Sunday, August 28, 2005
Practice for PERFECTION (at least near-perfection)
We had practice for the 31 August performance as usual in the Visual Effects Studio today. Man, the place still stinks. Timing was our main problem. The new stint lecturer Jimmy had advised us to listen more intently to each other's playing so we could get into the 'feel' of the music. He also recommended the process of isolation, which was to select a few players to play at one time while the rest listened to see how the instrumental parts of those who were playing 'fitted' with each other. We did try it out - but I guess we did not really get the gist of it - we needed more practice in playing our parts with precision.
Hence, we're aiming to focus on TIMING and PRECISION during one of our last rehearsals this Sunday. One thing I'm quite worried about now is whether we're going to have a rehearsal at the actual venue at all - we need to know and adjust (if needed) our positions on the stage(s). Already we learnt from the previous experience of the Graduation 2005 Performance that rehearsal times were not to be trusted.
I've finished running through my performance piece - Debussy's Reverie, but I still need to brush up on the transition between certain phrases. Uranus (by Gustav Holst), which Wei Jie and I are performing for the DMAT concert, has been put on hold for quite some time because the assignments/tests/deadlines are taking their toll these 3 weeks or so. And there's still my scales which I need to practise for Week 15's Scales Test.
12:42 pm *
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Rehearsals once again.
It's only been less than 1 month since our last performance for Graduation 2005 on 27 July. And we're already headed for our next performance for SP's 50th Anniversary Closure. We're left with less than 2 weeks to it - fortunately we're doing only ONE 2-minute song (I feel it's not long enough for us to be graded, but oh well).
We're gonna' be having rehearsals every Monday and Friday in school and during the 2 coming Sunday afternoons. I don't think there's enough time for us to really do a very nice piece - so I guess we'll just make do with the standard we're at.
Our piece is "Waltz For The Moon" from Final Fantasy. 3/4 syncopated timing adds to the "cartoony" feeling the piece gives its listeners. We stuck to the original team - Jwee Keat and I on keyboard, Candice on viola, Chrislyn on trumpet, Bo Yuan on French horn, Wee Siong on dizi and Louis on flute. For once, we're doing a fast-paced piece, compared to the slow ones we've been doing in the past. This kinda' brings up the challenge for us to co-ordinate.
I've finished covering the correct fingerings for all 12 major scales - next I'm going for the a, b, c, d, e and g minor harmonic scales that we'll be tested on soon. I've selected Debussy's Reverie (A Dream) as my solo performance piece. I'd rather play an electone organ piece but I have had to bend towards the classical side to fit the requirements on the module syllabus. I'm still brushing up Uranus and getting started on the front part of Jupiter (both pieces to be played at the DMAT Concert). At the same time, I'm up to No. 5 of the Hanon exercises (just started them recently - and there's SIXTY altogether! *freaks out*).
Til' next week...
8:48 am *
Monday, August 15, 2005
Impromptu Improvisation
Wei Jie on flute, Ryu on guitar and me on keyboard. We had to improvise over one of our strong chord progression backing tracks. It turned out - honestly - rather horribly though, with a guitar that was not tuned. I did not perform my improvisation part well - I guess I was dead-beat since it was nearing the end of the day. But since it was an impromptu on-the-spot affair, it wasn't so bad that we did at least play some notes coherently.
Got up to page 10-11 (thereabouts) of Uranus... about 5 more to go! The reason why I'm going much slower than expected is because I don't have the time to focus only on Uranus - I still have another piece (Jupiter) and also my scales to practise... amidst assignments and studying for the technological part of music (REMT).
12:48 pm *
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Review - Graduation Performance 2005
(My 10th post in this Performance Journal)
We did get to see the whole performance on video after all. However, we did not sound as good as we did when we were performing "live" due to the limitations of the built-in camera microphone. We had peer-to-peer grading as well where we rated each other performance(s) on a scale of 1 to 15. We all already had 5 points for being present on the day itself. I wonder how I far...
Cos' I realised that some mistakes I made during my groups' performance were quite obvious. Luckily though, my morning performance (Final Fantasy group), where I used the wrong instrumental sound (harp instead of piano), did not turn out so bad because it fitted the mood of the pieces.
Moving on to another topic, I am going on to page 5 (our of 16) for the piano duo piece Uranus - The Planets (Gustav Holst). Four of us (Jasmine, Tian Hwee, Wei Jie & me) are starting soon on another piece, Jupiter - The Planets (Gustav Holst). The piece was supposed to be a piano duo (two pianos, one person/two hands on each piano), but we're turning it into a piano "quadro" (two pianos, two people/four hands on each piano). I don't know whether it's possible... I know the coordination's gonna be difficult because there are FOUR people playing at once. But we have to try.
Personally, I am also practising my major scales (with proper fingerings) for the upcoming keyboard skills assessment (will move on to natural/harmonic/melodic minor scales soon - I hope). Also in line are Hanon exercises - stuff which I never grew up with because I did not take the traditional classical piano route but the contemporary electone organ path.
9:00 am *
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Practice for PERFECTION (at least near-perfection)
We had practice for the 31 August performance as usual in the Visual Effects Studio today. Man, the place still stinks. Timing was our main problem. The new stint lecturer Jimmy had advised us to listen more intently to each other's playing so we could get into the 'feel' of the music. He also recommended the process of isolation, which was to select a few players to play at one time while the rest listened to see how the instrumental parts of those who were playing 'fitted' with each other. We did try it out - but I guess we did not really get the gist of it - we needed more practice in playing our parts with precision.
Hence, we're aiming to focus on TIMING and PRECISION during one of our last rehearsals this Sunday. One thing I'm quite worried about now is whether we're going to have a rehearsal at the actual venue at all - we need to know and adjust (if needed) our positions on the stage(s). Already we learnt from the previous experience of the Graduation 2005 Performance that rehearsal times were not to be trusted.
I've finished running through my performance piece - Debussy's Reverie, but I still need to brush up on the transition between certain phrases. Uranus (by Gustav Holst), which Wei Jie and I are performing for the DMAT concert, has been put on hold for quite some time because the assignments/tests/deadlines are taking their toll these 3 weeks or so. And there's still my scales which I need to practise for Week 15's Scales Test.
12:42 pm *
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Rehearsals once again.
It's only been less than 1 month since our last performance for Graduation 2005 on 27 July. And we're already headed for our next performance for SP's 50th Anniversary Closure. We're left with less than 2 weeks to it - fortunately we're doing only ONE 2-minute song (I feel it's not long enough for us to be graded, but oh well).
We're gonna' be having rehearsals every Monday and Friday in school and during the 2 coming Sunday afternoons. I don't think there's enough time for us to really do a very nice piece - so I guess we'll just make do with the standard we're at.
Our piece is "Waltz For The Moon" from Final Fantasy. 3/4 syncopated timing adds to the "cartoony" feeling the piece gives its listeners. We stuck to the original team - Jwee Keat and I on keyboard, Candice on viola, Chrislyn on trumpet, Bo Yuan on French horn, Wee Siong on dizi and Louis on flute. For once, we're doing a fast-paced piece, compared to the slow ones we've been doing in the past. This kinda' brings up the challenge for us to co-ordinate.
I've finished covering the correct fingerings for all 12 major scales - next I'm going for the a, b, c, d, e and g minor harmonic scales that we'll be tested on soon. I've selected Debussy's Reverie (A Dream) as my solo performance piece. I'd rather play an electone organ piece but I have had to bend towards the classical side to fit the requirements on the module syllabus. I'm still brushing up Uranus and getting started on the front part of Jupiter (both pieces to be played at the DMAT Concert). At the same time, I'm up to No. 5 of the Hanon exercises (just started them recently - and there's SIXTY altogether! *freaks out*).
Til' next week...
8:48 am *
Monday, August 15, 2005
Impromptu Improvisation
Wei Jie on flute, Ryu on guitar and me on keyboard. We had to improvise over one of our strong chord progression backing tracks. It turned out - honestly - rather horribly though, with a guitar that was not tuned. I did not perform my improvisation part well - I guess I was dead-beat since it was nearing the end of the day. But since it was an impromptu on-the-spot affair, it wasn't so bad that we did at least play some notes coherently.
Got up to page 10-11 (thereabouts) of Uranus... about 5 more to go! The reason why I'm going much slower than expected is because I don't have the time to focus only on Uranus - I still have another piece (Jupiter) and also my scales to practise... amidst assignments and studying for the technological part of music (REMT).
12:48 pm *
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Review - Graduation Performance 2005
(My 10th post in this Performance Journal)
We did get to see the whole performance on video after all. However, we did not sound as good as we did when we were performing "live" due to the limitations of the built-in camera microphone. We had peer-to-peer grading as well where we rated each other performance(s) on a scale of 1 to 15. We all already had 5 points for being present on the day itself. I wonder how I far...
Cos' I realised that some mistakes I made during my groups' performance were quite obvious. Luckily though, my morning performance (Final Fantasy group), where I used the wrong instrumental sound (harp instead of piano), did not turn out so bad because it fitted the mood of the pieces.
Moving on to another topic, I am going on to page 5 (our of 16) for the piano duo piece Uranus - The Planets (Gustav Holst). Four of us (Jasmine, Tian Hwee, Wei Jie & me) are starting soon on another piece, Jupiter - The Planets (Gustav Holst). The piece was supposed to be a piano duo (two pianos, one person/two hands on each piano), but we're turning it into a piano "quadro" (two pianos, two people/four hands on each piano). I don't know whether it's possible... I know the coordination's gonna be difficult because there are FOUR people playing at once. But we have to try.
Personally, I am also practising my major scales (with proper fingerings) for the upcoming keyboard skills assessment (will move on to natural/harmonic/melodic minor scales soon - I hope). Also in line are Hanon exercises - stuff which I never grew up with because I did not take the traditional classical piano route but the contemporary electone organ path.
9:00 am *
