Voices of the Dragon

Day: 6/11
Time: 730pm-930pm
Place: Singapore Conference Hall
Happenings: RICO Concert, Voices of the Dragon
Conductor: Yang lao shi and Zhou Boyi
Most impt section: Percussion (obviously... haha... jkjk...)
Leader: Tze Ern. haha.

Hm. Let's go in chronological order, shall we?

1. Reaching school
It felt weird wearing long pants and black shoes on the bus. There were a couple of stares from a few of the people on the bus, but other than that, I reached RJCO room on time (in fact 3 mins early according to the clock in RJCO room)...

2. Last practice
The last practice we had was a rather ok one. We didn't sound at our best, but it was rather good. No major screw-ups, I feel... haha. Yar, so we went through all the pieces once b4 we went to eat.

3. Lunch
We ate.

4. Packing up instruments
OMG. That was indeed tiring. Tze Ern gave me the job to check whether all the instruments were qi2. wah. never knew it was so hard man. That was especially the case when instruments were moving (or rather moved) while I was checking. In the end, it was all ready and we boarded the bus. =)

5. Downloading of instruments
OMG. Once again, I was given the task of making sure that every instrument was intact. ARGH! The place was so small and messy and it took so long to check all the items in my checklist. Sian. Then, had to clean the xylo cuz it was wet (rain...). Yup.

6. Rehearsal in SCH
that went rather ok as well. i only forgot to repeat for huan xin section A. OOPS. Den, I dao-ed the conductor by starting even before he had raised his baton. LOL. hahaha. As Thomas said before, there was this trumpet soloist who hated the conductor. The conductor raised his baton for the guy to start. However, the trumpet soloist only raised his trumpet. He did not start. The conductor tried again and again but the trumpet soloist still did not start. The conductor was so embarrassed that he went off stage. The trumpet soloist started once the conductor had left the stage. The audience were laughing their heads off. HAHA. Well, it was rather the same situation except that I don't hate the conductor and it was an accident and not done purposefully. Lol. Other that that, it was rather ok. Oh yes, and the conductor asked me to play softer for feng nian ji and for percussion to play softer for dong hai.

7. LOST
Tze Ern's blazer goes missing and is found behind Thomas's bag in the practice room by me. =)

8. Dinner
Nothing much. Just a box of rice with vegetable and chicken. Lol. Had dinner with THE LEADER.

9. Changing into performance attire
WAH. everyone looked so shuai. hahahaha.

10. Performance proper
Yes. we finally get to the most impt part, dont we? haha.

10.1 Feng Nian Ji

Most impt section: Percussion... Lol...
Timpani + muyu: Thomas
Xylophone: Patrick
Dagu: Tze Ern and Yin Kwan
Diao Cha + Xi Yang Cha: BL
Tambourine: Zhao Jie

Screw-ups: Zhao Jie's tambourine a bit tuo jie. Other's were quite ok except my xylo was a bit too loud (probably cuz I decided not to follow the conductor's instructions to play softer. Lol. Or rather I couldn't find the white sticks during concert... ><)

10.2 Taiwan

Most impt section: Percussion
Timpani: Thomas
Xylophone + Glock: Patrick
Dagu: Yin Kwan
Paigu: Tze Ern
Diao Cha + Xiao Bo: BL

Screw-ups: My solo was a bit tuo jie... =(

10.3 Wild Flowers

Most impt section: Percussion
Dagu: Joshua
Tambourine: Chu Ming
Glock: Patrick

Luo si ding xiang shang: Joshua and Chu Ming were a bit gan pai...

10.4 Ensemble pieces + Interval

Ensemble pieces
Most impt ensemble piece: Dizi and Cello/Base/Piano
Dizi: Shida = Pro
Piano = Vincent = Pro

Most Slack section: Percussion
What they were doing: Playing cards
What they forgot to do: Go back on stage to rearrange instruments
Who reminded them: Tze Ern
What they did: Rearrange paigu to the right order, push vibe out, move glock backstage...
What they forgot: Tune timpani...

10.5 Huan Xin

Most important section: Percussion
Xylo: Thomas
Bongo Drums: Patrick
Claves: Tze Ern
Tambourine: Yin Kwan

Screw-ups: Tze Ern used his brilliant skills to come up with a new score. but when did percussion ever follow scores... =P

10.6 Long

Most impotant section: Percussion
Timpani: Thomas again...
Vibe: Tze Ern
Muyu + Gong: Yin Kwan
Triangle: Patrick

Screw-ups: Triangle too soft i think cuz the stick was too small... ><

10.7 Dong Hai

Most important section: PERCUSSION
Ding Yin Luo: Thomas
Xiao Gu + Mu Yu: Yin Kwan
Dagu: BL
Xiao Bo: Patrick
Da cha: Tze Ern
Gong: Zhao Jie

Luo si ding xiang shang: NOTHING, except percussion went deaf cuz we were too darn loud.

Oh yes. We discussed during the boring part of the song (no percussion) that we would play as loud as we could, so yar... and BL used his thick sticks... HAHA. and Tze Ern and Yin Kwan wore ear-plugs. So Tze Ern was SO LOUD. and ding ying luo was ear-deafeaning and BL's dagu was so loud that my hands were trembling when I pressed on the drum. =( haha. and xiao bo was at it's loudest too. =)

10.8 Matsuri =)

Most important section:Percussion
Timpani: Tze Ern
Paigu: Thomas
Dagu: Patrick
Drumset: BL
Muyu: Yin Kwan
Tambourine: Zhao Jie

Screw-ups: Timp? NO!!! Nothing screwed up again!!! YAY. hahaha. nice job Tze Ern. You managed to play timpani after just 5 practices? WOW. I think lionel took 2 months to learn the first few bars. Oops. No offence Lionel. Lol. And Dagu was LOUD, cuz Patrick used BL's thick sticks. And drumset was rather nice too. =)

11: Packing up
NO!!! Concert over... So fast... ARGH!!! I miss it. Lol. Some interesting facts about the concert...

1. Someone shouted "Patrick" at the start... (should be lionel...)
2. Many people shouted "Boyi" when he conducted...
3. Some girls shouted "Angus, we love you"... LOL.
4. Headmaster said "Will that boy break the drum" (referring to BL during dong hai)
5. Headmaster praised percussion for really enjoying what they were playing
6. Headmaster said percussion played too loudly for dong hai. HAHA. Oops... Lol.
7. 714 went for concert.
8. 800 tics were sold. (that's almost full i think)
9. Erhu rushed for dong hai
10. Many people loved matsuri. (eg. Jaryl, Mr. Chong + many more)
11. Dong Hai was also well received
12. Lionel, our former SL, came for the concert

Well, it was a really nice concert, honestly. Everyone gave positive comments. Except for the erhu ensemble which was not that well received, the others were great, especially dong hai and matsuri. WOW. and sec 1 piece wasn't that screwed-up either. YAY. hahaha. although it was rather embarrasing to be on stage for a sec 1 piece. =(

Well, think that's all. beginning a new chapter on friday when we receive news about the new set piece and choice piece for SYF. It's gonna be boring but we MUST get gold with honours dont we? and next year, we will be having at least 2 concerts to celebrate our 20th anniversary, so it's gonna be more fun again. YAY. lol.

Patrick

Visit Tze Ern's blog http://www.rizern.blogspot.com/ for more details... Lol. He also has other links in his post which u can visit for more info on our concert...