Strings affair

SPSB members who performed just now :)

Oh gosh it's 1:22 AM now, and same as last week, I was telling myself "Okay lets blog" at 10:30. Pardon me heh, I went to bathe, cook and eat so... Thus the long time! :) Anyway here I am. I just have to blog tonight, cause today (or Saturday, yesterday) was an awesome day! Or I guess night. So I guess I'll blog in the context of yesterday.

Yup! I had my concert with the awesome young musicians. It was my first time playing with a string ensemble. Even though I don't play strings, I play as a wind player, I think it's an awesome experience. It's very rare, I feel, for a wind player (especially like me, an ordinary band player) to play with a string ensemble! Awesomeness eh...

Anyway I met Chee Ming, Sham, Cecillia and Zhen Yang at NP, actually I met CM and ZY at NP bus stop then we all came together to the hall. Practised for a few while and then it's rehearsal time! Whew, it's a bit of a disorganised but well we all managed to pull it off. And last-minute things especially on the concert day ain't good you know.

Went to King Albert's Park Mcdonald for dinner, and they were amused by my way of eating Mcspicy heh. Pardon my weird way eh! Ate for a little while and we started heading back to NP for the real concert. Tuned, practised a little more, and there we go! The bad thing for me is that I didn't know the order of the songs. So I gotta keep on looking at CM to see whether he stood up to play the clarinet or not heh.

But I think overall, the concert was great, despite of a few glitches, like my being out of tune, quite bad, and some of the uncertainties we all faced in Imperial March. But we pulled it off, I think we all did a great job, with the fact that we only had like 2 practices? 2 rehearsals, and that the changes were told like on the concert day itself.

My dream came true, I played Howl's Moving Castle with a strings ensemble. And what's best was me playing my favourite part of the song, my favourite melody of all times. It's just a silent joyful feeling I had. It feels great to somehow know I did it. Even though yes, my playing was a bit out of tune heh. But I don't know. I really enjoyed that... 10? Bars of music for HMC theme.

Ahh I guess that's the joy of being a musician. You gotta enjoy things which not everybody can enjoy. It's a weird feeling. People might feel that "It's just playing your instrument, your favourite song. What's the big deal?" To me, it is something exclusive. Something personal I can only enjoy it myself. Just pure, simple, but sublimal joy in the within me that enjoy it.

As those notes were moving out of my clarinet, forming a beautiful melody together with the strings (it's a freaking soli!!) and I guess that's when joy appears in my heart, and translated in my ears. Well I guess, this feeling goes to musicians. Or I guess take it, when you do something you love. Like if you love to cook, you'll feel joyful when cooking. Others who don't love cooking, don't feel the same way as you.

I guess the moral of the story is just.... Enjoy what you do. Cause that's where your heart lies, where your heart feels contented and happy. When your mind is at peace, and your heart is at ease. A feeling exclusive to you, that you can't share with no one else. Except you :)

Anyway here are some photos! And that's it for today I guess, I love Saturday nights... Cause... I don't feel like doing anything. Yum! Bon nuit!

Playing pose!

55 more days to Inner Mongolia OCIP!