put up, goods being shipped in, and u go up to the top floor and theres construction work going on. but had great fun hanging out with chris, bryan, justin, fattz, and mingz and just talking nonsense at pastamania. hmm there aren't a lot of nice places to visit in singapore.. which are truly quiet and serene. maybe the airport.. but the travelling time spoils everything haha.

so what am i going to do after the exams? haha my life after exams and when i dun have exams doesnt really differ much. as long as i've got free time i just spend time on music, music and music. and yeap most of my hol assignments are music based anyway. and i will try to complete it in november so my dec would be free. and guit orch get ready, i've already got a new transcription coming.. danza brasilera, and i'm sure it'd be nice, only difficulty would probably all the syncopation.. but u all like syncopated and samba-ish stuff right? so dun give me that 'prelude in Gm sux' and 'when you say nothing at all is so out of point' which maybe it really is lah, but it sure takes a heck lot of effort to do.. so pls be a bit more sensitive. now i know what ms ng feels like when she did transcriptions for us. and from a guitarist too. haha.

and of course plans of composition to stun and of course the 'double-bass' concerto.. which of course would require lots of work. but wud be fun.

k then!! enjoy ur freedom. or whatever little amount of it.

posted by guitar123 @ 5:25 PM 0 comments

hah so all u people whose exams ended today.

the final sprint calls.. bartok is more or less done and now theres as much world music to remember as possible (it'd be nice if i cud find some tracks on the net) and perhaps a little revision on the o lvl stuff.

maths P2 was.. well haha. shan't say anymore but i told God last night that i shall accept the consequences of the work that i have done (or rather failed to do) before this paper in the 4 days break. so i'm not really fuming over the paper.. dun really expect to do spectacularly well either.

k then. back to normal life (except for the terrible disrupted sleep patterns. haha)

posted by guitar123 @ 3:07 PM 0 comments

oh i realised i havent blogged since econs paper ended on thurs.

and the end of econs meant partial freedom for me. well life has returned to more or less normal.. econs wasnt too hard.. but i few extra definitions like PPP could have been useful in my mind.

yeap but i'm not letting up yet.. i dont want to go into maths P2 and have my mind suddenly go blank. and of course theres music.. which i dun really mind studying for.

haha today i had piano lesson and i asked my teacher whether there were any managable rachmaninoff pieces and he told me either G minor or C# minor. lol. if i had the time i might go try to learn.. and maybe if i dint keep nails it wud be a whole lot easier. rarr sometimes i wish my piano were better. but then again. haha.

haha u know i think sometimes there really isnt much difference during normal school term and the period after exams.. my 'playing' doesnt involve com games or anything of the sort.. it just means more time to listen to, play, and compose music. which of course is fun to me. some life i have. haha.

anyways, anyone wants to go out after music on wed? i feel like going to the new vivocity place at harbourfront. haha.

posted by guitar123 @ 4:06 PM 0 comments

well then. after econs tml i can come home and collapse and have a good rest.

and then leave my house at 1pm for guitar lesson. hurhur.

chinese was pretty relaxing.. i chose the qn that asks u to write about a term u spent in another school for ur sch newsletter, the differences and similarities, and encourage other students to try it too.

so i just spent the time daydreaming about how it would be like if i went to study in a music university overseas. and the words just came out quite naturally (albeit a bit limited on the vocab, as always) but the good thing was that i didn't have to force out the words.

maths P1 was.. okay lah quite satisfying, like phys P2.. cos i managed to do almost everything. except for the first principles thingy. God has really been providing for me during the papers thus far.. even though before and after each paper i feel like i'm gonna collapse, during the paper itself i push on and on as the questions progress.

well then i hope my brain quickly untunes itself from maths and phys and switches to humanities mode.. most preferably overnight haha. last night and the night before i was dreaming about solving mathematical problems!! argh. theres like an equation in my head and i'm trying to rationalise the equation, but the values keep shifting from the LHS to the RHS and back and... AHH haha siao.

k then. day 3 over.

posted by guitar123 @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

well all i have to say is.

beware all u HL chem and bio students, whose papers are still to come. and all you potential science HL students.

3h 15min is no joke.

do get enough sleep the night before.

posted by guitar123 @ 4:15 PM 0 comments

hoohoo the exams have begun. and the beginning of the exams signifies the end of a long bout of studying, with which i'm overjoyed.

my friend once told me that for any exam, there is an average mark you are capable of, and with some luck (or bad luck) u fall slightly above or below the mark, of course having studied to the max and prepared all u can. so i was thinking too that exams are like a performance. of course of i really did treat exams as a performance, that one hour i spend everyday practising guitar would be spent revising the day's work.. which means that when it comes to exams i wudnt need to study anymore already.

but of course that isn't the case. so 99% of the population of students has to 'chiong' when it comes closer to the exams.. cos hey, if there are no exams study for what? and these 3 wks chionging is what i've been doing.

as the performance day draws nearer, especially closer to the day itself, i stop practising so much, cos practising too much makes my fingers tired. similarly, i don't want to cram anymore data or new stuff which i haven't learnt the day before the exam. the day before the performance should be spent preparing the nail shapes, going through the piece once or twice and getting enough rest so that i'll be prepared before the performance.

today's english was a rather forgettable experience.. i guess i'd be scoring within the 16+ range.. anything above 19 would be a bonus.

well i've tried an RJ promos mcq paper just now.. and their mcq qns are like section B qns for us. haha i guess A lvl physics is a lot harder than IB HL physics. anyway i'm done with studying for today.. i want to be able to sleep tonight.

k then. cya.

posted by guitar123 @ 6:35 PM 0 comments