Haha just to add on to Sharon's post, since she forgot about an upcoming event coming up wayyy sooner than SYF - CCAO! We're busking as a section this year whooooo!

Thunder and Lightening is so super cool omg. But all the triplets are so difficult to master (I wrote "hard to get" at first before I realized the other meaning -.-) sighhhh must indiv like mad at home.

And the Carmen soli is so nice wheeeee okay let's jiayou and hope we make a lot of people want to join band during CCAO :D

Oh yeah how was quality check today! Sorry I had to leave halfway (Xing Ern what was your sister's degree again! Mine's forty already, five away from operation O_______O) but I'm sure it went well luh percs are so awesome hahaha.

<3xinhui

ANEONHA SAEYO! (I still don’t get how to pronounce! At first I thought it’s Ananha Saeyo! :X)

Oh no no posts for almost 3 months! O: This can be the December one XD

Hey what about the photos from the previous section outing? Postpostpost! :D I don’t have any leh so sad. x( When’s our next section outing? SECTION WILDWILDWET! Holidays going to end already leh! Or can we just go section running/jumping/cycling etc to build up stamina for OBS! OMG OBS IS IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS SO SCARY. OH LET’S GO SKIING! Can go to snow city then use two skateboards/cardboards or whatever as the ski! (Was that what Totally Spies did? 8D) Hahahaha jk. Or we can go ice-skating omg so fun but I have never gone before ): And I heard that beginners must stay near the sides or else the pro people skating in the middle will swing and fly and cut you ._. Aiyo why so scary one D8 Eeeeee I feel like a scaredy cat now!

Hahaha and MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS! PLUS HAPPY EARLY NEW YEAR!! 8D

AND JIAYOU FOR SYF WHOOO WE CAN DO IT!!! ;D We should go visit La Sagrada Familia (Deborah so lucky!) and take the Singapore Flyer (I haven’t taken O:) sooon! So can experience that erm, FEEL of the song haha! Can be section outing =D

Sigh holidays are going to be gone in a flash. D8 Okay anyway byebye!

Love,

Sharon

ps. I feel like posting a picture of Angang here omg!!! Can I? :P He’s my phone wallpaper whooo~ ooops paiseh this is so random

hi percs!

O: how can y'all not have a September post! Tsk tsk, juniors never maintain the blog well ah!

Anyway, though I doubt more than half of you will come here now, GOOD LUCK FOR EYAS!

I wanted to crash on the first week of my options then I realised y'all are on band break -.- and from this I realised that it's hard to keep promises! The schedules clash like nobody's business D: stupid combined math exam with RI. sucks. but I'll write out your farewell letters lah, maybe after math exam? See how lah, though I suspect most of you, except Sharon, have forgotten about it!

By the way, Sharon, bugging me to write your letter kind of takes the sincerity out of it, no?

Okay, that wouldn't be a nice ending, so GOOD LUCK FOR EYAS, JUNIORS! Miss you guys!

Love,

Deborah

Perc' 10

HEY PERCS!

okay, i was using facebook when i came across this really cool video. a 14-year-old playing Star Wars on the marimba! (i mean, yeah he's really good, seeing as sharon keeps spasming during her "rolls")

yup, so hope you guys will watch and appreciate this! :D watch how he holds the sticks, what movements he makes, what posture he has: all add up to create a better sound from the marimba. so depending on what song you guys play, play with emotion, and use your technique to express it!

always, always keep in mind that percussion keeps the beat of the band. keep practising, especially during sectionals. the reason why sectionals is on wednesday is to allow us to practise what Mr Oura told us was not so good on tuesday, so that when we return to band prac on thursday, we'll have improved on whatever parts he had mentioned. sectionals is necessary. sectionals is truly, truly important. it's not like a "free block" or "slacking time". it's not only acting as bridge between band pracs. it's a time where you get to try other songs to improve your percussion skills in general.

only take a break when you see that you can't play, that you're mentally tired, and your hands can't do what you want them to do. otherwise, we can't afford to waste time! assuming SYF is in april, we have: ... 7 months to practise. that's hardly a year, and it's been mentioned so many times but yes, it's hardly the time we used to practise perseus.

familiarise yourselves with sagrada familia (hmm no pun intended), in the recording, try to figure out where your parts are and how the sound like! and remember: to make a good sound, DON'T TENSE UP YOUR ARMS, RELAX THEM. to play faster on the mallets, don't tense up your muscles, make sure they are as relaxed as possible, but have good control of your wrists.

i know it's like we've said this kind of stuff so many times, but we can't emphasise its importance without repeating it over and over again. we're a small section, but we play such a big role, as do all musicians in the band.

and on a less serious note, back to the topic:

okay yes! jiayou sharon and xinhui for MTDC. when every single one of us can play as well as this guy or even better, we'll go have abalone and chilli crab and whatever you guys like at some high-class restaurant. i'll treat yall. and sorry for the lengthy post! (it wasn't meant to be when i first started typing it o.o be prepared for more to come! >:DDD )

and always remain humble.

no matter how good you think you can play, even if you don't think that there's anyone in the band that plays better, there's always someone out there somewhere better than you.

aliza

HEHEHE HELLO :P

i dunno why i can't get rid of this annoying line! D< aiya nevermind here are the pics :P

hahahaaha yay cheers you finally squeezed the cream out ;D eh not bad lah craftsmanship quite good...

oh i was the one who added the pretty flowers 8D except the top part of the cake a bit errr squashed...


so nice! :D

oooops the 'A' ......

trying to salvage the A hehehhe

o.O the A become so long

snare drum! :D


eh so cool snare drum with green rim and blue skin :)

:D

salvaged heart :P thanks to xing ern woohoo~

<3 percs!! :D

..i think that's deborah's hair... XD

heh nice like poop! :P

:DD

LOVE!

Yayyy that's all HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALIZAAAA :DDD <3

Oh yeah and i'm so sad i didn't get the whole pack of chocolate T_T really wasn't inside the box ah ):

Okay here are some other pics ;D

hahaha this is so lame... :X

DRUM FOUNTAIN <3

Okay yay finally done i'm tired T_T goodnight!! or rather, morning! O:

<3 sharon
ps. deborah come back to visit us when you're free okay otherwise we'll be very sad ): and add oil for eyas! ;D

Hey percs (yes I realize this is my first time posting I'm sorry ._.)!

It's... ALIZA'S BIRTHDAY TODAY!

Someone accidentally gave away the surprise by coming to the Sec 3 corridor and going "Where's the cake?" in front of Aliza because she didn't notice her (:P), but we still pretended it was a surprise nevertheless...

Haha we specially designed a cake for her all by ourselves (if some parts of the cake look weird it's probably Sharon who did it)! Sorry I couldn't get a picture of the cake before Aliza cut it. ._.

(Failed) Jumpshots :D

HAHHAHA.
HAHAHA

Yay rather successful one! LEI CHEN GRRRRRRRR

Anyway, on a more serious note: Farewell was also today, and it's definitely going to be different when Deborah steps down (we'll miss you Deborah ):) but we can do it, right? Just keep on supporting and helping one another; eg. Xin Hui/Sharon, you can share the things you've learnt in/scores you got from MTDC with the section, especially the juniors. Keep working hard to improve, like if you know something's wrong with your playing, do try to change it! And like Mr Oura said, look for inspiration from professional percussionists! Look for videos and stuff online. I think that really helps. Jiayou Percs '11! Let's make this year a good one. (: AND DEBORAH KEEP IN TOUCH AND VISIT OFTEN OKAY! SECTION XXX! :D

Xing Ern (:

so cool right? okay sorry, i just found it rather amusing that the word "Sharon" was most commonly found in our 2010 blog posts. i think the sec 2s are dominating the section blog. HELP, XING ERN!

aliza

p.s. INCEPTION IS REALLY COOL.

NBC - 86.67% GOLD with HONOURS! PLACING: FIRST

SIBF - 93.00% GOLD PLACING: FIRST

DOUBLE CHAMPS!!! ESPLANADE WE ARE COMINGGGGG ON 25TH JULY!

Good job to RIWE on the Gold too! You all sounded really good.

I'M SO HAPPY

GOOD JOB PERCS!

A GREAT FINISH TO AN AWESOME 4 YEARS OF MY LIFE.

LOVE,

deborah (:

percs '10

p.s. don't let this blog die, i'm monologing again!

Hi percs!

As we all know, today we planned to crash Xing Ern's house without telling her! Her birthday's tomorrow just in case you're like Sharon and you don't already know -.- I think XE said 'This is awkward' like 5 times. I was too busy staring at her house to feel the same, though! I was especially tempted to sit in the massage chair xD Anyway, we took out the cake, and it looks so scrumptious! Chocolate Etoile ♥!

There's a strange hole on the left ._. besides that it looks lovely

Aliza's awesome placing of candles -.- Xing Ern had to light the tallest candle in the end, cause we were so fail heh.

SORRY ABOUT THE TYPO! The cashier woman said it as 'E-R-N', but then when it got to the writer person, well, ...

Pizza!

heh :D

This picture shows Sharon being weird, Xinhui with funny hair and Aliza sitting in a surprisingly prim manner O:

XE's drumset thingum! Didn't try it D:

semi-Section photo number 1; I'm blurry ): and it looks like we're arranged according to height!

Thanks for not chasing us away Xing Ern! :D and for the Viva la Vida scores :D and for the movie :D and the lunch :D

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Deborah

Perc '10

/6 days

heaven's in our hearts ♥

hey percs!

TODAY WAS NBC 2010 AND WE GOT GOLD WITH HONOURS WITH 86.67%, 1ST PLACE FOR 1ST DIVISION THIS IS GOING DOWN IN HISTORY!!!!!!!!!

but of course, on a more serious note, we must really work harder for SIBF. the SIBF criteria for a gold is even higher than the NBC criteria for a GwH (90%?!), the standard's most likely much higher, and there are many other bands competing with us in our division. and adding on to it: the venue's acoustics are.... yeah i hope you know what i mean.

so let's try and reach for our goal of 90%!

let's be willing to work our arm muscles till they're super exhausted, be more accepting of others' CONSTRUCTIVE criticism (and make changes to your playing accordingly!), and last but not least, make the most of our sectionals time. to do this, we mustn't be tired, and that = more sleep = sleep earlier. if we don't sleep enough at night, sleep during class. (okay i'm just kidding, that was a lame joke =.=) and no fb-ing or msn-ing or staring-at-the-blank-computer-screen-cos-ive-nothing-to-do-ing past 11.30pm! (and btw, sleeping more makes you grow taller)

and as quoted from a friend, "Aim for the stars. Even if you miss, you'll land on the ozone layer." :DDD

aliza B)

p.s. did anyone notice that i look taller in the mrt photo? :D

aww

Xinhui's birthday cake

Left to right: Xing Ern, Aliza, me, Hwi Soo, Sharon

I guess we've all been busy lately with competition pracs, PTs and sucky exam schedules. Jiayou percs! I had fun yesterday (:

Deborah

perc '10

omg this place is dead. AGAIN. what happened to all the ethusiasm like 2 months ago!
anyway, Cadenza XII was a week ago. pre-concert was stressful for everyone! oh yes thank you percs! for staying to set up the instrus even though everyone else was having lunch already. uhh this is very disjointed because i'm in a happy mood today! (and also in a kind of get-it-over-and-done-with mood)

lei-chen got me a cute teddy bear! sharon got us rocks xD okay lah they were pretty nice rocks. oh and $2 medicated oil haha. xinhui got me timbales sticks OOO: xing ern said they're more ex than normal sticks but they're not but they're still really nice! though the sticky black stuff is annoying and i need timbales now. ohohoh xing ern(and aliza)'s present is really cute :D
ehhh what's wrong with our blog again! D8 i can't seem to post photos D: how annoying.

anyway, section lunch was pretty funny cause we were all thirsty and desperate for coins. i wish i brought my wallet! i had like 4 bucks worth of coins.

rehearsals was... normal? the drumset started sliding away from me during fly high x( watching the ensembles, i thought, i really miss technology! the new arrangement of instrus was nice. made perseus and everything else so much easier. section time was... uhh... yeah, same same? then the juniors started freaking out. crap i just realised i never posted any inspirational posts before cadenza x( dinner was quiet, at least on my part, started freaking out silently, thinking that too many things had gone wrong for everything to be alright.

attire check was fun :D so was cheers. Commanders '10 are AWESOME! cried after cheers as usual. it's become like a pre-requisite for any performance. i cried again just before we went out. i don't know why, but we went out like THREE bells too early, we were only supposed to go out on the fourth bell. My (Logs comm I/C) fault i guess x( didn't give instructions properly sighhhh.

On the stage, I wasn't scared cause i've been there quite a few times, not like two years ago (: Silvercrest was nervous. I think i was better at snare drum two years ago than I am now x( Jesters was... uh okay? I ended on the right note at least. Perseus was good! in terms of audience satisfaction anyway. and there weren't any major screw-ups, though i realised shelley wasn't playing the ocean drum o.O intermission was a lesson. again my fault for not emphasising instructions enough x( second half was good too... Lawrence was nice! I wasn't late for anything at least. disney was fun. i enjoy hitting the crash :D fly high was okay for me. i made sure to keep the drumset close to me. messed up at the clars soli a little. audience loved it. though hearing sihui's dad's recording, i realised i drowned out the saxes both times they had solo/soli x( but i didn't miss a line (: and i didn't drop my sticks! worst fear didn't happen yay (: even if it did, i had my vic firths there as extras.

post Cadenza was tiring. i'm so glad that the movers we got were the ones we usually used i.e. trustworthy. so i was pretty sure all the instrus were there. missed attendance taking though x( but i actually like being logs comm i/c, cause then i can look after my instrus. section supper was nice in a really peaceful way. though when i saw my batch i was tempted to run off with them. but then my poor little juniors... haha. it was nice of y'all to agree! surprising too. though sharon was pretty foolish in not getting anyone to fetch her -.-

so my post has come to an end. i'd like to say thank you to my section for putting in their 110% and keeping their cool on stage. sharon's timp solo was on time for once! xinhui wasn't lagging for imperatrix. and that gliss was really O: haha, even i noticed. lei-chen didn't screw up her wood blocks! and the sec 3s were all cool, as usual. (actually i could spout bad things about them here and they wouldn't know) and i'd like to point out that i thought cadenza was really touch-and-go, and i was getting all these bad signs like broken shoe heels, missing stuff... but in the end, it was all alright. we managed to fix all the upsets and the concert was pretty awesome, so good job! and there's still a lot of events ahead of us so jiayou percs!

love,
Deborah
perc '10

Hahaha Deborah's computer couldn't uplaod photos, so I'm uploading for her. I have photos too! But too lazy to upload hehh. Maybe later ><

Sorry that they're in the wrong order!

Yayy Xing Ern's present to us and my timbale sticks for Deborah :D The glasses are so cool! But when we wear them I really think we look like insects oO

Yay semi-section photo with Aliza smiling!

Houseflies.

Sighh Cadenza was so fun! But OK I have to go to sleep now, so bye!

Hahaha I just remembered I kept to my promise and photoshopped a face made of perc instrus! I even used it for my ICT project (which I got highest in my class for! The teacher must love percussion too <3)

Yayy auds are finally over!

It has been gruelling and tiring and frustrating preparing for them, so now that they're over, yayyy. Come to think of it, we spent so long trying to find a choice piece and practicing scales and rudiments and it was over in what, half an hour? I guess it'll be like that for the upcoming concerts too. All our hard work for the past few months, gone in a matter of hours on stage.

We don't think we'll get in considering out terrible performance, but it's not like we had high expectations before heh. Unexpectedly, we got in! Haha this may sound very dead/expected now but that's only because we received the news a while ago so the excitment lessened a bit. If not this paragraph would be peppered with ":D" all over.

So, naïvely thinking they would be so nice as to give us time to warm-up, I got there only fifteen minutes before the auds, before I realized we were supposed to go there early to warm-up. Oh no.Thankfully my number was E15 (Sharon's was E18 because she forgot to take it, and had to go back afterwards -.-), so I still had some time to warm-up while the others went for auds first. But there were no mallets to practice on! So I just pretended I knew where the keys were. And yet the glissando was impossible because everytime I did it, there would be a huge gust of wind and all the papers would fly away!

Then I met my church friend from St. Margaret's Girls' School Symphonic Band, who introduced me to her perc friends, Angeline and Zhen Ni, who had long and difficult scores from Legend of somethingsomething Hero. And they looked so pro and intimidating. Wonderful.


Honestly, we thought we were the worst percussionists present! There was a girl called Marianne whom I auditioned with, and she was playing the snare drum score from Overture No. 1 for Wind Bands! And Angeline could play the snare drum score from Technology. Great. One is SYF standard and the other is Cadenza standard. Who are we to go for auditions against these percussionists! We contemplated going home - at least we would never know if we could have gotten in, then face the rejection. But I'm glad we just went ahead in the end, because of the pleasantly surprising results!

Anyway, we reasoned that we've already come so far, so we shouldn't give up. We even had the courage to come to Ang Mo Kio Secondary School! So we had to go on. And they were bound to notice the only two RGS girls sneaking out of the compound with their bags, so we had no choice but to stay hehh.

But the fact that our numbers were so far behind, which we initially thought was a good thing, only made it a lot worse! Yes, we had time to practice, but we also had a lot of time to socialize, thereby finding out that people were playing much much better pieces than us and as a result losing our nerves. We were so close to the brink of insanity that we had to escape to the canteen to drink Milo and to the toilet to...use it. What else could we do there! Oh wait there's something else but I don't think Sharon wants me to share it hahaha.

The suspense was building up as the minute hand of my watch ticked by! Oh yeah I took it off when I went into the classroom and my auditioners gave me the oO look - I thought we were supposed to do that? Anyway then we both started having breathing difficulty because I was hyperventilating, and Sharon had blocked nose

But then we received a heartwarming SMS, so our breathing returned to normal. Or mine, at least, because Sharon still had a blocked nose. Soon my turn came! I didn't even realize it was my turn until Marianne called me! Oh no oh no I fumbled around with my mallets and sticks and scores before I realized Marianne took her whole bag with her so I wasted more time trying to put everything back into my bag again before I decided to just carry the bag on my back and my sticks/scores in my hands. Bad start!

Then I walked up the stairs with Marianne, and we started chatting and arguing - nice way to make friends - about who to go first. When we reached our final destination - pun intended - the teacher WHOM I THOUGHT WAS GLORIA - you'll get what I mean after reading about the actual audition below - commented on how we looked like we knew each other from 10 years ago. Huh, so you argue a lot with people you know from 10 years ago?

Anyway then we walked to the classroom for our auds. And we heard the guy before us playing the drumset and crash cymbals and tambourine and we actually concluded that he had come for different auds. Little did we know, what the auditioners had prepared for us!

We talked a bit more outside, and then I found out that somebody had stepped on my paper. Now it had a huge shoe mark at the top ohmygoodness. What a great way to leave a good impression. I wonder if they'll mark me down, thinking I step all over my scores or something!

Anyway, after Marianne went in, I heard her playing tambourine/drumset/crash cymbals too. And that's when I realized what a horrifying situation I was in! So I started freaking out again, and suddenly needed to go to the toilet really urgently.

But then Marianne came out, gave me a horrified expression and then whispered, "Good luck!" and shuffled away. Thanks for the luck, but I'm quite sure I didn't need that horrified expression of yours to scare me even more...

NOTE: The following experience is too horrific to be repeated. It's better not to know.

Then Sharon and I sat at the staircase staring at our auditioner and taking photos. Before we made calls and decided to have dinner together! I can't remember what happened already - the only reason why the above is so specific is because I wrote it on the following day, except I forgot to post it - but I know that my mother, sister and I ran into the MRT, but darling Sharon was too slow and was trapped outside! So we had to waste time waiting for her to arrive on the next MRT hahaha.

Sighh I can't remember anything else, so I guess that's all. I'm just so glad we both got in! Tomorrow's our first day yayy I can't wait!

Yup that's all I was just looking through the drafts and found this ancient post. Why I forgot to post it I forgot. Oh and Sharon you have 4 drafts about your song saved here...

Okay third post in like an hour.

Cadenza is in 86 days. I was really shocked when Yujia announced there were only a hundred days left that day. I went home and counted for fun, turns out there were only 90 days left. For Cadenza XI, we were keeping track of the days left way before it breached the double-digit mark. I guess it shows a lot of things, most importantly that we have very little time left. I hope that all of you will work hard and improve yourselves constantly by practicing the things you like, as well as the things you don't like.

I know all of you can do it! And you're almost there, but there's still a lot to learn. I'll leave y'all to count how many pracs, how many sectionals, and how many indiv sessions we have left til concert. So really focus on the things that need improving and I'll help as much as I can.

Yeah, that's about it. I think this sounded kinda disjointed, but I hope you get the point. We want to enjoy ourselves for concert, but we also want to put up a good, entertaining show for the audience so that it's worth their money, and we can walk off the stage with pride. I hope that by putting in all your effort now, you can play at VCH and leave with no regrets. This is probably going to be one of the last times we see VCH before it renovates, so treasure every moment of it - the process and actual performance.

Love,

Deborah

(As for Drumzout, I'm really thinking about it. and we'll see what happens.)

Okay uhm, photos from Inunion '09

You people need to learn to be more photo-friendly! Seriously not like me at all ):

So cute.

Seriously? The camera's up here.

Haha, the letters dropped off x)

Haha commanders photo!

Hi section!

Okay it sounds weird to say section, seeing as the sec threes almost never visit, and I haven't either,in what, over a month?

okay random photo i took of the marimba

uh this took 8 tries

this would've been perfect except when Emily took over the camera the angle changed and the sec twos looked strangely big

so I chose this one for section photo.

Although it really isn't the nicest one! But the programme booklet will be greyscale anyway, so it's not that bad. Okay I'm gonna start a new post because uploading photos is so troublesome, so I'm gonna dedicate a whole post to some photos.