Allocated Parts- Salut' d amour

Guitar 1:
Gloria
Winnie
Zheng Shan
Tricia
Lisa
Yi San
Feng Lin
Kyna
Charlotte
Yu Lin
Kewei

Guitar 2:
Chan Yi
Melissa
Desiree
Cheyenne
Elissa
Jia Yi
Zhi Ying
Su Xiang
Yan Jun
Yu Han

Guitar 3:
Jia Jun
Wei Han
Jonathan
Huan Ting
Sheena

Guitar 4:
Zi Yang
Tzin Wai
Yu Lei
Li Bo
Jeremy
Tuan Anh
Jess
Ziran

Guitarron/Contrabass:
Lowell
Nikki

Practice makes perfect: clichéd but true

Hmm... for those that came today, hopefully Ms Wong's sharing of her life story and road to musical success has inspired you guys to work hard. I think the important thing we should all learn from her story (no, it's not that we have to fail our A levels) is that practice is the key to improvement. This may sound duh to you, but it made me recall some articles that I once read, which presented research showing that "outstanding performance is the product of years of deliberate practice and coaching, not of any innate talent or skill".

If you're free, you can check out this article regarding how studies have shown that in various fields (including music, sports, games and other skills), the amount of practice correlates very closely to one's skill level, whereas "innate ability" has little or no bearing upon it at all.

Here is an excerpt from another article on the same subject:

Several researchers have studied populations of high musical achievers (sometimes in comparison with lower achievers), to discover if there are systematic social or individualfactors that high achievers have in common. For instance, in a study of 250 young people learning musical instruments during the 1990s, a research group of which I was part (Sloboda, Davidson, Howe, & Moore, 1996) found striking correlations between achievement level and the amount of daily practice undertaken. By the age of 12, children who would later gain a place at a specialist music school were undertaking, on average, two hours of daily practice. This compared with a norm of 15 to 30 minutes per day for the averagechild learning a musical instrument at this age (that is, a 400-800% difference).

The same study showed that, in general, high achieving musicians started music lessons earlier than the lower achievers. It is hard to find high achievers in classical music who started regular instrumental lessons later than the age of eight. If we know the amount of daily practice done by an individual, and we also know the age at which practice started, we can compute a very useful statistic, which is the total amount of practice accumulated by a particular point in the lifespan. This statistic shows:

- It requires an average of 3,500 hours of practice to achieve Associated Board Grade 8 standard, which is taken as the minimum entry requirement for higher study in classical instrumental music.

- Young adult musicians at the start of their professional performing careers (i.e. after conservatoire level study), tend to have accumulated around 10,000 hours of practice on their chosen instrument (as compared with less than 7,000 by conservatoire graduates ona teaching track).

Given the limitations on how much daily practice is feasible at different ages, it normally takes at least 10 years to acquire the amount of practice needed to perform at a level that would generally be recognised as excellent.

Anyway, what I really want to say is: MAKE SURE YOU PRACTICE THE TWO SYF PIECES AT HOME. A LOT. If you can't get the timing right yet, you should get the notes right first, because sometimes the timing depends on coordination with other parts or is difficult to count due to the use of syncopation in the arrangement.

At the same time, I suggest you download the 2 songs into your MP3s somehow, and listen to them as many times a day as possible without going crazy.

By the time you can easily and confidently play all the notes correctly, you should also have those 2 songs stuck in your head for life, hence allowing you to get the timing of your now-correct notes right. As an added benefit, you will now also know what all the other parts sound like, and will hence be able to tell if you are out of time with the rest, or if somebody plays wrongly.

With this idiot-proof two-step training programme, I'm sure any and all of you can become SYF standard in no time. Oh, and did I mention, you also need to practice at least 2 hours EVERYDAY for this to work. And no, listening to the pieces on your mp3 player does NOT count within these 2 hours.

Good Luck.

Jia Jun

CHALET FINALIZED

HELLO! The chalet is finallyfinallyfinally booked after some problems with the booking. Anyway...here are the details of the guitar chalet:

Venue: Aloha Changi Changi Chalet K
Date: 5 Jan 2009 (overnight to 6 Jan)
Time: 4 pm (for those in chalet subcomm, check-in time is 3 pm, check-out time is latest 10.30 am)

The activities will be sort of a surprise. I hope all of you can go....All are invited, including seniors!

Btw, training resumes on 8 Jan 2009. Yep.

Random Updates

Ok, this post will be composed of like totally random non-musical updates.

First on the agenda would be, of course, the hot topic of SYF attire. Siiigh. There's not much to say...Zheng Shan's gonna be our designer! Yes. The guys' jackets will now be tailored because the designs would be kept for future generations (or supposed to be anyway), hence the prices might be a little higher. Colour combination will be decided after the design for the gowns and jackets are out, k?

As for the girls' gowns, we're looking at a wrap dress design. One of the dresses we're using for reference is the signature wrap dress known as 'butter' by Nadia. It's basically like a skirt with two long wide pieces of cloth attached to, quite obviously, wrap the top. Apparently it can be worn in like 30 different styles and it is also 'one size fits all'. Oh and it is supposed to flatter any figure. To learn more about it, you can visit the official website http://www.butterbynadia.com/ , and I do believe that they have demonstrations for how to wrap it in a few styles.

If there are any queries, comments or suggestions, you can direct it to any exco member or our designer.

Second on the list would be next week's sports session and club lunch. It is our last sports session and last/second club lunch, at least for this year and the holidays. We're still not sure about next year. As a result, we would be doing something a little different from captain's ball. I'm sure everyone's sick of it anyway. Instead, we'll be playing frisbee! Cheers and whatnot. If anyone has a frisbee that we can borrow next friday, sms me (96663823 if you don't know). Wet weather plan...would be table tennis. (I can just hear our pres cheering right now and hoping it rains.) We can take turns playing. Or use many tables. Or learn some cheerleading.

As for the club lunch, there are two options. We can either have it on Thur or Fri. The benefit of having it on Thursday instead of Friday is that we can leave our guitars in the guitar room on Thur. I can't make club lunch mandatory for obvious reasons so I reallyreally hope that everyone can make it for the club lunch. We'll have voting on Monday for the day of the club lunch, and don't forget that training is changed to 1 to 4 on Monday. Also, there will be -cough- special seating plans for club lunch inspired by our dear NY-HC juniors at KAP today...Planned by me. Don't worry, it won't be painful. And I'd like to thank the 11 people who came down for club lunch today, as well as everyone who has participated in the sports sessions and made them a success. Although guitar bonding started late, at least we're getting somewhere, right?

Thirdly, a brief update on the chalet. Actually, no not really. I've been away for awhile so I'm sorry I couldn't get the details out yet and confirm everything. However, it will all be confirmed soon, I hope. I need to meet the chalet subcomm (or whoever can make it) next Monday after practice to discuss activities for Mr. Quek's...approval? Reference? Anyway, he needs to know. So, pass the message on and I'll hopefully see almost everyone next Monday.

Last but not least, with the new year starting and all, the orientation subcomm will have to start getting ready for the J1s. Next year, we're hoping to have an awesome initiation and pull in manymanymany J1s. Weihan's in charge of the orientation subcomm so he will probably start the planning soon...As for the rest of the 2009 J2s that are not in the orientation subcomm, you still have to be involved in orientation in one way or another AND guide/befriend your juniors. We may have some sort of buddy system or angel/mortal next year...And as all of you know, we won't be having a concert next year, hence all those in concert subcomm will have NOTHING TO DO. I suggest that these people can be more active by offering to help out in preparations for chalet, orientation, SYF, etcetc. Most importantly, we've got to make guitar club a more bonded CCA such that people come not only so that they can perform for SYF, but also because they want to. Yes, and I'm sure that everyone who came yesterday (Thur) saw the junior who joined us for practice. He is still considering, but if any other juniors come, do make them feel welcome and not....isolated. If they are seated next to you or around you, make light conversation and stuff. Be a good senior.

Wow that was a loooong post. If you managed to read all the way, congrats. That's all for today, folks.

-Gloria

Sibelius Scores

Hi there,

We gave out a total of 4 scores today, please make sure you have all of them. By late next week, we would know which 2 scores we would be playing. Till then, it would be good to practice Salut d'amour first (both prime and niibori scores).

Also, as there are 15 parts in total for Sibelius, do approach me when i am online to get the softcopy of your part if you need some reference.


-Jon

No training on 4th dec, thursday

Hey!

There'll be no training tmr, 4th dec. Training will be on friday still, 9am to 12 nn with the sports session.

Holiday trainings will be at A block classrooms now unless otherwise stated. Please be punctual! Thanks!

wh