Rehearsal run at Raffles Institution has come to an end! Now back to rehearsing in town from today onwards for TPO and OMM. Today TPO ran through the concert program and I got to play the entire repertoire because the other bass trombonist wasn't there and it's really fun stuff! Glad I had the opportunity to play everything!
Now, on to a more serious note. I believe I have blogged about this before but it was brought up again. Music is a team effort. Playing in an orchestra obligates you to submit to the common good of making good music together. We have to listen, we have to react, we have to accept differences and submit to them accordingly, we need to understand what we are playing, we need to be open to communication without speaking. Performing music is not the easiest of careers, but when done as a sincerely collaborative effort from every member in the group, the product is just spectacular not just musically, but emotionally as well. People who have truly experienced this will know it. I probably have not experienced a total collaborative and well-initiated effort but I've had good times before and there should be no reason why anyone should ignore this mentality when playing in a group. I hope we can have more fun making music and less emotional struggling to deal with uncooperative and/or selfish people who work against progress. Let us all spread the teamwork mentality for music-making!
Sunday 30 December 2012
Sunday 23 December 2012
Back from concert 3/3 within 7 days at Esplanade!
It has been a good week of concerts I must say and I'm very happy to have played for all three concerts. From rocking it out with Philwinds at the pop concert, to very fine wind band playing at Windstars and a very interesting concert in which I played for my first time at the choir gallery of the Esplanade Concert Hall at Philyouth's 10th Anniversary concert, it has been great fun. Here are some photos from the Philyouth concert I just played in:
It has been a good week of concerts I must say and I'm very happy to have played for all three concerts. From rocking it out with Philwinds at the pop concert, to very fine wind band playing at Windstars and a very interesting concert in which I played for my first time at the choir gallery of the Esplanade Concert Hall at Philyouth's 10th Anniversary concert, it has been great fun. Here are some photos from the Philyouth concert I just played in:
Now a short break for Christmas and then back to work with TPO for the New Year's Eve Gala concert! Now that I've just received scores for the OMM Prom concert, I shall be checking them out. Till next time, bye!
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Just came back from rehearsal with the Windstars Ensemble. It has been a while since I have played wind band classics at such high quality and I mean, we were sight reading today! It was a really cool opening to the project for me and I enjoyed every bit!
The Philwinds pop concert was a success and I'm really glad to have been part of the project for the 2nd time! I was really glad to see so many attendees of the concert and the general atmosphere was really high and enthusiastic. Although my chops and lungs were on the verge of failing because of a long rehearsal and a tiring commute in the rain to Esplanade, I survived the night!
Alright, I'm getting lazy to type further and I'm getting sleepy too so goodnight world!
The Philwinds pop concert was a success and I'm really glad to have been part of the project for the 2nd time! I was really glad to see so many attendees of the concert and the general atmosphere was really high and enthusiastic. Although my chops and lungs were on the verge of failing because of a long rehearsal and a tiring commute in the rain to Esplanade, I survived the night!
Alright, I'm getting lazy to type further and I'm getting sleepy too so goodnight world!
Thursday 13 December 2012
I brought home a new device today and it is.......
Yes it's the iPhone 5! Am totally loving it so far! After an hour long wait in the queue and what felt like another hour more to get the phone itself, I finally got hold of it! I really like how thin and light it is but at the same time, how strong and sturdy it feels in the hand. The screen is really good (colours are better and it feels nearer to you), camera is as good as ever, new earphones are nice and fits more securely in my ear (left side still wobbly; it's probably me because the previous Apple earphones also kept dropping on the left). Most of all, the performance of this thing is really really good. I played Asphalt 7 just now and the frame rates were so high! It really is amazing. To add to that, there is LTE in town! I felt so happy to see the LTE icon appear while I was in school! It appears to be throttled by Starhub because I didn't get anything past 12GB/s download but hey that's pretty quick already. It was the main reason why I decided to switch to the 5. The 4S served me really well but this new iPhone really changes everything. Yes iOS is ageing but heck, the quality and quantity of apps I get, the seamless connectivity with my Mac and iPad, the sheer performance of the device, it just doesn't deter me from continuing with Apple. My aim is to stick with this phone for at least 2 years no matter what comes up so hopefully it lasts! So till next time, goodbye world!
Yes it's the iPhone 5! Am totally loving it so far! After an hour long wait in the queue and what felt like another hour more to get the phone itself, I finally got hold of it! I really like how thin and light it is but at the same time, how strong and sturdy it feels in the hand. The screen is really good (colours are better and it feels nearer to you), camera is as good as ever, new earphones are nice and fits more securely in my ear (left side still wobbly; it's probably me because the previous Apple earphones also kept dropping on the left). Most of all, the performance of this thing is really really good. I played Asphalt 7 just now and the frame rates were so high! It really is amazing. To add to that, there is LTE in town! I felt so happy to see the LTE icon appear while I was in school! It appears to be throttled by Starhub because I didn't get anything past 12GB/s download but hey that's pretty quick already. It was the main reason why I decided to switch to the 5. The 4S served me really well but this new iPhone really changes everything. Yes iOS is ageing but heck, the quality and quantity of apps I get, the seamless connectivity with my Mac and iPad, the sheer performance of the device, it just doesn't deter me from continuing with Apple. My aim is to stick with this phone for at least 2 years no matter what comes up so hopefully it lasts! So till next time, goodbye world!
Wednesday 12 December 2012
Another tiring day. And I really should get those waterproof boots soon! Anyway, there have been some happenings over the past 2 days and here goes.
Philwinds rehearsed with singer Charlie Lim this past Sunday. He is really talented and is someone who know what he wants artistically. He spent a great amount of time making sure that the rhythm section especially are able to get the groove right and he also has strong opinions as to how the band should play. Although I can't hear him really clearly even with the amplifier, he sounds like a very good singer too! I'm looking forward to performing with him and listening to the recordings so that I can hear his vocals clearly!
I just came back from sectionals with the TPO trombone section and it is sounding great! I haven't heard such clear rings from a section this consistently in a long time! I'm really looking forward to playing with these guys again after Christmas. Also, after a month of playing pop stuff, the repertoire for TPO is really satisfying! Can't wait to play again!
Alright that's all for now! I have 3 free days till the Philwinds rehearsal on Saturday. Till then, more work to do! Goodnight world!
Philwinds rehearsed with singer Charlie Lim this past Sunday. He is really talented and is someone who know what he wants artistically. He spent a great amount of time making sure that the rhythm section especially are able to get the groove right and he also has strong opinions as to how the band should play. Although I can't hear him really clearly even with the amplifier, he sounds like a very good singer too! I'm looking forward to performing with him and listening to the recordings so that I can hear his vocals clearly!
Alright that's all for now! I have 3 free days till the Philwinds rehearsal on Saturday. Till then, more work to do! Goodnight world!
Sunday 9 December 2012
ChilAid 2012 is over! It was a really good show of Mothership for the final night. Probably the best performance of the piece by OMM so far. It was enjoyable! Now, one more week till the Philwinds Pop concert next Sunday. After that, I can't wait to get back to classical stuff with TPO's New Year's Eve Gala concert! Nice stuff planned in! Following that next year will be the OMM Prom featuring Rhapsody in Blue, Crazy Girl Overture and many more American favourites! Nice 2 months ahead! And while I'm at it, I'll have to start getting into my recital pieces and final year excerpts. Also a good time for me to research as much as I can about pieces and improve aural, maybe exercise (hmm...) and enjoy things in life while I have a bit more time and less stress. Alright, time to get back to practising. Goodbye!
Saturday 8 December 2012
First day of ChildAid 2012 done! Was quite a blast! Mothership could have been a lot better but oh well, one more shot at it. One thing I would really like later is that we can leave as soon as the show is over because we have been doing too much overtime for the past 3 days.
During the performance, I heard the sad news of the passing of NAFA's Vocal studies teacher, Mr. Lim Shieh Yih. Though I have not received any direct training from him, I have heard his wonderful tenor singing while I was in the choir. It was a Chinese song and he was asked to sing the solo part and it was really an eye-opener and I'm very glad to have at least heard his inspirational singing. May you rest in peace Mr. Lim.
Alright, time to go sleep. Goodnight world!
During the performance, I heard the sad news of the passing of NAFA's Vocal studies teacher, Mr. Lim Shieh Yih. Though I have not received any direct training from him, I have heard his wonderful tenor singing while I was in the choir. It was a Chinese song and he was asked to sing the solo part and it was really an eye-opener and I'm very glad to have at least heard his inspirational singing. May you rest in peace Mr. Lim.
Alright, time to go sleep. Goodnight world!
Thursday 6 December 2012
One of the least comfortable days so far in the holidays is over. I woke up, had potato chips for the first thing I ate, it rained heavily and I panicked over a pay issue, rehearsal wasn't the most inspiring. But no matter, shall wake up in the morning and strive for a better day!
It was my first time at the MBS Grand Theatre so here are a few pictures from rehearsal:
It was my first time at the MBS Grand Theatre so here are a few pictures from rehearsal:
This was as the orchestra was first seated and trying to get comfortable. We were then told to leave the stage so that the crew can set up the mics. This took about 1 hour. First impression is of course what a waste of time this is, I mean, the mics could be set up earlier and just do the adjustments. But, Seating itself was a problem and had the mics been there already, it would have created more problems so I guess this was the only way around it.
This is OMM's showpiece for the night, Mason Bates's Mothership. It is scored for orchestra, electronica and soloists and it is one of the most interesting orchestral pieces I've ever played! The electronics are really cool and the rhythms are really catchy. Here's a link to the LSO's playing of this piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0K1kJOins4
OMM rehearses Mozart's Concerto for 3 pianos. The soloists are winners of a Steinway competition and this is their showcase.
So yup, these are shots from rehearsal. I hope tomorrow's rehearsal will be more productive, inspiring and settling because it is the last one before the actual concert! Alright, goodnight world!
Sunday 2 December 2012
Back from another night of rehearsal. It will be another 7 days worth of rehearsing at night! At least I feel that I'm coping well with my current routine of waking up early enough to feel fresh and do my warm ups and routines on the instrument. Rehearsal was fun indeed especially with most of the orchestra present. As usual, the lineup of performances include solos by very young kids who you probably couldn't imagine holding full-size instruments and playing them with technical abilities so high for their age. It really impresses me. I hope these kids will grow to be mature musicians and people who will successfully promote and advance the art.
It has been over a year that I've owned my first Apple product, my MacBook Air and since then I've acquired more products with the iPhone 4S and the 3rd generation iPad. Perhaps it's time I write a small review of my devices. My MacBook Air was bought at a time when my Acer laptop was simply not comfortable to use anymore hardware-wise. It's battery could no longer last more than an hour before it reached its 3rd full year of use, a laptop cooler has to be placed below when I'm watching videos, not talking about games yet. In fact, it couldn't run games better than my old desktop I used as a young boy. So I looked up what other laptops that could be a good replacement for the Acer. I chanced upon the MacBook Air. At that time, my impression of the MacBook Air wasn't really positive. Word had gone around at its launch that the ports are not accessible enough, the performance is not good, it overheats, etc., so the first impression wasn't so good. But after reading reviews, which is something I have not done then because I didn't know they exist, I realise it's a very good computer indeed and the starting price for the 13 inch was below $2000 (which was the budget my dad set when I was shopping for my first laptop; the Acer costed $1200). So then I heard from my classmate that Apple will be releasing an update to the current MacBook Air to feature the latest processors, and quite importantly, a backlit keyboard on the Air. So true enough, they released the update and I got my dad to get me one. When I got it, it was a delight. A laptop this thin, light, fast, and stable and still under $2000. It cost $1638 after the student discount. Till this day, I believe it was one of the best purchases in my life. It probably has, but I do not remember the computer crashing on me. There of course have been hiccups here and there but none that affected me as much as the Acer. I don't need to keep it over a cooler and the battery lasts 7 hours even today. So now, I'm a musician, I don't game a lot (in fact, there are no games on my computer now), I don't often do processor intensive tasks very often; I use the computer to generate essays, music notation on Sibelius 7, presentations and also to check my mail, be a hub for my media (it lives on my external hard drive due to lack of space, I'll get to this later), surf the web and also organise my life and work with calendar, reminders and a note app. So my typical usage is not heavy. Every one of these tasks just operates smoothly on the computer, there hardly is any system lag and I should be right in attributing that to the SSD. That's really great and I really appreciate the speed at which my computer can get things done. However, when I was in the market for it, my storage demands were not high at that time; I used less than 128GB on my Acer not counting the games. So I thought I could live with 128GB that comes on the base model of the Air. Turns out that as I become more serious in collecting music and operas especially, my iTunes library just got really big. Now this would not have been an issue if Sibelius weren't on my computer. Unfortunately, I find it a very useful app to have and it doesn't make sense to have it on an external hard drive so I migrated all my music and videos to the hard drive. Now, that's all fine until you have to sync your iDevices with iTunes and if you forget to plug in your hard drive, it creates a new iTunes folder in your computer and sets the iTunes destination folder there. You would then have to change the settings and wait for the computer to consolidate the library in the hard drive again. My library is probably still tolerable (it's close to 50GB) but if you have anything larger, the time taken will be so long! It's an inconvenience. So, moral of the story is, if you foresee yourself needing more space in the future for whatever reason, please choose a higher storage option. For my next laptop, I'm definitely getting more storage. Other than that, I really have nothing to complain about the computer. I hook it up to a 21.5 inch external display for more screen so that I can be more efficient when I work because sometimes I really need two or more windows open. The trackpad in my opinion is much better than any other laptop I've put my hands on. It is so good that I have never considered buying a mouse. The keyboard is good to use and the backlight (which I'm using now), is really handy in the dark. I also use the SD card slot often as I transfer recordings from my recorders often. Overall, as a computer, it has served me very well for the past year. I do not feel it is getting slower, the battery life is still very good (I don't bring my charger with me usually; only if I know I'm going to do processor-intensive work for a long time), built-in software is really useful and most sync with iCloud and the design and build is really good. All in a very justifiable price tag. I am really happy with my computer and carrying it with me almost everywhere I go because it is so light! I hope the hardware lasts and by the time I feel it starts the downhill, Apple would have made a very good computer with an even more attractive price tag. I'll provide reviews of my other devices soon!
Alright, really sleepy now, so goodnight world!
It has been over a year that I've owned my first Apple product, my MacBook Air and since then I've acquired more products with the iPhone 4S and the 3rd generation iPad. Perhaps it's time I write a small review of my devices. My MacBook Air was bought at a time when my Acer laptop was simply not comfortable to use anymore hardware-wise. It's battery could no longer last more than an hour before it reached its 3rd full year of use, a laptop cooler has to be placed below when I'm watching videos, not talking about games yet. In fact, it couldn't run games better than my old desktop I used as a young boy. So I looked up what other laptops that could be a good replacement for the Acer. I chanced upon the MacBook Air. At that time, my impression of the MacBook Air wasn't really positive. Word had gone around at its launch that the ports are not accessible enough, the performance is not good, it overheats, etc., so the first impression wasn't so good. But after reading reviews, which is something I have not done then because I didn't know they exist, I realise it's a very good computer indeed and the starting price for the 13 inch was below $2000 (which was the budget my dad set when I was shopping for my first laptop; the Acer costed $1200). So then I heard from my classmate that Apple will be releasing an update to the current MacBook Air to feature the latest processors, and quite importantly, a backlit keyboard on the Air. So true enough, they released the update and I got my dad to get me one. When I got it, it was a delight. A laptop this thin, light, fast, and stable and still under $2000. It cost $1638 after the student discount. Till this day, I believe it was one of the best purchases in my life. It probably has, but I do not remember the computer crashing on me. There of course have been hiccups here and there but none that affected me as much as the Acer. I don't need to keep it over a cooler and the battery lasts 7 hours even today. So now, I'm a musician, I don't game a lot (in fact, there are no games on my computer now), I don't often do processor intensive tasks very often; I use the computer to generate essays, music notation on Sibelius 7, presentations and also to check my mail, be a hub for my media (it lives on my external hard drive due to lack of space, I'll get to this later), surf the web and also organise my life and work with calendar, reminders and a note app. So my typical usage is not heavy. Every one of these tasks just operates smoothly on the computer, there hardly is any system lag and I should be right in attributing that to the SSD. That's really great and I really appreciate the speed at which my computer can get things done. However, when I was in the market for it, my storage demands were not high at that time; I used less than 128GB on my Acer not counting the games. So I thought I could live with 128GB that comes on the base model of the Air. Turns out that as I become more serious in collecting music and operas especially, my iTunes library just got really big. Now this would not have been an issue if Sibelius weren't on my computer. Unfortunately, I find it a very useful app to have and it doesn't make sense to have it on an external hard drive so I migrated all my music and videos to the hard drive. Now, that's all fine until you have to sync your iDevices with iTunes and if you forget to plug in your hard drive, it creates a new iTunes folder in your computer and sets the iTunes destination folder there. You would then have to change the settings and wait for the computer to consolidate the library in the hard drive again. My library is probably still tolerable (it's close to 50GB) but if you have anything larger, the time taken will be so long! It's an inconvenience. So, moral of the story is, if you foresee yourself needing more space in the future for whatever reason, please choose a higher storage option. For my next laptop, I'm definitely getting more storage. Other than that, I really have nothing to complain about the computer. I hook it up to a 21.5 inch external display for more screen so that I can be more efficient when I work because sometimes I really need two or more windows open. The trackpad in my opinion is much better than any other laptop I've put my hands on. It is so good that I have never considered buying a mouse. The keyboard is good to use and the backlight (which I'm using now), is really handy in the dark. I also use the SD card slot often as I transfer recordings from my recorders often. Overall, as a computer, it has served me very well for the past year. I do not feel it is getting slower, the battery life is still very good (I don't bring my charger with me usually; only if I know I'm going to do processor-intensive work for a long time), built-in software is really useful and most sync with iCloud and the design and build is really good. All in a very justifiable price tag. I am really happy with my computer and carrying it with me almost everywhere I go because it is so light! I hope the hardware lasts and by the time I feel it starts the downhill, Apple would have made a very good computer with an even more attractive price tag. I'll provide reviews of my other devices soon!
Alright, really sleepy now, so goodnight world!
Saturday 1 December 2012
Does feel nice to be sitting in an orchestra again; but I hope attendance will be better soon!
As I've read a few articles about taking auditions before I went for the final round of the SSO freelance auditions, I realise how much I don't do when it comes to audition preparation. I have been working with a mentality of being efficient and having short preparation times for every project I take. But I realise it should never be the case especially when it comes to auditions and solo performances. I also find myself having a goal in my head but I always catch myself feeling I'm never gonna reach it before time expires. After reading a few articles, I realised I should have gone another way and that is to work on improvement. Having an end target is good but if we focus too much on it, we lose touch on improving things bit by bit. I shall now practise with this mentality and will give myself more time to prepare for upcoming auditions and solo performances.
Alright I'm really sleepy so goodnight world!
As I've read a few articles about taking auditions before I went for the final round of the SSO freelance auditions, I realise how much I don't do when it comes to audition preparation. I have been working with a mentality of being efficient and having short preparation times for every project I take. But I realise it should never be the case especially when it comes to auditions and solo performances. I also find myself having a goal in my head but I always catch myself feeling I'm never gonna reach it before time expires. After reading a few articles, I realised I should have gone another way and that is to work on improvement. Having an end target is good but if we focus too much on it, we lose touch on improving things bit by bit. I shall now practise with this mentality and will give myself more time to prepare for upcoming auditions and solo performances.
Alright I'm really sleepy so goodnight world!
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