Depending on Yourself

Some days ago I wrote to my fellow choristers that people can help them sing better by singing the notes to them, giving tips and tricks for better sound production, making recordings/midi files to listen to, but no one can magically transform them into a songbird overnight.

And I thought, heh, isn’t it also relevant to other stuff beside singing in choir?

Maybe I, or you, or other people, depend too much on other people to change ourselves. Perhaps it’s rooted in the education system (Indonesia’s or Singapore’s at least) where we were conditioned to expect our teachers to spoon-feed us with information and knowledge (and test and exams!). We become so passive, believing that we will change once we find somebody who can help us.

But to change ourselves need the conscious effort, just like the conscious effort I took in practicing for my choir singing. The effort I took in utilizing my back muscles, positioning my voice so that it resonates, raising my eyebrows, and every single little thing to make my voice clearer.

But sometimes the bigger question lies in whether you want to do the conscious effort. Thinking of doing it and really doing it are two different things, and taking action to move from thinking to doing takes quite some time, or even bravery, for some people.

So, have you moved from thinking to doing yet?

I PASSED MY GRADE 8 EXAM!

‘Nuff said.

I got 111 for the exam, which means I only “pass”. Without merit, without distinction, but who cares? I got through the piano hell! OMG!

Now time to play piano just because I love it.

Anyone wanna learn playing piano, btw? Contact me!

You Were There

This is the current hit song in my choir (SMU Chamber Choir).

You Were There by Libera.

I hope I’m not the only person that thinks the video is cheese sandwich. I mean, ugh. It’s like somebody just took their pictures and tinkered around with iMovie or the likes (Windows Movie Maker? Eeks).

But it IS a really beautiful song, kudos to Takatsugu Muramatsu. I just think that the song (at least in the mp3 I got) got too much enhancement, echo and stuff, that it lost some of its magic. Also, the strings. Ugh, the strings. The piano was fine, but the strings was downright “ordinary” for the amazing song.

By the way, this song is actually a soundtrack of a Japanese movie called “Dare mo mamotte kurenai” which seems to be a very interesting movie. This is the plot summary (from Eigapedia)

When the older brother of junior high school student Saori is arrested for murder she is separated from her family for her own protection. She ends up living with a police detective named Katsuura and his family. Katsuura has to get information from her without making her already-troubled mental state any worse.

Can’t seem to find the trailer with English subtitles, but I think the movie (trailer) is powerful enough without subtitles.

Intriguing, eh? I wonder where can I watch this movie…

Btw I found another video.. I believe this was the opening of the movie?

BTW, I totally have a crush on You Were There’s soloist. Hehe! His name is Tom Cully.

(something like) Spelling Bee in My English Exam

So if you guys follow me on Twitter/@sylvdoanx, you should have seen my public breakdown over my then impending grade 8 piano exam.

I know it’s not a school exam or something, but let me tell you, piano exam is much much worse than school exam. Because unlike in written exam when you can try hard to access your memory, practical piano exam is a one-off, now-or-never thing. Once you slip when doing something – that’s it. That is it. From passing with distinction to passing with merit in just one slip.

A little more technical here, one thing I hated the most (because I’m no good at it – simple, right?) was the 6th apart scale. Just for you laymen, basically you have to play a scale (something like doremifasolatido-dotilasofamiredo), but your hands/fingers start on different notes (6 steps apart). And you have to play it 4 octaves up and down (simply saying, you play it 4 times continuously).

Wait, what? So difficult?

Oh, yes, apparently. Now, I understand the importance of playing scales in order to play piano well – it’s all about balancing the power and making the lines as smooth as possible (if you don’t get this, don’t worry, not important), yet I don’t understand making it compulsory to test these freaking scales on piano exam. At the end of the day, playing these scales requires more brain-teasing work instead of paying close attention to how I play my piano correctly. It’s more like they’re trying to test my brain, or muscle memory, instead of my musicality.

As per my title, it’s just like they ask you to do a spelling bee or a tongue twister and you’ll be graded for it in your English exam. It’s not how you can use English or how you can play piano anymore!

I know, I know. Maybe I’m just bitter coz I didn’t do well on my 6th apart (and my 3rd apart) scales. Whatever. I hope the examiner is nice enough not to let me repeat this hellish grade 8 exam. Ugh.

Image by myself! Press on Deviantart

From Baby to Biggie (or so we thought)

I, like many other people in the whole world, am sometimes peeved by the way my parents still treat me as a baby. Thankfully they don’t call me up at night and ask me whether I’ve eaten anymore (ugh, so Asian!), but they still feel that they have an authority over me to decide some stuff.

Perhaps it’s this “adult syndrome”, or perhaps more appropriately “21 syndrome”, when you feel that you have reached that stage where you should be allowed to make decisions solely by yourself without any influence by any other people.

Too many people correlate this privilege with age though. Which is age-ist. Sometimes I don’t think numbers really show how mature you really are.

Though I have thought of myself of being more mature than people my age, then again, who am I to say? I might be 20 going on 21 but I still cry like a baby whenever I miss my dad/people at home.

Furthermore, I’m a first child of the family. After +/- 20 years babying me, it must be pretty hard for my parents to adapt to the fact that I’m all grown up (or so I thought!).

And hence, I think I’m gonna enjoy this baby-ing stage a little bit more until my parents become too busy to baby me. Haha!