Hey band.
This is your estate manager speaking.
Due to time constrain, I frankly doubt I would be able to get my point through in band practice.
Therefore, I will now tell you guys what I want you guys to know. (ie., say my piece.)

1. Do NOT put whatever you like all over the band room.
I believe most of you have noticed that there was a notice placed on the door of the band room not too long ago.
The BAND ROOM is a SACRED PLACE, it said.
I know that some of you see the band room as a second home.
But it's not an excuse to treat the room like your own house!
People who came down to practice last friday would have seen it.

Water bottle on the green shelf. (you people should know which green shelf I'm referring to.)
Hanger on the floor.
etc, etc.

PLEASE, if it's your stuff on the green shelf, take it back!
That should be all for part 1. Now on to part 2.

2. Instruments on the shelves.
Look, I don't think anybody would mind if you placed your beloved instrument there TEMPORARILY (ie. 5 minutes?) because you're afraid you'd damage it in any way. Remove it as soon as possible after that.

BUT.

When you people are told to keep your instruments, or when you're done with your personal practice, please do not place it in the band room. It should be kept in the band store, or to be more specific, your instrument's case. Do not put your instrument there, forget about it and go home.

As for instruments that can't fit in their cases, kindly put them in the band store, your section's shelf, where it wouldn't be too obvious to cause any hindrance. Thank you.

Now on to part 3.

3. The cleanliness of the band room.

This is the part where I'm most annoyed.
I think you guys know this already.
We all need a conducive environment for band practice.
The cleanliness of the band room, naturally, plays an orchestral role in this.
What I don't like is that you guys don't seem to take this seriously.
In fact, it might be to the point that people call it disrespect.
Now, listen up. I'm tired of saying this again and again, and I don't want to say it again.
When you guys are done keeping your instruments, you're supposed to sit quietly, in your distinct and neat rows, playing your part in keeping the band room clean (ie. picking up the white and red stuff on the carpet). Well, you guys are supposed to be bending over and picking up those tiny little eyesores until someone comes along to address you people. Then you straighten up and listen.

Instead, what do you guys do?

I see the majority of you ignoring little bits of stuff in the carpet, TALKING, SITTING AROUND DOING NOTHING, PLAYING.

I think I need to get this straight.

I am not here to clean up the band room for you.
Rather, what I do is to direct you guys in making the band room a cleaner, nicer, and a pleasant place to practice in.

As such, I would not tolerate that wrong idea. In fact, it might become what I see as utter disrespect if you even have the guts to tell me that.



I hope you guys will understand.



=>Your friendly neighborhood estate manager

Hey Band .

GOOD NEWS .
There is OFFICIAL band practice from Monday onwards .
Practice starts at 3 so please be punctual .
Be prepared for an AWESOME practice on Monday, so BE THERE .

Some thoughts.

Hello people!

It has been a VERY long time since I have posted something.

So I am sure everyone will be looking forward to my posts.
So, here I am. =D

JUST JOKING!

Well, just here to share an interesting moral/ethical dilemma with you.

You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night,
when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the
bus:

1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing that there could only be
one passenger in your car?

Think before you read on, because your answer speaks a lot about your character and your attitude in your own responsibility to others.

1. You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus, you should save her first.
2. Or you could take the old friend because he has saved your life and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.
3. However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

This was told to me by another friend of mine, and I chose the first option.

But its not even close to the perfect answer.

You should give the car keys to your old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. Then, you would stay behind, and wait for the bus with the partner of your dreams.

Missed that out right? Ha! I knew it.

There are so many things in Life which we, as young people, are missing out now. All around us, poeple are needing help, but we often turn a blind eye towards them. Your excuse? "I have no time!"

Kindness begets kindness. Unkindness begets unkindness. And an act of helping others will definitely lift your soul to a whole new level. Nope, this is not a sharing about Music-making, but a sharing on Empathy: how you treat to others just because you want to.

I feel that there has been too much emphasis on Music-making in CHSSB. Although that is excellent, I felt that the "brotherhood" between members have disappeared. You only care about what will benefit you.

That may not true for everyone, but it certainly is for most. (Not just CHSSB)

So, please, I urge everyone of you to look around you and ACT. There is no need to hesitate, no need to deliberate and no need to consider when you see someone in need. If you see your seniors struggling, a word of concern is enough to keep them on track. If you see your juniors discouraged, a small word encouragement is enough to fuel their spirits. We ARE One Band, One Sound, and One Brotherhood.

How can there be One Band without One Sound, and how can there be One Sound without One Brotherhood? And being emphatatic, and thinking a bit out of box, is just what you need to achieve what CHSSB has been trying to achieve for the past few years.

Most importantly, it is important to dare to try. Who cares if you fail? Only you band-mates will care for the best for you; by encouraging and helping you to solve your mistakes.

Anyone can do it, its just a matter of how. Afterall, all of these are intrinsic, right?

Quotations.

Recently I borrowed a book from the Esplanade library titled “The Quotable Musician: from Bach to Tupac” by Sheila Anderson and found it pretty interesting, holding all manners of quotes from musicians and artists from all walks of life. I would like to grab some of the interesting quotes and share it with you guys…they’re all interesting, but whether I agree with them is another issue altogether.

***

‘Only become a musician if there is absolutely no other way you can make a living.’ – Kirke Mecham

‘I am not a blues singer. I am not a jazz singer. I am not a country singer. But I am a singer who can sing the blues, who can sing jazz, who can sing country.’ – Ray Charles

‘A good composer is slowly discovered. A bad composer is slowly found out.’ – Ernest Newman

‘Give me a laundry list and I’ll set it to music.’ – Puccini

‘The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is to be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.’ –Virgil Thompson

***

‘I once sent him a song and asked him to mark a cross wherever he thought it was faulty. Brahms returned it untouched, saying, “I don’t want to make a cemetery of your compositions.” ‘ – Hugo Wolf

‘There are still so many beautiful things to be said in C major.’ – Sergei Prokofiev

‘You can’t possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven’s Seventh and go slow.’ – Oscar Levant, trying to explain his way out of a speeding ticket

‘I say, play it your own way. Don’t play what the public wants…you play what you want, and let the public pick up on what you are doing, even if it does take them fifteen, twenty years.’ – Thelonious monk

‘Applause is a receipt, not a note of demand.’ – Artur Schnabel

‘If I don’t practice for one day, I know it; if I don’t practice for two days, the critics know it; if I don’t practice for three days, the audience knows it.’ – Ignacy Jan Paderewski

***

‘I cannot tell you how much I love to play for people. Would you believe it – sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.’ – Arthur Rubinstein

‘Never look at the trombones; it only encourages them.’ – Richard Strauss

‘I am amazed at radio DJs today. I am firmly convinced that AM on my radio stands of Absolute Moron. I will not begin to tell you what FM stands for.’ – Jasper Carrott

‘I never use a score when conducting my orchestra. Does a lion tamer enter a cage with a book on how to tame a lion?” – Dmitri Mitropoulos

‘God tells me how the music should sound but you stand in the way.’ – Arturo Toscanini, to a trumpet player

‘Conductors must give unmistakable and suggestive signals to the orchestra, not choreography to the audience.’ – George Szell

‘If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn’t have to go to an osteopath, then there’s something wrong.’ – Simon Rattle

‘He uses music as an accompaniment to his conducting.’ – Oscar Levant, on Leonard Bernstein

‘Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of bleeding, he sings.’ – Ed Gardner

***

‘Too many pieces of music finish too long after the end.’ – Igor Stravinsky

‘Music rearranges your molecular structure.’ – Carlos Santana

‘The rhythm of jazz is against the normal psychological needs of Man.’ – The Peoples Music Press, Peking, China

‘I like Wagner’s music better than any other music. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without other people hearing what one says. That is a great advantage.’ – Oscar Wilde

‘I have often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music, instead of politics.’ – Richard Nixon

‘An artist should be judged by his best, just as an athlete is. Pick out my best work and say, “That’s what he did, all the rest was rehearsal.” ‘– Artie Shaw



:D

BAND.

Alright, this is the first time I'm blogging here.
I understand every single band member is now all asking this same question:
"WHY IS THERE NO BAND?" .
for some truly passionate musicians, those who pester me to open up the band room even during the band break last week, they are probably going like,
"I MISS BAND LIKE I"M DEPRIVED OF A LIVING SOURCE."
for some other opposites they'll probably not care about band at all .

My point of this whole post IS TO GET EVERY SINGLE BAND MEMBER DOWN FOR PRACTCIE TOMORROW . IT IS NOT COMPULSORY BUT HIGHLY ENCOURAGED FOR EVERYONE TO BE DOWN TOMORROW AT 3 .

This is the direction from the school . It is a FREE PRACTICE (if you get what i mean)
It is not compulsory but i'll be down there so i want to see the whole band there . I won't punish you if you are not there but YOU'LL REGRET NOT GOING DOWN FOR PRACTICE TOMORROW BECAUSE you will CHANGE THE IMPRESSION EVERY OTHER BAND MEMBER HAVE OF YOU.

So, get the message. Be there at 3 tomorrow PUNCTUALLY . ENCOURAGE ALL YOUR BAND BUDDIES TO GO DOWN IF THEY ARE INTENDING NOT TO . Ultimately , you can still choose not to go down tomorrow 13th July , you WON'T get punished .

It's your CHOICE . MAKE THE RIGHT ONE .