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Hello to everyone:

Took a couple of sectionals today, and disturbingly, I realised that the whole progress is getting rather stagnant. Intonation still in a bad shape...

Perhaps it's because you're in chamber groups and sections, as this problem is minimized a little when you play as an ensemble, but nevertheless, you should sound the same whether as a whole or in groups.

In addition, strings crossing is another problem that is contributing to the messy-ness.

You want to know whats the solution? It's simple.

Practice slow. Even the most famous pianists and violinists and cellists and violists (you get the drift) cannot neglect slow practice. The virtuosically-impossible passages you hear them playing on stage do not just crystallize out of nowhere. There is no short cut. I don't doubt that most of you are practicising, but I believe most of you, on encountering a problematic passage, try to solve it by playing it over and over again--at performance speed.

You can continue doing so for 10 hours, but you achieve nothing.

Or perhaps, some do practice slow, but often you don't sustain it. After a few rounds, you get impatient and return to the usual fast speed.

I shall stress it again. PLEASE TRUST THE POWER OF SLOW PRACTICE.
if you have intonation problems, practice it SLOWLY, and make sure you give yourself enough time to hear yourself, and check your intonation.

when you feel secure enough, that's when you can up your speed GRADUALLY. (you play so much games, treat it like game levels. you can only proceed when you've passed and conquered each level of speed)

besides that, if you encounter other problems, instead of struggling over it, pause, stop and think. HOW CAN YOU SOLVE IT. there must exist a self-corrective mechanism in you. if not, please approach your teachers or sectional leaders.

oh yes, another problem is that you all sound really "SIAN" when playing walters and romanze. if you are SIAN, it shows in your music. I took joel's and jiahui's chamber today, and everyone sounded so tired. But it's really ironic, if you are so sick and tired of it, why is it still in such a shape? You should only be sick and tired of it when you've mastered it to a point where everything is near perfect.

For people who are relatively stable intonation and rhythm wise, as the saying goes, "strive on until the good is better and the better is the best". Please think of furthur ways to improve on aspects such as producing a good sound, how to move, how to phrase your melodies beautifully, what character or scene can you picture in your mind at certain parts.

Agreed with what taxy said, we dont want to come back every sectionals to return back to square 1. Nowadays I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over again. I don't want to grow old! Don't make me feel old! You know it makes us feel very lousy too, if we have to repeat ourselves over and over again, and i will start thinking, "ohmygosh am i lacking creativity. is my thinking so limited.". I feel stagnant too. And I'm sure some of you have been thinking, "cheh. isn't it all those stuff again? what thin sound. what listen to each other. what dont accent in the middle of your melodies."

omg im getting really naggy. ok i shall attempt for a rushed ending, thing is, practice SMART and practice HONESTLY. treat music sincerely ok. you think music is stupid is it. how much you give in is how much it will produce for you. YOU TRY TO CHEAT, then it will also AP you.

I'm sure the other schools are furiously practicising at this point in time. And some, fuelled by their failure to get GoldWithHonours the previous competition, how hard do you think they will work? The answer is obvious.

Competitions are always based on relativity. If other schools improve, but you are still at your previous standard, then ..

ok im really getting rather tired, can't even bother to finish my previous sentence.

so everyone. work hard. we're all in this together. the only thing we as year5s and the teachers can do is to coach you, give you advice, encourage, push, .. and we don't want to feel like we've achieved nothing, especially when it returns back to square one. but ultimately, the most important thing is that in the end, we don't want you to disappoint yourselves.

okay i forgot to sign off: MEIHUI.