Summer Holidays

This holiday, the activities that i will be continueing and attempting include:

-Piano: Right now I'm playing the third and fourth movement of the Beethoven's Sonata. I'm still playing the 5th Bach piece, and also the etudes from Czerny and Hanon. Seeing as I have more time now, i'll be able to practise more and improve faster.

-Solfege: Solfege ear training has progressed to chord dictation. I find these quit difficult as the tones jump about randomly with no tonal key that i can use to help me identify the notes, but I've already found that as I attend the lessons, my ability to accurately identify the notes increases. I was quite shocked by the improvement, as I wasn't expecting it, and it felt more of an innate rather than conscious learning.

-Loh Guan Lye attachment: I'll be doing a hospital attachment at Loh Guan Lye for a week, whereby I will follow doctors in the neuro and obstetrics departments. This is to help me in preparation for university, as I intend to take a course in medicine.

-Eden handicap Centre and St. Nicholas' home for the Blind : I intend to do a few days of voluntary work at both these places, some time in august, as many of my friends have done so and I would like to help out as well.

-EM Mudballs: There will be mudball making this holiday as part of a larger event called "One Million Apologies To Mother Earth" in which one million mud balls will be made during the month of July and all of them will be thrown at the same time into different rivers in Penang on August 8th. I will participate if I have the time.

-Community service in Singapore: I again intend to do some community service in Singapore, although I haven't quite decided what this will be yet. I may visit the SPCA or volunteer at the local libraries.

Habitat for humanity and graduation

The car boot fun raising was held on June 6th, and I planned to arrive at 2 after my SAT test. We spent a lot of time preparing for the string quartet, as well as my other two accoustic guitar pieces, one with Apple and one with Mitchell.

The arrangements were as follows. The two pieces we were playing as a string quartet were cannon in D by Pachabel and also The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, arranged by the vitamin string quartet. For THe Black Parade, it was really difficult becuase we were unable to find scores on the internet, so i ended up having to apply my solfege skills and try to decipher the different parts. We ended up having an arrangement slightly similar to the original and it was also shorter. As for the Cannon in D, we initially practised the original so that it was played smoothly, and then tried adding different arrangement methods so as to make it more interesting. We also had to add dynamics. In the end we had an arrangement that was very different from the classical version, with fermatas and different string playing methods (eg. plucking and bowing and staccato). I also had to conduct them and help with the instructing, because my part was very simple. Problems we had included keeping the tempo and also timing with coming in and getting the notes right. Mitchell also had a problem with reading the key signature, but he practised so it was okay in the end.

The other two performances involved me playing the accoustic guitar and singing the harmony for Paint it Golden by Jason Reev and Colbie Calliat, and Falling slowly by Glen Handsherd. I did a lot of practise by listening to the music clip and singing along. Then apple and I practised in teh music room several times, in front of a few people, and it was very easy to put it all together. Falling slowly with Mitchell was also similar in that we practised individually and then put it together. it was rather last minute, because we realised we would probably need more performances for the day. We only practised once but were able to get everything coordinated easily, with me on the guitar.

Other than that, i also was involved in arranging the performances and emailing Dalat and Tenby about whether they would like to participate in the event. We also invite a few local bands from the shops around batu, but unfortunately none of them got back to us or showed up on the day.

The disappointment was that the SATs test extended for too long and ended up with the string quartet and duets being unperformed, because by the time we arrived in school, everyone had left and they were already packing up.

However, i felt that the preparations were all very good as they helped me improve musically adn to apply what i learnt in theory in practise, especially with sound balance and coordinating group performances.

The second CAS activity that i'll be blogging about would be graduation. As i've mentioned before, I'm on the decoration and audition teams. For the auditions, we really had to be very time conscious. We had a lot of bands turning up on fridays to audition so to accomodate everyone, we ended up having to cut performances short. It also took us a lot of conferencing and smsing in order to decide on our final groups, and these had to be posted on the facebook site. We later then had to arrange music equipment lists so as to be able to take out equipment from school, and also to get permission from Mr. Smith and Ms. Leong. There was some confusion on my part, and i ended up causing Ms.Leong to get very angry, for which i really really apologised and felt guilty for, but in the end we were able to get everything running smoothly. The other thing we organised was the sound checks for the bands, and this also went very well. on the actual night, i was very conscious about the timing, becuase we only had a limited time, and thankfully everything went as planned with no flops, although i did have to run around adjusting things and telling people when they were performing, in a dress and high heels no less.

FOr the decoration team, I helped in making the board for the year 13s to sign their names, and also went with Naima Wei Ling and Rebecca to check on the glasses and the cards. we also make the stickerman for the james bond theme, and i was in charge of picking up the items we ordered from the shop. I also cut out styrofoam letters with Rebecca for the phototaking backdrop. Because of my involvement with the music section, I was unable to help with a lot of the decor on the actualy day, but i did manage to help in some of the table decorations like setting out the cards and the poker chips. i also helped give out the souveniers at night.

Being on the grad committee was really a lot of hard work, but for me, it made the night a lot more enjoyable being able to see everyone satisfied with our work. I really appreciate all the committee members as we all worked very hard and had to cooperate in order to get everything done, and EVERYONE truly pulled their weight in this project. Aside from that, i must say i also learned a lot on organisation skills, as well as finally realising the amount of effort required in order to pull off such social events. i'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this project and also for amount of effort everyone put it. It was a really good night and the energy levels were very high, although the event did leave a lot of us worn out.

Two new CAS activities

The new CAS activities that I'm currently involved in are the graduation committee and Habitat for humanity.

For the graduation committee, I'm in charge of the entertainment section, together with Bindiya. We held auditions recently in this past week and are intending on choosing 6 to 8 bands to perform on the night, and perhaps ask the other bands to be on standby in case they want to play before they leave permanently.

Other than that, i'm also on the decoration team and we have made plans to go buy materials on the 5th of June. Some of us went to check out the prices of material and found that the shops in gurney are riduculously overpriced, so we're looking for other alternatives.

For the graduation team, I think we're under a lot of pressure to make this a successful and memorable night for the graduants. We've nominated Cheryl for our leader, and she's been very efficient with everything. Mark, Cheryl and I also went to see Sarah, the events manager at Park Royal, about the features we would like to have, and so far we've managed to settle everything pretty well. There were some issues with price because the hotel wanted 100RM but we could only afford 90RM per person, but thankfully we were able to stick with our initial price.

Talking over the details made me realise how much planning and organisation is required for such social events, and hopefully we'll be able to meet all our deadlines, especially now that we have ongoing exams.

My second CAS activity is Habitat for Humanity. On the 22nd June to the 27th June, we'll be going to Sarawak Kuching to build houses for those who need them. Before this though, we'll be having a fund raising event on the 6th of June, called the cycle ride charity event, where we hope to raise as much money as possible to sponsor the trip for us students, and two accompanying teachers. The main section of this will be the cycling, where people pay 50 ringgit to be sponsored to go on a 78km bike ride around Penang. The other sections would be the car boot sale, and some food and entertainment for people.

For this charity event, I'll be participating mostly in the music (entertainment) section, and i've organised and officialised the events for the entertainment section. We've invited bands from neighbouring International schools so as to involve more of the expatriate and local community in our affairs, and are also looking for younger students in Uplands to come and participate. i myself will be busking on the day with Cheryl and Apple, and also perform in a string quartet with Mitchell, Caren and Janet.

Other than that, I'm also involved in the facepainting and football. We will have to constantly monitor our equipment so as to prevent them from getting damaged and also to watch out for children so that they do not get hurt. I may also help out in the food section by joining my friends for baking. Hopefully everything will go smoothly, and we will be able to earn sufficient funds for the trip.

April 7th to May 3rd

-Netball~ We had netball once in this span, and we practised by playing a game of four against four, because we had limited players. I found that it was quite difficult for me to run into space and i usually got in the way of my teammates. I think i should look before i run, and not be too focused on the ball.
-PESSOC~ I've just realised that PESSOC performance clashes with our exam week, so i doubt i'll be able to perform. Because of this i will no longer attend practices so regular, but will post about what i learn when i do go for the session.
-Reading Buddies~ Reading buddies went as per normal. There are some new students, but so far i haven't had the chance to read to them. I don't like how some of the students enjoy repeating the books they read, so I encourage them to read new books. Some of them also enjoy skipping pages and words, so i will try to be more dilligent and catch them at this.
-Mentoring~ Mentoring is no longer one of my CAS activities, but this week my mentee came up to me for help, and i quite like how I'm able to teach her stuff that i've learnt previously, so i won't discontinue being her mentor.
-Hip Hop~ Hip hop has been really fun. We went to see the dance group's newly renovated studio and it looks very impressive with the mirrors. WE also got to watch a dance performance put on by the group and it was very amazing how they were all able to improvise their dance moves so fluidly and quickly.
-UES~ I've now become the secretary of UES. This week we watched a video of a 12 year old speaking about the environment at a UN conference, and her speech was really motivating. Later we went to fiix and repaint the bottle holder that was placed in front of the cafeteria. we've also allocated who's going write on the UES blog at www.upenso.blogspot.com
-Football~ This is my latest CAS activity! We were divided into newbies and pros, i was a newbie and so i ended up playing with most of the other girls in my year who were also newbies. We learned some dribbling around cones and also how to kick, pass and stop the ball. We also practised some throw ins and shooting goals. I managed to score two goals for my team in penalty kicks!
-Tutoring~ I saw Christine one last time before her exams. THis time we went through trignometry, and i tried to test her so i could check if she really properly understood. She did fare pretty well, and i think she now understands SOH CAH TOA well enough to answer the core paper. Our lesson was extended because i also wanted to drill some formulas, like how to convert speeds and also how to do sequence questions.
-Solfege~ Solfege this week was part singing and part dictation. For the dictation part, there was something interesting because it was new- we had to write in bass clef and we also had to dictate a double line, meaning a melody and a bass line. This was quite easy, but i made some careless mistakes. Hopefully we will try this again so that i can practise more.
-Piano~ The one piano lesson that i've had so far was basically a recap of Bach, Czerny, and Beethoven. I got a new etude from Czerny, and have also started working on the other sections of the Beethoven Sonata.

March 23rd to April 6th

~Netball: There was one netball session (school activities were stopped in the last week). There were only four of us present and so we played a game where we just had to do three passes before we could shoot. This week i really got to practise my shooting becuase there were fewer people, and i DID improve throughout the session, but there is still much more room.
~Pessoc: There was one practise, and now we have two weeks break because the conductor's on holiday. The practise went as normal and we tried playing the pieces in a variety of tempo's to test our abilities. I think i should practise my running notes, because right now my runs aren't very clear and it makes it sound very fuzzy.
~Chamber: The last session of chamber for this term was spent listening to beethoven's nine symphonies on youtube, conducted by some of the world's top conductors. We had a small quiz to identify which symphony was which and i got nine of them right.
~Reading Buddies: There was one session of reading buddies and I had four people read to me. i find most of the kids like rereading books, and although i personally don't mind listening to them, i think maybe it'd be a good idea to encourage them to choose other books. THis week was really good because we managed to listen to everybody's reading. The class is also working on reading to other classes.
~Hip Hop: I went for one hip hop lesson in this period. We went through the normal hip hop routine first, that was slightly simpler,and then we started doing a proper dance routine that fit the words of a song. I found it quite difficult cos it was really fast. Actually for the first routine it was already kinda difficult because there was a lot of different combinations, for example there was the move where you bounce on the balls of your feet, combined with slides. The second one was harder though becuase you actually had to strictly follow the timing of the song and the lyrics. i thought about it after the class and its starting to make more sense now.
~UES: We've finally nominated the UES president and vice-president, who're namely Ivan and Ryu. I've also completed the power point on the methane and tigers but we didn't get around to showing them that day.
~Theory: We had one theory session, and this week we basically just had a good talk about all sorts of aspects of music, as a career and also as about applications of music theory in real life situations, like live performances where improvisation is called for. We also talked about tongue-in-cheek as a method of composition, whereby you put in either a harmony or melody that surprises the listeners and maybe even leaves them in suspense.
~Solfege: i did well in solfege again. hopefully the short break we're having won't diminish my hearing abilities. i've found also that nowadays i tend to analyse pieces of music i hear and try to dictate them in my head, even though its not necessary.
~Piano: We had one lesson, where Saori went through all the pieces I've been playing. Basically i still just have to keep on practising and making them perfect, by joining the different parts and sections together so that i can play the pieces as a whole.
~Math tutoring: We scheduled a meeting for math but again couldn't make it. I DID pass christine a textbook though, because she wanted to know about trigonometry and also mensuration. I highlighted the important sections of the book that i want her to read, and hopefully we'll meet during the holidays before the exams.
~Mentoring: I am no longer a mentor. I don't think i'll count this as a CAS activity anymore.
~Badminton: I've had two badminton sessions. Some of the other students have quit, but i intend to continue as i really enjoy the game. Today i played with one new person- i dont know his name, but he's quite young and is pretty good. It was enjoyable playing with him because he's very energetic. I find that one problem with doubles would be coordinating the players to figure out who should hit what and how to cover each other's weak spots. This is one area in which i want to improve on.

March 16th to March 22nd.

~Netball: Netball practise was fun. We had to play two sorts of games, one was only 2/3 of the court and the other was a full game. I played wing defense and it was quite difficult because i had to work against two very tall and experienced netball players. I think one of my problems is that i focus too much on the ball- i noticed that the other players don't run around as much as I do. What i have to focus on instead is probably my position and what I have to do which is defended the circle area and also getting the rebound.
~Pessoc: practise this week was very interesting. Initially i was the only cellist because some people were on holiday, but later another lady came and rescued me. I again enjoyed myself and we didn't have full rehearsals through the pieces, but rather went through section by section, because a lot of the players were missing.
~Chamber: This week we had two performances. The first one on monday went pretty badly because the accoustics were bad and the hall was very big, so the sound got distorted. A lot of people got lost during the piece. The second performance on tuesday however went much smoother because we were in a smaller room. We also had a better rehearsal, and also did the recording. my solo part for the recording was quite bad because my bow didn't have enough rosin, but fortunately the actual performance sounded much better.
~Reading Buddies: We didn't have to go for reading buddies this week because the year 4s were on a fieldtrip.
~Hip Hop: Due to the senior recital, i wasn't able to attend again this week.
~UES: This week Suzie began the meeting by reading out an environmental issue from a newspaper that says global warming is getting worse. I guess the article really highlights how important it is preserve the environment before many precious things are lost eternally. Our chem teacher also showed us a video before though, that disputes whether global warming really exists- some say the global warming theory was concocted by politicians to gain favour of their 'Green Campaign', but scientific findings showed that as opposed to carbon dioxide causing global temperature to rise, it is instead increased solar activity that does this. We also still have yet to vote for our new president and vice-president.
~Theory: There was no theory, as it is areca term break.
~Solfege: Solfege this week was again two dictation pieces. I did reallwell because i got almost everything correct. hurrah! my improvement now is mainly to get my rests in the right place, because i tend to get it mixed up with note values. I also have to learn to write in more correct notation, rather than just writing it so its mathematically correct, but rather writing it so that it is musically correct and easier to read.
~Piano: There was no piano as my teacher is on holiday in japan.
~Math tutoring: Christine was unable to attend as she had to go for DT again. She DID pass me a past year paper that i will mark for her.
~Mentoring: This week Niki and I didn't arrange to meet up, but i texted her instead to ask her how she was doing.

March 9th to march 15th

~Netball: Netball this week was again playing netball games. We didn't try learn any particular skills, but rather just learnt through playing the games. Friday practices have been cancelled because Ms. Denny can no longer make it on Friday.

~Pessoc: Pessoc this week was pretty good. I played with the same guy, and the conductor said it was much better than before. There was also one new piece, called the hebrides, which I've played before in the Uplands chamber orchestra, and it this made it easier for me to play it in PESSOC. i was surprisingly able to lead the section when they got lost, because of my prior knowledge of the piece.

~Chamber: Chamber practise went as per normal. We will be performing next week. The recording we did this week wasn't that good, and i came in late for my second solo because i misinterpreted the conductor's hand movement.

~Hip Hop: i was unable to attend hip hop this week.

~Reading Buddies: There was no reading buddies this week, as the year 4s had other non-reading-related activities.

~UES: This week was spent alloting duties again. I've decided to go and update the upenso blog- www.upenso.blogspot.com. Suzie also told me that she was entering my name to be a potential president of UES, and in the event that i DO become president, i hope i will do a good job and bring the society to greater heights.

~mentoring: This time i forgot to show up for the mentor meeting because i had to attend a music rehearsal for a recording. i will apologise to my mentee and set up a new meeting.

~Math Tutoring: Christine couldn't make it for math as she had DT.

~Piano: Piano this week was the same. This time instead of the adagio, i played the first movement of the Beethoven Sonata. It was quite bad, because I haven't practised that section properly for a long time, but i really enjoy the chord progressions that beethoven uses.

~Solfege:Solfege this week was moved from sat. to tues because of relay for life, and it was quite difficult. We did two music dictation pieces, and the first was easy, but the second was really hard because there were so many notes. I missed about 5 out of the 16 bars, but i think i did relatively okay, because it WAS really hard.

~Theory: Theory this week was really interesting. We learnt about chord scales, which is essentially finding a scale that relates to a chord. For example, any minor chord has a a dorian scale that accompanies it. we also learnt about sharp 4ths/11ths, which lend a very jazzy sound to a chord by creating dissonance. Wilson also recapped on the minor, major, 7ths, diminished, flat 5 and dominant chords. I find that this is an improvement to having to write compositions, and it helps a lot in my understanding of modes and how all the concepts fit together.
~Relay for life: relay for life is a project that has spanned for the last nine weeks or so. first of all we had to plan which activities we would like to initiated in order to begin fundraising. Our group decided on mainly baking and also craft items. We also planned to cater for valentine items like roses and cupcakes and so we made order forms that students could fill up. We then printed the forms, cut them and distributed them to the secondary classes who were interested and we made announcements in tutor period. Following this, forms were collected at the end of the week, along with any money owed. i was in charge of ordering the roses, and we ordered 100 roses at the price of 2RM, with the intent of selling them at 3ringgit. We were able to sell all the roses. We also met after school to bake things like cupcakes, write the valentine notes, and make fudge. In total we were able to fundraise 689 RM, and although we were the best group, i still think we did pretty well.

The second part of relay for life was the actual relay part. This happened on the 14th to the 15th of March at the Youth Park. we gathered at the Uplands tent at 3.30pm and changed into the relay for life shirt. After that, we had to listen to speeches and follow the programme given to us by the organisers. We started walking at around 6 O Clock and walked for 2 consecutive hours. After that i ate a quick dinner, and then then went back to walking. I walked until about 6 in the morning before sleeping for one hour and walking again. The main reason why i was able to do this was because i was continually walking WITH someone and so the company kept me going as well as keeping me awake. i also participated in one of the races where a group of 5 had to run for 15 minutes and compete by accumulating the most number of steps taken using a pedometer. it was pretty fun, even though we didn't win, and only came 3rd. One thing that really struck me was that at around 5 O clock when i was gathered with some other walkers, we were talking about how painful our legs were and someone said, 'Maybe this is how cancer patients feel every day of their life.' This made me feel really glad that i joined relay for life. Cancer is something that people have to fight against, and has become more and more common in society that nearly every person knows of someone, or is, afflicted with cancer. I really approve of the fundraising we did because i think its very wasteful to let lives be lost because of the lack of financing. This should be the last reason for death- the physical fight against cancer is already enough of a drain, nevermind having to worry about how to pay for treatment and all that. I hope that the fundraising we did was able to make a significant difference in someone's life. This event has taught me how a community must be united, especially when trying to overcome or confront an issue as big as cancer. I intend to participate in relay for life again next year.