rock bands audition

after weeks of practise, yesterday our band finally faced our biggest challenge - the audition.
We were all very nervous before the audition, because to be honest, we have only practised through the whole song once (as we didnt have many opportunities to use the music room as it was always already occupied). So we went into the audition being quite unprepared and not very confident. So we played our song, and I dont think it was the best we had ever done....the band wasnt really.."together", and it didnt seem like we impressed the judges much. Ms Leong commented : u guys need more practise, Ryan (the drummer), you were too loud, and Ivan (guitarist), your playing was really random at times.

well if we do manage to get in in the end, we will try harder to book the music room, and practise so many times that in the end, when we play for ms leong again, the only thing she would say is ''good''. :)

St.Nicholas

After two weeks of office work, today Naima and I finally got to interact with the children.
I thought there was a significant improvement in my interaction with the children today as I'm beginning to understand their body languages (e.g. a girl playfully demanded that I have to sit cross-legged like she was, so she pointed at her legs, then at mine, then at a spot beside her); I've called a few of them by their names and they've responded; I was actually able to have a proper conversation with one of them; and most importantly, I'm adjusting to the way they behave - I feel more comfortable spending time with them now. I also think the children are beginning to recognise me now, as one of them smiled so widely when i said Hello to her.

We were basically playing with the children in the playroom, and I found that the toy that they liked the most was Lego (probably because they liked the feeling of constructing things with their hands), so I thought of the idea of asking people in Uplands whether they have any old Lego they would like to give away, so that the children in St. Nicholas would have more to play with.

interacting with the children at St.Nicholas

Today after school, Midori,Ivan,Phuminat,Naima,Chih Yao, Maiki and I took a bus down to St. Nicholas School.

We divided into groups according to the areas we preferred helping out in. Phuminat and I chose to interact directly with the children. We were brought to the playroom to play with the children. At first, Phuminat and I were very lost, because we had great difficulty in communicating with the children, as some of them were not only visually impaired, but also deaf. And those who weren't deaf, spoke in Malay, which neither Phuminat and I are very good at. After some time, i decided to look for one of the House Mothers (who looked after the children), to ask her to give us a brief introduction for each child, so that we could get to know them better. The House Mothers also explained to us that we had to try communicate with the children by sign language (which Phumi and I had trouble doing too...), and that the children recognises us by our smell, so the next time that we visit, they will know it's us again.

I have to say that i was a bit hestitant in interacting with the children today, as i was clueless and a bit nervous about communicating with them, so today I mostly only observed them. And i was very impressed and moved watching these young children, who had lost so much in life, still being able to laugh and have fun, by living their lives with their other senses. Although we did not directly interact with the children much, i did get to know the children individually better today, and I aim for my next visit to create an even deeper understanding and bond with these children. I hope that in a few weeks time, I would be able to communicate with them easily and comfortably.

Rock Bands

Midori, Ivan and I got together (Tony was not free today) and tried out a few song. Ivan is the guitarist, Tony the guitarist/bassist, and Midori the vocalist, whilst i'm the vocalist/keyboardist. First we tried the song "Imagine", by John Lennon, then "Fall for you" by Second Hand Serenade, and finally "9 crimes" by Damien Rice.
We came up with the final decision to work on "9 crimes" as not only was it a simple song to sing and play, but we found that midori and I could work best together on vocals in this song, as it was originally a duet anyways.
I had lots of fun today, and i thought our band made quite some progress, as not only have we picked our song, but we've also decided on who should sing which parts, AND we've tried it out a few times. What needs to be done now is for Ivan to learn how to play the piece, and to figure out how he could combine his playings with Tony's. After that we'd just need practise, practise, and MORE practise.
hopefully we'd get pass the auditions in december..:)

Oh Happy Day

We worked on "Oh Happy Day" for the whole lesson today. "Oh Happy Day" is the piece that I have a solo part in. Ms.Leong made me, and the male soloist stand in the middle with a microphone, whilst the rest of the choir stood around us in a circle. The first time we went through the song, i was so nervous that I went off pitch for a few times, but after several more practises, and encouragement from Ms.Leong and my friends, I managed to calm down and sing with more confidence.
After the lesson I asked for feedback from Ms.Leong, and she said I should "let my voice go more. I'm not giving it my bestest yet" - she needs to hear the 'uumph' in it. And my friends told me that I should try to relax more.. i seemed quite tense and my voice was a little shaky. So these will be what i'll focus on improving for next week, I'll do so by practising the song a LOT (eg. in the shower).

reflection on tutoring

Today i had my first tutoring session with Michael. As he is going to have a test tomorrow, I focused on preparing him for the test. Using his textbook, i tested him on translation skills (as in I said something in English, and he had to write that in Mandarin). After the test, we looked at the mistakes he had made, and as we went through them, i taught him more efficient ways on memorising how to write certain chinese characters. Then i gave him a few minutes to look over his mistakes again, before i gave him a re-test. He didnt make any mistakes in the re-test, which made me really happy, as i felt like i had made an achievement.
This activity gave me the opportunity to TEACH seriously, and it not only raised my awareness of my ability to teach and my level in chinese, but it also increased the respect i have for teachers (because teaching can be a really tiring job...).
Overall, i thought this session went pretty well, but for the next tutoring session, i hope to be even better prepared for the lesson.

reflection on choir

on wednesday we worked on the piece 'oh maria'. At the start of the lesson we aimed to learn the whole of part A, but in the end we managed to do both part A AND B. The part for soprano was quite easy compared to that of Altos and Bass in this piece, so i did not face much difficulties when learning this piece. I learned to be more confident with using my voice, as ''opening the throat'' is quite important when singing this song. Next time, i would like to improve on body movements - meaning, i hope i could FEEL the song more, and move freely n expressively while singing it.
During choir, i feel really good when we've spent the whole lesson learning a part of the song, and at the end when we combine everything - the effect is sooo amazing. It feels like hard work is definitely worth it.