The First and the Last blog

This blog was i guess specially done to remind me of the beautiful things that had happen during my 2 years or perhaps 1 1/2 years of leadership. I was tidying the file that i was going to pass to daniel and i sort of looked through all of the documents. There was this particular document that i came acrossed, it was all the certificates of the 2005 batch. The certificates done by me. As i scrolled down the 28 or so names, each name greeted me with much familiarity. Lessons learnt from them were invaluable. There were just so much things that happened in this two mere years. I still remember the walking on the roof incident. How clumsy was i then, to dare to walk on the roof! Thank goodness i was fine. Exco meetings to discuss the camps, problems that the band had, etc, it was great i guess. The five of us truely have grown in this 2 years, we were sort of the best team? At every meeting, en hao would always be very stubborn and stick with his plan, I would always be digressing into something unimportant, Eric and timothy would always be the 2 that came out with the better ideas, yunsong was incharge of stopping me from digressing and convincing enhao that the second plan is feasible. Each meeting we stayed till wee hours of the night, en hao even sacrificed his birthday celebration just to stay back to discuss about the proposals. For my batch, we were always there for each other, win together lose together. A team in other words, sec 3s, it's a short amount of 2 days aways from pop. But perhaps after the pop you'll see a clearer picture of what does it mean to be the leading batch. I didn't really understand it at first, but when i was sitting on the sofa after band practice during last years holidays, tzung siang came. He asked why did i looked so stressed, then he just said during this term of leadership what matters is to have fun. Have Fun. Just 2 words but it changed the 1 1/2 years left in band totally. When we plan things as a batch we truely enjoyed it, there was no solowork, everyone contributed. We sneaked back to school during public hoidays to rush things out such as sec 1 orientation boards. It was totally fun, getting into the school through other means as the gate was locked. Many things happened this year and I guess the thing that will always be etched in my heart would be this year's syf. It was a silver, but i don't want anyone to put that as a past. Everyone would remember the practices we had. Edison playing the whip with all that he got, joshua having to go to syf playing a timpani solo when he is only a sec 2. The camps at the beach where we played before a real sunrise. Yes, those hardwork, some of you said that it was unfair, but calm down look at the situation, it is fair i guess. The silver was a excellent reminder that having hardwork was not enough. The Gold with Honours required knowledge of music, it required every player to be clear about what they are playing,how in tune are they, this are all being done through practice. Something not achieved through a mere tuner. We all wept for the silver, we wanted more, yes, of course, we are the catholic high symphony band, we never stopped moving on. Our band has a mindset of excellence, the mindset of striving to be the best and i really hope that from now on during every practice have the attitude that you all were having before. Ever since we left and taking example from the recent esplanade concert, everything was sloppy and slow. Perhaps you all changed but your inate characteristic will always remain there. Let me call you to think of time when you joined band, writing Syphony Band as your first choice for your cca, you were thinking of the pieces you've heard for orientation and i'm sure the inner you was thinking about making music. Why did we add on for the love of music to our three phrase motto: One Band One Sound One Brotherhood? It is because we are one due to music. Everytime each one of you said that we made music, it is actually the time when each of your inate ability showed. Everyone was happy after each performance because everytime we played, our hearts connected, we all had fun at a higher intellectual level. It was like playing a teamsport. Now i would like to ask all of you to remember about me talking about interacting with each other through music and of course the importance in knowledge of music. If all of you are not going to learn how to blend and going right down to the fundamentals the band will never improve, there's no point in aiming at high level technicaility pieces. Train yourselves up, if the basics are not there, it will be hard to improve. But i have to say, thank you for the music, on Limelight at esplanade. It was a very good closure for the four years in band. Remembering time when we had just taken over, all of you were very sloppy, most of you couldn't manage with the physical training. Well, it's time to toughened ourselves up isn't it? The rugged gentlemen poster isn't made just for fun. I have to say it, if you are going to complain to your parents now about it. Yes, you may get to relax and not do any exercise, but eventually we will all have to go JC. For the first 3 months you will be representing your school. Would you want to be regarded for someone who can't do basic PT?If all of you have the mindset of excellence in music, wanting to achieve more, then have it too in sports! I have no idea why did i start to write this blog but there was simply gush feeling to blog. Perhaps it was to tell all of you that my batch really enjoyed our time at band for the whole 4 years. I hoped that each and everyone of you band members will really enjoy it too. Win Together, Lose Together, we are One Band One Sound One Brotherhood. Our camaraderie and sense of esprit de core will always be our source for our excellent rapport on stage. So all of build you physicality and technicaility and play music so good that you can do it over a million times. Time and tide waits for no man and band, we sec 4s are officially leaving the band and soon the school. So thank you once again it was a pleasure leading you guys and do not only the band proud but also the school proud. It seems that 4 years in band is coming to an end and indeed it is a fruitful end.

Yue Sheng