PS exam is over! Time now to look forward to excerpts, solo pieces and of course the ensembles that I'll be playing with. Exam went alright, my intonation was still not good but I pulled through. Now I know what's on top of the priority list: INTONATION. Get this right and my music making will have much more meaning, be it solo or ensemble. Well time to get some well deserved rest and start practicing again soon!

Great news for myself: I'll be going to watch the rehearsals and recording sessions of the Berlin Philharmonic! Not needing to pay to watch them! This is fantastic; they'll be rehearsing/recording Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances and Mahler's 1st Symphony. It'll be next Monday and Tuesday. Something great to look forward to as well!

Well it's 15 hours to my PS exam. I really hope all goes well. After a disastrous brass class, I've been trying to mend as many problem spots as I can. So...one shot at it, to play a representation of my playing. Well all the best to everyone!

Now that all the academic papers are done, time to concentrate on the technical exam. 5 days to go! I'm really looking forward to the concerts I'm performing in during the year-end. I'm also looking forward to the concerts I'm attending like Emmanuel Pahud solo/Mahler 7 by SSO and Rite of Spring by SSO. So much good music to conclude the year. Well that's all for now. Bye reader!

Hi all! I just received this poster of the Philwinds concert. Do take a look (Click on it to enlarge) and buy tickets if you're interested!

Hi all! Tickets for the Philharmonic Winds Goes Pop! concert are on sale on Sistic already! Here's the link to the event. Get your tickets now!

I just had a self reflection of the past semester. It was really busy I must say. Keeping up with orchestra, wind band, technique building and academics is really demanding work. James Markey (bass trombonist of the New York Philharmonic) put it well: "Even in college, you can be practicing 4-5 hours a day. But if you constantly do this everyday, high chances are that you won't feel fresh the next day." It is very true for me. I would practice till night and when I reach home, I just feel so tired. It is rare for me that I sleep when I'm on the bus but on some days, I just have so much fatigue that I can't help it. I would then go to school the next day feeling tired and unable to have full focus and concentration when I practice. I can probably push it for an hour more or so but after that, focus just goes down the drain and so does the practice session. But it definitely has been a semester that I've learnt a lot with regards to trombone playing. Playing in the orchestra has made me more sensitive to what's going on around me. Listening was of utmost importance; needless to say but it was the orchestra that drilled this skill into me. I admit that I'm still not good at it and it will be a lifelong endeavour to constantly improve my listening skills. It's great that I'll perform in one orchestra concert in December (Dvorak's 9th symphony). This will be another opportunity to improve my listening in an orchestra.

My seniors have taught me many things and have given me new and different ideas about playing. I'm grateful for having such close friendships with fellow brass players at school. Of course musicians from other disciplines give good ideas as well. Sometimes, when I hear my schoolmates practice, it just motivates me to practice and play well. It'll just be up to me to practice well to play well; after all, "If you practice well, you get better, when you get better, it's more fun, when it's more fun, you practice more!" -Douglas Yeo.

All that said, I'm very grateful to my parents for supporting my musical journey so far. They've contributed a lot and have provided moral support as well. So now, time to get through the exams and then, more time to make more music!

I've deleted my Livejournal account; so all that I wanna post online will be here. Lessons at NAFA for the semester are done. All that's left are 3 weeks of exams. After that, holidays! Oh yeah, time to start practicing more but with less stress on time. Rehearsals will also be abundant as I'll have three concerts in November. The first one is already on the left in the 'Upcoming performance' section I just added. Do come and watch as there will be familiar pop songs including the NDP song "We'll Get There"; "Plastic Mannequin Love" by Tay Kewei (should be familiar with NAFA music students) and "We Are The World". Full repertoire will be listed once confirmed. So that's all for now, goodbye!

I'm 17 today! Really had a great day. Many thanks to all those who wished me, treated me and especially to the NAFA Wind Ensemble for playing the birthday song! Also had a great class with Mr. Fujita. Learnt a great deal from him about my piece. Today was really memorable and once again, I thank everyone who made it so! :) Cheers!

Woo! Had great fun with the NAFA Orchestra this afternoon. Really good show! Many thanks and well done to all my orchestra mates! Let's put up an even better show for Brahms 3 and Meistersinger!

So yup, the current repertoire for orchestra is done with and up next will be the two pieces mentioned above as well as the Schumann piano concerto. Details will be up at a later date. I'm glad the orchestra has built itself from almost nothing when the term started; people needed time to fit in and also actually needing to get used to playing with a lot more people. I'm really happy that it has come this far. I hope one day, when I'm still studying in NAFA, the orchestra will get to play more complex music like Mahler. It'll be an extremely tall order but it'll mark a major milestone in the orchestra's history if it can play Mahler well. All everyone needs to do is practice hard, work together as a team and listen especially. Without listening, a score cannot turn into music.

Orchestra aside, now I've to start preparing Telemann's Sonata in F minor for brass platform. I've got 1 month to prepare a piece I'm familiar with, since I practiced it during the Access Course. I'll be playing the first and second movements. The piece is great fun and rewarding, but diligent practice is definitely required, especially for the running passages where I seem to lose pulse and rhythm easily. Time to strengthen the friendship with my metronome!

A new post for another month. Life's been like clock-work the past few weeks. School was like before, just more classes and assignments. Of course like most of my classmates, assignments are not the easiest things for me to catch up on. I don't know but I feel that my playing has taken a slide in recent times. Either that or I simply didn't know the standard in the first half of the year. It just feels demoralising sometimes but I'll pull through and work hard. Had a fun time yesterday with my parents playing pool. It felt like years ago since we last played together. Speaking of playing pool, that's what I did when Michael came back to Singapore! What a fun time we had together. It's a pity he only stayed for a week or so during school time but nonetheless, we had great fun and catching up together. Performances are on the way so I'd better go practice. My upcoming concert is with the NAFA Orchestra on 31 August 2010, Lee Foundation Theatre is the venue, 8pm is the time. Repertoire is as follows:

-Overture to the Barber of Seville (Rossini)

-Rhapsody in Blue (Gershwin)

-Gold and Silver Waltzes (Lehar)

-Vocalise (Rachmaninov)

-Four movements from Modern Times (Chaplin)

It'll be a fun-filled concert provided everyone practices and makes it one! Hope to see you there!

I have a very strong feeling, as I write this post, that just about nobody will read it. Blogs simply have lost their place in society. But still it is a place for me to type things in so that I can hopefully remember what has happened. Holidays are nearing an end and I'm happy about it. It'll be great to go back to school, meet new musicians and old friends, play in band and orchestra, play solos and chamber music and basically mould myself into a musical artist. Music is the one thing in life that I have the deepest sense of purpose for and I really enjoy making it. Although I'm not a very good musician yet, there's time for me to become one!

So music aside, congratulations to the Spanish football team for becoming World Champions! They really played a good game against the Dutch who simply couldn't dictate the game very well. They lost control of the game and eventually themselves so kudos to the Spaniards! Also, congratulations to Mark Webber for winning the British Grand Prix. It'll probably be the last F1 race I'll watch as I'll be having a very busy weekend when the German Grand Prix is going on. After the German Grand Prix, ESPN and Star Sports will move to a new home: Mio TV. Damn I wish they didn't make the change. Oh well, money, money money. So that's all for now. Bye!