NJCSB SYF 2007 --- GOLD!

Months of hardwork just for ytd. Im really glad that our hardwork has rly paid off. It has rly been mths of intense pracs, esp so in this month. There are pracs every single day, except Sunday, and each prac ends at 8+pm. PLUS, we hv pracs in NIE which ends at 9+pm and by the time I reach home, it’ll be 11pm alr. BUT its all worth our efforts =) im rather satisfied with the gold award that we’ve gotten.

Mr Ho, our beloved band conductor, made a very touching speech ytd after our results were announced. He said he was not disappointed with us. In fact, he was rly proud of us. He told us that we’ve come so far tgt as a band despite the 3 BIG challenges that we’ve faced early:

1) Band is rly rly very small and we almost cldnt take part in syf cos of the small band size. Many j1s left us and the number of j2s isn’t very big either!
2) The IPs almost cldnt take part in the syf with us this yr cos they’re underaged, making the band even smaller but luckily they changed the rules =)
3) Internal Combustion is rly a very difficult piece to play. When I first got the score, I was praying very hard that it will not be our SYF piece but Mr Ho still chose that song anw. Almost everyone in band also preferred Machu Picchu to Internal Combustion and so when we had to play Internal Combustion, the passion for music wasn’t there! We were just playing notes and not music! At that point of time, everyone alr felt like giving up, cos we felt that theres no way we can play that song so beautifully. Of cos, Mr Ho, Mr Alvin Leong and the exco scolded us for not believing in ourselves that we can play that piece well. That happened like 2 mths ago only! Honestly at that time, I was thinking that at this rate, band is gonna get only silver and can forget abt getting even a gold! They’ve injected confidence in us and we’ve made it! Its all in the mind! =) and so after that, everyone worked hard towards our common goal!

NIE pracs made that piece sound even worse cos there was less echo in the NIE bandroom compared to NJ bandroom. And we also tried recording and after hearing how we played, our morale went downslope. BUT with Mr Ho’s guidance, our morale went up again! He’s rly a nice patient experienced old man who understands how we feel and gave us the confidence that we can fly! There was this period of time this yr when he fell sick and the whole band went lost! It was like, we’ve lost our sense of direction like how shermin puts it, only having to rely on our 2 PPs. Just 2 wks ago or even this wk, almost everyone fell sick! I even had a fever last sun! And the morale is gg down again as stress sets in. I see a lot of ppl crying becos of SYF stress. This is so scary! =X

But Internal Combustion has rly pushed me to my limits. Initially when I knew that every part of the percussion score requires at least one note reading mallets, I was stunned. I was like, “Siao ah! U think everyone can read those notes is it! Im a music idiot OKAY!” haha but no choice, I picked bells and marimba. I relied qt a lot on my memory, like the position of the keys but ltr, I began to play music instead! I’ve conquered my fear for mallets! At least now I can differentiate the difference between bass clef n treble clef =)

And snare rolling! Although I dare not say that I can roll perfectly well now, I dare to say that my rolling has improved in just within 2mths! Initially I was still relying on Jocelyn who has left NJ after deciding that poly suites her more sometime in March! That rly freaked me out! But it also gave me a chance to learn how to roll, and im so proud of myself! But btr be humble and continue perfecting my roll! =)

SYF has truly brought the band closer tgt. Despite getting a gold award, the teachers-in-charge are rly very proud of us, cos of our team spirit. We play as ONE band! When we fly, we fly together! Even during the release of results ytd, although we were given 30 seats per band to sit in the hall to listen to the results, we’d rather stay outside the hall tgt and give those seats to our snrs instead! And to my dearest Mr Ho, he is truly a man whom I give my full respect to. Thanks Mr Ho for all that u’ve done for band =)

5/12/2007 08:19:00 PM ·