International Guitar Fest, Audition and some updates

(WARNING : i just realise the post is v. long -.- slowly read ba but do read everything though. yupp thx. paiseh)

Hi everyone (: hope you guys are having a great holiday.



Anyway, just some updates regarding the things that i've alr talked abt during trainings.


First, this is a poster of the 7th international guitar festival. try to join, 60% subsidy provided by national arts council. If you're interested call me or wht. cant really rmb all the details (esp the monetary ones =/ off my mind, but i think a day's seminar is 120, 2 days 220 and 3 days dno wht. masterclass observer think is 10bucks? or smthing lidat. competition is 45, concert and recital depends on ur cat, ranging from 20 - 40 or smthing lidat. yupp)





So if you're interested you just uh. pay in full first, get the receipt and pass to alicia to claim ur 60%. applies for both the festival and the competition so in case any of you joined the competition take note that it can be claimed too. yupp :D

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Mock audtition was carried out last training. so for those who came you shd roughly noe how it wld be. not the toughest of auditions so dun get too stress up k :D anw. Do take note tht the audition is crucial. First audition is on the 10th. 2nd audition for those who failed and who cant make it when sch reopen. if u cant make it for both come and find me or else i'll just take it that you don't wan to join guitar next yr.

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Tuners,

For those who wants to purchase a tuner at $15 let any of the exco members know. we're buying in bulk accessories and guitar for our next year batch so if u wan to buy anything u can buy w us? cos it'll be much cheaper. ok i've sidetracked, but anyway,

its a clip on tuner, with a mic fn too so can be used in ur conventional way, has led display that turns red when wrong pitch and green when correct, can change tuning fom A=435 to 445 i think, main think is can be changed la. can tune in diff keys. and uh. is super cheap. so ya if u wan 1 let us know asap.

And for other things too. like guitar. there are already a few people buying guitars together with us le so ya xD join in the fun la. (if ur parents wont kill u that is)

other things u may want to buy include strings etc.

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Attendance.

probably the worst thing to talk abt but also the most impt. so lyk wht i've said during training, but with some clarification. and this 1 will hold and its in black and white so yupp. when in doubt come to refer to this.

only 11 person will not hit the 80% mark if we only take term 3,4 + holiday training. so we're taking that. as for the 11 person, most of them they reallyreally don't appear at all and you wont even know them. so we really got no choice cos the sch needs 80% attendance.

HOWEVER, do take note that the 11person is calculated base on the fact that u attended ALL holiday trainings. so if u happily pon-ed (which quite alot seemed to O.o) most of the training, im not sure whether i'll be still 11. this is really the best that we can do alr. we've quarrelled/fight/poked/strangled/discussed/negotiated with each other for a supppper long time so ya. i really really think this is the max we can go alr. so try not to pon training alrite, its ur cca after all.

2nd thing. and the thing that needs to be clarified. What is considered as a valid excuse.

Rmb me saying that everything is considered as a valid excuse? that was said with the assumption that plain weird O.o ideas like pon training purposely isnt even within the scope of discussion. so let me clarify myself.

Activities such as School activity, Chalet, Family holiday, work attachment will be considered as valid excuse. for holiday trainings at least which seem to have alot of controversy over it. During normal training nothing shd take priority over ur cca unless u have got valid excuse lyk having make-up lesson etc. when in doubt go to cheryl.

BUT. theres a catch to it. rmb i also said that u must find out wht we did and learn them by the next training? yupp. so after having ur valid excuse (yayye). you're suppose to 1) find out wht u missed. 2) learn them. 3) find me for ur "mini audition"

so the whole process will go like that

1) Find cheryl at least 1 week in advance if you know that you're gonna miss training for a valid excuse with evidance and stuff. Cheryl will note down the relevant details after verifying it.

2) Find out for urself wht u missed, don't expect MIs to give u private 1-on-1 tuition, its not in their job scope but if they're nice enuff. ohwells. so you're probably get like a summarize version of wht u nid to do and everything go do it urself.

3) Find me latest 1 week after (i.e. the next training when you're suppose to come back). arrange a time for ur mini audition to check that you've learnt all that you're suppose to learn.

4) If you pass, i'll let cheryl noe. den she'll cancel out those training (i.e not to be counted)

so,

scenario 1 : if u pass, training not counted.

scenario 2: if u fail, i'll let cheryl noe, taken as didnt come for training.

scenario 3: didnt tell cheryl in time, counted as miss training

scenario 4: told cheryl but didnt find me 1 week after, i wont tell cheryl anything and after 1 week she'll still take it as missed training

yupp. so pls be responsible in doing wht you're suppose to if u have to miss training. thx :D

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Pieces to play.

by 3rd dec - Finish lambada (or minimum bar 40), spring msg bar 21 (or isit 25?) the part where i played to last training la.

by 5th dec - finish lambada, spring msg bar (?) to be comfirmed, juniors coming

10th - audtition, spring msg (?), Mr shi coming - bush up all pieces till samba

12th - spring msg

17th - finish spring msg, Mr shi coming - brush up all pieces

19th - Mr Shi coming - brush up all pieces

So by 19th dec, we'll be able to play shan liang, shi jie, Morenita, Samba, Lambada, Spring Msg

Next year first combined piece with junior : Cant help falling in love

In between we might have more piece from Mr Shi, and the piece that i'll arrange? (if i can find some time la ><) but lyk we agreed, if i arrange we have to learn super fast. yupp.

ok thats all! thanks for ur patience xD

Training dates

19th Nov (Mon), 26th Nov (Mon)

December:
3rd (Mon), 5th (Wed),
10th (Mon), 12th (Wed),
17th (Mon), 19th (Wed)

9am-1pm

New piece lambada and Lessons

Hi everyone,
This is wayway too early but just an idea of what we will be playing. This is the new piece from Mr Shi. Its called Lambada its a latin dance. Hear an extract of it here.

An update of pieces we're playing and when we can finish (hopefully)

Samba-Etude (7th Nov to finish all notes and dynamics, final brush up by Mr Shi on 12th Nov)
Lambada (To be given out on 7th Nov. Start learning by 19th Nov. Finish by End of Dec)
Spring Message (Already given out. To be learned co-currently with pieces at all times. Finish by End of Dec)
Can't Help Falling in Love (1st Combined piece with J1s next year. to be given out when J1s come in)


This may seem alot but it really isn't. Samba is a combined score so each page only has like 3 lines. We usually ask to finish 1 page within a week or so, which is probably around 12 bars or so, unless you missed out on trainings. But anyway, now that everything is over it is time to really focus on cca and make sure that we can establish ourselves as a strong ensemble.



Just another random update: Future J1s (current Sec 4) may be joining us for our holiday trainings so. ya. jiayou.






The 2nd thing involves lessons. From next year onwards, while the club will always keep its stand that its members do not require musical bg to join, members must take lessons after joining. This is really to prepare the next batch well for the syf 2009 so that they can get their gold with honors. So technically speaking it only applies to the next batch. However, since we're arranging lessons for them, those of you who are interested can also join lessons as they are cheaper and in school.

Pricing at the moment: $40 for 4 Lessons (regardless of grade)
Duration: 1 hour
Teacher: Mr Shi
Venue: School
Class size: 6

As for the pricing we're still trying to reduce it further, the final teacher might not be Mr Shi due to pricing reasons but rest assured we'll make sure the guitar teacher is good.
(Pricing starting from next year might increase to $48)

Just a brief overview of other music schools and wht not for comparison sake:

Yamaha:
Group Individual
Fundamental: $53.50 $74.90
Level 1A: $64.20 $85.60
Level 1B: $64.20 $85.60
Level 2A: $74.90 $96.30
Level 2B: $85.60 $96.30
Level 3: $96.30 $107.00


Duration 1h/week, 4 lessons.


Cristofori

Beginner
Group $51.36
Individual $62.06

Increment for each grade around $6.




Having said this, for those who are interested in taking lessons, give me a call or sms. Ask ard if you don't have my no. Cos taking lessons in sch is not only cheaper, it allows u to learn tgtr w ur ensemble mates, learn the same pieces together, and if the instructor is Mr Shi, bond with the conductor too. Lessons will be in the afternoon probably on Tues or Thurs or Fri. (To be confirmed, so that it wont clash with training dates). If you want to know more or if you are interested pls come find me. Thx.

Guitar 3 for Spring msg and samba

Hi guitar 3s.


Spring msg
This is a recording of how it should sound like. not the best recording cos my nails are like >< tearing off. ahwells. ya i hope everything is correct. just a rough idea. jiayou it isnt too hard once u get the strum pattern correct.

For those who haven't contacted me for the guitar 3 scores i would assume that u don't wan to play guitar 3 anymore. So the final list of ppl playing guitar 3 wld be
1) Yong chuan
2) Denyse
3) Eileen
4) Si Ying
5) Wang Shu
6) Zhu Ge


Samba

Hi ppl! sorry i know samba guitar 3 is like hard la and its like quite tough to finish by 7th but we have to move on alr so just try ur best and practise as much as possible. we shd be able to finish if we practise conscientiously. yupp. here is a recording of samba. nth that u all don't already know but uh just to hear the rest. esp the staccato part. again not the best recording cos my nails are tearing >< yupp. jiayou. thanks.

Training tml

Hi training will start at 3 tml. Venue to be comfirmed pls check the board. We're trying to push it to as early as possible but there are still lessons for some of us before 3. sorry. yupp. Try to bring a nail file if you've got 1 cos we'll be going through nails.

Guitar 4 - Samba

Hello guitar 4. While playing samba im sure all of you would silently grumble and curse and swear for the misfortune of getting such an easy part. Fear not, out of consideration of your feelings, there are some new requirements added to guitar 4 to make it. more challenging :D


Disclaimer: This shd alr be done automatically, not only by guitar 4s but by all guitar parts. its just that we dun use to enforce it but will slowly pay more emphasis to it in the future. But for now, guitar 4s jiayou.

Added requirements for guitar 4:
1) Nothing has change, your notes will still be the same. However, please make sure that you rest the notes you are suppose to and those notes don't ring to the next bar (if the chord has changed)

e.g. pg1. bar 1.
Chord: Am, Notes: A C E
note you're playing: E (diatonic)

pg1 bar 2
Chord: Dm, Notes: D F A
Note you'r playing: F (Diatonic) [i.e. E (from the previous bar) would be chromatic now and doesnt belong to this chord. so you have to stop the E before playing the F to make sure it doesnt ring in this chord]

however, in this case when u play F, E would already be stop cos they are on the same string, but there are cases in the piece where u have to stop (e.g. pg2 last line first bar the ringing open A) so analyse the piece yourself. I'm sure your MI will go through with you all wht to do.


yupp thats all. don't worry it isnt as scary as it sound. Eileen will go through with you all tml.


and for the other guitars: Try to do it if possible too. but it will be harder for you all. and most of the time there wont be open ringing strings so. i dno. discuss w ur mi whether u wan to do it anot.

its smthing that most guitar players will i dno. choose to ignore. but it IS impt. its as good as changing pedal on the piano. imagine holding the damper pedal for the whole piece -.- not really much of a prob for other instruments cos they don't face the prob of ringing notes. (talking abt mainstream instruments here. of cos there are exceptions like uh. the zither, but ah wells)