Long time has passed since the last post. Orchestra concert went ok. Some good stuff here and there. Gonna ask Hans for the video. Attended quite a lot of concerts in the past week actually; my students from Greenridge and Dunearn, EDQ and NAFA Horns. Really happy to see my students so eagerly put up concerts. For me, I'm really happy and feel warm when I see them enjoying themselves and also having such big support from their schoolmates and teachers. Also, these concerts are for their respective school's pocket money funds, so it's great that they are performing for a charitable cause! EDQ and NAFA Horns concert had lots of good stuff but being me I naturally expect more. I really hope the scene continues to improve and years down the road it'll be more common to hear good music in the local concert halls.

With all honesty, I haven't been really satisfied with any of the ensembles I've been performing with recently, except OMM. I can't say for sure if my expectations are high. All I simply ask for is for people to care for their parts. Care for its rhythm, pulse, articulation, dynamics and pitch. Care for your sound in relation to the ensemble, intonation, togetherness. These are the basics we all have to grasp as much as possible. Other really important things are to adapt to new tempi, intonation, articulation, style, nuances and to admit when you're wrong. I find myself not performing at my best when I play with people who simply don't care. I know it's an excuse but it just puts me off to that point. I'm not perfect, but I do show care, do my best to be open, offer as much help as possible but if one doesn't help himself by caring, how can others help? If this passes off as arrogance, fine, I can always just shut my mouth, probably walk away or something. I've resigned from the various ensembles because of this reason. This gives me extra time to become a better player for the ensembles that demand that high level of playing, and saves me the frustration of hearing stuff from people who don't give a damn and worse still, think they play not just right, but good. Really irritating.

Ok, rant over. Now to move on to cool myself down. I'm really enjoying the times we spend now. I understand more now and that really saves me a lot of headache. I just hope it gets better and we can really enjoy ourselves!

Alright, that's all for now. Will be performing tomorrow with the trombone quartet. It'll be part of a chamber music exam and repertoire hasn't been confirmed as it'll only be picked by the jury on the day itself. Honestly, I'm not recommending this concert but if you're interested, feel free to drop by. Ok that's really all. Goodnight world!