Aesthetique 2010 - Painting on Silence

Hello band members!

Below are some of the Secondary 3s' reflections regarding our recent concert on 4th March 2010 - Aesthetique 2010: Painting on Silence. All band members (especially the Secondary 3s) are strongly encouraged to post their reflections about the band's progress on our band blog.

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Zhe Wei:

Our concert was not a total success, neither was it a total failure. We have indeed given it our all in terms of our spirituality and tried out utmost best to communicate with the audience and perform to our utmost best which was of partial succcess, but with such high levels of “unpreparedness", our eyes tend to be glued to the score instead of the conductor leaving us to be unable to take signs from him and unable to feel and sense the same pulse. This caused the music to become very disorganized and messy, resulting in it to be a failure.

I have learnt from our concert that there is a serious problem with our techniques in music-playing. This was evident as we were struggling to try to finish the piece and decode the rhythms. This all underlies to our problems in the fundamentals of music playing. Clearly, our fundamentals are not well built and as a result, our playing is suffering due to our poor fundamentals and basics. Despite the fact that this point has been severly empahsised and repeated, not many people have taken heed of this advice and simply refuse to do anything on their own self-effort to improve.

Also, many people in the band simply refuse to come down to self-practice their score and simply come to combined sessions without practicing their score beforehand. This leads to a lot of them having not practiced the score and thus becoming unfamiliar with the score which as a result leads to them not playing their own parts well. With nearly everybody in our band having that kind of mentality, it is indeed hard to bring our music to further heights as we would be stuck at the same places and would be unable to get past it because some fellow members simply refuse to practice their parts and would be stuck at that part for long periods of time.

"The strength of a band is in its weakest player." This saying is indeed true. No matter how far some members may go to self practice their parts and aim for perfection, as long as we have some who refuse to practice, this slipshod attitude would not only cause their own downfall, but also ultimately lead to the band’s downfall.

In addition, many members of our band has the "skimming the surface" attitude and simply just wish to be able to play the notes and get the rough idea of the piece without caring about the minute details such as crescendos, de-crescendos and difficult parts. This leads to the music that we play to only be a rough, general idea and not a meticulous one. To quote a few examples from our concert, our piece “Seventh night of July“ was done without much expression in the dynamics. In addition, the 3rd and 4th page sounded very messy as these were the “difficult” parts of the section and we, adopting the “ skimming the surface “ attitude have only just played through the score very briefly without aiming for perfection, clarity and togetherness.

Also, our "unpreparedness", for the concert can be reflected in our musical playing. We have clearly just practiced the easy parts and left the difficult parts aside, adopting a "heck care" attitude. An example to showcase this would be the "Legend of the ancient hero" piece, our second page at the 7/8 bar was not done together as everybody felt different pulses with some lagging behind the actual tempo and some not knowing their notes and playing incorrectly. This confuses the members who have practiced and cause them to blunder which the different "noises" which they are hearing.

Lastly of all would be our attitude. Some of us hold an earnest attitude towards musical playing and practice conscientiously to aim for perfection. Some others on the hand as said hold a "heck care" attitude “ and do not spend any of their personal free time to practice which causes the band to be unable to progress further because of the mentality of these people. If we could all change our mentality and aim for one common goal, to strive for the best in what we do and do our personal part to help the band improve and soar to greater heights, our band would truly be a wonderful band.

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Shao Kai:

The main problem of the concert was the lack of preparation from each individuals of the band. Even the seniors (Secondary 4) were lacking of the preparation to confidently finish the pieces. I feel that the seniors have really helped us too much which can already be equated to spoon-feeding till they neglect almost everything including studies and practising their own part. Not sure about the other seniors but to me in my section, this occurrence is getting more and more obvious and the juniors, including me, took it for granted till they reminded me about this issue 2 days before a concert with a random remark and I finally realised that this is going on with me showing only the slightest appreciation. That got me thinking a lot till the concert.

This brings me back to the main topic for this reflection after the sidetrack. To me, everything that has passed has passed. I treat these past events as lessons that I have got to learn from, may it be a perfect event or an imperfect one. This time it was really the imperfect side. Although many feedbacks from people who are “not well exposed to music” were like ‘Great concert you have there I enjoyed it!’ and ‘Whao, quite nice leh’ etc. all having the positivity, I still felt that the concert was not that well done at all, maybe for majority of the pieces. Moreover, these people could even identify one out of the many mistakes made like the squeaking of one of the clarinet and not coming in tempo or not in tempo from the percussion. Then what about those who know music? The answer is straightforward. Worse.

Never have I gone for a full concert performed by me and my band throughout, this is the first time. An unforgettable first time… Doing analysis for each song about what is wrong and etc. is pointless in this reflection. There are lots and lots of things going through my mind after the concert. I have seen and heard lots of things that made me feel quite emotional the day after the concert. Some band people were saying just enjoy the concert. I feel that we should not enjoy but seriously be musical and expressive at the point in time, express all our feelings fitting to what should be in the piece. Enjoying is not enough if a good performance is aimed to be given although it is near impossibility.

Leadership during the whole process was good, quite good. Everything was planned out very nicely; maybe it’s because of Mr Glosz. Just that some people need to be motivated to feel sense of urgency for things to be done like transportation, packing, moving from place to place etc. This would need the band to work together. One issue that I seen during the concert was that everyone is downright un-united and un-bonded. Everyone was in their small groups. In my section it’s already happening, in my huge batch of Secondary 3 it is even more obvious, not sure about the Secondary 4s though. Conflicts are all around. However, even there is conflict there I still feeling that the band can try to be united with the slightest bonding and work together.

Playing for the first half of the repertoire was alright, better than expected. Not to mentioned the countless mistakes made by the intermediate band. I felt that my section and I did well for the soli in Jubilance. One of the best that I have played so far. I was thinking about my seniors’ efforts put on my section and I, that I have to support my section. It was the most enjoyable time in the first half as I had a lot of feelings mixed into this soli.

Till the second half, after breaks and all the mistakes, everyone was not focused at all. Everything played was not at even the normal standards. I really do hope that the band have much more perseverance. I did not enjoy the second part at all. Yes people were clapping this and that, here and there, the atmosphere was there but I really hope the band can play as well as the atmosphere. After the whole performance was over, it was really very messy. People are looking for this this this this, oh then this other person is looking that that that. Total mess. Being the last person to leave the dressing room, I felt quite sad that all the plastic bottles are left behind. With other litter here and there. It was like rush hour and in one small corner showing the little aftermath of this crowd here after leaving that particular area. There were also things that were left behind by my section mate and I brought everything down for them but end up forgetting to bring my own blazer and school uniform. Felt pretty anxious at that moment… No light at all. Luckily there was someone there using handphone light to look for something and I borrowed it from him.

Upon reaching school, it was really unknown why Jin Sheng was so angry and had a fiery tone. Luckily people did not flare or get offended by him. But I still feel that he should change the way he treats people especially not going with his mood.

Although we did not get a chance to talk about the concert that night, doing this reflection can help me express part of it. I hope that the band can really buck up; there were a few times where I tear as I had a flash of thought of the Secondary 4s leaving us, as I have built really strong bonds with them after all.

The concert was a lesson for everyone, of what you really cannot play and what damage you can incur to the band for your incompetence. Our next short aim would be Hawaii although the more far-sighted one is taking over of the current secondary 3s, POP video all that. The concert marks as a date for everyone to know and to remember and to learn. I hope that really, everyone learnt something. As for me, I have learnt many things through this period of time till the concert. I really had got to be more musical and expressive of what I play, I have also learnt the correct way of practising any pieces, importance of fundamentals like the majors and minors and the chromatics and many more. Although we have passed the concert, we still have got to strive and continue with the effort that we put in during the chionging period before this concert. With this consistency I am pretty sure that we can do well. I have confidence in everyone in the band.

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Alumni members who have attended our concert are more than welcome to post their feedback for the band here! :D Do tell the band what you think of our concert and our current band.

That's all :)