Monday, April 27, 2009

Prac will resume on T2 Wk8 Thurs, ie 14th May, and sec1s will be there too! Thur prac will be normal timing but fri prac may end a bit earlier (cos no dazu). Shall confirm about this at a later date.

CO June Camp will be 24-25 June! [edit: as leevoon mentioned on the tagboard, it is 25-2 june :P] We should be able to stay overnight. :) Actually we might add another day or something (but no overnight) but not yet confirmed! So yes when you book your holidays try to avoid this period!

I am considering having a sectional lunch (or even go catch a movie together or something) before prac resumes. A probable date will be next Fri, 8 May, but sec3s have EL Lit SA during CES. However, I doubt we will have another available day, unless you people want to go on a Saturday? (Reminder: exam period!) So do reply to this...I will confirm by the coming weekend. But anyway if we can't have it now then we will just have to resort to having sectional outing in June hols!

So yep everyone please start discussing about tanbo bonding activities now! Seeing that we'll probably be quite free for the rest of the year. -_- (*whines* I want to learn new dazu songs!) If you want you can also discuss how to teach sec1s and blah! Let's try to keep this place alive k! You can upload photos and all sorts of random stuff! And I'll go bug wenyun for SYF recording then maybe we can put the music up here too to remind us of our wonderful experience together every time we visit this place!

Oh and can some kind person who doesn't mind sorting through the html thing please update the list of members thing? I can provide the list of newcomers. :) And if anyone is really really free can design a personalised template for the blog too! (After exams of course.) Anyway now is the time to finish tying things up before the current sec4 batch takes our last bow and bids farewell! Let's really enjoy this last few months together as much as we can! :)

<3<3<3 dengqing

Labels: bonding, post-syf

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hey Tanbo!

Yep yep SYF is here and finally over. Guess its really so fast right.

Anyway, just wanted to say, I am really very very proud of TANBO! Haha i think tanbo did really well today, in fact the whole of RGCO did well.(:

And i apologise for being so sad and disheartening today. I think a lot of people were triggered off by me and I am really really really very sorry for that.

Ok i am kind of in a lost for words of what to say. (My english is dying and my brain isn't helping). but just really wanted you ppl to know that I Love you guys loads!

Thank you for all the efforts and time you guys put in for SYF and i think our hard work was rewarded, by the fact that today's molou was one of our best orchestra piece. LOVE YOU PPL!(:

<3 Yunan

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Hi tanbo!

Er yeah this is me AGAIN. (But i am glad to see tienli posting too. Makes the blog more interesting. Even though her explanation of the 感觉 is er a bit weird.)

But yes need to update about Monday prac:

3.30-5.30 (may end earlier)
KS Chee
Wear your blazer (no need for the rest, ONLY blazer.)

Reminder to change 一弦 before/after Monday prac!

And tue:

Report to KS Chee at 6.30am IN your uniform already. No time to change.
Those who have tuners and the wire thing please bring.

Today and tomorrow do rest well and don't get sick/injured!!! Don't chiong hw too hard either. Let your mind and body REST.

And please REMEMBER those stuff that wang ls made minor changes to on sat. Those who didn't come please ask someone from your instru and if you want can come earlier tomorrow to prac a bit. I trust that all of us are familiar with all the changes that has been made so far...

As what wang ls said during the recent dazu, what we need the most now is FOCUS and CONFIDENCE. Keep your mind very clear when playing and don't forget what you are playing. And SHOW everyone that you know what you are playing and can play it well.

So yes I shall repeat what i have said before. RELAX, sit up straight, SMILE, and show that you are confident that your music is going to rock down the house.

Jiayous tanbo. Go up and do your best. And whatever we do we know that we'll always be here for one another to share all that comes our way. :)

<3 dengqing

2 days to syf!
Oh yes and I almost forgot about this so I shall write another post and respam blog!
Hello tanbo! Shall leave the last pre-syf post to our beloved sl to do the honours...

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Hey tanbo!

Great job today! We had really great 感觉 and 台风! Even though of course it wasn't perfect but it has improved DRAMATICALLY from how we used to play! And I can see that all of us are really putting in a lot of effort and trying to express our emotions through the music.

Plus we kind of managed to autopilot 漠楼! And it was really not bad. *remembers trying to figure out when to come in for 极限音* It shows that all of us know the song truly well and do listen to what everyone else plays! OMG I AM SO PROUD OF RGCO!!!!

Haha yay so for the next couple of days we can rest a little bit and don't prac super hard like hours each day (unless there are parts that you really need to work on, even though there shouldn't be anymore by now), but i do hope that everyone can practise a little each day by going through certain parts like melody and stuff couple of times and spend perhaps around 30min on 基本功.

We have worked hard for so long and now it is nearly time for the final showdown! Jiayou everyone! I am confident that we can get what we aimed for as long as we perform normally! (Meaning don't freak out onstage...) The most important thing right now is to relax and enjoy the last couple of days left of "chionging" for syf cos I assure you that it will be a very memorable experience in your RGCO life!

Yes so rest well, enjoy yourselves, and don't stress out. We will bring down the house at SCH on tuesday 21st April!

<3 dengqing

4 days to syf

Labels: jiayou

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Hi tanbo this is dengqing again to update.

This week till next week's prac schedule:

Thur 3.30-6.30 Dazu KS Chee
Fri 2.30-6.30 Dazu KS Chee
Sat 1.30-6.30 (half an hour break in between) Dazu KS Chee
Mon 3.30-5.30 Dazu KS Chee

Sat and Mon prac are COMPULSORY. NO EXCUSE ALLOWED. If you have third lang exam on monday please try to reschedule it. If you really cannot do so then do approach me or go straight to wenyun/amelia.

After today's dazu I'd to mention some stuff that we should work on now.

蝉歌 慢板
-3616 part better phrasing needed: every single time you play 3616 please listen to what you play and make sure that the 音色 and everything sounds nice. next time during dazu you can try to close your eyes and listen to how your notes blend in with the whole orchestra (but of course must still make sure that you are playing correctly). zhongruan remember to be more 柔和, especially since you have so many people it's quite obvious. 齐ness for this part has improved, but there are still times where we don't play at the correct time, so do try to minimise this.
-zhongruan/liuqin running semiquavers part: zhongruan's 弹挑 is a bit "sticky" right now so the tempo is not very steady, so do try to make sure that your every note is clear. must be 柔和 as well, and better phrasing needed (applies to liuqin too). liuqin 音色...we'll see what we can do about it.
-remember that this part we are supposed to sound 朦朦胧胧, so 音色 is very important, as well as evenness of our 弹挑.

蝉歌 快板
-problem of 赶拍ing has improved, but tempo still needs to be more steady
-all the semiquaver parts please try to keep to wang ls' tempo cos now we are still quite 不齐, also try to do the dynamics that zhang ls marked out for us.
-generally ok, but we need more 激情, and try to show this in both what you play as well as in your 台风.

漠楼 front part before 拍板 part
-pipa/liuqin 极限音 look at wang ls, cos this part tempo may not be constant, and pipa try to 轮 very quickly, doesn't matter if you have 噪音, don't try to make it sound nice and even please
-the weird chromatic sounding thing (example: bar 7) must be as loud as possible, especially right after liuqin stops the volume tends to drop so try to prevent this, after that the 拉弦 part of course zhongruan, daruan and pipa look at wang ls and do the dynamics that she signals with her hands

漠楼 拍板 part
-must have a lot of 台风, especially since there is practically no technique to take note of in these few bars

漠楼 melody
-pipa's accompaniment for xianyue part must be more 集中 and don't 赶. since this part so simple must have more 台风, and i think should move to the melody instead of what we play (cos our notes are kind of boring) and vary your dynamics according to the contours of the melodic line
-when tanbo joins in the melody: now that we have worked on this part for so long i assume that most of us have got the notes down, so now i don't want us to forcus too much on the technical part. instead I'd like everyone to relax and enjoy the music and move to it. it doesn't matter if your don't play as "perfectly" but i want ot see the 感觉 and it is quite obvious when we are tense. example: today i looked over at zhongruan a couple of times and most people were "vibrating" in their seats only. i appreciate the effort to move to the music, but must remember to relax and exaggerate your movement more!

8/5 拍
-when zhongruan followed by liuqin/pipa comes in with the melodic line, try to keep tempo constant. zhongruan is ok, but once pipa comes in we tend to start to 赶拍. important to prevent this. another thing is that we need to remember to emphasise on the first note of each bar, i think not everyone is doing it enough. always keep in mind cello's rhythm.
-liuqin/pipa's sub-melodic line with xianyue plus sub-melodic line to suona's melody: tempo not steady and semiquaver parts tend to 赶拍. need to be more 严谨 at this part
-suona's second melodic line, where tanbo plays the cello rhythm: tempo needs to be more steady and emphasise on the first and fourth 拍s, but of course first note must be loudest. try to have 台风 since this part so simple. once suona stops we have to cut our volume significantly, currently we are drowning out xianyue with our super-loud 弹挑s.
-pipa/liuqin melody: have more 台风 and 感觉
-zhongruan rhythm interlocking with cello: must be very sure of the rhythm and tempo, any slight deviation or hesitation is very obvious
-when suona comes in with the melodic line, we must have more 激情 since this is like the final climax. when we end off must work on the layering and gradualness.

last note:
-whatever, but just a reminder to cover your strings to 断 the 音

Overall stuff:
-SIT PROPERLY. only half your butt on the the chair. sit straight. knees together. liuqin/pipa turn your bodies slightly towards the audience
-BE ALERT AT ALL TIMES: once she starts please be focused at all times, don't slouch/look sleepy/whatever not
-HAVE MORE CONFIDENCE: be more sure of what you play and show this confidence through your 台风. also sit straight and lift your chin a little bit.
-SMILE: smile a little at parts like 蝉歌 慢板 and maybe a little more at parts like 漠楼 melody
-WORK ON 台风! MUST BE RELAXED AT ALL TIMES! Once you sit down must remember to relax already.

Other than that i think we are ok. From now on during dazu please try to be more focused and remember to sit properly when you play. We only have very few pracs left before syf so we really need to make full use of all the time that we have. We have worked hard for so long and this is the last lap already so let's buck up and sprint through it to our best ability. And overall we do sound good. Really. As long as we polish up the details a Gold with Honours is definitely a possibility. So do have confidence that we can achieve what we aimed for and work hard for the last few days.

Jiayou everyone!

<3 dengqing

6 days to SYF

Labels: updates

Friday, April 10, 2009

Hi tanbo!

Tomorrow is the big day (second biggest after syf)! Sleep early and don't be nervous!

We've improved a lot this week and I have confidence that we can do it tomorrow as well as on the big(gest) day itself!

Jiayou!

<3<3<3 dengqing

Labels: jiayou

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Further updates!

Thur: 3.30-6.30 Dazu KS Chee
Fri: (no prac cos of Good Friday)
Sat: Dazu in KS Chee at 9 (Report at least 15min earlier to set up and get ready)

Attire for Sat: You can choose to come in culottes or the concert/syf attire, but be warned that you have to wear the concert/syf attire till evening so if you think that you are going to sweat a lot then better change after lunch or something.

Reminder for what to wear on sat:
PLAIN long-sleeved white blouse
PLAIN knee-length black skirt
Blazer
Stockings
PLAIN black court shoes
School tie
CO Badge (thanks for the reminder clara!)

Yep so jiayou for the remaining couple of days before the concert. And after that it will be one more week to SYF! Some of us may be disheartened cos we have not yet fully adapted to wang ls, but we have already come so far so don't give up just yet! We have already improved a lot, so we just have to keep on this path and I am sure that we can make it in time for SYF! Seeing that RGS people are so pro at chionging PTs last-minute I believe we can do this too! (Even though yeah not really the same thing but you get what I mean...) So let's have faith that we can do it together as an orchestra and no matter what the results are, we will still be happy with what we have achieved! :)

<3 dengqing

3 days to dhs concert
13 days to SYF

Labels: ~MoTiVaTiOn~

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Hi tanbo here is the prac schedule for this week:

Mon 3.30-5.30 Classroom Xiaozu

Tue 3.30-(nunconfirmed) KS Chee Dazu

Thur 3.30-6 KS Chee Dazu

Fri (no prac cos of Good Friday)

Sat 9.30-11.30 Classroom Xiaozu
11.30 Lunch then go to DHS
5-6+ Concert

The schedule is generally correct except for sat's schedule and the time that prac ends for some days. I will confirm it with wenyun asap and inform you people again. For monday and tuesday practice please try your best to come unless you really have something on. I will check if you need excuse letter for tue if you can't make it. If you are groaning that there is a lot of prac be glad that I didn't add prac on wednesday as well. We've only got 6 days to the dhs thing and 16 days to SYF!

And some of the stuff to take note of after this week's prac:

蝉歌 慢板
-Must remember to count in your head (but not with your foot) cos wang ls doesn't give the beat so obviously
-Breathe before each time you come in! It helps you with controlling the tempo and it looks good when we do it together. :)
-The part with liuqin and zhongruan alternating liuqin please play louder ad zhongruan play a bit softer. Currently quite off-balance.
-I must commend all of us for the improvement that we made this week as to this part cos there is better 感觉 and we are kind of 齐 even though we are counting on our own. But yeah must continue to improve! :)

蝉歌 快板
-Better also with the 赶拍 part, continue to work on it
-But must also work on remembering to play the 扫弦 parts loudly and 集中ly
-Must be 激动! :)

漠楼
-Changes to the 拉弦 渐慢 parts
-Changes to liuqin/pipa 极限音 parts (pipa remember to remind me that we have to discuss about this part)
-G diao need to work on expression. SERIOUSLY.
-拍板 part need to er have happy 台风 :) (pipa let's practise this part too...)

Here are links to some videos that you may want to take a look at for inspiration for molou. Parts that I recommend you to take a look at are in brackets but you can watch the rest also if you want. Oh and when you watch the videos you can take note of the background music cos some parts have interesting music that you may find "inspired" by. :)

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/tSRx02RhrdQ/ (1.15-1.50, 3.02-4.15, 13.32-13.44, 14.08-14.40) This link was provided by kexin and it's actually about animals in African deserts. I have picked out the parts that show the desert and stuff, but you can watch the animal parts too if you want!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWN1o_vFv8 (0.00-1.15) Some documentary about Marco Polo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeyYWg5M0a4&feature=related (0.00-4.00) This is about a lost "empire" in the desert but er if you don't really get it it's ok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RK8EKOtjg8 This is erm a video of people dancing around it may be slightly useful for the G diao part? The video quality is quite bad but there is an interesting-looking tanbo instrument somewhere. Haha.

As for what happened this week, I do hope that you people won't be too affected by the change in conductors. Please bear in mind that although not everyone would be happy with the arrangements no one is to blame for it, and what we have to do now is to cooperate as best as we can with wang ls and work hard for SYF. Doubtlessly liu ls has put a lot of effort into working with us over the past few months and we are all very grateful towards her for what she has done for us. And thus some of us may be upset over what has happened, but please do not transfer that into negative feelings towards wang ls. I do NOT want to hear anyone making negative comments about the change in conductors or wang ls herself. As for concerns over her being "biased" against tanbo, if you were there on Sat you should know that that is definitely not true. She is trying very hard to make the best out of this situation, so we ourselves should put in effort too.

And with that said, let us all work even harder in the few days left before SYF. This is not only for liu ls, wang ls, or any of the other instructors and teacher i/cs, but most of all for OURSELVES. To fulfil our personal goals, and to get recognition for our hard work over the years in CO. But of course, it is not only about the results, and even if we don't get what we'd hoped for, all of us would still have gained a lot from this process by working together as a CCA and really bonding through this experience.

So yes jiayou everyone. Let's make the best out of this last few days and leave no regrets of this experience together as RGCO'09. :)

<3 dengqing

6 days to dhs concert
16 days to syf

the composers

to prove tanbo = root of love
tan60 = square root 3 = square root <3
therefore tanbo is the root of love (proven)


OUR YANGQINS:
yiwei
xiaoqi
clara
rachel

OUR LIUQINS:
yunan
siying
rachel

OUR PIPAS:
tingwei
nicole
minzhe
jinyao

OUR ZHONGRUANS:
jiahui
vivian
eda
elizabeth
weiting
zheng yan
shi qi
pan yu

OUR DARUANS:
michellin
sicheng

AND THE AWESOME BATCH '09
yangqin: nina
liuqin: sarah
pipa: dengqing; tienli; weiyi
zhongruan: jiahe; bonian; kelly; kathleen

leave a (music) note

modulations - 转调!

*dengqing*
*sarah*
*tienli*
*jiahe*
*kathleen*
*yunan*
*jiahui*
*tingwei*
*vivian*

*other sections*
*chuiguan*
*daji*
*xianyue*

the history of music!

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

June 2010

credits

Layout & Image: !zrow