Saturday, March 31, 2007

Saturday practice, 31 march!

hello all. today's the first day of our saturday practices. we're exactly 20 days left to SYF! i'm not gonna say the same old reminders cos you guys should know all of them at your fingertips by now, e.g. using the METRONOME and TUNER.

as a result of today's practice, ms ku went through the score with us and she's marked out specific passages to be practiced with the METRONOME, for the different instruments. she also made a bit of changes to the shaping to bring out some parts which are often inaudible. i believe all of you have it marked out on your scores already. so practice what's indicated if not you'll be defeating all ms ku's intended purposes!!

next up is something that i feel we may have started to neglect after all that hoo-ha over practising with the metronome. and that is sitting up straight and only allowing half of the chair to be occupied by your butts!! ok that may have come across as a little crude, but yeah, you get my point. esp for those of you whom i kept calling out during today's violin 1 sectionals, meaning rodion and ziruo! even when you practise at home rmb to keep that straight posture so as to cultivate the correct posture. ok!! if not i'll put a whiteboard duster taped to the back of your seats. hyuk, hyuk. : D no leaning on the chair seats, ok!

and some food for thought. ms ku pointed out that the violin 1s at our nice melody in B 5-12, we could sound more SEDUCTIVE. afterall, the title of this work is indeed, ROMANZE! alright. so you guys might wanna bring up the mood of this piece by perhaps playing it more expressively and passionately at appropriate places.

also, at places like B 36-37, and the 4 quaver notes in B 46, the tempo will be stretched and slightly held back so as to achieve a greater climax in the passage that follows. so you have 2 options now.

1) LOOK AT MS KU! that's the essence of having a conductor right.
2) look at me? haha.

so ya. look up from the floors ya. there's nth there worth looking at. haha!

ok i hope all this has helped in your practice for this weekend. take the initiative to sort these details out before the next practice where you can approach your SLs should you need any help. yayy. GO SE WHOO!

zaraaa. >:D








Thursday, March 29, 2007

Before tomorrow

Dear students,

We have kept the Tues-Thurs optional for you as we understand you have classes/tuition. We would like the newer and younger students to take part in these practices as you are rather weak in your playing for SYF. Should you not have other school work or tuition, do try to come down for the practices if you can spare the time.

It's good to see the older students come today :) Please keep up the hard work, Rome wasn't built in a day (maybe 20).

Ms Ku, if you're reading this, Happy Birthday!

Please be good girls and boys tomorrow! Mr Sng is dropping by to check out your sound for Speech Day. Take it as your first cut. Be cool, play your best and show you love the music.

Those in charge of the notice board, for the zenith time, please beautify the board because Mr Sng is going to walk by there too! Please think of something cool as a background layout. Kar Wai, if you're reading this, you should be cutting out some pieces of paper by now... (-_-;)

Yr 5s, update me for the concert prep next week (check with me a good day), I can't afford last minute prep like last year. I will be briefing Mr Soh on ticketing tomorrow. Those i/c of tickets please contact him from now on and brief me every week.

Bonne Nuit!

Ms Tan

Please

Hello all :D

I've seen the year 4s putting in their best effort and trying to make time for practices everyday. But where are the younger ones these days? I've heard a few, but I'm pretty sure we have more juniors that them uh.

Practices are not there to waste your time. If you think otherwise, you better change your mindset soon or else, you are actually wasting your own time. I'm sure we don't want to put in so much effort just to see them go down the drain.

SE, I believe that all of you have the capability to do your best IF you want to. Can't all of you just put in a teeny weeny bit more and push yourself to practise harder? If you aren't loud enough, use more bow, play into your violin! If you still cannot get the intonation, practise that bar until you get it correct! I don't care whether you spent 2 hours or 1 whole day on that one bar. It beats playing through the piece over and over again BUT not getting anything correct!

Cmon, push yourself to the limit! It's only 22 days to SYF!

Jiayou!!


-Yun Shan
Hi guys, taxy here. Attended a practice session with most of the year 3 and 4s present today. It's funny how most of the juniors are not coming for practices when you guys need it most? I really hope to see all of you around. Initiative please.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

tralala~

dearest se friends i have great news ^^ i got my friend to help out with the graphics for our blog and he says it will and can be done by friday!!!! ^^ so if nothing unfortunate happens you'll be able to see the real new nice blog soon^^

-----------------------------------------------------------
anyway, here's a list of really critical areas to practice for violin 2s who happen to stumble pass my post just incase you're still not sure about how to practice. (you may wanna take out your scores to mark at this point of time)

for walters
1) THE OCTAVE-APART Es at bar 18-21, TUNE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2) C# at bar 21
3) INTONATION FROM BARS 24-32 (especially D# at bar 24 and Eb at bar31)
4) HORRIBLE INTONATION AT BAR 67 =((((( i cringe whenever i play this bar too (>.<) 5) another soul shattering intonation problem, bars 85-86 ='( 6) intonation once again... bars 94-102 (PRACTICE WITH METRONOME FOR BARS 99-102) 7) bar 117-122, intonation 8) bars 125-127 intonation (especially D#) 9) bars 135-140 (sigh, you get what i mean. practice with metronome as well) 10) bar 153 tune and practice with mister metty metronome

as you see, we have so much to work on. but if we perfect these 10 parts, we'd sound much much better.

for romanze
1) bars 1-2 TUNE PLEASE. we sound so different from the violin 1s (we're supposed to sound the same btw)
2) bars 13-15 SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. some of you all play too loudly here.
3) figure B, sigh.
4) intonation at figure C! if you're not sure, use tuner.
5) bars 38-39 LOUD LOUD LOUD. like shufang said, there's a difference between loud and accent.
6) figure E till bar 50, watch your intonation, and please count your rests.
7) figure G SHHHHHHHHHHHH again. plus there shouldnt be any stops in your bow when you change note at bar 62. just slightly dim the last note of bar 61.

expresssssssssssssssssions please. and mooove. ^^ maybe you get to lose weight too ^^ take note of dynamics!! this piece wasnt meant to be boring i'm sure but we do sound boring (and horrible too) =\\\ anything you're not sure please approach section leader yun xiu ^^
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
take care everybody and please work hard! let's all work hard together to earn that title back once again!! =))

no slack, no sad. no relax, no regret =)

<3333333333333333 love, glawreeyuh

p.s, gentle reminder to everyone

The little things

I'm glad to see the positive spirit in all of you.

In truth, I don't write in students' blogs alone but this blog touches me. No matter how crazy you drive us up the wall, I believe we can work this out together.

Today, I went into the practice of Samson, Kar Wai, Yun Xiu, etc. I don't know how those of you who were there felt, but I thought, after they communicated with each other with better eye contact, it sounded much better and fuller like real true musicians. You may not feel it's enough improvement but it's a good start. They "sang" on the inst much better, and could focus more confidently. Please keep up the hard work. I liked it when Samson and Kar Wai were moving with the music, it was a very warm sound, even for a few seconds. Just increase it each day? :)

Yesterday's shelling was rather severe, at least for me, but I didn't realise how much I have grown to care until I got very angry yesterday. We will continue to be strict, not because we are born-again sadists, but because we do care.

I am not upset about anyone not improving, but about not abiding instructions to practise hard. For me, I was very sad that most of you didn't listen to Ms Ku telling you all to practise with metronome, tuner. That's the basic. I don't want to see this happening again. Advice is not there to be ignored and Ms Ku is a really good musician so be serious in your learning. If you have tried your best, you don't even have to defend yourself.

Those of you who show bad attitude and don't respect your seniors who take time to coach you, you should be really ashamed of yourself. I don't tolerate arrogance and disrespect and the SE isn't a place to breed this hypcrocisy and disgusting behaviour. A true musician is one who is humble, loves his art and communicates his love for it. SYF isn't about personal glory either. Everyone should back each other up and help each other. We can see through you all very easily so be sincere and respectful.

Granted we have had past glories and we can't afford to fail, but do look forward and create something strong and new. That's real pride. Balance the expectations with your hopes.

Many of you are very scared to play or afraid to look bad in the ensemble and play very stiffly and awkwardly. Nobody is making a fool of himself unless you think so. You MUST realise the importance of breathing and moving together. It makes me sad to see good string players shy away from playing strong sounds. I don't see breathing to be funny, and if you don't move together naturally, you won't find it very funny on 20 April either. If you love the music honestly and sincerely, you'll naturally breathe and show it. If you don't like the piece, GET INTERESTED NOW!

Samson asked how to produce a good sound. Like the piano, it's all about exercising control. You may not agree but hey, we're all desperate here for help:

a) Try playing your passage REALLY LOUD!! Try playing it really softly too but with relaxed CONTROL and you'll still get a sound. That's your potential. Everyone's is different. By exercising your sound scope, you yourself will know how much you have to sound in p, pp, ff. Use the muscle from stronger areas of arm/ shoulder etc. Some of you complain of a pain in your arm (?) so I think you're using wrong muscle. Ask the stronger players and Ms Ku why they aren't feeling pain. Your arm should be relaxed, in control and yet strong.

It worked for the pianists don't see why it can't work for strings.

b) Get a mirror. Look at yourself (with instr of coz!) or get yr fren to see what's the problem.

c) For warm ups, you might want to circle the naughty passages you fumble, and think of NEW ways of playing it. e.g. i) slow, ii) fast, dotted rhythm, backwards, you name it.

d) if you have problems connecting your notes, e.g. F to G to D and you can't do G to D, then practise: G -->D, D --> G, G -->F, etc. Sounds simple but it helps.

e) Check your bowing, some of you bow in funny directions! Mirror mirror on the wall.

f) Since you memorised, IMMERSE yourself more, since you practise alone at night. You might want to close your eyes and think how you want the music to sound. There are some very beautiful passages in the pieces, please read through the score, circle the parts which are very meaningful to you, and try your best to musicially bring it out. Currently, everyone looks stiff.

g) avoid looking on the floor, down. Look straight ahead or play in front of your family. That works best.

h) Most of you have bad stamina at playing. Try to play through the programme in full AFTER you have corrected your mistakes. Running or exercise helps in stamina.

i) Take constructive comments well, no one is out to burst your ego. Please don't refrain from pointing out your fren's weakness. Help each other.

I believe in all of you. Every little progress counts.

Don't give up on yourself, the rest won't give up on you. Here's to the Dunman High Spirit and the celebration of good music!

Ms Tan

Monday, March 26, 2007

-

if you are reading this, it means YOU SHOULD GO AND PICK UP YOUR VIOLIN/VIOLA/CELLO/BASS AND PRACTICE!

time's not on our side. GO FOR IT EVERYONE.

JIAYOU.

meihui.


PS: All Mon and Fri practices will end at 6.30pm!

SAT practices on 7th April, 14th April: 8am- 1pm.

hey. just wanna encourage all of you to keep going strong all the way these remaining 24 days k? it's not much time left but there's alot we can do if we make FULL USE of it. extra practices on tues-thurs have alrdy been organised and reinforced by jh many times by the end of today. pls pls pls. make the effort to come down whenever you're free. slog it out. do something within your means now. before it's too late once we're past 20th april.

we've always wanted to go for the UK trip right? although the trip'd be past my time, i just hope that we'll fulfill everyone's dreams of retaining the title of Gold with Honours we earned from the last SYF. the journey's tough, we all know, but giving your best shot now is definitely way much much better than all of us crying over spilt milk that cant be retrieved later on. so lets do this, TOGETHER. we can definitely do things that other CCAs can do. the school's worried about us? so what? we'll prove them wrong. we wont give them a reason to shut us down, yeah? let's do this, not only for the school or what nots, but most importantly, lets do this for OURSELVES, for SE, this big family of ours, yeah?

on a lighter note. let's just xian1 ku3 hou4 tian2, yup? =) JIAYOU EVERYONE!!!!

<3,>

Thanks Ling Hong!

On a sep. note, thanks Ling Hong for putting this up :) Looking forward to the really nice photo that will be coming soon :)

You might want to get Kar Wai to help out more in the blog/notice board. ;)

I would like the notice board to be more...colourful, or "less green". Could the Yr 3s source around for good articles in Life! and put it up?

TY!

Ms Tan

Hi!

Hi everyone! Ms Tan here ;) Nice blog. Glad everything is up.

I would like to really thank the seniors for taking all the time out to train the younger/weaker ones. To all those under their charge for lessons, please work hard and don't let them down. (>_<) Think the Yr 5s, 4s are quite knocked out with this and doing their schoolwork too.

All Yr 1,2s especially, please train hard over the weekend so that Ms Ku doesn't come in and scold you all again (-_-;)

Yr 5s, in your planning for the concert, please pass to the Yr 4s as soon as SYF is done. Yr 4s, please be responsible to take over from here. My concern is that one month may not suffice ot prepare for the concert (which would be a great publicity for any fundraising).

Lastly, I hope that everybody can see the value in the SYF and to maintain the same gold-honours quality that has always been a recognisable DHSSE feature. Although I know most of you work very hard these few months, we should still try to aim for a solid gold with honours. Let's do our best! :) :)

After that, we can chiong for concert and focus on fund raising!

みんながんばってね~!
( ・ิ◇・ิ)

Ms Tan

Sunday, March 25, 2007

25 days!

yayyy. im so happy a new blog is up. let's all keep this blog alive and yakking alright? and yes. it's great to see that everyone's so hyped up and motivated about SYF now. let's all put in our very best for the last 50m leg of the race. if there shld be any queries about how a particular passage should be played, just feel free to ask anyone ya? and yes. we should live by our metronomes day and night now. : D jiayou everyone!!!!!

p/s- the pic you see up there was drawn out by me in the mpr from the old schoold building. nice right!!!! heh heh. ok i'll shut up hyukhyuk.

ZARAAAAAA <3
SYF Appearance Order

1. Dunman Sec
2. ACS
3. RI
4. RGS
5. CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' School
6. Nanyang Girls

INTERMISSION
7. MGS
8. DHS
9. St. Margs
10. TKGS
11. Nan Chiau
12. HCI
Hello everyone, Jia Hui here.

In regards to taxy's post, here's the tentative plan:

I'd be asking Ms Tan to officially book a few classrooms for the extra practices to avoid unecessary scenarios whereby you guys would be chased out.

For Tuesdays, i have early dismissal and a few hours of free time in between before my MEP afternoon lessons start, so i can help out in this session too :)

Wednesday would remain the same- juniors would start practising and we (year 4s) would join u guys after our lessons end. Year 4s would be forming a chamber to practice tgt on that day too.

Well, umm i dun really know what i'm typing already -.-
nevertheless, the venues for the 3 additional practice days will be confirmed very SOON!

Remember, practice hard! :)

PS: Have a metronome during all practices, everyone has to play, no clappings allowed!
PHOTOS!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/ling18/IMG_1703.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/ling18/IMG_1704.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v112/ling18/IMG_1705.jpg

the pictures are way too big to be posted on this blog,
so CLICK AND VIEW OKAY! :)

LOVES,
linghong♥
First DHSSE alumnus on the moon, I mean, on the site here...

It's heartening to see a flurry of preparatory activities going on. The seniors in particular have been doing an excellent job organizing rehearsals, setting up the necessary infrastructure and making arrangements so that you guys can practise, practise, PRACTISE! Taxy is really working her head off despite her heavy council commitment. Unlike that traitor Shum - uhm, nevermind. (I mean, she even pretended not to see me when I came to DHS...)

I'll try my best to come down to help for at least one day this coming week... My boss is flying to Germany tomorrow so I should be able to, let's see, work less hard this week. So see you guys around. Don't be stressed, we're all in this together.

-Wen-Bin

METRONOMES&TUNERS

the blog's up,
template is temporary,
will change the graphic soon.
:D
any other suggestions, IM me :D

-LINGHONG
Hi guys, taxy here. I gotta be posting up times of when i'm free and details of our practices and stuff. Starting from next week till syf, we'll be practising every day. It's up to you as to whether you want to come every day other than the mandatory days, i.e. Monday and Friday. The meeting place will be at the recreational place where we last practiced at (table tennis tables outside 4F).

This week i'll be free from tuesday to friday.

Tuesday: REALLY LATE, like 6pm.
Wednesday: After council, roughly 4.30pm, depending on our workload.
Thursday: After 4pm
Friday: SE

You guys can have practices yourself first before i bum down to help cause my classes end pretty late. Good luck and WORK HARD!

For the unenlightened, please put the following on your MSN nickname:
♪ dhStrings: PLAY IN TUNE. [25]

You're free to switch the bit after dhStrings. [25] indicates the number of days away to syf.

Love you all, be good and work hard!