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.
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...
