OPOM CONCERT 2014 -SPORTS HUB

Photo with BFF Xin and Le

 Hey guys! It has been a month again since I blogged. As you can see from the topic, I will be talking about my experience performing at the "Our People Our Music" Concert which was held in the newly built Sports Hub. Singapore managed to break two Guiness World Record! Woohoo~

But before the actual performance is done, we have to go through many rehearsals. I play the Erhu and Gaohu so I need to attend five rehearsals. Two for rehearsing 赛马 -mainly the Erhu. And 3 rehearsals where the whole orchestra will practice all the songs we need to perform.

FIRST REHEARSAL- 29 APRIL 2014
This rehearsal is mainly the Gaohu, Erhu and Zhonghu group and we are requird to play the song 赛马. Held at ITE Central College. I didn't take pictures there because I'm not really close to my seniors that time!

SECOND REHEARSAL -26 APRIL 2014
This rehearsal involves in the whole orchestra. Held at Singapore Expo, where it is just a 5 minutes car drive from my school to there! ^^ I meet my juniors from my primary school there, as well as my classmate. (only one ^^" ) But I didn't manage to take pictures with them. 
Only managed to take pictures with BFF Xin and Le and included BFF Le's friend! XD

With BFF Xin~

Third Rehearsal 24 May 2014

Erhu rehearsal again~ No photos ):

Fourth Rehearsal 27 Jun 2014
This rehearsal is held at the Kallang Sports Hub. Let me be honest with you, it's really HUGEE!! :O

From the outside of the Sports Hub, I'm already excited and anticipated about going inside the Sports Hub! :D

Some photos outside the Sports Hub

We need the passes in order to go inside the Sports Hub! (:    

                     

Then we had our lunch. Didn't manage to take a picture of it.
Bee hoon with erm.. Vegtables and I forgotten XD 
According to BFF Yun, it's Chicken! 

My empty lucnh.

 Then we had some selfies~~ Memories to be kept right...?

BFF Yun swag yo~

By the way, BFF Xin got interviewed! I'm so sorry for taking this picture! :P

 After lunch, the Erhu group have to go for rehearsal at the Sports Hub first, which means, we're the first one who can view the Sports Hub! :DD Maybe not the first people, but first group of the orchestra! (:

My poor photography..

I'm playing Gaohu

After that my seniors (Seniors Yu Hong, Kenneth and Jeremy) and I went to the Kallang Wave Mall to purchase food because we're hungry. Treating them Sushi (we shared the money but I paid the most)

Senior YuHong bought this "Mars Coffee" Drink. Cool right?

SUSHIII!!

THE MARS COFFEE!! :O

 

Awesome dinner here~

 Dinner before going back for another rehearsal. Selfies again~

Going back to the Sports Hub for the final practice...

We saw fireworks at the Sport Hub! :D 

BFF Yun loves pandas. She requested this.

We went up to the toilet, it's sooooo cool! Especially the wall texture!!
What it looks like when you're on top.

Before rehearsal starts again.. XD Awkward smile~

After rehearsal, getting ready to go home~ Rare photos with seniors :D
Just senior KeXin and seniro YuHong! (:

With Senior Kexin and BFF Yun. Senior YuHong's face got cut off.. ):

They had selfies with my phone XD

Another one

Going back to School...
Although we're tired, still take selfies! HAHAHA

FINAL REHEARSAL 28TH JUNE 2014
The day where the actual performance is here
So you see, we'll not wearing our school uniform but the OPOM T-Shirt.

The design is sooo nice. And red represents Singapore too! (:

While we're done changing.. Of course. SELFIES!

We went to the toilet where there's no one inside, but only US! Yay I guess...? (:

 

With my seniors again!

While we'll on the bus to the Sports Hub..

Lunch time! Noodles with vegetables and fried fish! YAY!

Our Lunch Time

Off to the final rehearsal!

Photo taken by my Junior!

Selfies after eating our dinner.
Well, I didn't bother to take a picture of the food because I'm soo hungry. And I was afraid that we will be late for our performance. But.. We had time for selfies!

Weee~ Met my primary school juniors and friend. It has been quite a while since I met them!

Front: Junior Didi
Back: Junior Elaine

With BFF Ling~

Then we met our conductor and decided to take a picture!

Photo with our Former Conductor!

BFF Le. Not able to take picture with BFF Xin.. ):

With Senior Jeremy!

The toilet is just sooo awesome!

After the performance...

I love cupcakes! (:

Beautiful lips~ (:

Pedo Face. FAILED!

So I would like to end off this blog post with a photo with BFF Yun. The firework is really amazing, got the right time to take this photo! XD Yay, good for me! In a nutshell, it was a really great experience for me where I manage to take part in a major event!

See you in the next blog post!

Take care~

-Geraldine

GRADE 8 EXPERIENCE ABRSM and I NEED HELP!

Hey everyone! So it has been a while since I blogged, probably about a month. Yes, as the title suggests I'll be talking about my experience taking a grade 8 PRACTICAL exam, which is today (3 July 2014). I've been taking quite a while to practice and practice my exam pieces, sight reading, scales and also, aural! It's really nerve-wrecking and tiring, I can be really honest with you. But you know, GRADE 8, what can you expect? With a pass, you can teach other students or even perform in a crowd of people! My dream since young was to be a musician. But I'm still unsure what type I should choose though.. Professional musicians out there, I really need your help to give me opinions and tips of 4 components (mentioned above)

OR

Back to the experience. To be honest with you, I literally jumped from Grade 5 to Grade 8 (but my piano teacher practiced Grade 6 and 7 together with me). But, when I stepped into the exam room, I wasn't feeling like nervous. My hands and legs  were not shaking and my heart isn't beating that hard. That occurred to me when I was grade 5. It is just so... ironic... I mean, wouldn't you be nervous when you are taking the highest grade (okay, diploma is higher. But still, grade 8 is considered HIGH! )

I started on scales, followed by exam pieces, then sight-reading and lastly, aural. You know, the whole examination is really fast! It's like a blink of an eye. I don't know.. I have different feelings between grade 5 and grade 8..

I tried out the piano first, then I played E flat minor melodic, it flowing quite well though. I guess the examiner was kind of impressed. I managed to answer what examiner wanted immediately, but maybe a little bit of mistakes in between. I screwed up in the diminished seventh, the examiner wanted me to replay again T.T Bad idea... I guess, she's kind of disappointed ._.

For exam pieces, I manage to not stop throughout my three pieces. But there's some notes problem again. I'm not sure what is wrong with my fingers...

Sight-reading... HORRIBLE! Yes, HORRIBLEEEE!! The examiner gave me a key of 3 sharps. I guess it's a major key. And I played it as if I'm grade 1 now and playing a grade 8 sight-reading. I stumbled a bit in the middle, but I played smoothly at the end. All the notes are just chords in the right hand, and some monophonic(single line) in the left hand... SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH ME. I NEED HELP FOR SIGHT-READING! *CRIES*

For Aural, it's still fine.. But just.. the SIGHT-SINGING. I don't know, I do every component that has the whole "sight" completely. I can't read something out of the blue immediately. Professionals, pianists, musicians, any instruments teachers, do you have any tips for sight-reading? I guess every instruments has to go through sight-reading, not only piano! For the 3-part phrase, I was still able to hear the bass note. I guess the examiner purposely gave the bass note loudly. She's giving me a chance, I'm really thankful for that. I got the cadence correct but I'm not sure if the 3 chords I got it correct, I was nervous for no reason. Sight-singing, the examiner told me to resing again, I can't even sing the notes, I got the pitch but I can't sing the notes like "Doh Re Mi Fa So La Ti Doh" ARRRGHH. For Question and Answer, I'm unsure if I got the period correct but I kept on talking until I had nothing to say. The examiner didn't stop me from talking ._. despite the fact that I talked about the character and the style&period.

So... QUESTIONS THAT I NEED HELP WITH!

• In your opinion, do you prefer performing or teaching as your career? If so, why?
• How do to read sight-reading and sight-singing in such a short time? Must both of them be practiced daily? How did you overcome your difficulty in them?- *It's really very difficult for me to do sight-reading and sight-singing, really, those that needs to be seen*
•  How do you usually listen to the bass note in Aural? (E.g. Lowest part in 3 part phrase, Finding the 3 last chords, modulations) How did you practice them?
• For Scales, how do you usually practice them? *No matter how slow I go, my fingers won't coordinate...

• Exam pieces, do you usually play it slowly first before increasing the speed? How do you usually practice the ornaments if you have them?

I think that's all the questions I want to ask. I really hoped you can help me in improving my skills. I sincerely thank you for reading my blog and I really hoped you can give me some opinions. Nothing's wrong! Everyone have their own opinions!

I think I have to just let go the exam for now and polish up what I'm weak in.. Let it go~

LOL... Froozen 
 

Disclaimer: All photos are not owned by me. Credit goes to the rightful owner!
So long, take care~