Change in Schedule for World Youth Choir Festival//Friday, November 21, 2008//5:14 PM
There is a major change in the the training schedule for our four representatives who will be singing in the Festival Choir. They will now have to attend 6 full days of training at CCAB at Bukit Timah instead of three half days and three full days.
Just some background for all members. There are two Festival Choirs (A&B). Festival Choir A is an SSA Choir and Festival Choir B is an SATB Choir. Grace, Lynette and Yvonne are singing in the SSA Choir while Teresa is singing in the SATB Choir. (So good news to Teresa... you won't have to go alone for the first 3 days)
Just to give you all and idea of how large a scale this is...
The SATB Choir is made up of;
- 53 Sopranos
- 47 Altos
- 31 Tenors
- 33 Basses
- 164 Singers (Total)
The SSA Choir is made up of;
- 33 Sopranos 1
- 33 Sopranos 2
- 38 Altos
- 104 Singers (Total)
Both Festival Choirs will also sing together as a combined choir. In all, they will have to learn 12 songs in 6 full days (12 x 4hrs). Hmm... so the two songs which we spent time learning in the past four weeks (11 x 4 hrs) isn't so bad isn't it. We give our four representatives our morale support.
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Thank you all for the hard work//Thursday, November 20, 2008//1:49 PM
Thank you all for the hard work that you have put in during this holiday training. I think that we're going to have a fruitful year next year.
Do look out for this blog to keep yourself updated during the holidays. It would also be good if you could also drop in a post or two on your thoughts and feelings during these 4 weeks of training.
Have a great holiday.
Mr Chong
Labels: Message to Members
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
I'm Happy with Today's Progress//Wednesday, November 19, 2008//9:13 PM
Wow!!! Ave Maria is starting to sound good. Now you'll have to work on being more consistent with the standard.
You also sounded good at the hall today. With only about 20 of you... but each being a confident singer... each doing your best, I could hear you very clearly from the back of the hall. This is a quantum leap from the time one year ago when we can't even be heard with mics.
But I still have some issues with the discipline. There's improvement. But some simply doesn't seem to have come on board. I wanted to post the video I took today. I showed it to my wife and she too agree that you all sound better today compared to a week ago. But can't post the video as theres a member showing very undesirable behaviour while singing in the hall. :(
But lets not let that negate all good work put in by others.
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Fruitful Working Lunch//Tuesday, November 18, 2008//9:47 PM
Grace... you were quick in posting those pics up. By the way... just a disclaimer OK... The three glasses you see are soft drinks and not beer... (as the coasters may suggest "Heineken") Otherwise, pple say that I promote underaged drinking.
Anyway, the discussion today went well. Teresa and Grace... hope that you take the oportunity to recharge while you are in China. You'll have to start your hectic schedule again when you return. Hope that you'll also have fresh ideas and inspiration on how to motivate the whole choir towards working a good SYF accreditation.
Labels: Jus Tots
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
lunch at brewbakers////6:21 PM
lols guess whose fingers are those haha
ans is the top one you can see is lynette
then whose the one beside it? haha of course is mr chong's
and the one below on the left? haha its teresa's
and mine? the one on the bottom right =)
ans is the top one you can see is lynette
then whose the one beside it? haha of course is mr chong's
and the one below on the left? haha its teresa's
and mine? the one on the bottom right =)
haha have fun in choir people =)
do pay attention to mr hu when he's teaching
see ya people next year
~Grace AKA Grape~
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Training on 18th Nov 2008////12:29 PM
Seems like the miscommunicatoin this morning turned out to be quite exciting. The altos took the oportunity to have an Instant Noodle eating session... Adds a new twist to the word bonding.
However, some members are not focused on their training.... Especially the Altos. Section Leaders, I need you all to be more aware of what's happening around you.
Otherwise, Ave Maria is sounding good... but still some area for improvement... especially for short notes where most of you quickly produce the note, thinking that it can't really be heard anyway... but trust me... when all three sections do that, the chord sounds strange. One other issue... some of you are still refering to your song sheets. You should have your eyes glued to Mr Hu by now when you are singing this song.
White horses is starting to fall into place as well. I'm beginging to like this song. Not sure about you.
Will be having our first working lunch (with choir leaders) later. Lets see what transpire from there.
Mr Chong
Labels: Jus Tots
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Mighty Ducky Youth Leaders Nite!//Friday, November 14, 2008//12:50 PM
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
CAMP AT NACLI//Thursday, November 13, 2008//1:30 PM
Hi peeps!
Haha its been so fun at the camp. It totally rules. I'm here going to share with you all that i've experienced in the camp. Ok. My group members are PohIm, Bernice, Wei Jun, Xin Ping, Vanessa, Wei Peng, Xavier, Irwin, Jia Teng, Kenny, Ronald, Zechery and I. We are the Mighty Ducky. I am the group leader and Zechery is the assistant leader. The reason why we called ourselves mighty ducky is because the bandana, water bottle that our group got was yellow and we believe that we will be mighty. Our motto was ready to serve and the 2nd one was power power quack quack. sounds funny but its because we believe that we have the power to do our best in everything and quack quack would be of couse we are the duckies. The first night Mr Chong came to visit us. Haha thats so good of him. He even welcomed us back to school. Mdm Rosita was in school when we were back as well =]
And something that totally rules would of course be the room. Its air-conditioned, with a toilet, with heater, the rooms has a table, chair, mirror, two dustbins, one under the table and one in the toilet. There are also cupboards for you to place things. My room has only one toilet but 1 of the group has 2 as there a 6 people in that room. At first we thought that it would be the start of a nightmare but it was not. We were all in different rooms, Nica was in the same room with me while PohIm and Teresa were in the same room.
But something that was not good for my room was that the lights flickered, toilet had a flood, don;t know who came in our room which we know that its not our room mates and the window lock was spoilt but never mind, other people were so nice to let us bathe in their rooms and use their toilet. Seriously we had so much things to do in such a short time. We had to come up with cheer for the group. Prepare a dance, skit, and create some music for the Youth Leaders Nite!
We also had to create our own games for the Youth Olympic Games and last but not least every night we would have a debrief and self- reflections.
All meals were in buffet style... And there would be supper. Swiss Roll and ice milo, while other 3 meals has drinks that are orange, ice water or pink lemonade. The food was quite nice. Its not easy to come up with so much things in the games in such a short time but i really did enjoy myself alot. Getting to know more people especially the friendship that we have in our own group, from someone which you totally don't know till, a group of good friends that you will be able to have fun and joke around with. Even though we may not know who they are and how their character is but in the end, all you will get is a group of trusting good friends and a friendship that will last forever...
Currently having a bad sun burn... with no voice at all and having muscle aches everywhere
Grace =] Mighty Ducky... QUACK QUACK
Haha its been so fun at the camp. It totally rules. I'm here going to share with you all that i've experienced in the camp. Ok. My group members are PohIm, Bernice, Wei Jun, Xin Ping, Vanessa, Wei Peng, Xavier, Irwin, Jia Teng, Kenny, Ronald, Zechery and I. We are the Mighty Ducky. I am the group leader and Zechery is the assistant leader. The reason why we called ourselves mighty ducky is because the bandana, water bottle that our group got was yellow and we believe that we will be mighty. Our motto was ready to serve and the 2nd one was power power quack quack. sounds funny but its because we believe that we have the power to do our best in everything and quack quack would be of couse we are the duckies. The first night Mr Chong came to visit us. Haha thats so good of him. He even welcomed us back to school. Mdm Rosita was in school when we were back as well =]
And something that totally rules would of course be the room. Its air-conditioned, with a toilet, with heater, the rooms has a table, chair, mirror, two dustbins, one under the table and one in the toilet. There are also cupboards for you to place things. My room has only one toilet but 1 of the group has 2 as there a 6 people in that room. At first we thought that it would be the start of a nightmare but it was not. We were all in different rooms, Nica was in the same room with me while PohIm and Teresa were in the same room.
But something that was not good for my room was that the lights flickered, toilet had a flood, don;t know who came in our room which we know that its not our room mates and the window lock was spoilt but never mind, other people were so nice to let us bathe in their rooms and use their toilet. Seriously we had so much things to do in such a short time. We had to come up with cheer for the group. Prepare a dance, skit, and create some music for the Youth Leaders Nite!
We also had to create our own games for the Youth Olympic Games and last but not least every night we would have a debrief and self- reflections.
All meals were in buffet style... And there would be supper. Swiss Roll and ice milo, while other 3 meals has drinks that are orange, ice water or pink lemonade. The food was quite nice. Its not easy to come up with so much things in the games in such a short time but i really did enjoy myself alot. Getting to know more people especially the friendship that we have in our own group, from someone which you totally don't know till, a group of good friends that you will be able to have fun and joke around with. Even though we may not know who they are and how their character is but in the end, all you will get is a group of trusting good friends and a friendship that will last forever...
Currently having a bad sun burn... with no voice at all and having muscle aches everywhere
Grace =] Mighty Ducky... QUACK QUACK
Labels: Student Leadership Camp at NACLI
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
//Wednesday, November 12, 2008//9:34 PM
hey girls,
Lynette here again,today training was quite a good job.most of us are on task.thankyou for the cooperation.finally my two best partner are back.FINALLY!!!
today i had also bond with my middle group,get along well and i will remember those time.THANKs MIDDLE!!lastly,listen carefully to Mr Hu when he is teaching.ENJOY:)
Lynette here again,today training was quite a good job.most of us are on task.thankyou for the cooperation.finally my two best partner are back.FINALLY!!!
today i had also bond with my middle group,get along well and i will remember those time.THANKs MIDDLE!!lastly,listen carefully to Mr Hu when he is teaching.ENJOY:)
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Welcome Back!!!////8:49 PM
Welcome back Teresa, Grace, Poh Im and Nica. Can see that you are quite tired. Anyway, I hope that besides having fun (glad to hear that... you all look so gloomy on the first night) you have also formed very close bond with other CCA Leaders (especially those from the performing groups). I am looking forward to you putting to good use the leadership skills which you have acquired over the last few days.
Mr Chong
Mr Chong
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
So Impressed with Myself////12:05 AM
Ha ha... some of you may think that I'm abit thick skin. But I'm really quite impressed with myself for being able to dig out the HTML codes to fix the position of the images and tables in the blog. It is now more or less centered. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack...
Btw... I'm a newbie to HTML.
Mr Chong :0
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
//Tuesday, November 11, 2008//9:59 PM
hey girls,
Lynette here,i think that today's training didn't really go well, but I can see some of your are trying your best to sing well and follow Mr Hu's instruction. Improvement is still needed. I really hope that tommorow's training will be a better one. Hope that you will cooperate with the leader tml. Mr Chong is rite, we have improved alot since we first started. Jiayou!!! We can do it! Score well for SYF and do CHOIR proud!:)
Kelyn: You have done well! You look worried when they did not cooperate with you. Remember that I was also like that when I first took up the role of the Vice President. Slowly you will learn more and get along well with them. JIAYOU!! Think of a solution when you come across with diffculties.:)
Lynette here,i think that today's training didn't really go well, but I can see some of your are trying your best to sing well and follow Mr Hu's instruction. Improvement is still needed. I really hope that tommorow's training will be a better one. Hope that you will cooperate with the leader tml. Mr Chong is rite, we have improved alot since we first started. Jiayou!!! We can do it! Score well for SYF and do CHOIR proud!:)
Kelyn: You have done well! You look worried when they did not cooperate with you. Remember that I was also like that when I first took up the role of the Vice President. Slowly you will learn more and get along well with them. JIAYOU!! Think of a solution when you come across with diffculties.:)
Labels: Jus Tots
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Encouraged by good attendance////8:12 PM
Hi Girls, I'm extremely encouraged by the good attendance today. Keep it up.
I'll like to take this opportunity for me to explain to you why I insist on one voice. (when I'm talking, I expect silence and full attention on me) I hope that over time, this will become a habit of the mind. It is extremely important that when the conductor stand infront of you, that you give him/her your fullest attention. We can start by giving whoever that's speaking to us our fullest attention. I hope that no one feels like I'm "marking" any one of you. Unfortunately, it happens to be the same people who make the mistake.
Today's the first day that the student leaders are taking over the training fully. I heard some area for improvement which I hope will be shown by the members tomorrow.
Please do feel free to drop me a message should you have any concerns.
Mr Chong
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Visited Choir Leaders at NACLI//Monday, November 10, 2008//11:32 PM
Just visited the choir leaders at NACLI. Poor Nica, still haven't recovered from an in-grown toe nail.
That place has certainly been greatly facelifted since the last time I had my leadership camp there as a student leader. (but that's about 18 years ago) No more sleeping in the hall (the old one) with danger of bat dropping falling down on you while you are asleep. The leader's dorm even has card access. Cool.
Mr Chong
Labels: Jus Tots
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Morale Support for Leaders...////7:06 AM
I'm back in school early in the morning to lend some morale support to the leaders... but unfortunately, I don't see anyone. Nevermind, its the thought that counts right?
0720... ok. got to see them.
Grace full of sunshine as usual,
Teresa looks very tired but ever so positive (thats so like teresa),
Nica still has a swollen toe (take care) and
Poh Im still Hrr??? like sotong (hope that you become like octopus after the camp ok?)
Mr Chong
Labels: Jus Tots
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
funny video clip?//Sunday, November 9, 2008//11:21 AM
Grace =]
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Have an Eventful Leadership Camp//Saturday, November 8, 2008//11:03 PM
Teresa, Grace, Poh Im and Nica,
Hope that you will find the Leadership Camp a meaningful and eventful one. I will be having meeting for the whole day from 10 - 12 Nov. I will find one evening to visit you'll at NACLI to see how you all are coping. I believe that you'll have no problem coping.
I hope that you'll pick up useful leadership skills so that you'll be able to lead and inspire the choir towards achieving a good award for SYF and beyond.
I appreciate the commitment and the effort you have put in so far for choir.
Mr Chong
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Who's in Charge for Next Week's Training////10:43 PM
Teresa, Grace, Poh Im and Nica will be going for the school's student leaders' camp at NACLI from 10 - 12 Nov. Mdm Rositah and myself will not be able to sit in to your training as we're involved in the school's annual strategic planning.
As such, Kelyn will be overall in-charged on 11 Nov (Tue) and Yvonne will be overall in-charged on 12 Nov (Wed). I'll be sending to both of you a checklist of things to look out for. Lynette will advise Kelyn and Yvonne accordingly.
Sectional training will take place between 9 to 10am. Section Leaders will takeover during this hour and ensure that your section learns the part for "The White Horses" up to [M]. If time permits, please revise "Ave Maria". Please listen to your MP3 and revise before coming for training.
I expect all choir members to give your section leaders and appointed in-charge your fullest cooperation.
Mr Chong
Labels: Message to Members
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Feedback on this Week's Training//Thursday, November 6, 2008//10:19 PM
Just wanna pen down some thoughts for this week's practice...
Its unfortunate that I had to speak to some of you about your behaviour during training. I don't think that you enjoyed having that conversation with me and I certainly did not enjoy it either. However, I can see improvements after I've spoken to you... so if you're one of those I've spoken to... keep up the improvement.
I can see the effort which you have put in for this holiday's training. Even those who were missing in action (MIA) have started to turn up. (and regularly too) Of course, I've still got a few MIA cases who have promised to turn up from next week onwards. SECTION LEADERS... please lookout for your members who are MIA. Please take the initiative to do extra with them to ensure that they are able to catch up with the training. If they are not able to catch up, they will surely MIA again.
Most of you have arrived punctually and I've even noticed some of you coming early to join the section leaders in their training. Please keep up the good work. However there are some who are still arriving late. I hope not to have a conversation with you on this matter next week. Especially when Headstart and ACE will end this week.
Remember our target for this holiday training. We wanna be able to sing "Ave Maria" without scores reasonably well and complete learning "The White Horses". I think Ave Maria is starting to sound good. However, some of you are till trying very hard to maintain the correct pitch by singing loudly so that you can hear yourself. Please take note of all the expressions which Mr Hu has highlighted... places where breathing can take place and places where it cannot. You need to start practicing it at home. I look forward to being able to film your singing and proudly putting it up on Youtube.
I'm now looking at a few locations (overseas) next year to bring you all to for competition. Please look out for more information.
Otherwise, I hope that everyone of you will have a well deserved weekend. I'm looking forward to next week's practice. This is not flattery... but I find sitting into the choir training and listening to you girls sing, pretty therapeutic.
Mr Chong
Labels: Message to Members
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Good progress so far//Wednesday, November 5, 2008//8:13 PM
Hi Girls... you all sang well today. Thank you all for putting in so much effort for this holiday practice. I am also encouraged to see the attendance improving and stabalising.
Section Leaders... thank you for putting in the extra hour for every training. The success of the choir has to be built on a firm foundation, and you all are the foundation... and that is you.
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Sending MP3 of "The White Horses"////7:52 AM
WAH!!! The MP3s are taking a really long time to attach. The onboard Norton Antivirus for Yahoo Mail have been trying to scan it for the last 10 min.... ARRRHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Labels: Frustrated
*singing's great.
;their passion forever
Ave Maria is sounding good!!!//Tuesday, November 4, 2008//9:23 PM
Ave Maria is sounding really good. Girls, you need to memorise your lyrics and get your pitching right. This will enable you to watch the conductor and sing with lots of expression. Then you will surely sound great. I'll take a video and put it up on Youtube OK?
Progress for The White Horses is quite good today. But the song will get more difficult. I also know that the training schedule is long (or at least longer than what you have previously experienced). But please hang in there. You will feel that its all worth it when you reap the rewards in April next year.
See you all tomorrow.
Labels: Words of Encouragement
*singing's great.
;their passion forever