shades of grey.

2008-11-24T21:47:00.000+08:00

today i listened to the first piece of classical music in a long time. the butterfly lovers' concerto.

somehow i really miss analysing music down to the bone. even when i listen to pop music nowadays i marvel at the ways some singers add novelty to their music, especially with exotic musical instruments.

and i dunno what is it about me that makes me want to arrange everything for the guitar.

rarrh i really really need to revive my skills next year.. in preparation for the big O-R-D.

2008-10-25T17:07:00.001+08:00

sometimes i really fear.

i fear for the day i will have to pick up a book to begin studying again.

2008-10-08T21:26:00.003+08:00

the sounds of koyunbaba ring once again. on my guitar.

i'm reassured that there is classical guitar music out there that still has the ability to mesmerise me.

at least for now, that is.

i miss those days..

2008-07-06T18:40:00.000+08:00

i really do.

2008-03-15T21:19:00.002+08:00

hello world.

so its been some time. enough time for me to get a nice tan, hit at least nine pull ups, and urh.. forget how to move my fingers in a fashion so as to exhibit levels of playing worthy of those four alphabets of A-T-C and L.

well i must say training has been tough, but life is going to change i guess. but as usual, future is uncertain.

but for now i shall just enjoy my slightly-more-than-weeklong 'holiday'.

2008-01-08T15:25:00.001+08:00

hello.

well many things have happened over the past year or so, and i'm thankful to God for each of the things which did. as enlistment looms i guess it is time for a hiatus, until i can think of something better to do with a blog.

:)

2007-12-06T19:43:00.000+08:00

hello. long time no see.

just came back from a masterclass with maestro shin-ichi fukuda, and i must say i thoroughly enjoyed it.

yes yes the air con was too cold and i was playing fernando sor's theme and variations on a theme of mozart from the magic flute, a piece where warm fingers are definitely a plus to the technical side of the performance. although i mutilated the finale and several parts of the piece as usual, this time when i performed it seemed to be different from all the other times i had performed classical guitar pieces in the past. i went in with a 'nothing to lose' attitude, and it does make playing with the audience a metre away from you a whole lot less stressful.

didn't really have much time to go through much stuff, only got as far as the theme hahaha. but i did get some useful tips on technique, both left hand and right. but what strikes me the most about fukuda is his 'laid back style', in yingda's words haha. it really shows through both in his performance last night and today's masterclass. he really is able to make you feel at ease when you play for him. i'll remember the joke when he made when he drew a diagram of the left hand on the whiteboard: something like the fingers he drew were oversized, and he commented that they were 'like segovia's'. ok lah not funny u all probably wont understand.

after last night's performance, i've also learnt you can have a musically communicative performance without having to play without mistakes. fukuda did have one or two memory lapses last night, but as any good guitarist just improvised something on the spot to cover it up haha. and when you look at the concert as a whole (1 and a half hours of recital is not easy) you tend to forgive all the mistakes in the end.

i guess today has definitely been a boost to my confidence in guitar performance. whether or not i do pursue music as a career or not, i think i shall practice hard, explore new pieces, go back to that sagregas technique book that i so detested playing in the past, and perhaps one day i'll compete in the guitar comp, just for fun.

2007-11-26T23:32:00.000+08:00

hello.

today was class outing (or rather clique gathering) for sushi buffet. today was the first, and probably one of the few times i'd ever go for it, partly because of cost and partly because 3 - 6pm is not a strategic time to have a eat-all-you can session.

was watching a documentary entitled 'my brilliant brain' (or something like that) on natgeo. it followed an eight year old pianist, who played beethoven's sonatina no. 1 when he was three, more cleanly than i can now. and oh yes he has perfect pitch (apparently 1 in 10000 people have it; well it does make me feel a bit more privileged :P) and can recognize tonality of chords. and yeah he's like playing high level concertos and chopin pieces.

well so the reason one of the researchers gave for some childrens' amazing ability with music is because they like it and are drawn into something like a trance when they play it. and heres the catch: they get better at it when they practice even more and want to learn it better (i just practice up to a point when i get pissed/sian/when i feel like i'm not improving).

so the discussion goes on about whether it is nature or nurture, and the conclusion is never drawn, so i guess both have their part in creating a genius.

but my consolations are that if i were to live the life the little dude lives, i'd be practising 8h a day, and i wouldn't be able to connect that well to friends my age, and i wouldn't have the privilege of going through a normal schooling life. and even young prodigies face a challenge when they go through puberty/become an adult cos the thing about child prodigies is that it seems queer that a child is doing what adults can do, but when they grow older a lot more is demanded like critical interpretation and an individual style in order to keep their fame. and yeah mozart was one of those people, but he died at 35.

so in conclusion, life is fair. when i practice music, i think the most important thing is to enjoy myself, and not bother whether i can master the pieces to the extent the world class performers on youtube do. the documentary also found that if children started to receive brain stimulation in the form of creative learning and puzzles even before the age of 3, they would have an advantage in terms of intellect later in life. but i guess what is most important is that we recognize that God has given us different talents and use it for his glory.

2007-11-24T22:53:00.000+08:00

tim: actually don't need to buy a very expensive car..

buy low-end ferrari can already.

today's outing was quite fun, walking around orchard area with timms, zeke and weihan. one of the few times you'd catch a bunch of guys shopping together.

2007-11-21T23:05:00.000+08:00

i've spent the last 2h cleaning up my table. the total amount of visible table is now the size of an A3 piece of paper, an achievement i must say. haha and this is the first time the compulsive disorder to clean the table kicked in so hard. luckily besides all the dust the only other gross stuff i encountered was three small spiders.

but it was quite sad, packing away all my old notes into a cardboard box. won't be studying academic subjects for at least the next two years. and i've got about a year to think of what course i want to study in uni.

but for now, just relaxation, and yes, more guitar.

2007-11-19T13:14:00.001+08:00

hello. exams are over! woohoo.

all i can say now is that God has really seen me through the music paper today. despite a bad nightmare that i had just before i woke up lol.

free as a bird now. tres piezas espanolas looks deceptively simple. but i'm sure they put it in FRSM for a reason. and youtube is down i cant hear a recording of it but i shall go try to play it anyway :))))))

Koopman: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 - JS. Bach

2007-11-18T17:16:00.001+08:00

i was wondering why the music wasn't 100% neat but when i realised he was playing with his feet as well..

2007-11-13T22:38:00.001+08:00

my scores from the USA are hereeeeeee!!!!

but i'm not going to open them yet. shall save the glee for monday.
tres piezas espanolas by rodrigo (which is in both LTCL and FRSM and which i dont expect to learn so quickly but will be one of my life's goals) and suite espanola by albeniz arranged for guitar by manuel barrueco, some of the movements are in both licentiate diplomas.

and the postman had to go and stuff it into my house mailbox lah -.-

its been quite a long day, made it through renaissance music, baroque, and classical. now listening to mozart's eine kliene nachtmusik, which translated means 'a little night music' :) during the classical period the classical music of the day was well.. pop music! haydn wrote 104 symphonies, and mozart 41.

music is also a lot about economics. when there is demand, there will be supply. and if demand is great enough the wages of the producers would be higher. during the period of 1750 to 1820 vienna was just the place for it, and the truly talented from that period could be said to be quite duly rewarded. too bad it isnt quite so today, with the current market clearing conditions for classical music.

flat-pick style guitarists, eat your hearts out

2007-11-12T22:21:00.001+08:00

this guy with a russian balalaika can shred faster than most people i know

let the healing begin.

2007-11-12T11:07:00.000+08:00

the past eight days have been incredibly tiring, but i'm so glad the bulk of my papers is over. God has really been good to me, giving me papers that i can manage. now i have quite a reasonable amount of time to rest and study for math p3 on friday, and then music next monday.

woohoo.

500th post.

2007-10-31T11:28:00.000+08:00

it is the last day of october already and the start of november brings with it the commencement of the ib exams; i shall not state the exact countdown to the first paper, but yes, it is very very near.

within these 2 1/2 or so weeks of study break, i've learnt several things that are crucial, and if ur in the IB programme you would like to know:

1. nothing can beat consistent work.

(a) 3 wks is not very short, but it isn't very long either. 3 wks can change some things, but most of subject knowledge is established during the 2 years.

(b) if you have a textbook for subjects like econs e.g. magee, ian dorton, pls go and read them no matter how taxing it is when you still have the time, not 3 wks b4 the exams like i did for units 2 and 3. yeah yeah people will be calling you mugger but just wait till exams for the last laugh.

2. after content mastery practice is the key.

3. if you really are at a loss for english paper 2, which i am now, reading sparknotes does help to some extent i feel. even if teachers tell you that ib markers are probably the ones who wrote sparknotes and don't rely on it blah blah blah, at the end of the day its better to write sense from sparknotes than irrelevant stuff from all those overtly chim siddhartha critiques.

a satirical musical composition to go. i've always wanted to do one of these to defy the rules in composition class. the best i could do was a compo with negative dynamics. this one is 6.02x10^23 times worse than mine.

for a bigger version see http://www.well.com/user/bryan/lament.html

2007-10-26T10:15:00.000+08:00

when i opened the first page of readers' digest i got a shock when i saw this:
and it appears its been around for some time already.. since 1985!! so which one came first the airline or the pokemon? it looks like its the airline. lolol.

2007-10-24T21:51:00.000+08:00

well its been some time eh?

these few days have just been absolutely exhausting. you never know whether SEAB could be colluding with IB.. it appears the more recent maths papers both maths hl and psle often contain that questions that some students cannot do.. which require so called 'higher level thinking'.

physics mcqs are getting more and more tricksy by the years and the section Bs and option papers are like winning the lottery.. good for u if your answer is lucky enough to match that in the answer scheme.

and i'm at a loss for english paper 2.

just dying to get out of the house. content overload already.

one pic to go.. the only one that looks decent enough to be posted. and that perhaps carries with it the best memories of these 2 years.

2007-10-09T18:24:00.000+08:00

it is just surreal that the last 3 days of formal lessons are coming to a close..

tml the last fried food day during school term the year 6s will experience. haha.

last day we will attend morning assembly and hear 'baris sedia', watch the flags being raised too slowly, and listen to devotion & announcements..

last 3 days priya will come into class and talk to us about admin stuff..

last 3 days we act crazy in our freezing 6.13 classroom..

and 2 more physics lessons.. must take picture haha.

it's all samsara, i tell you

2007-10-04T17:27:00.001+08:00

okay so prelim results today, and yeah i guess i did quite okay.

the biggest disappointment has to be english, with a 22 mark, 2 grade drop.

physics was good, managed to break 7 for the first time.. like.. ever :))))

the rest were okay i guess, and 37 really isn't a bad score at all, even though i was a bit disappointed at first. i really thank God for it, and i'm also thankful for friends like zeke who overwhelms me with his optimism. lol. and yes, we normal people have more capacity to improve than say someone with 41/42 :P

congratulations also to justin woo for obtaining the spot of the Highest Scoring Male for music, all you needed to do was to pass the written paper to get it. and don't tell me 'but' or 'i can't get a 7 for the real thing' cos i know you CAN.

and yes, despite the highly subjective nature of grading subjects like music (and english), music is so much more than grades and the way its subject to so many interpretations gives it its beauty. i now go into the music exam with an attitude that i like music and that's why i'm doing it, not to show i can be better than someone or get a higher grade than someone. i also have to admit that mrs li's encouragement of telling us to lift our chins up and push for the final and not care about the IAs that are already submitted makes sense.

we will never know how ib computes the scores for ANY subject; our school just uses percentages as an estimate. the interesting thing is that for me i havent been able to consistently score 40+ (actually i havent been able to reach it yet haha) but the thing is i've scored a 7 for each subject some time or another over these 2 years in the exams, just not all at the same time. and i guess these sorta grades really makes me put my trust in God to plan my revision schedule and guide me each step of the papers, cos i cannot say that i will be able to obtain a high grade on my own strength. and i guess every point above 40 would be a bonus for me when results come out next year.

here's a verse from ecclesiastes 4:4 that i think solomon was a real genius to think up (he was the wisest man who ever lived anyway) and i guess it really is quite true: 'And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.'

oh and mrs li has no sample scripts of how music students around the world answer their written papers, as in the strategies involved and stuff like that, so i guess we as the first batch would be doing a little trial and error with the way we answer those extracts that we have a measly 25mins to answer. but next year's batch would have a slight advantage - see who from this year scores well next year then can ask for tips lol.

2007-10-01T20:12:00.000+08:00

happy childrens' day to one and all.

2007-09-21T22:54:00.000+08:00

concert was a fantastic way to end the week; nothing beats listening to a live performance, with all its little subtle nuances and the awe-inducing silence the esplanade concert hall can contain.

there were some new things that i heard that i didnt pick up when listening to recordings, and the endings of the first and fifth movement were nothing short of spectacular; something to be felt. after studying the work in such depth and then going to listen to a live performance truly helps one to appreciate the performance better. and, yes, all the little inaccuracies made are forgiven, even the compromise of the 2nd harp not being strummed by a wooden stick in the 1st movement haha.

life is like music, fleeting such that each note, each phrase comes and goes and may never return, but yet in the mind can exist an entire structure of notes, phrases and themes which can appear almost all in the same moment, kind of the timelessness described in siddhartha lol.

and so apparently our mini holiday is extended by one more day; teachers are given one more marking day next thursday because of the wednesday declared holiday, which means an extra day for us :P plus honours day on friday = an effectively 1 wk hol.

okay its over.

2007-09-21T14:00:00.000+08:00

maths paper today was thankfully okay, quite enjoyed some of the questions, like the beijing mascots and the car colour and accident severity questions.

things to do now:
1) bartok concert tonight, highly ironic
2) buy guitar strings and change them
3) sleep like dead people.

2007-09-20T16:26:00.000+08:00

i am here to announce that i am completely and utterly traumatised by the music written paper.

my time management was all over the place; i started with and took 40min for qn 4 the guitar extract. i took half an hour for dies irae (ironically i was just listening to it on tuesday; i listened to it because it sounded nice, not because i wanted to practice), chionged bartok in half an hour, and had 25 mins each for the last 2 unidentified extracts. it will be a miracle if i pass my last extract, it was like a jazz extract with only a trio playing and hardly any form, and i wrote like the equivalent of 1 side of paper. i wasnt really thinking much during the paper, it was more like.. listen listen listen.. write write write!!

i do hope the 3rd extract really was a neoclassical composition (which i wrote it was) but in this world you can never be sure of anything.

we do need a revolution. there has to be a better way to use that half hour we have for each extract.

and all i want to hear now is silence.

after bartok studying

2007-09-19T21:05:00.000+08:00

there is just too much to study for world music. everything is acculturated and everything is influenced by something. you cant just sum up an entire country's music tradition in 6 pages of notes. thats the beauty of music.

which doesnt make it simple at all for us music students.

i shall be dreaming of bartok tonight. hope i dream of the chorale and not the elegia.

2007-09-18T14:40:00.001+08:00

andddd with physics paper 3, math I and econs II down, its 1 and 3/5 left to go (subjects i mean). the prelims almost seem to be lasting forever, but it'll be over soon.

and after that theres this lapse of the weekend + 1 day with no papers + 2 markings days, which i only found out about today. i dunno but temporary freedom wont really feel like freedom at all.. but better than nothing.

i need to change my guitar strings. been using it since june.. not bad for a pack of $18 strings.

we're ahead of our time

2007-09-13T18:05:00.000+08:00

we're a privileged batch, us first-time AC IB students. it seems that some other top schools such as the school of the arts is heading in the direction of IB also, and by the time the first batch of students from the school of the arts graduates about 5 batches of year 6s would have obtained their next most important academic qualification following the PSLE. And perhaps Dr Ong would not be too far off in terms of achieving his dream of acs being the top IB world school haha.

it's surprising that the school of the arts is offering IB, after all you can only choose one group 6 subject to specialise in, and requires students to be very all rounded. it also seems that the head of departments don't have any experience with the IB, but perhaps they'll get parallels of our mdm priya, mr dumortier, mr eric and the like to help out.

and the head of music is joyce koh, the lady who came to conduct the composition masterclass and look at justin's emo cheena compo, and who composes some 'postmodern' kinda stuff. i guess it would be interesting to be in that new programme, but i don't have any regrets going through the acsi music programme. yeah some areas could definitely be improved, but if not for my time in acs, i would have not: 1) learnt the hardcore mugger way of studying music, 2) learnt the ultra deep analysis of setworks concerto for orchestra and classical symph I & II, 3) learnt the classical guitar AND met my guitar teacher, 4) played in a guitar orchestra who even dared to play my arrangements, 5) and most importantly met the friends who contributed to my growth as a musician.

news articles aside, its 1 and two halves of subjects down. after today, i realised that english paper 2 (like music) is not something you can study in a day. well but at least its over and have a bit of time to rest and study for maths next wk.

3 of my nails are almost long enough to play already and hurray i found la catedral score and can play some parts of it like never before. :))))

i'm an ib mugger.

2007-09-12T14:26:00.000+08:00

this study by someone doing a ph.d is quite interesting to read:
http://www4.gu.edu.au:8080/adt-root/uploads/approved/adt-QGU20040427.122927/public/04Chapter9.pdf

its a study on the influence of pre-tertiary music training on adoloscent music development. study involved a violinist and a guitarist, most shocking thing being the coda on the last page of the report. haha.

kk back to paddy. for a while lah. my brain going to blow soon already.

2007-09-11T20:21:00.000+08:00

having physics and econs on the same day is no joke.

what was the school thinking.

what was the ib thinking.. 2 hours of econs paper 2 in the morning, followed by a massive physics paper 1 & 2 in the afternoon. all on the deepavali holiday. lol.

anyways after coming home i just lay down on my bed for 2 hours. too exhausted. english paper 2 is on thurs, so got slightly more time to study for it.

bye.

Jerome Ducharme:

2007-09-09T20:57:00.001+08:00

was listening to this insane guitarist playing this insane piece, its called tres piezas espanolas and is written by rodrigo. trinity college thinks it belongs in the licentiate diploma but associated board thinks otherwise and puts it under FRSM.

2007-09-09T20:40:00.001+08:00

it feels surreal to sit in front of the computer and blog now on the night of the eve of the start of prelims.

who would have thought we'd ever make it so far. at the beginning of Year 5 or during the first lessons at 3.15 for that matter the thought of the prelims of the IB exam was well, nonexistent.

decided to take a break and rest during the past 1 1/2 days. which means i'd have to do slightly more work tml for phys and econs, but thats okay. admittedly, this time i dont feel as crazy as the mid years, but of course theres that tinge of fear; after all, it IS the prelims.

today i managed to find the la catedral score that i misplaced (okay lah i forgot where i put it) after my ATCL, and now that my nails are growing back, i find that i can play reasonably faster than in the past. now just waiting for adequate length to grow back so that i wont miss the strings.

well then, all the best to those studying for exams. cya

siddharberry paddytha cluckfinn. ahahahahaha

2007-09-05T22:17:00.001+08:00

now that i feel sane enough to blog again, after taking a break from my revision schedule which i planned but decided not to adhere to, here's whats been happening. the past three days went something like this:

8am: wake up
8:30 - 12:30 physics with a 1 or 1 1/2h break
12:30 - 4: sleep/tv/sleep
4 - 5: study
5 - 7:30: run/dinner/bathe/slack
7:30 - 9:30++: econs

thats quite insane for someone like me who normally doesnt study more than an hour and a half on a normal school day. studying at home is good and bad.. the only distractions i have are the com, tv, bed and guitar. but i suddenly feel really deprived of interacting with friends (even though that will be the hindrance to my revision haha).

and so my index finger nail has grown back, 3 more to go. achieving perfection in playing is really hard.. i was trying so so hard to play a grade 1/2-ish study without any mistakes from beginning to end, and it took me like 15 tries to get one of them right. and when i played it again to make sure i didnt make a fluke, i made a mistake again. sianz lah.

the creators of pokemon are geniuses with probability; there is probability everywhere, right from what type of pokemon you meet in the grass, to the probability a pokeball manages to catch a pokemon, to the highly pissing miniscule probability of meeting the two legendary dogs in the wild. but with a bit of patience and cheating using visualboy's save and reload scene i managed to capture raikou, entei, ho-oh and lugia today. muahahaha.

as you can see when studying high level intellectual material, its often therapeutic to do brain dead stuff during the 1 or 1/2h breaks. such as watching spongebob haha.

the case study of george soros was quite interesting, being able to make USD 1 billion out of the crash of the british currency about 17 years ago. took me a while to understand how he did it.. but it shows how people with not so good values can have incredible intelligence.

and can someone please put me out of my misery by telling me the solution to this math question. we have a guy, a forgetful guy. lets call him Retard. the probability that Retard leaves his umbrella in any shop he visits is 1/3. after visiting two shops in succession, he finds he has left his umbrella in one of them. can someone please tell me why the probablity that he left his umbrella in the 2nd shop is 2/5?!?!?

2007-08-31T22:36:00.000+08:00

hello.

today being the last day of school of term 3, well i just have this feeling where i dont want the sept hols to start and i never want the prelims to come >.<

teachers' day today was quite okay; spent the aces day thingy walking and talking with brendan and oswald along the 4k-ish route. watching the not very spectacular concert. and yes, in the end i couldn't find mrs li. lol. i'd prob give her the card on the same day as music HL prelim.

to sum up, i think we're a privileged batch, being able to get the cream of the crop of many teachers who teach in acs.

i've been quite lucky to get the best of math teachers since sec 2: mrs anna lim, mr shaun choo, mr venu rao, mr azmi, and mr sunil dutt. but i doubt half of them even remember or will remember me haha.

mr patrick soo for physics in sec 3 - 4, mr edwin wong in year 5 (okay la he tried hard), and mr eric wee this year. can count himself one of us already haha.

mr liang chew man and mdm carol low for chem sec 3 - 4, even though i dont take chem anymore lol.

the humanities teachers are more of contrasts though.

ihs: okay they aren't much of contrasts, but i do appreciate both mr brian chirnside and mrs elaine lee, sec 3 - 4.

econs: mr joseph wong in year 5 vs ms alice tan this year. hahaha. ms alice tan is really one of the teachers i respect the most, despite being really strict. she really knows her stuff.

english: i think i shall only mention those worth mentioning haha. the rest left us to do quite a bit of self-learning. mr steven ng in year 5, also class teacher but left for greener pastures, and of course ms thiru, kind and caring language arts teacher in sec 3 - 4, tok teacher year 5 - 6.

and of course music. enough said hahahaha.

well then thats my short summary. dont really have much emo juices running through me now, so shall end here :)

no more nails

2007-08-30T20:48:00.000+08:00

wed 29 aug 2007 will go down as the day in history when, i, well, decided to clip away the nails on my right hand. since sec 2 oep, four and a half years without letting the sharp edges of a nail clipper slice through the hardened skin. yeah baby.

for all you classical guitar noobs out there, no nails = no solid tone, no projection.

i dont really know why i wanted to clip away my nails, maybe i was just cranky or what. it'll save me the half an hour i spend each week sandpapering my nails down to length; perhaps i just wanted to take a risk and try something new.

not that i had anything to lose. i'd have to clip it upon enlistment anyway.

but in the process i could be making a breakthrough.. even though now when i play got no sound (lol) i can play faster than usual. after observing one of segovia's videos, i realise that i could have been playing the rest stroke, or apoyando, wrongly all these years. my nails also could have been too long to push my playing standard further. ironic, but we'll see.

revision for prelims has been brisk, obtaining a 6 in each subject shouldnt be too much of a problem, but getting the 7 is really the challenge as there are no gurantees, not even for music. even after submission after submission of internal assessments. its like telling me i'm not good enough despite trying hard. but nehmind life is unfair, sometimes in your favour, sometimes not.

anyways, with one day to the 'end' of school, or normal lessons at least, it is hard not to feel sentimental. but i shall blog-reminisce tml, after teachers day haha. first time i'm actually getting something for some teachers in 6 years. lol.

2007-08-26T16:48:00.000+08:00

finished arranging Circle Of Life from lion king for guitar orchestra over wednesday to friday, brought back many fond childhood memories. but its not for ACSGO, its for GENUS (plus some primary school students mr choo is teaching). first time someone actually asked me to arrange a piece, i couldn't say no hahaha. wonder if i would even get to hear it tho.

well then, with 2 wks to the prelims, i can't help realising how fleeting time is, and that theres only 1 real wk of sch left before the ib exams. well then i guess over these 2 years many things have happened, but one thing which always strikes me is the friends made. many acquaintances, but relatively few very close friends. but i'm just really glad for the very few close friends, most from .15 04/05 who continue to sit at the same table sometimes during recess even now, some new friends from .13 06/07 (yes justin i think you can classify yourself under .13 already). even got award for someone who spent 6 years with me in the same class.. can you believe it, 6 years. *drumroll* its kenneth lui!! hahaha. if you're reading this, thanks, its been fun, and, interesting haha.

so even as the experience is ending, i'm still at a loss what i want to do at uni, surprise surprise. there are just too many factors to consider, and now i just want to focus on my studies first. after all if God were to give us the answers to all our dreams right here right now there wouldn't be any need to trust him, right?

okay time is of the essence, gtg.

2007-08-18T15:07:00.000+08:00

i caught a snippet of pokemon the cartoon this morning, and they're like into their number who knows what season already. and even though its been about 4 or 5 years since i stopped watching kids central (yes if you do the maths, its a bit wrong but hey), pokemon still evokes the same feelings as it did when i was just a kid haha.

and then it struck me why pokemon is so successful as a show. yes you may scoff at the characters and that oh so corny storyline of conflict (team rocket appears) and resolution (pikachu zaps team rocket into oblivion), but one thing that struck me the most is the character ash. his goal? 'to catch 'em all', hence his surname Ketchum hurhur. but jokes aside, ash has the basic ambition to be the best, an ambition which is ingrained into many people in society. his actions resonate the rashness of decision making we sometimes have in life, and he does have his failures too, but ultimately he comes up tops. and because of this i feel he appeals to so many, and i see a little reflection of myself in him, too. after all, the first two lines in the very very first opening theme were 'I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was'

and speaking of the power of cartoons, i was learning 'a whole new world' on guitar and i started thinking about the storyline of aladdin, which indeed encapsulates the word 'fantasy'. finding a genie who grants you 3 wishes, picking up a princess and living happily ever after. and not to mention the magic carpet that flies. if only finding romance in reality were that simple haha.

k thats all for now cya.

MENDING WALL

2007-08-16T18:00:00.000+08:00

the fact of having to study 20 king lear extracts for nothing aside, i'm glad nonetheless for getting a manageable poem. thank you God :)

and thanks justin for your indirect help in talking about your ioc during physics class. haha. once i saw the rectangular block of words, i knew i'd gotten the same extract as you hahaha.

the end of ioc will go down in history as one of the most memorable elation moments of the ib.

joke of the day:
mr paul tan: okay chen yi, when i press record, you wait for four seconds, then read out the preamble on the piece of paper. speak directly into the mike.

-click-

chen yi: *counts* one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three, one thousand and four.
my name is chen yi, my candidate...

-CLICK-

mr paul tan: chen yi, you forgot the first line 'English A1 IOC Examinations 2007'! (the line before 'my name is') *rewinds tape* i'm not supposed to do this you know...

doh.

2007-08-15T19:16:00.000+08:00

beware all you year 5 and future ib students.

one day you will be cursing ioc like how owen expounds on the pity of war and how soyinka expresses his contempt for racism and corrupt dictatorial leaderships.

not only that, you will have to put up with your friends talking to you in the language of Lear and giving you random quotes, plus analysis of your every action and word.

but for the record, today is the last day i'll have to be slugging over that terrible bundle of notes, and going to school to have 3 out of 4 useless lessons where the only thing you can do is talk cock or, yes, practice ioc.

and in the near future, i predict that they will give a study break of like 2 or 3 days every time there is something like ioc or a major deadline, e.g. EE. foreshadowed by the fact of how many people ponn sch just to study or complete the essays. hmph.

2007-08-13T20:59:00.000+08:00

[The ATCL or any exam grade that you take] is just a piece of paper. It is the journey [that is important.] - mr terence choo

tho i cannot remember the exact words, i cannot help but feel how important that piece of advice was and still is.

still watching, still waiting, still praying.

ioc ah ioc.. not very good for you and me.

2007-08-09T11:49:00.000+08:00

sianz i couldnt have chosen a better day to fall sick.

a day where clinics all over singapore are either closed or charge extra fees for opening on a pub hol -.-

anyway, the doctor i saw was playing mozart's piano concerto no. 21 in his consultation room. weird.

2007-08-03T23:07:00.000+08:00

i shall blog while the memories are still fresh. haha. if not seldom do u see 2 posts a day from me.

the day started out with.. bossa nova breeze + mini percussion solo during assembly. haha. excused from class at 10.

full run. and a little incident that wasnt too nice but i felt that united the orch even more.

news that some pieces were taken out. but in the end it turned out fine.

tech run.

nap at home, dinner, reach school at 5:45.

the anxiety i tell you. lol. other concerts, i get to warm up in playing with the orch. this one dont have. other concerts got several pieces to screw up in. this concert only got a 3min 43s piece to make an impression haha. feels much better now though.

the orch. not looking at the conductor as usual; hasabe was okay.. i'm pretty sure the air con in the cpa which causes hands to freeze is the reason why jalousie, el bimbo and telok blangah (not to mention the school anthem also) to be rushed, some of the pieces almost to the extent of discomfort. but whats a guitar concert without rushing.

the lightning FOC. everyone was like.. 'how he play so fast one?!?' haha well done.

the orch members. standing up for what they believed in. keeping courageously silent. the usual efficient comm: Eugene, Ian, Andre, Edwin, Shaun Lim.

seeing friends, seeing people, groups of friends, people together; makes me reflect on how i invested my time in friends throughout these two years and the four before them. and i believe i've made a good handful of friends who i will keep in touch with for life.

seeing yingda and mx again. prelims in a wk, all the best to y'all :) as usual so much to talk about, so little time. haha. but watching a concert, that you play in, with your friends is a one in a lifetime experience. but next time i shall get shoes that dont make so much noise on exit haha.

the not having to pack up. haha. but overall i think that this concert has ended on a higher note than concerts like frets and the year i played aranjuez. probably cos it ended early and the guitar performers were more committed and less troublesome. somewhat.

the reminder that life in acsi is coming to an end. talking to ms audrey tay about guitar playing and catching up somewhat. talking to mr gaspar and ms ng about their music careers and studies, and discussing future opportunities. tinge of sadness when mr gaspar told me, 'so this would be your very last concert with the acsi guitar orchestra, yah?' this concert must have also one of the most enjoyable concerts for ms ng i guess haha. the debrief today must have been less painful than in the past.

yeap so thats my concert experience. Viva La Musica. no regrets.

Angelina

2007-08-03T16:37:00.000+08:00

angelina
come to your daddy's arms
angelina
i'll keep you safe in my arms
angelina
sit on your papa's knees
angelina
don't you go too far from me
angelina
don't you go too far from me
don't you go too far from me
-tommy emmanuel

2007-08-01T20:41:00.000+08:00

being a performer has its perks, but sometimes it just appears to be plain tiring.

it was great to be back in the presence of the GO again during rehearsal for FOA this friday, and, i'm pleased to say that i'm proud to belong to the ACS Guitar Orchestra :)

from the way things are easy going most of the time, the 'maximum output with minimum effort' mentality, all the way to seeing how andre's ego is still experiencing hyperinflation, to the lightning trio performance of FOC.

but of course tiring la.. practice until 7. poor things. makes me think back to the days of frets.. the organisation was tight cos those in charge were all friends and all knew the big picture quite well. we could also pull of more stunts back then like the please turn off your handphones intro, how deep is your love by year 5s, and of course the cartoon medley :P

ahh well. my fleeting 3 minutes and 43 seconds claim to fame this concert will be hard earned haha. waiting for 3 hours to play 3 minutes isnt really my cup of tea. sometimes i do wish i was still playing with the orch. nothing really parallels stuff like playing the 'head bobbing rhythms and driving melodies' of el bimbo, or playing in the action of a bach concerto. no matter how hard any preparation for a concert is, the feeling after the performance is always amazing.

yeap k then thats all for now.

2007-07-28T14:59:00.000+08:00

sleeping on a rainy saturday
afternoon for three hours really
wakes you
up :)

2007-07-25T19:54:00.001+08:00

so its the love for music that really matters?..

come to think of it yes, if i were the best guitarist in the world and could play anything but hated what i was doing, that would suck.

2007-07-22T21:30:00.000+08:00

all the best to zeke who is leaving tml. cool to see someone who is finally living his dream, even though it may just be a small part of it. hope i'll get to live my dream in some way too.. let alone for a guitarist who has never participated in a real competition, never performed at the esplanade, and who spends his post-atcl days playing tommy emmanuel. lol.

after working for so long at my pokemon emerald, the rom i downloaded was fitted with a bug that made it crash right after the credits when my altaria trumped elite four champion wally. and it saved the crashed game how bout that. maybe its a sign i should be playing less pokemon.

and theres no econs tml -.- i spent like the whole weekend chionging those 2 outlines and DRQ WITHOUT my notes lah.

masquerade -

2007-07-14T23:22:00.000+08:00

Paper faces on parade

. . .Masquerade

Hide your face,

so the world will

never find you

the most insane exam ever

2007-07-06T18:36:00.000+08:00

..is finally over!! and with the most insane exam comes the most relieved feeling ever.

music was alright i guess but it seems nowadays nothing's alright until you actually get the papers back. the maths teachers also decided to be kind to us to give us an okay paper 2 today.

FINALLY watched transformers today with zeke, justin, fattz, weihan, oswald and timmy. the action sequences are really quite good i must say. really enjoyed the movie. and i like the heroic one-liners that optimus prime makes. haha.

but of course there are shortfalls.. one of them being the inadequate development of the transformers characters themselves. action sequences that keep switching to humans are quite distracting. those people who watched the original tv series probably find the movie deviating a bit from the original storyline. but overall, its one of the best movies i've watched ever.

yeap. now its slack time. for a while at least.

i want to play in a steel band too!!

2007-07-04T16:35:00.000+08:00

while researching a bit on caribbean music, i found this little animation thingy on how to play a steel pan. steel pan is the thing that characterizes caribbean music.. think little mermaid. you can watch it too.. here it is: http://cnx.org/content/m12397/latest/SteelDrum.swf

now now, that's no reason to go bashing up your mum's pots and pans to go make music.

physics was absolutely killer, and i do mean absolutely, even though the questions were all taken from past year papers. the hardest qns of the past year papers that is. ah well. its back to music 'revision' now. cya.

2007-07-01T21:10:00.000+08:00

physics HL has to be the bane of IB life, ceteris paribus.

our last youth day holiday ever will be spent studying. hooray.

well at least most of us get compensated next monday. haha.

this upcoming music exam will say a lot. thats cos i'll only start 'studying' for music the day before. because of the treachery of physics.

a bit of pokemon emerald to soothe the mind a while. teehee

more musical thoughts

2007-06-29T23:17:00.000+08:00

money can buy a guitar,
but not technique.

money can buy scores,
but not the time to practice.

sometimes i feel that no one experiences the music as much as the guitarist himself. perhaps that adds to the beauty of the guitar. stay a while with a guitarist in an enclosed room and you will feel the true warmth and reverberated harmonics that are often lost in stage performance.

Carlo Domeniconi, the guy who wrote Koyunbaba, is a genius.

2007-06-27T15:10:00.000+08:00

Transformers the movie is released tml.

grr.

but apparently not to very rave reviews.

never mind.. 6th july.. after maths P2. haha.

econs today was.. well okay i guess. just that i spent too much time on question 3(c)'s AD/AS graph (it got messed up anyway, i labeled the x-axis qty), which left not much time for part (d). ah well. its over.

3 1/2 more to go.

2007-06-23T22:18:00.000+08:00

anddd..

as the last moments of the holidays fade away, i have decided that... i will not study for the last hours before school reopens. =)

at least this hols will be the last (well ok lah 2nd last) hols that arent really a hols. but ah well when we all start working the term 'TGIF' would never be stronger.

today was reading wikipedia about transformers (yes not the physics one). and found out that the storyline is very convoluted indeed. i didnt really follow the transformers tv series, but the one i watched during my time was beast wars.. the most coherent of all the hybrids. and so i'm looking forward to transformers the film when my exams end in two weeks time (even though it opens officially on 28th june -.-)

alright then. happy mugging!! mugger muggles. haha.

2007-06-22T17:09:00.001+08:00

hello again. okay i know this is a little late, but anyhows.

wednesday went to see the band concert (i think i can become ac band alumni.. i attend at least a concert a year for 6 years already haha). watching the performances kind of evokes a sense of nostalgia.. of my own performances: of leading, and of the retarded cracks pulled off on stage, of playing solo.

it's been 3 full months since the last concert, and i've reached a stage where i wonder whether i'll ever get to perform like i did again. i know i shouldnt be thinking this stuff since exams are coming up and i should be, well, studying.. but well.. i guess if you dont keep pushing yourself at something to the next level, theres only one way it can go: down. yeah yeah getting emo.

scherherazade was truly amazing, i heard it on cd once and was quite forgettable.. but its a different thing to be there and feel the music. but of cos the highlight has to be the brass sextet, eh? how often does acjc band get someone who does trumpet for first instrument.

what's next? 2 weeks of exams. haha.

maybe a live performance of angelina on classical? blah. haha.

2007-06-20T10:18:00.000+08:00

'Rural areas are surrounded by God's handiwork, continually reminded of what He has done. Maybe this is why faith is more common in rural areas.' Faith that God will provide for the crops that they grow, for the families they raise. Well they seem to have less than us, but I guess they don't have as much reason to worry so much about the tomorrow as us. God holds the weather and their livelihoods in his hands. We have much to learn from them.

'In urban areas it is human ingenuity that is constantly on display. Maybe this is why faith is less common, and despair more common, in the city...

2007-06-13T22:31:00.000+08:00

going away from tml to saturday again. thats 14 to 16th june.

so no out of point smses please, unless its really urgent =p

2007-06-10T21:07:00.001+08:00

one would have never imagined that i would be looking for an obscure language arts piece of notes or booklet that contained an analysis of soyinka's telephone conversation that was done in ms thiru's class in those years.

sigh too bad most of my sec 3/4 stuff was thrown away.. now i only have a half-analysed version of that poem.

not to mention 2 other blank poems by the same author which we're supposed to do for ioc.

someone help prease.

2007-06-04T09:58:00.000+08:00

hello again.

looks like the first wk of hols has passed.

on saturday me and justin did compo recordings at school's music studio.

my compo III shades of grey was recorded in about 4 or 5 parts, with many many errors. and i even got to record a part of it!! lol. how ironic that sibelius can play with better note accuracy than some (actually most) real musicians.

and justin tried and tried but couldnt record his britten. hahahaha. first round he almost got through but the piano man who came to fix the F# suddenly came in. lolz.

will be going to school soon for bartok. hopefully it wont be too draggy or i wont get hungry too soon. haha.

6 - 9 june will be in malaysia for church camp!

con camp

2007-05-29T21:35:00.000+08:00

well con camp so far has been quite fun... we've finally managed to complete bartok, and mrs li's lesson today was well.. extremely high.

complex numbers yesterday was oh so reminiscent of last year, light speed and not very high morale, and vectors today was also light speed. its all coming back slowly.. i hope. must practice the questions they gave.

if only school was like that.

but even at the start of the hols, i just know and feel theres no time already. i'm ready to forsake a few marks at mid years to push my ioc into safe waters. 10 poems, and 20 lear extracts.. thats a lot even if you mug 2 a day. which doesnt seem like its going to happen at the rate i'm going.

econs is probably going to be the most manageable at 4 chapters, maths needs practice, physics needs serious work, english is.. uh.. no comment, and music.. urh..... we'll see.

ns checkup tml. then after that its back to sch for more con camp fun.

AND IT'S HEEEEAH!!

2007-05-25T22:18:00.001+08:00

yes kids, school's out and its time to..

study.

but rest first lah.

the feeling of the arrival of another hols has never been so exhilarating.

2007-05-24T20:08:00.000+08:00

and the last day of sch is finally approaching!!

throughout this week the attitude of 'the holidays is coming, i'll wait till then to set things in order' has been growing. which isnt the best thing. but lets face it, we need a break from all the IAs and tests.

in reality, i dont have much holidays to study for common tests. 1st wk i intend to attend some of the maths con camp sessions, and music must also go back. 5 june theres psychometric test, 6 - 9 church camp. and if you minus all the sundays (i dont like to do work on sundays), that isnt a lot of time. plus i also intend to focus on the IOC extracts, cos i think at the moment thats more important. mastering the syllabus can wait just a little longer.

after today i think we really cant compare sports with music competitions. in sports your opponent is up close, tangible, and there can only be one winner. or well at least thats what it seems. you cant really have a 'spirit of music' going around where there can be many golds and things about other teams you enjoy. music competitions are essentially a competition against ourselves, pitting ourselves with our potential to improve. sports? hmm.

well then i think thats it for today. really looking forward to the holidays to rest.

classical music to impress, pop music to connect

2007-05-18T22:31:00.000+08:00

hello, its been some time. long post coming up.

apart from massive fussing over phys pracs and econs ias, and in the process churning out another at least 1600 words, we've found the time in school in between lessons to just sit down and play the guitar. and of cos saying hi to brendan who's birthday was on sunday ;)

going back to guitar to see whats going on (and to clear up cas) was quite an interesting experience, going back on tuesday and opening the m2 door to find a bunch of sec 2s and 3s playing soccer with a tennis ball was well.. interesting. i heard ms ng called off practice tho, mr gaspar wasnt around. going back on thursday, there was a much more serene atmosphere as compared to previous times. plus the interesting piece chung cheng was playing for syf. haha.

this week i've been reading the book 'boy meets girl', and its written by a certain Joshua Harris. what i'm posting here isnt the best representation of the book, if you all get a chance you should go read it.

in the environment around us, we see many couples and people who get attached. but for what reason? why get attached now? so as to 'try' people out?

well honestly, i think that 80% of these relationships would not last. at this age, we do not have the maturity, or the financial capability to sucessfully commit to a relationship that will lead up to marriage. i cannot say for sure about this because i have not been in a situation myself, but i feel that these relationships are based on selfish interests, and thats why they cannot hold. starting a relationship so early when we're not ready for it merely sets up a trap for disaster, where the friendship of two people are damaged because of sharing too much emotions with each other, because of impatience to want to get close to each other too quickly.

well sure there are some like siddhartha who say 'i wont know how it feels like until i've been through it', and thats another point of view worth considering; yes you can go ahead and try it now, but i feel that we all are answerable to God on judgement day; what we did with our life, and that includes our youth.

well i guess my complete view of the issue cannot possibly be summed up in 1 blog post, but i feel that we all should use our youthful energy for better things than pursuing relationships that will collapse.

2007-05-12T22:31:00.000+08:00

june hols are in 2 wks!!

had an interesting outing with a certain few people trying guitars at excelsior shopping centre.

acoustic guitars are really nice sounding instruments, especially those in the 1k+ range. but too bad my classical technique doesnt really allow me to play them ;)

and i tried a $950 guitar that sounds louder than my own lah. either 1) his shop's acoustics are very good 2) my guitar has degenerated or 3) both.

but nehmind lah. its technique that matters more than the instrument =P

2007-05-08T21:05:00.000+08:00

heyy.

i try not to study 1h before i sleep, cos if i do that i tend not to sleep well, because my mind is still racing something like a wrx sti or evo IX.

well done to the choir; the odds were not in your favour but u all did your best. and thats all that matters.

speaking of music, it appears that guitar orch will probably be quite different when it resumes, especially after syf. hopefully it will change for the better, and i'm quite optimistic it would. i just hope to see more effort on the part of the conductors, to develop not only the sound of the orch but also each individual guitarist as a true player. i don't mind if the orch can put off the learning of my (harder) arrangements if everyone can enjoy themselves and can really learn to be a good guitarist through playing simpler pieces. and of course i hope the teachers in charge would be more responsible and be there to help at the correct times.

i've also been thinking about the current music class. although i admit its not as cohesive as i'd like it to be, when i graduate i think i'd really miss all the music lessons we spent together. the masterpiece of bartok interspersed by out of point injections during ms ng's classes, the interesting world music (and comments) during mrs li's class, and how could i forget the lessons spent entirely on chasing people for homework.

but moreover i'd really miss the personality and talent of my classmates.. among them the ability to have perfect pitch to CHORDS, i wish i could have that any day; pianistic abilities and fingering techniques that far exceed mine, stunning knowledge not only in the classical genre but in jazz and pop too, and of course the emo music, inspiration of compo III, haha.

and even though i havent really started maths and the preparation for huckfinn and siddhartha test isn't looking too good, sometimes i think its just best to take the time off to relax a while.

the heat is crazy.

2007-05-06T20:16:00.000+08:00

muahahaha i've finally finished reading huckleberry finnnn.

the last part was really a drag, tom sawyer is really out of point. the ending too. but i've finished reading it, ALL 368 PAGES of it. that makes for the longestt book i've read since.. er.. harry potter and the goblet of fire.

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so

2007-05-05T18:28:00.000+08:00

hello again.

and so the first week of may is past. that makes us a little more than half into term 2. sleep patterns are almost back to normal, although they were never normal to begin with, and tests are swarming in, with phys and econs past and english and maths incoming.

but of course with more time on my hands, i must say that life isnt so hectic and stressful as it was, with syf and stuff. speaking of guitar, 1st mvt of classical symphony is past phase 1 - arranging and phase 2 - spacing the score. now is phase 3 - fingering, which will be the most sian thing to do.. but i'm quite sure it will help in learning to the piece to a certain extent. the producers of sibelius should come up with a programme to find the best fingering for a guitar piece. haha.

these days i've been saying that i'm disappointed that i dont have as much time to play guitar as last time, and i dont even dare to call myself a real guitarist with the amount of time i put into practising as compared to last time, but then again i've never had as much fun playing guitar in my life. my guitar is getting more seasoned and its tone has never been better; i can more or less sight read anything grade 5 and below, and i can revive any exam piece within a week. i guess its also more fun to not practice a piece to death like what we did with double violin and take the a train. i get to actually enjoy the music that is coming out of my guitar, as compared to last time during atcl where i was just tired of the pieces by the time of the exams.

so which one is better: to not reach your real potential and have the opportunity to play and enjoy imperfect music as an when you please, or to push yourself all the way to be able to make good music but having to put in all the hard work and even neglecting the enjoyment of the music?

frankly i dont know. but one thing's for sure: i probably wont cut it as a recording artist, at least not in the next 8 years or so.

and within the next two years, i'd probably lose 80% of my playing ability that i've accumulated. but at least i'd still have a cert and a few recordings to reminisce about.

and now, its back to huck finn. >100 pages to go!! almost there.

tommy emmanuel's angelina is a great piece, if only the power tab weren't so messy.

2007-05-01T08:20:00.000+08:00

you know, we all seem to be trapped. robbed of our freedom. kind of like huckleberry finn and jim.

trapped in the cycle of ib; no rest till the exams.

trapped to do ns.

trapped in society, where certain things go and certain things don't.

and who knows what. which makes one think, how much freedom of choice do we actually have.

of course theres always the usual periods of freedom, like june and dec hols, the occasional mc or public holiday, or even shingles during common tests.

anyways,

i can't seem to get past the exposition for the 1st mvt of classical symphony. too sian already lol. we need some funky stuff in the development.. power chords and strumming? lol.

the marshmellows in my hot chocolate melted.

i should study physics while i have a bit more time.

i want to play guitar.

2007-04-24T20:49:00.000+08:00

after reading a few other syf guitar participant's blogs, well i'm glad to say that the guitar scene in singapore is really picking up.

the spirit of music is there, (most) groups still keep the spirit up despite not meeting their expectations at the syf.

not to mention some groups that get gold with honours get to present themselves to the school during assembly (so cool), and are putting unnecessary pressure on other musical groups that are competing at a later date (haha mx and yd, dont so stress lah)

well and as for me, although i'm officially exempted from guitar practices for, well, forever.. the guitar ensemble will always be an integral part of my life (1.. 2.. 3.. awww) and ms ng is still chasing me for the cheque lol. perhaps i might come back and play a bit and do stuff with the guit orch, and also do stuff with mr choo's schools thats for sure.

it's kind of like my mode for expression. i've composed for piano, small chamber groups but really, i feel the greatest sense of achievement when i arrange something for guitar ensemble, regardless of whether people like or can play my arrangements or not. i can see the results the most immediately, and i can use my imagination to the max. but getting the imagined result is a different story of course. sometimes sibelius plays better than the real thing.

and the gavotta, 3rd movement of classical symphony is almost done. and for the first time, almost complete with fingering haha. let's see how far it can go.

and mann.. my standard of english is really dropping. relying too much on spell check already.

Guitar SYF 2007

2007-04-19T20:02:00.000+08:00

hey all.

so, it's finally over.

and yes my final few words to them is so true..

'you all were retards, are retards, and will be retards forever.'

but for those 10 or so minutes we were on stage (and a few rare moments during ALL the practice sessions we had), we put our retardedness on hold.

really, as i said, we don't deserve our award. it is probably by God's grace that i can leave the guitar orch with something sweet. God answered my prayer through all those tuesdays and thursdays that i was feeling so, so down, just praying that something good would come out of all my commitment.

but more importantly, i think those in the senior comm and a few other committed members of our orch deserved it. thx y'all.

but moreover, there are other things that are worth talking about.

1) choreography should be banned, really. i have ABSOLUTELY ENOUGH of fake smiles, head jerks that imitate flamenco dancers, hands that follow through when you pluck the string as if you're hitting a tennis ball with ur nail, and coordinated bobbing, and coordinated swaying, and who knows what. it's highly unethical, in my opinion. if you want to move to express yourself, do it naturally.

2) having a guitarist on the panel makes such a difference lol. this morning there were 4 gwh out of 20, and 5 out of 14 for jc cad. even though i didnt hear him say any words, or talk to him, i just get this feeling that he's a really nice guy. lololol.

3) hey junior orch, don't be so disappointed. you all did your best and i heard that today's performance was one of the better ones. and that's all that really matters. the judge's opinion is a poor measure of the amount of effort you all put in, and this goes for all the other sch's that are disappointed. really, you all are more disciplined, and i think you all sacrificed more time and effort for the competition than your senior group, so well done. thanks for playing my arrangement of prelude in gm well.

4) hey dun hao, it was really nice seeing you playing today with vjc, as the concert master, and b minor concerto soloist; you played real well. don't be disappointed with ur award okay? you did ur best and you know it. i could really see you all moving NATURALLY to brazillian street dance, and i think you all were really enjoying urselves. it doesnt matter if the judges think you all our not as good as other schools. ur ensemble spirit really showed through at the end, when you all gave that loud cheer despite ur disappointment. and that's all that matters.

5) also saw old guitar friends carl who's in acjc and joshua paundra who's in sajc now. haha take care y'all.

6) finally, i cannot help feeling extremely overjoyed for my guitar teacher, mr terence choo. his 3 schools were once left in a poor state by their previous conductors. but, today, all 3 schools received gold with honours. and mind you, st anthony's cannosian, acjc, and tpjc are the only 3 schools mr choo takes. that makes a clean sweep haha. i know how much mr choo worked for this syf, and how much effort he put into cultivating his students. he makes the effort to make sure everyone plays properly, no one finger antics or poor technique whatsoever. during the march hols, when i went to judge a mini competition he held, i just knew that we were no match for st anthony's cannosian. and indeed they've proven themselves. i'm really really glad that the judges looked beyond the fact that acjc were playing simpler pieces and didnt use percussion, but rather saw the extent of their neatness and expression. and they really do deserve their gwh, all 3 schs. even though they were competing against each other, at the end i noticed tpjc cheering for acjc. i will never forget the spirit of music mr choo carries, and creates. i'm sure mr choo isn't paid as highly as a lot of his peers, nor does he enjoy the normal type of life a doctor or lawyer or any other professional enjoys, but i'm sure on days like this, it's all worth it. congrats sir.

7) to all the philharmonic people, haha dont be too pressured k? ms ng told us that we were not supposed to let the news get out so quickly, later u all become very stressed. but somehow you all found out even before the senior admin. don't worry about the results, just play ur best. all the best for tml!!

finally, a post not about guitar

2007-04-13T17:49:00.000+08:00

haha one of the funny quotes of the day, from timmy:

"my first car will be a vios.. from my mom.

my 2nd will be an aston."

haha if only.

i guess it'd be cool to drive, but i dont think i'll be a fast driver. and neither do i think i'll own a very expensive car. but reading about fast cars and looking at pictures is fun enough haha. and its quite exciting to see one go by.. especially those loud lamborghinis.

2007-04-12T20:52:00.000+08:00

but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

today justin was telling me about how frustrating to try to communicate a point across to a group of people who're not willing to listen.. or worse make noise or even talk back to you.

i've reached a point where i have truly nothing to say.

well i was just playing through the compo/arrangement i made for mr choo last year, it's a theme and variations on As The Deer, and it starts off with the theme, then 1st variation with quavers and 2nd variation with semiquavers, and 3rd variation with a slightly whimsical mood. but in the 4th variation it goes into a minor key, and its definitely one of the darkest parts of music i've composed. then its back to the theme and a coda that ends magically with harmonics.

i guess i'm still waiting for the revert to the theme, and the magical coda. the reason i'm still hanging on is because there are people who i dont want to let down.. the senior com, and those who truly want to contribute to the cca. and of course ms ng, mr gaspar, mr balraj.

anyways.

i was thinking.. the group who truly wins the syf is the group that shouts and cheers the loudest when their results are announced, regardless of the award. we'll see. lol.

2007-04-10T21:03:00.000+08:00

so.

SYF is in 1 wk. i just really cannot wait for it to be over. then can go home on time on tues and thurs :P

2007-04-03T21:13:00.000+08:00

haha this is truly amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMZn7qKKQR0
heres the first link, everything else you need to see is linked on the right hand side column. to the person who posted this, thanks, you made my day :)

sometimes i really wonder what the point of all these worldly pursuits are. so much feelings involved.. and even if i revealed them all no one would really understand. maybe i just think too much.

but really.. correct me if i'm wrong.. music competitions/assignments should really be judged based on the amount of effort put in, and attitude towards the task. but of course thats seldom the case.

some pics to go, courtesy of weihan. thx :)

anyway, at the end of the day, i think one of the things i really will take away from all these experiences are the friends made. and the character moulded out of it.

and even though we couldnt watch each other's concerts (haha now you can watch mine now, at least bits of it), somehow i just get this feeling that the struggles we encounter with working with our music groups are so similar. well then all the best for ur push to syf. do ur best k? i'll do mine too.

2007-03-31T09:29:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

at this time i would like to take some time to say a few words on the first concert in the 6th year of my learning guitar. [edit: and this could very well be the last time i will play in a concert with the guitar orchestra. theres going to be FOA, but then again, theres the IBDP exams.]

the guitar has been a great friend to me, together we went through exams year after year, made several good friends, tried to attract the attention of girls, even brought tears to someone's eyes. my guitar teacher has said that music is like a journey.. kind of like life. and through life there are ups and downs, joy and sadness [edit: , major and minor keys (hurhur)].

i cannot say that putting together this concert was an easy task. Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians that we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power to overcome struggles is from God and not from us. Even though we are hard pressed on every side, we are not crushed, perlexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. through this challenge of putting together a concert, and many other challenges i have faced before, i have been moulded into a better person. And so are all the guitarists you have seen on stage today. i would really like to thank my wonderful fellow senior com members, [edit: who are not here, but i'd like to thank them anyway,] Eugene, Andre, Ian, Edwin, Shaun Lim. your commitment deserves a gold with honours, the highest award possible at the SYF.

finally, the last piece i would like to play for you is English Suite by John Duarte, which i played for my atcl. John Duarte was a chemist. he only left for full time music when he was 50. despite only having little formal instruction on the guitar, his passion drove him to teach himself music, and he became one of the greatest music commentators of the century. music is relevant to everyone's life, whether or not you have a background in music or not. and that is why, in the words of guitarist John Williams, the guitar is so powerful, because it can '"get in with both feet" to the music that is going on in our and almost anybody else's society; and in a way that belongs to the spirit of what almost all people feel in music'. John Duarte wrote the English Suite for Andres Segovia on his wedding, and is one of my favourite pieces. it has 3 movements (please don't clap in between movements), Prelude, Folk Song, and Round Dance. [edit: my piano teacher once said that if you play a slow piece really really well, you can put the examiner to sleep, but try not to lah.] so please sit back and enjoy the rest of the concert.

2007-03-29T21:01:00.000+08:00

so.

our guitar concert might actually turn out quite good.

we'll see how tml goes.

2007-03-21T17:58:00.000+08:00

so. blogger doesnt allow underscores for blog addresses now.

anyways sch today was quite okay.. first time i went back after like.. really long. still terribly sick tho.

let's see if i survive tml.

2007-03-19T12:16:00.000+08:00

great. i just had to fall sick on the first day of school.

anyway it was kind of expected.. with the temperature fluctuations, not enough time to rest during the holidays and my sis coughing and sneezing all over the place.

not to mention the anticipated stress.

well it all has to come crashing down somehow. theres no way i could have finished all my homework with a guitar camp, a wedding, and a day out during the holidays.

and theres no way i will survive this week if i try to attend all guitar practices, practice guitar on my own for the solos for the concert, meet all the deadlines for homework this week, and recover my health.

something in my schedule has got to go. i wonder what that will be. hmm.

so i shall sit here feeling like crap and not do anything for today. haha.

2007-03-16T19:00:00.000+08:00

ya know i've just re-read my previous post and i found that all this is kind of meaningless. kind of like the meaningless of life Solomon describes.

Eccl 5:18 - 20:
"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

i have enough of all this.

for the next practice, i'll just try to enjoy myself how about that. something that i havent done in a long time.

and its ready!! muahaha the piece for the year 6 item is ready, if we pull it off it will be a BLAST.

oh and by the way its a surprise. so pls try not to find out what it is if not the novelty factor wouldnt be as great. =)

Dear GOACS

2007-03-15T21:30:00.000+08:00

Dear GOACS,

after today, i have seen what Gold with Honours really is. even if i told you, you wouldn't understand anyway. the only way you would would be for you to be where i was today and watch the performance that joshua lim and i watched. Watched, heard, felt.

all i wanted to do was to do my best to get you all to play at the highest level possible. i'm sorry that i did not realise this earlier, when the problems were probably easier to solve.

perhaps its too late already. i can give no more pep talks to discipline you all already; they will just go in through one ear and come out the other, and would turn me into a bad guy.

since chances are that we wont win the highest award already, let's just try our best to give our all for the SYF. kenneth yeo, eugene, edwin, matthew, ian, andre, shaun lim, josh sum, shao wei, amos, shane, benlee, jon wong, john foo, lejon, jhan, timms, dalton.. we all have to play as one. demolish the apathetic acs pride and submit ourselves to create a unified sound.

i have heard the standard. and let me tell you that it was nothing short of perfect.

let's just put up a good fight. and then we can say with all our hearts that we've given our best. and then the award would not matter anymore, because we would be victors and recepients of the Gold with Honours award in our own right.

i know how ironic it is that whoever needs to see this will not.

so please, give me a reason to feel good about sacrificing my time, going through so much pain, and compromising on the technical prowess that i once had in the past year.

and to eugene, ian, andre, edwin, and shaun lim:
you all have, in your own right, won the Gold with Honours award already. thank you for your outstanding commitment. whatever the outcome of the syf, nothing will change that.

2007-03-11T18:11:00.000+08:00

i really do.

but maybe things just weren't meant to be. we'll learn from all this, thats for sure.

the lonely guitarist

2007-02-28T15:35:00.000+08:00

ya know, at times like this, i just wish i had yd and mx in music class with me again.

anyway, on a lighter note, guitar orchestra is FINALLY having a concert.

so pls come, it will probably be my last concert with the ACSI gtr orch, so yeah there will be solos (i hope). we'll be playing the usual ultra fast spanish stuff (that no one can play cleanly), and also come and hear the prelude in g minor (originally for piano, transcribed to gtr orch), quite a breakthrough, its starting to sound quite good (by junior orch though). also, expect some non-conventional songs (electric light orchestra), and a proposed piano concerto (proposed cos the orchestra hasnt even seen the score, and also because there are 10 guitar parts). featuring ms ng shau ching as soloist. lol.

k then thats all for now. tmls founders day woohoo half day.

2007-02-26T22:01:00.000+08:00

well i told myself i'd create a post today.

to cut a long story short, yes i did pass my ATCL.

but what is ATCL? what is it in the eyes of God? i was reading a devotion (in anticipation of a failure, my anxiety was getting to me) before mr choo arrived at 9, and it was about significance and achievements.

our worldly achievements do not make us significant in the eyes of God, and the only reason why we are significant is because we are his children. am i any more happy now that i have passed the exam? well i cant say i'm ecstatic. relieved.. but the heart has endless desires.

i really thank God for helping me through the difficult practice sessions that i went through last year, and for answering my prayers before the exam last year.

finally, i'd like to add another statement to my list of 'music is not's.

music is not about obtaining an ATCL certificate.

the things we do

2007-02-16T22:25:00.000+08:00

dear zeke,

haha i'm sure you'd allow me to post this pic, its really really funny.

one of the things i'll truly miss about my time in acs are the friends who are really true friends, who you can talk about anything under the sun with, who you can get high with anytime of the day, who are committed enough to sit next to you for every lesson, and to do stuff for you, and even still meet up and talk like it was just yesterday when we were classmates even though we aren't in the always in the same classes anymore.

and of course fool around and get laughing fits with the smallest of lame nonsense. haha.

ian, i am not a rainbow king and ur lucky i was intending to update tonight anyway.

2007-02-08T20:07:00.000+08:00

it's been some time since i had time.. and felt happy enough to update this blog. so perhaps a slightly longer entry today.

today was tok presentations, and i'm kinda glad i went first, got to present to some year 5s and also got the initial onslaught of a judging panel that was still fresh and rather alive (unlike towards the end). and after today, i must say, tok lessons (or specifically the tutorials) are one of the few things i will miss when i leave the school. moreover, i'll really really really miss having ms thiru as a teacher.

it's funny how we always complain about how tough things are at the moment, yet when we look back somehow we only remember the good things. hmm.

today we got back our music composition 3. and yes u can rant at me for my mark, but i realise that, really, if you've given ur best at ur compo, and you've expressed what you've really wanted to express, it is already a work of art when you hand it up. when it comes back with a mark, the only difference is that it now has the opinion of someone attached, and that opinion is made based on some rubrics put together by this thing called the IBO.

it doesnt really matter if the marks arent at the top, if someone thinks ur compo is the best he or she has ever heard you've succeeded already.

ok thats the thoughts for today after a very think-y day. cya.

2007-01-31T21:35:00.000+08:00

there are some things i want for my birthday that money cant buy and people cant give to me.

but for everything else theres friends :)

thanks for today.

2007-01-13T16:15:00.000+08:00

"Words are not good for the secret meaning, everything instantly becomes a bit different when we utter it, a bit adulterated, a bit foolish" - Siddhartha p. 126

there also seems to be a problem with the duality, or multi-facetedness of human beings.

and a problem with homework.

so until then, when i have more time or inspiration, so long, for now.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. - Matthew 24:35

2006-12-18T00:27:00.000+08:00

for your interest:
http://guitarhse.blogspot.com

2006-11-30T14:22:00.000+08:00

IT'S OVER!! and i just know i'm gonna get withdrawal from not practising guitar consistently after today.

having a blog is a good thing, cos you can see what happened for last year's exam with a click of the button. so off i went, in shirt, tie and pants, plus adidas jacket. and indeed the exam centre was cold.

but the exam room itself wasnt. at the end i was sweating.

anyways, today i was as prepared as i could be, letting the learning curve go down a little after one day of rest and then kicking it up again. to my surprise i saw mr azmi (who my guitar teaches) there, taking his grade 2 exam. haha he was quite nervous.

and in the end yingda and mx came!! haha thx for coming manz. altho i got kicked out of a studio cos they dint allow me to warm up in there, -.-, they still let me practise softly outside the exam room. i played through a few studies and through my composition theme and variations on as the deer, which evokes so much emotion, and then it was time to go in (albeit a bit of delay from problems with the examiner's MD player.)

another unlikely area i was prepared in is that i had already seen who my examiner was, saw him yesterday at st anthony's cannosian secondary school when i went to pick up a score from my guitar teacher, and altho him seemed a bit dao ytd, today he didn't remember seeing me yesterday at all and was very nice today. haha.

what i remember is: normal performances of la catedral and recuerdos and capricho arabe, a bit jammed in magic flute, and a slight memory lapse in english suite, and stopping the last chord a little too hard lol. too happy its over already. so once again my conclusion that there is no best performance, if ur prepared enough you dont need luck to pull u through, cos you'd be performing about a mean. and if the examiner gives u a choice where u want to sit, choose a place where u cant see him when you're playing haha.

and the funniest thing was that it was my left arm biceps that cramped today, hold the hand in playing position for too long alr. lol.

acjc band concert tonight. i've watched more band and choir concerts than i have given guitar recitals.

Thank you God.

2006-11-28T19:18:00.000+08:00

being a good musician isn't all about being able to play all the correct notes.

it isn't about fame

it isn't about how many cds you've recorded

it isn't about how good a conductor you are

it isn't about how many tours you've gone on

it isn't about the amount of musical knowledge you have

it isn't about receiving an mep scholarship

it isn't about receiving an atcl certificate

it isn't about studying music at university

it isn't about winning many competitions

there are so many things being a musician really isn't about.

what's most important about a good musician is the heart.

the ability to touch others lives through music

the dedication

it doesn't matter if you only touch a handful of lives

or give an imperfect performance

it is about the relationships built. the inspiration shared.

i don't know if music is eternal. but one thing's for sure, the things that are not seen, like the human soul, and relationships are.

some of the things you see above under what being a good musician isnt about are what my heart desires. but after today, it all doesn't matter anymore. because i have found my purpose for my music.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." - matthew 6:33

2006-11-27T12:18:00.000+08:00

3 days to the exam.

in the past week i've learnt several things. if you practice consistently you are bound to play around an 'average' standard. depending on luck (and length of nails) sometimes a bit better, sometimes not so. so i console myself that i dont need to be nervous during the exam, not that nervousness will help me to suddenly play without wrong notes or what.

piano teacher gave me a suggestion: give a performance once every fortnight.

results i presume would be fantastic. but i'd have to quit sch and soon i'd be growing white hair.

anyways next year i shall be putting music on hold for a while while i give my studies a chance. maybe not so much guitar a wk already.

and all u violinists/cellists out there, if you happen to be playing any bach movements that segovia recorded, go listen, cos i think he's brilliant.

never mind the excessive rubato.

2006-11-22T23:02:00.000+08:00

after yesterday's post, i'm glad to say that a good rest does help.

today's bowling was absolutely hilarious, and woohoo i got a score of 155 for my first game!! the highest i can remember for quite some time. quite siao lah to go play bowling exactly a wk b4 my atcl but heh just dun need to go swinging 15 pound balls arnd can alr.

after trying a few times to record myself, i can safely say that a perfect recording by your own standards is impossible. every time u play the piece will be different, even by a nuance, by a nanosecond. thats what gives music its human touch that is just not present in computer generated music. besides, i'm sure the guys at the recording studios have some software that can cut up a part of the piece where u made a mistake and paste in a repairment. ok lah thats just a statement to console my playing standards.

k then so to all those people taking music exams, do practise consistently, but its okay to take a break now or then.

preferably no longer than a day. lol.

2006-11-21T20:37:00.000+08:00

to be honest, i'm just dead tired.

two hours a day already so hard. hai.

8 more days. i just need to gain back my urge to play guitar. its not that i cant play the pieces now, i felt like i've lost my soul.

too much of anything isnt really good. i need some break away from The Four Pieces.

and for the love of dvorak 9th, i think i shall not continue my transcription of a dvorak 9th medley for guitar orch.

or shall i.

anyway i cannot think of anything good to transcribe for guit orch, and have no inspiration to compose. i hope gaspar comes up with something good. anyway was speaking to mr choo, and he thinks its better to play a piece that is managable instead of doing a phenomenal leap to something we cant master. i think double violin is a good piece, but we would need A LOT of practice. playing the notes is not enough.

ok enough. i need to rest.

2006-11-16T22:58:00.000+08:00

i've been missing from the blog for a few days.. quite an eventful few days i must say.

monday. went to acjc in the morning to give a run of my atcl repertoire for the acjc guitar ensemble. also helped mr choo teach a bit. must say that the run at acjc was probably one of my best ever. really on form.

then mr choo persuaded me to go to tpjc to give my recital again. 'get it done with' he said.. so i dun need to go up on another day. and so i went. and ugh tired but still managed to pull through without any devastating errors.

on the way back mr choo managed to persuade me to help him teach the next day, so heres what happened on tuesday. first went to st anthony's cannossian sec sch to help teach. i shant say much but if the examiner gets bored listening to all those grade 1 and 2 students, imagine what i was listening to some of them play their pieces for me. and then imagine what mr choo goes through much of the time. mannnnn.

after that headed to mgs, the sister school, where the first batch of 9 students pioneering the guitar group there had lesson, for some of them the last b4 their exam. this group was special cos they're mep students as well, and i've been inside the room 'MEP 1' in mgs.. so got some stories to tell to the music classmates.. it smells by the way. of air freshener and old carpet combined. about the students, well once again i shant say much haha. i guess my story as an mep student and guitarist applies to them the most, hope they took away something from my playing even though i was so tired that i added an extra rondo section to the last movement of english suite.

yesterday was spent slacking. a well deserved slack. teaching is TIRING.

well anyway even if i dont become a teacher, the guitar will be my friend for life anyway. did i mention that teaching is unbelievably tiring?

and today. before i talk about today, you know, guys dun shop a lot, but honestly i think guys at the end of the day spend a lot more money than women. take my shoes for example.. one pair of mine can buy up to six pairs for my mom. okay but thats beside the point.

today i wanted to go to the city hall area to buy 1) recording equipment i.e. a mike and an mp3 player with a mike line in 2) new guitar strings to change to make sure nothing excessively interesting happens during my atcl, lets say for example a string breaking 3) this cool maple capo i saw at davis guitar 4) any cd with a segovia recording of bach's chaconne

so first the recording equipment. i knew exactly where the mike was, just needed a device. i was pretty sure creative mp3 players had a line in for a mike, and ended up almost pissing one of the Challenger service staff off cos i kept insisting that creative mp3 players did have a line in. but they dint. sigh. anyway to cut a long story short i dint buy any recording equipment.

then went to buy the only two things i bought today on my own.. the guitar stuff. HMV classical guitar section = useless. espl library guitar section = useless. btw espl lib doesnt accept cash lah. -.-

so went back feeling pretty unaccomplished. but went to check out a new guitar shop that opened to the violin shop at esplanade. quite an okay selection of guitars i guess.. but somehow i dun think they maintain their guitars veri well. i think maestro at peninsula plaza still the best. partially cos i like their staff haha. and of course i havent tried the thomas liauw shop at the ululified east coast roxy square.

then this evening went to look around audio house with my father. shopping with my father is still the best cos 1) he has a car 2) he has resources to buy stuff 3) he knows a lot more than me about where to buy good stuff. managed to buy a stereo voice recorder for $239 and the recording quality with the built in mike was quite stunning already. i tried to record with mr choo's condenser mike and the result was so freaky cos even segovia dint have this sorta technology in his time. and now we can get the same effect for slightly under $350. and lots of other modern amenities like the ability to copy and enhance and etc. the power of technology.

tml going out with yingda and mx. and will be dragging them on a tour of city hall area again, cos i want to go back to funan and buy that powerful mike and then go to esplande with a CASHCARD to get premium membership.

phew.

2006-11-12T22:48:00.000+08:00

now this is what i'm talking about. lol. now lets go find one with sympathetic strings.

2006-11-12T22:34:00.000+08:00

1) yes i definitely agree that classical guitars could use some kind of device to help with the sustain
2) i'm starting to agree more and more that a bunch of 10 guitars playing in unision together is rather grotesque
3) i'm also starting to agree that the problem with guitar ensembles is the lack of tone colour
4) the guitar could use some sympathetic strings. maybe that will increase the sustain
5) one day we'll all be playing in a guitar orchestra where each person will have his own individual effects pedal. that way guitar orchestras will be able to play tone poems and debussy.

2006-11-11T17:35:00.000+08:00

oh dear.

rainy days arent very good for practising guitar unless you're feeling down and broken and feel a deep need inside to express your sorrow which i currently dont, my body chose to take the afternoon off and have a nice long nap, disengaging the snoozes all the way.

just now's piano lesson was rather interesting, and my piano teacher's really amazing (he taught the rj keagen b4, remember the huanghe piano concerto mvt 1 soloist?) but of course lack of practice makes lessons rather uncomfortable. but today i did show him my first compo that i finished after reading the book on composition, and i did try to play it but of cos i'm no real pianist, i need someone else to play it for me, but then wud that person be able to express the emotion as well? hmm.

well basically he did give me some insightful views on how some of my performance directions didn't really link with the music, but also told me he wasn't in a position to talk about compositions in depth. but he did tell me something at the end that i've felt for quite long.. that even though compositions need to have melody, rhythm, structure and form and all.. it shudnt be so extreme that only a small handful of highly educated musicians and critics can understand u only. sure my music hasnt had such a wide outreach yet, now i just feel the need to touch just one person with each piece of music, every additional person is a bonus.

but at the same time i feel the need for people like tommy emmanuel, or even wang li hong haha. (one has no formal musical training but lots of soul and music from the heart, the other has formal jazz training i think and not scared to incoporate it into his music). to develop my own style, my own language.

when i've got more time. lol.

oh btw if u all are wondering i'll be attempting composition for our 2nd syf piece. havent got much out yet, most is still in my head (thats cos nxt prac is on 27th dec lol). but to not keep u all in such suspense, well i'm thinking along the lines of minimalist, dun worry it'd be fun. my idea is to have different sections where the number of choices of motifs for each guitarist to play varies, like that there'll be structure and form and climax. the motifs are what i need, and i need lots of funky ideas of weird sounds that can be produced on the guitar haha.

yeap. signing off.

2006-11-10T23:30:00.000+08:00

three days. and i've reached the end of double violin concerto in d minor. after approximately 9 hours of practice. i'm glad its not ringing in my head anymore. lol. but of course theres still quite some way to go.. it is, after all a double VIOLIN concerto, obviously not made for guitar with what i'd call 'uneconomic' positions.

and its just 20 more days to atcl and the long practice hours are starting to show through in my pieces, hurray. well mr choo says 2h is the 'bare minimum' for someone taking atcl, he was practising 4 - 6h a day, partly cos he was taking something like his grade 8, perf cert, atcl, and something all together? lol. but at stages like this the pain from the fingers isnt really what causes holes in the music, (besides having nails of inadequate length) if the mind is too tired then it is difficult to pull through too.

anyway next time if i dont go into performance i want to look into composing for the classical guitar, with a harmonic language that can reach out to more people. its not that the pieces i play are not nice or what.. but i feel that something that is in the language of popular music would be able to make classical guitar music easier to relate to, something along the lines of tommy emmanuel, but of course on a different instrument.

but of course only if i dont pursue performance. haha normal musicians seem to be able to pursue only one area in depth, performers arent really composers arent really conductors arent really teachers. except for bach perhaps.

okay thats enough musical talk from me for now haha. no more school till 27th dec!! woohoo.

2006-11-09T18:49:00.000+08:00

double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin
double violin

gah.

2006-11-06T17:49:00.000+08:00

some pertinent learning points from today's recording. which i was totally wasnt prepared for because of lack of practice, lack of finger strength, lack of nail length, and of course it wud be nice if the recording equipment were easier to set up.

1) the problem is often not with the machinery. theres probably a switch somewhere thats not turned on which some joker turned off.
2) the brain is like a computer.. limited memory. u can save more stuff onto the brain, but the brain inevitably overwrites older files that are not often used.

that said, i'm terribly disappointed at a rather unproductive afternoon at school. from this week on it is time to become a nolifer guitarist and just play 4 pieces over and over again, and technique. its time to put away the bach, cos its taking up too much memory space.

24 more days. thats about 3 1/2 wks.

2006-11-02T20:08:00.000+08:00

woohoo!! chinese B exam is over!!

i really thank God for seeing me through the papers today even though i was totally exhausted after a poor night's rest. it looks like i dint really make any startling careless mistakes, and in my compo i used 10 cheng yus!! lol. i cudnt help it.. once an approriate one came into my mind i just decided to stick it in a sentence.

and after the exam we went out doing something quite ironic. haha but i shan't say.

yeap so that puts a stopper in the flow of exams for this month. nxt one is on 30th nov, the all important guitar exam.