Monday, May 30, 2005
@3:44 PM
He is dynamic...
He is charismatic...
He is humorous...
and needless to say..
he possess excellent musicality..
He is..
none other..
than..
Mr..
Soichi.
(Note: I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling for his name. Well..at least tt's how I pronounce it.Gee. =D )
Mus'art is honourable to hav one of the SYF Central Judging Band Comp's adjudicators, Mr Soichi to be our guest conductor for this afternoon's rehearsal. Indeed, he came in at the right time to brush up our 'Impressions of Japan' since we're already technically quite well-prepared for the music..except for a few hiccups here and there. Oh well. Anyway, he really made full use of that precious 3 hrs to pin-point at our mistakes and remedy them on the spot; we played and stopped. Played again and stopped again; with the sole purpose of achieving perfection. He's strict, yes. However, I felt tt what else cld be better than to rehearse the doubtful part over and over again so that the correct tune will eventually get registered in our minds? I like that. =D
Through this session with him, I understand Impressions a level higher and appreciate the shape and colours of the music a great lot better; The appropriate style to use on the piece especially. One thing which as musicians we're fully aware of..only that we've the tendency to overlook - musical notes are not jus plain notes to play and forget. Every single note are equally important; Jus like every lyrics in a song. The notes are for us to play and FeEl with our hearts and souls. Jus like playing the third movement of Impression. It somehow or rather never crosses my mind that the expressions are closely tied to its main melody. I've always been too concerned abt achieving perfection on its technical part..so much so tt I've actually compromise the beautiful melody with jus playing plain notes. One learning point which I've come to truly appreciate, all thanks to Mr Soichi. =D
A meaningful and inspiring rehearsal with Mr Soichi, I've also learnt abt what differentiate a Gold and a Gold with Honours medallist band; A Gold medallist band has what it takes to be a well-balanced one, with the first players strongly supported by the second and third parts' players of each sections. So what abt GWH then? It's the special elements that they hav in the pieces they played; most prob the style of music tt they've grabbed well. And tt's precisely the purpose of Mr Suichi's visit today. Imagine a thousand and one bands playing Impressions at WMC. How musart cld stand out from the rests depends on how creative and outstanding we cld put our performance across to the judges.
A miscellaneous I was taught is tt it's not always wrong to pepper our music with expressions on our own; It doesnt mean that there's no dynamics written on the music and the players cld jolly well follow and play mere plain notes. No..tt's not the way. Sometimes the composer may be due to certain reasons,forget to add some expressions to the piece.(Haha. It does happen according to Mr Soichi =D ) So if the band cld play the music using appropriate expressions for the particular part, and most importantly, cld play it fantastically well such that when the judges listen to it and say,"Wow, maybe we cld really add that to this part of the music," wldnt tt be a plus-plus point for the band?
These are merely some learning points that I wanna share..cos' I find them very useful. For no reason why, I find Mr Soichi inspirational and in one way or another, motivated me to add even more gallon of oil for WMC. I've made a superb right choice going for the competition. Band..really makes my life more meaningful than ever. =)
Yearn for the days of innocence
