It's been so long since I last blogged. I know I was supposed to blog about the Green Day concert and I think it will probably happen tomorrow. Or something when I have the time I guess.
Anyway thanks Gemmel for the blog entry that revived my blog, but wasn't mine. Anyone can tell, really. xD
Also, I would like to wish
Bob Bryar, ex drummer of My Chemical Romance
all the best in his future endeavours. He will be missed by me, Gemmel and many other fans. Although I guess this should have been expected earlier, since he was only meant to be a temporary member, it still makes me sad to think that he was present for Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade, and he won't be for the latest album. :(
Oh well. All the best, once again, to you Bob, and if you would ever like to rejoin MCR, please do it without hesitation. :)
Alright, anyway, this is two days overdue.
IMPRESSIONS X! :D
It was only two days ago and I can't believe it happened so fast. I mean, not just the actual thing itself, but the practices, and even the day since I first started, rehearsed with the junior band, performed for POP, etc. It's been about six months now since I quit Guitar I think. It's so awesome. Though I kind of feel bad about this, I know I don't regret my decision at all.
So on Saturday, April 3rd, at 11 AM, I arrived at school. The band room was locked so I sat in the canteen. Talked to Jing Ying and saw Jerlyn. She was with NPCC.
As soon as the band room was unlocked, we spent 2 hours transporting instruments downstairs and doing the important final checks, for example, attire check, check for mutes (for the trumpets and trombones only I guess), score checks, score arranging, packing of items into mine and Jazryl's bags (because each section was only allowed 2 bags), instrument checks, the seating arrangement briefing and so on. I know it seems tedious but it wasn't. There was quite a lot to do.
Then after we were done we waited for the bus and got on. We were on our way to to Victoria Concert Hall. I was sitting next to Charmaine and we were doing score study, trying to follow Arcadia all the way through with the song but kind of failed. xD
At the venue we had to unload all the instruments again and uniforms and whatnot, then we went to put our bags down and while the stage was being set up, did warmups and tuning.
We also practiced walking up the stage, up the steep stairs. The Handbell had arrived too and they were also walking on stage.
Very soon, we ourselves were actually onstage to rehearse. I think we started at 3.30PM. It was our first feel of that particular stage. The sound reasonated quite well around the hall but the bad thing was that it was only going to amplify our mistakes. Mr Sim, our conductor, moved up to the circle seats (upstairs) to conduct us, I guess because he could hear us better there.
The stands were placed awfully low. Although the stands could be adjusted, I think it was because the trumpets and trombones were seated on a raised platform, so that's why it felt so high up. Also, our section was sitting really near to the massive gong, which has a really grand and nice sound, but only when you're listening from a reasonable distance. Haha.
We ran through the whole order of the concert, not everything, but the parts from each song that mattered, so we skipped a lot of the parts, sometimes the parts that we were looking forward to playing too. xD And Rano dropped his mute halfway through one song and that was terrible because everyone looked. Luckily it wasn't the actual thing.
Then Mr Sim stopped the rehearsal at about 5.30PM so we had two hours to rest, change and eat. After the rehearsal, the brasses got to eat first so we went to the eating area. By that time, I was feeling a really awful feeling in my stomach. It seemed like a gastric at that time (although I had a really heavy brunch before coming to school), but afterwards my dad told me it was nerves.
I've seriously never had such bad nerves in my life. What it felt like was that I had been deprived of food for two days, and then someone had come along and punched me in the stomach. I thought it was going to go away, but when I was getting dressed in the changing room, it became worse and I was breaking out in cold sweat. It was hard to stand and it almost became a chore to breathe.
So, I had no choice but to see a teacher. They didn't have milk to ease my pain but there was warm water. I was panicking really badly because I thought I wouldn't be able to play. That was because I was still feeling that way, HALF AN HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW. How scary is that? Certainly not the right time to be sick. After all these months of practicing so hard and getting all excited about tonight, there was nothing that was going to make me back out. I would never ever do that, ever.
Luckily, only by the grace of God, my pain subsided and I got better, about 15 minutes before we started waiting backstage for our turn. It was quite terrifying. I was really happy, though. I felt excited and nervous to perform and I was talking to Charmaine backstage about it.
And of a sudden,
The Performance!
It just happened way too quickly. I heard the cheering and everything, and soon the nerves faded. I think it was good that I had performing experience, so when I walked up on stage and sat down I was fine. Otherwise, the number of people, coupled with the stomachache I had just endured would have been way too much for me to take.
We started off well with Fanfare, then burst into Instant Concert, which I really enjoyed playing. It was awesome and went very well.
After that was my least favourite song, in terms of playing - Arcadia. It was challenging, no doubt, but I managed to cope quite well with it and didn't get lost as often. The trumpet 2 score that I was playing, one of the only two songs that I actually got the trumpet 2 part, had so many sharps and flats that it was pretty difficult to sight read quickly. However the good thing was that I knew the correct timing for the Presto parts, without counting, but it took me a good two weeks.
After Arcadia, the tired muscles around my lips finally got a break when we played a slower song, Colours of the Wind, from Pocahontas. It was nice and I was listening to how the sound sort of echoed throughout the hall. Nothing went wrong at all.
After which was the last song before the interval, Beauty and the Beast. That was the song which we used our mutes for the first time in the whole concert. To my relief, no one dropped their mute. Haha.
And just like that, the first half of the concert was over. We had a lot of time backstage to get ready, because apart from the fifteen minute interval, the Alumni Band was playing two items and so was the Percussion Ensemble, immediately after that, with Funky Buckets and Oye Como Va.
Backstage, the jazz band, which consisted of the trumpets, saxophones, trombones, plus the percussion people (who actually were already onstage), were getting ready for the jazz band items. We were performing Fly Me to the Moon and In The Mood. Out of these two, In The Mood is my favourite and has always been. It just has a more interesting arrangement. What's more, we always play it better, although it's harder. I took some pictures with a few people. Every one of us also put on our awesome bowler-like hats, bought specially from Cotton On for just these two songs.
Those two songs went really well and the solos were really good! Everyone improved so much and there were like really zero mistakes. I thought Daena's solo was well done because she made use of the plunger. She usually does away with it because its distracting and affects her playing, but she was really confident this time and it was way awesome. Every note came through.
After jazz band was The World is Not Enough, from the James Bond movie. I didn't know this previously until I heard the MCs' commentary on it. It was quite okay I guess. It wasn't my favourite song. We were basically accompanying an Alumni student who was singing.
Finally, we arrived at the last piece, The Lion King. Easily one of my favourites. Upbeat, easy to sight read, easy to play, and thoroughly enjoyable. This song was when we used our mutes for the second and very last time in the whole show. The song went very nicely and I was enjoying it. Daena and I were moving along to the music, since she had switched positions and was now sitting next to me.
After TLK, the audience shouted for an encore and I was grinning and saying to Daena that they needn't worry because we did, in fact have not one, but two encore songs. xD
So anyway, the encore songs were Fly High and You Raise Me Up.
Fly High was okay I guess.
You Raise Me Up, I think, was a surprise for everyone because the singer was much better than they expected I guess. :P Everyone was cheering.
Then after the whole thing went back to school for the debrief in the band room. It was cool. Took some pictures with some people too. Then it was home.
So yeah. I know it's really one of those days that I won't ever forget. :)
