I must say throughout my 3 and a half years in Victoria School choir (VSchoir), it has been very enriching. The experience I gained is simply beyond what anyone can just think of. I wish to write down as many events as possible that has happened throughout my journey in VSchoir.
Where should I start? Let's start this with the Co-curricular Activities (CCA) posting exercise when I was in secondary 1. As far as I can remember, I got into the 2nd round of auditions and was auditioned by Mr Nelson Kwei. He tested my range and did not went too high, I managed to sing everything comfortably. Well, at that time I did not really have any intentions of joining choir.
I chose badminton as my first choice of CCA, mainly because I had an interest in badminton and also because my primary school main CCA was badminton. I failed during the trials, because I had not touched my racket for more than 6 months - the last time I played was around June when I was in primary 6. Yeah so I did not get into badminton even though I put as first choice. Neither did I get into my 2nd, 3rd nor 4th choice, in which one of them was choir. I think the CCA posting works such that they only look at your first choice and see if that particular CCA wants you. Otherwise, you are either not in or in if there is vacancy. That's why I did not get into choir.
Got into my 5th choice, Interact Club, which I did not really want to go for. So went to appeal with Mr Lee Boon Kee. He told us that appeal cases could only be one-to-one swopping. If unsuccessful, we would remain in the CCA we were in. I somehow knew that someone was going to appeal out of choir, and also maybe I would have some priority in getting into choir since I passed the first round of auditions (but I later realised that it didn't matter). Also, Sean, my classmate since primary 3 (and he was in my secondary 1 class as well), got into choir, so might as well choose choir.
Appeal was successful.
My first choir practice was quite all right. I got in and knew my section just before the start of the practice, probably because of the 2nd round of auditions - I was in Tenor 1 (I am still a Tenor 1 now by the way). If I am not wrong I stood between Jia Xian and Fadhil on that day for combines, who were way taller than me because of the fact that I was short. The first note that I heard from the choir was really very impressive. It was simply a warm up exercise from Mr Kwei and it was like a speaker with a bass booming into my ears. Maybe if I am not wrong, the choir got pumped twice in the first day by Nicholas for making too much noise. We, the secondary 1s, only needed to pump for the 2nd time because the 1st one actually served as a warning to us. So that was my first day in choir.
The next practice was on a Saturday, with Physical Training (PT). That first PT was rather okay, or maybe it seemed like to me, because I do things stupidly. During PT they told us to run then we run, told us to pump then we pump. I forgot whether I played badminton or soccer that first PT, I think I played soccer. But as far as I know, I have never played before basketball during PT in my whole 4 years in VSChoir, except for once when I was forced to.
The rest of the practices were one big mess in my head. I remember that I was quite a defiant little kid then. There was once during sectionals (one of the first few practices) when we were taught some of the songs which we later used for Rhapsody VII, our public concert. We had it outside the auditorium on the 4th floor just beside the spiral staircase. One of the songs was "Sailing", which was a song nobody liked to sing, because we had to hold a "Ooo" for 4 bars and we did not have any melody lines to sing. I think Ling Chung tried to teach me but I refused to learn. Then I remembered him telling Evan, "I give up, I think it's best you handle him". Evan was the Assistant Section Leader (SL) that time, Wenhao was the SL. Yeah so Evan spoke to me and asked me, "How come you are able to sing the National Anthem?" I merely replied, "Because we are taught in primary school, and we have to sing it every school day." Then he told me some things about needing to learn the choir songs as well, and must keep drilling and drilling. I think I just nodded a bit, but then again, I wasn't really interested in that song. Well in the end, I think I slowly got the song because we kept singing it during sectionals and combines.
I think in March there was a camp. It was one of the worst camps I had ever gone to. I remembered there was a time during practice when we had to stop suddenly and run around the school as a choir for who-knows-what reason. It was quite dumb and tiring.
So during April it was Rhapsody VII, our public concert, held at Victoria Concert Hall (VCH). I didn't sell any tickets at all. We had to sing 20 songs, which included some songs from Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was featured in the 2nd half of the concert (after the intermission). The skit was actually just a summary of the story, and I was one of the peasants who came out to pretend to be doing some tiring work, only having to kneel down in front of Joshua NAB and to get killed after that. What a tragic ending haha. Okay anyway, Rhapsody VII was quite fun. Can even remember that each section had one room for changing, and Sopranos took the room upstairs, and when we came out onto the stage during rehearsal on the stage, we could hear the Sopranos who were still in the room screaming. Haha.
It was quite a success I guess. But very tiring. After the performance, I took a bus service 2 home with Eric and his mother, but in the end it went the wrong way, and it was quite late already so Eric's mother flagged a taxi to fetch us home.
After Rhapsody VII, it was handover. The new committee consisted of all secondary 3s (2004) except for Martin, who was a secondary 2 then. Martin was a SL since seocndary 1, and has gone to Victoria Junior College Integrated Programme (VIP) since 2005. When the new committee took over, discipline standard suddenly shot up. I heard that Nicholas' batch of committee members were not united at all, their committee meetings were all splitted into 4 teams disagreeing with each other: Nicholas (chairman then); Laiguang (vice-chairman then); Chuan En (student conductor [SC] then); and all the other SLs and other committee members. I also heard that they didn't choose Johnnie to be the chairman initially, but Miss Lau changed the whole committee because the resulting committee was not satisfactory, so Johnnie became our chairman.
The first event that happened after handover was Choral Festival IX. The first session was a briefing session, in which only Fadhil and I went because the others were involved in this Jubilate festival. In fact, the whole choir was involved except for only maybe Fadhil and I. There was one Jubilate workshop which I attended at MJC. It was quite confusing because Joshua Cheam called me and told me to go, and I told him that I was involved in Choral Festival and not Jubilate, but he just told me to go. I think we screwed up that workshop because no one brought a score for the clinician, someone came late and went onto the stage halfway while we were singing on stage, and some more which I can't remember.
There was also this Paragon performance which I didn't go, heard from Pock Thong that they had to sing in the rain and sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Haha.
So for choral festival, I was in the same group as Theodore, Ling Chung and 4 more people. Coincidentally, 3 SCs in a row. There were 2 other groups of mixed chorus and one more group of female chorus. Johnnie was in another group and sang as an Alto, haha, while Prem was in yet another group but sang as a Tenor rather than a Soprano. For our chorus, we sang Deep River and Gershwin Medley, with the latter being a 19-page song because it's a medley. We only had to sing 2 songs but others had to sing 3 because our Gershwin Medley was very very long. Also, I remembered many people only had odd pages, in the end they photocopied the even pages and the score became 19 paper thick, bundled with a paper clip.
My conductor was Ms Mary Tan, who claimed herself as "vertical-challenged", and "single and satisfied". Haha. She seemed quite old anyway. Well, she conducted Deep River very very slowly such that we had to steal breathe every bar. Haha. I think it's quite a nice song, just like Gershwin Medley haha. Oh yeah, once during a practice, Theodore malu-ed. Tenors and Basses were supposed to sing one part and hold a certain note because that was when our notes splitted from a unison to a clash. Then Theodore continued singing. Then Ms Mary Tan did again and again then Theodore kept continuing to sing. The girls were all looking at him and laughing haha. I think Ms Mary Tan heard also but ignored. But it was a very big malu in front of the girls haha.
During the performance it was quite funny too. Before we sang Deep River, she showed us a piece of cardboard with words to motivate us. Haha, then she conducted real slow, such that we had to steal breathe every half bar! Then after Deep River was completed, she showed us yet another piece of cardboard with different writings. Lol. Choral Festival IX was quite fun.
Not to forget the overseas clinician, Mr Fred Sjoberg. I still don't know how to pronounce his name till now. He was the first person to teach me helpful exercises like lip trilling, siren exercise and what-not. And he was one of the judges for Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Central Judging for choirs 2007. He conducted a combined song, which had a very melodious tune, and was in Swedish. His conducting for the song was very weird, especially the final 2 bars, because his actions were suddenly very big and exaggerated. Funny guy.
There was also this performance for the leaving of the Permanent Secretary for Education I think. Something like that. It was often referred to the "Perm Sect performance". I think it turned out quite well. I can't remember what we sing already, but I think we sang "When you Believe" and some other songs. We learnt "Come go with me" too but didn't sing it. It's some song which sounded very sick haha.
There was also a Victoria School (VS) 128th Speech Day performance. We sang "When you Believe" with the recording, and did choreography with it. The recording is very nice, except for the fact that tenors are quite flat throughout which spoils it a bit. For that one only some seniors were in the recording, and I was in secondary 1 then so I was not chosen to go.
National Arts Council Awards Presentation. We went there to perform, not to claim prize, haha. I don't know why we got chosen either. The performance was one of the worst I've ever encountered in my life in VSchoir. We sang "Sailing" (which nobody liked), and screwed it up. Plus Theodore exited the stage in the wrong direction, and the whole thing was very messy. In the end, we got pumped by Johnnie for very long. I think we had to hold there for around 15 to 20 minutes, then after that pump 20 by Johnnie and 30 by Joshua Cheam.
Oh I remembered, after that, almost everyone had left for tea reception after the pumpings, only Ms Lau, Ling Chung, Sean Teh, Roger and I were left in the Lockers Room preparing to go out (the place where we got pumped - it was quite a small place and not everyone could fit in the room). Roger was doing a cartwheel when he accidentally knocked his knee against one of the locks of the lockers. Then he just sat there and wanted to unroll his pants to see what happened to his knee, then Miss Lau switched off the lights. He screamed (because of the lights), then when Miss Lau switched on the lights again, he screamed because he saw his injury. It was a very very deep and huge cut and surprisingly there was very very little blood oozing out, close to none. It was like a huge chunk of meat being bitten out of him. It was quite bad, and they had to send him to a hospital, I think. Until now I think Roger still has the scar on his knee.
After that, there was nothing much already, except preparation for SYF 2005. I remembered learning Salve Regina and first 3 pages of Pokpok Alimpako before the exam break. After the exams, we came back for some more SYF practices, all the way until 2005. I cannot remember much events from there already, just that I remembered once whereby Johnnie pumped those who didn't bring the penguin suit for a check, then after that he told the whole choir to move aside and personally scolded and pumped the committee members who didn't bring their penguin suit. He pumped them 60 I think. And it was like more than half the comm didn't bring their penguin suit. I felt quite strange because I hadn't seen any committee members scolding another committee member before.
There was once whereby Mr Kwei was very angry at us because of attendance and other things. Halfway during the practice, he was like staring at my direction but somewhat below, like my legs there, then I thought my standing posture was wrong or something. Then suddenly he said, "Are you sure you all don't want to stand away from there?" I turned around and looked... there was a big mess on the floor - Tamim vomited. Haha, then some people went to get a mop and bucket and clean up the place, and Mr Kwei's mood sort of cheered up a little bit.
The committee organised a camp during March. It was quite alright except that it had a lot of practices because it was intensive training for SYF. I think it was during sectionals at Siglap South Community Centre with Mr Kwei when he told us to sing an exercise one by one. It started off with me because I was at the side then (and it caught me by surprise so I almost did not have enough time to breathe in). He said I needed to be 3 times louder. After a while, he mentioned that I have a pure tenor voice. Haha, but I think it was due to my running nose. Not sure. Then he asked Terry, Reuben and I to sing a note first, then all the tenors to blend in to us.
Then we came to SYF 2005. I didn't really sing much on stage because I was scared of producing a stray sound. I only added to some of the effects like those crescendos and suddenly all stopping at the same time. We went sharp for all the 3 songs anyway. Even though Sunset had the piano accompaniment, the accompaniment stopped halfway and we went a quartertone sharp.
At the end of the day, I sort of predicted that we would get Gold with Honours already. Our songs seemed to be thrashing the other choirs, and they were one of the best I've ever sung, especially Pokpok Alimpako. At the back of the audience seats in the Singapore Conference Hall, we were told by Johnnie not to cheer, and by the announcer that we could only cheer after the whole announcement had finished. When the announcer announced that we received a Gold with Honours, Johnnie was the first one to cheer immediately, haha. But anyway, we were the last choir to be announced so we could make noise. I didn't really feel anything much, just some sense of joy, because I thought it was very expected to get a Gold with Honours. However, it was SYF 2007 which proved me wrong.
Before the SYF, there were a couple of events. First was the Victorian's Family Day performance, whereby Mr Low Xuhao conducted us. A week after that was Inter-section games (ISG), which Desmond, Reuben, Ling Chung and Zheng Whye organised (I think). The ISG was not that smooth because Prem (soprano) and Joshua Cheam (tenor) got into an argument during the soccer finals and the match could not continue. In the end because Ling Chung and Reuben were playing as tenors, they announced that the Sopranos were the winners.
Anyway, in secondary 1 I realised that I had perfect pitch. During one of the sectionals with Evan and Joshua Cheam, they told us to do projection exercises. So I remember myself standing at the 5th floor staircase (the one nearest to the school gate) and Evan told me to blast any note to Joshua, who was at the other end. I just sang a note and unintentionally I slid the note up at a certain note. Well, Evan just gave a comment that I should not slide my note up. I noticed much later (I forgot when) that the note I sang was a middle C. I also noticed that my brain is very used to singing a C note, such that the 'C' gets anchored. So from C, I could pitch to other notes as well. I remember trying to name all the notes from various tuning forks during one of the Physics Laboratory experiments in secondary 2. I could even tell whether a note was in between 2 notes or something like that. Well, I thought I was correct anyway, I don't know if I really was, but I was quite sure I was.
Handover! I got my post as a Tenor SL, along with Joshua Cheong. Even though both of us were secondary 2s, but because almost all the secondary 3 tenors were in the committee as well: Ling Chung as Student Conductor, Reuben as Vice-chairman, Fadhil as Records Manager (aka Librarian) and Sean Tay as Treasurer, so we did not have to worry much. The only secondary 3 (then) tenor who was not in the committee was Dao En.
The first event that we had after handover was the Hong Kong (HK) trip. We had to perform for some choral festival in HK. We were all moved to SSA and SSAA sections through an audition by Mr Kwei. I was tested on my falsetto range and my highest note, as written on his paper, was Ab6. I was in Mezzo-soprano for SSA and Alto 1 for SSAA. In SSA, Ian Lim and I were the only SLs posted there so I somehow worked with him in doing sectionals, even though I didn't really know how to sing well in falsetto.
I remember sometimes during combines when Desmond was taking (Ling Chung did not take because he could not go to HK), I stood beside Jonathan, and both of us could not help it but our voices crack on lower notes. Then I remembered once when he asked me to tell him when a warm up exercise reached a 'C' (Desmond was playing from high to low). Then when Desmond went to 'F', I told him it was 'C', even though I was not very sure. Then after a few more semitones down I realised I could sing that so-called 'C' quite well, and I started to get more airy already. Then after that I heard a familiar 'C' again and it sounded more like one, so I told him, "Oh sorry, now then C," then he was like, "Now then C ah?!" Haha. Quite funny.
I must admit it was the HK trip which made the choir committee for 2005-2006 very disorganised and not really very united. Ling Chung, Chan Wei, Sean Teh, Justin Ng and David Wong did not go for the HK trip. Those who did not go for the trip had separate practices for the VS 129th Speech Day. Discipline among those going for the HK trip dropped tremendously. Desmond did not really do anything about it, Zheng Whye was not really taking the sectionals for his Sopranos seriously and I was not really strict on the singing for Mezzo-soprano, since I initially thought that we should relax a bit and not get too tensed up.
There was once whereby Mr Kwei suddenly told us to memorise the lyrics for the theme song for Spirited Away, because we were all looking at the scores during his practice. He said we could only go when we had passed his auditions. I was not the first one to go up to be auditioned, but I was the first one to pass! I pronounced mainly vowels and let the consonants slip through whenever they fit. I believe that is the way to memorise Japanese songs within a short time, or otherwise, know the language itself. In the end I stayed back to help out others to pass, and in the end Mr Kwei dismissed all of us at 4pm because he had another choir to take.
Mr Low Xuhao was teaching us the Music of the Spheres song on the day just before the HK trip because we did not know we needed to learn and Mr Kwei only knew that we did not learn on that day. So we stayed back until quite late, I think. I remember that I was somewhat representing the Alto 1s because I was standing in the first row and there were many low notes to sing using real voice, so I was singing quite loudly. Whenever I made a mistake, that mistake would surely be pointed out by him.
Well, so the next day was the embarkment of the HK trip. Had a headache just after landing in HK so while the choir was practising Music of the Spheres at one of the lounges in Baptist University (where we stayed), I was sleeping in my room. I shared room when Travis, and did not really talk much with him throughout the trip. At night the choir went to Temple Street to shop while I followed my parents (who were there) to dinner with my grandparents as well. After dinner I went to my father's home to sleep for around 2 hours. At around 10pm my father brought me back to Baptist University.
We performed on the 2nd and 4th day of the festival, which was 4 days long. On the 3rd day of the trip, which was the 2nd day of the festival, we performed and screwed up almost all the songs. We started off with J'entends le Moulin, which was very soft, then the Le Choristes Medley was not very good either. After that we moved to our SATB and did Itsumo Nando Demo and Da Chang Jin (which half the song was SSA and half was SATB).
After that we went to rest first before singing Music of the Spheres. While singing as one choir only it sounded quite empty, but the song was actually written for 3 choirs, so there was something like 12 parts, and when we sang together it sounded very nice. There were accompaniments: tubular bells and a pipe organ. During the rehearsal there was this little kid who was full of enthusiasm. He was standing in one of the first few rows, and he was just in front of me, and every time he sang he moved his whole body and head back and forth! And because our choir (choir 3) had a very long break in the middle of the song, we did not know when to come in, and the conductor did not cue us, but that boy came in correctly all the time during the rehearsal and sang very loudly. Haha. It was very funny, especially when he moved his body and knocked his chin against one of the boys in front accidentally!
The next morning while I was going down for breakfast, I met a girl in the elevator, and she mentioned that our first song was very good (J'entends le Moulin). Well, I seriously doubt so...
The last day of the Festival we did Pokpok Alimpako as our last song. As expected the audience laughed at our last pose. Haha. After our Pokpok Alimpako it was an intermission. The Music of the Spheres was conducted by the Finnish conductor this time, the same guy who came and complained that we were making too much noise that night at around 2am while we were playing cards in Reuben's room. Haha. We were sort of celebrating because the Festival was finally over.
One thing I accomplished during the trip was that I helped Miss Lau and Miss Ding bargain with a bus driver. They asked me because I knew how to speak Cantonese. At first the driver said a one-way trip would cost HK$500 (around SGD100), then I bargained until $400. Haha.
Yeah so it was HK trip. It was an enjoyable trip, but however because of this, discipline has fallen by a lot. Ling Chung, who was supposedly the one who would raise the discipline of the choir among the 3 heads (chairman, vice-chairman and SC), did not go HK because he had an examination on one of the days of the trip. He took charge of Speech day, and it was really bad because those who did not go Hong Kong had to sing for Speech day, and there were not many people. So in the end they had to ask the whole committee to sing for Speech day as well. Actually I had to sing too, but I dropped out at the last minute.
It was very busy during that period of time. There was an SYF Closing ceremony and we were chosen as the top boys' choir. Also, we were involved to do mass signing (hand-signing) at part of Singapore's 40th National Day Parade, over at Marina South. I don't know why they chose us anyway. I remembered that the choir was very misbehaved while the instructors were teaching us the hand-signs in the Music Room. Comparing that standard of discipline with that brought by Johnnie, I could tell that it had fallen very much.
Anyway, thinking about the HK trip made me quite sick. Remembering all the strange Les Choristes songs, as well as the sectionals and combines about it, gives me a feeling which I cannot describe. A feeling of disgust.
I remembered in secondary 1, I could reach at least an 'A' note in real voice, because I could sing the opening part of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Well, I didn't know it was quite high but I could sing it, while I think I was seeing other tenors trying to reach it either by forcing or by falsetto. Haha. After using falsetto for the HK trip, I could reach only an 'E' note, which is 5 semitones below 'A'! At 'F' or higher, my voice will crack. It took me more than 1 year to reach back to a 'G' and right now I am still trying to make my range go up to an 'A'.
20th August 2005 was an ISG, which was organised by Jonathan, Pock Thong and I. The reason why we were chosen was because the committee wanted 2 sec 2s (then) from committee and 1 not from committee to organise. In the end Desmond chose Jonathan (who was Assistant Secretary then), Reuben chose Pock Thong and Ling Chung chose me (and coincidentally, the 3 of us took their positions as Chairman, Vice-chairman and SC respectively). Anyway, the 3 of us got together at Jonathan's house and planned everything out. It was actually quite easy doing that, except the buying of stuffs because we had to think of prizes for the winners that were useful but not too expensive. In the end the ISG was successfully held, thanks to those who participated in the games actively, and thanks to the good weather of course.
There was a camp in November 2005. My first choir camp was in March 2004, and the second was in March 2005, so this one sort of broke the tradition because it was not held in March. I found the March 2005 camp more fun than this Nov 2005 one because there were more meaningful activities. The Nov 2005 camp was fun, yes, but it lacked substance, and there were quite a lot of free time.
When I was in secondary 3, the first event that I performed for was Mr Ang's farewell. We sang "Itsumo Nando Demo", and Ling Chung had to make a short impromptu introduction before we started singing. In the end he said (crossing fingers and hiding them in his pocket), "Even though Mr Ang may not be with us in person, we hope that he can be with us in spirit." Suited the theme rather well because it is a theme song for Spirited Away.
After that was Chinese New Year. It was a waste of time because we could only sing one song ourselves, and the other song it was with recording plus other performance groups as well.
I immediately knew that that year's secondary 1s had a lot of potential - and they haven't proven me wrong yet - as compared to the secondary 2s when they first joined choir. Their singing was of some quality even though it was only their first few weeks into choir, and they were quite well-behaved. Perhaps this was the only good thing Desmond's batch of committee members had done to the choir: introducing good secondary 1 members.
Another ISG was being organised in March 2006 and they put Neng Wei, Chan Wei and Eric Wong in charged. I played soccer again and our team name was RESELL, because of our team members, Reuben, Edwin, Sherman, Enan (initially), Ling Chung and Lin Han. We changed the cheer of VS Power to: "RESELL! Three for one dollar!" Very funny, haha.
The 3 heads decided to put me as conductor for the Victorian's Family Day for 2006. The Victorian's Family Day was quite screwed up. We did 2 songs, Tantum Ergo and Can't Help Falling in Love, which went sharp, and someone (I think it was either Leon or Pock Thong) suggested doing Ride the Chariot. In the end we screwed it up as well.
There was once when I almost cried while taking combines for a Victorian's Family Day practice. I cannot remember why already, but I think it was because it was difficult and stressful to take the choir, even though I only had to take those performing, which was only around 20 to 30 better singers from secondary 1s to 3s. In the end Ling Chung and Reuben comforted me at the back of the room because I refused to take combines, and Desmond took the choir instead.
I knew I was going to take the Student Conductor post. David Wong and Sean Teh left for Integrated Programme (IP), and both of them were SLs. As compared to the other secondary 3 SLs, I was the one doing the most work. Chan Wei was just helping Ian during sectionals, Justin was helping Sean before he left for IP and he did not do much work during sectionals before his departure. I was often taking sectionals rather than Joshua (sorry Joshua!). I knew the secondary 4s were trying to train me to be SC, but I could not accept it initially.
I was in a dilemma as to whether to accept or reject them. I had thought of rejecting them, but I thought to myself, if I were not to be the SC, who would? None of us SLs has musical background, and I only slowly developed my piano skills while taking sectionals. In the end, after much thinking, I showed the secondary 4 committee a positive side of myself while being interviewed by them regarding the choir committee for 2006-2007, hinting that I would take up the challenge to take over Ling Chung's place.
On handover day, Ling Chung just gave me some hints on how to conduct, and never really equip me with much skills and knowledge. He told me that I would slowly pick them up and told me not to worry too much about it.
Jumping from SL to SC was indeed a very big one. Firstly, you have to listen to 4 sections rather than 1. Secondly, you have to be a leader to the SLs and to the choir as well, and have to know almost everything regarding each section. Thirdly, and most importantly, you have to know very well your priorities while taking combines and you cannot afford to waste much time thinking of how to correct a mistake, otherwise the choir would grow very impatient. But on the other hand, it suddenly became much easier to take sectionals.
Other than a performance for some elderly at the auditorium, the first event after handover was the school's 130th Speech Day performance, which we sang "Go Forth With Pride" and "Keeping the Dream Alive". I was told that my conducting was very rigid for the elderly performance. Anyway, we did recordings for both the songs, and I do not think the recordings sounded nice, as compared to "When You Believe". I did not perform for the 130th Speech Day itself because I was feeling sick due to Choral Festival X which was 2 days before. The performance turned out quite nice and I think those who were present enjoyed it.
I was chosen to go for Choral Festival X, along with 5 other people. Only Joshua and I participated in both Choral Festival IX and X. My conductor was Mrs Valerie Wilson, who is also conductor for Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) choir. Learnt and performed 2 songs for our choir, Como Compongo Poco (at the cover page it was written "A Nonsense Song") and Drunken Sailor. Met this ex-SC of ACJC choir, David, who was one of the volunteers to come and teach us during sectionals, and he took us for combines. He was one of those who inspired me as an SC. I learnt quite a few things from the way he taught us. He did not waste any time; he came straight to the point whenever we made a mistake; he was strict, yet we could all bear with it.
Our performance was in July 2005. Initially we had to do 3 combined songs: Take the A Train, I Can Recall Spain and Tsubasa O Kudasai; but in the end our choir (choir 4) did only the latter 2 songs. I remembered that I could not memorise the lyrics for Tsubasa O Kudasai on time for the performance so I was not singing out really loud. Tsubasa O Kudasai had a symphonic band from National Junior College (NJC) as accompaniment, and hypothetically I thought it was because the choirs were not strong enough. Haha. But I have no idea why they wanted a live band to play... shouldn't it be "choral festival"?
Performance was good. Our 'Como Compongo Poco' and 'Drunken Sailor' were the best we had ever sung, just that at the end of 'Como Compongo Poco', someone dropped a tuning fork on stage while we were doing our very last jump, and it caused quite a loud sound. It was very frustrating yet humorous because it went "Piang piang piang.. SPLAT! (that person stepped on it)".
In May 2006, Joshua, Edmond and I attended a workshop organised by Choral Directors' Association of Singapore (CDAS). It was very useful because from that whole day, a group of conductors there, including Mr Kwei, taught various skills and techniques, like warm up, vocal training and basic conducting skills. And as you may have guessed it already, the latter was taught by Mr Kwei himself. I picked up my conducting technique from there, so that is why my conducting is similar to Mr Kwei's. Although the sectional training was quite boring, because it was mainly a training for SLs on how to teach a brand new song, but others, like the lecture held by Mr Reuben Lai on vocal training, was very insightful and gave me new knowledge.
We also had to perform for the school's 130th anniversary dinner, and we had to sing the same old 2 songs, but this time in the school field. I remembered trying to correct the Sopranos' mistake of having a dark and covered sound just before our performance, while we were rehearsing at the AV room, and I experimented out with the Sopranos until I found a way to solve: to put your hand on top of your head and to ensure that your head vibrates. Maybe this had been taught to me before, or maybe it had not, but I was quite pleased with myself for being able to correct a mistake which I had never corrected before.
We wasted quite a lot of time preparing for the school's 130th anniversary. It was not really very much like a formal choral performance, we only learnt 2 songs, and the songs were very easy.
After this, we prepared for the Malacca trip, my second overseas trip with VSchoir. Malacca trip was quite terrible. We combined with Anderson Junior College (AJC) choir Gesu Bambino and Gaude Maria on the first night. On the second night, I conducted the choir for Tantum Ergo, Wind Beneath My Wings and Wawaki. The singing was quite bad. On the third night, the SYF Presentation night, it was worse. Mr Kwei said after the performance that it was the worst Credo he had ever heard.
Just one day after the Malacca trip, some of the committee members attended a workshop in Singapore by Dr Joshua Habermann. He gave a lecture on pronunciation of some foreign words, then went through his own interpretation of "Everyone Sang". He also gave some warm up exercises and at the last part of the workshop, he told us to sight-read 14 songs. From his workshop, the thing that I learnt the most was the mix of falsetto and real voice. I realised that I could substitute it with my falsetto which I did not practise for a long time. Although I cannot reach as high using that voice as falsetto, it covers a range that I would need to use.
After that was solely preparation for SYF, if you exclude the Chinese New Year performance. Luckily we did not have to perform for Victorians' Family Day this year. The committee organised a choir camp during the March Holidays, which I thought was better than the November 2005 camp but not as good as the March 2005 camp. At least it gave the secondary 1s and 2s an experience to choir camps, since it was their first one in VSchoir. Many ideas were put in by Jonathan himself, including the proficiency test, which I quite disagreed because I found that the choir had more to improve in terms of techniques rather than the musicality. But other than that, I thought the rest was quite all right.
Preparation for SYF was the most stressful event in my whole life in choir. Sometimes, I feel too bored of taking the choir, because I had to repeat things over and over again. The choir just could not remember all the details of the songs, and after constant reminders they would remember it for that practice, and when the next practice comes, they forgot everything. It was very frustrating.
There were also times whereby I feel motivated. However, those were temporary and were very shortlived. From around March, I could already foresee that the choir would not achieve very good results for SYF.
On SYF day itself, it was the worst practice I had to take. Somehow, I sensed that the choir was very bored and was not very willing to sing. However, I knew I could not lose my temper suddenly and spoil everything. I just tried my best to motivate them before we headed to VCH. I was not confident at all. On stage, I thought the songs were quite all right, but it definitely was not the best we had ever sung. Our best was not really very good either, so I was quite prepared when the announcer announced that we received a Gold Award only. Just before the results, I told Jonathan and Pock Thong that I had enjoyed working with them, and the announcement of the results did not make me change my mind on this.
Until now, I have not lost any hope on VSchoir yet, even thought we did not receive our Gold with Honours, and not to say the top secondary school choir in Singapore. I mentioned to the choir that we could have 40 to 50 better singers, like in SYF 2005, but we should keep it at 70+ because there is no point singing on stage as VSchoir without having most of the members participating.
Unfortunately, the secondary 4s have to handover very soon. I suddenly feel a sense of regret and feel like continuing to be the SC of VSchoir. I must admit that it is very fun, haha. But I know all good things must come to an end, and sadly, I think my life in VSchoir will end quite soon, in probably 1 month's time.
It's very nice to relive the memories of VSChoir. Whenever Pock Thong and some of us walk together or something, we may just start a very old song we have sung before, probably Rhapsody VII songs. It brings back many many nice moments I have had with VSchoir, and still, it is impossible to list all of them here in this post.
"A picture paints a thousand words."
Where should I start? Let's start this with the Co-curricular Activities (CCA) posting exercise when I was in secondary 1. As far as I can remember, I got into the 2nd round of auditions and was auditioned by Mr Nelson Kwei. He tested my range and did not went too high, I managed to sing everything comfortably. Well, at that time I did not really have any intentions of joining choir.
I chose badminton as my first choice of CCA, mainly because I had an interest in badminton and also because my primary school main CCA was badminton. I failed during the trials, because I had not touched my racket for more than 6 months - the last time I played was around June when I was in primary 6. Yeah so I did not get into badminton even though I put as first choice. Neither did I get into my 2nd, 3rd nor 4th choice, in which one of them was choir. I think the CCA posting works such that they only look at your first choice and see if that particular CCA wants you. Otherwise, you are either not in or in if there is vacancy. That's why I did not get into choir.
Got into my 5th choice, Interact Club, which I did not really want to go for. So went to appeal with Mr Lee Boon Kee. He told us that appeal cases could only be one-to-one swopping. If unsuccessful, we would remain in the CCA we were in. I somehow knew that someone was going to appeal out of choir, and also maybe I would have some priority in getting into choir since I passed the first round of auditions (but I later realised that it didn't matter). Also, Sean, my classmate since primary 3 (and he was in my secondary 1 class as well), got into choir, so might as well choose choir.
Appeal was successful.
My first choir practice was quite all right. I got in and knew my section just before the start of the practice, probably because of the 2nd round of auditions - I was in Tenor 1 (I am still a Tenor 1 now by the way). If I am not wrong I stood between Jia Xian and Fadhil on that day for combines, who were way taller than me because of the fact that I was short. The first note that I heard from the choir was really very impressive. It was simply a warm up exercise from Mr Kwei and it was like a speaker with a bass booming into my ears. Maybe if I am not wrong, the choir got pumped twice in the first day by Nicholas for making too much noise. We, the secondary 1s, only needed to pump for the 2nd time because the 1st one actually served as a warning to us. So that was my first day in choir.
The next practice was on a Saturday, with Physical Training (PT). That first PT was rather okay, or maybe it seemed like to me, because I do things stupidly. During PT they told us to run then we run, told us to pump then we pump. I forgot whether I played badminton or soccer that first PT, I think I played soccer. But as far as I know, I have never played before basketball during PT in my whole 4 years in VSChoir, except for once when I was forced to.
The rest of the practices were one big mess in my head. I remember that I was quite a defiant little kid then. There was once during sectionals (one of the first few practices) when we were taught some of the songs which we later used for Rhapsody VII, our public concert. We had it outside the auditorium on the 4th floor just beside the spiral staircase. One of the songs was "Sailing", which was a song nobody liked to sing, because we had to hold a "Ooo" for 4 bars and we did not have any melody lines to sing. I think Ling Chung tried to teach me but I refused to learn. Then I remembered him telling Evan, "I give up, I think it's best you handle him". Evan was the Assistant Section Leader (SL) that time, Wenhao was the SL. Yeah so Evan spoke to me and asked me, "How come you are able to sing the National Anthem?" I merely replied, "Because we are taught in primary school, and we have to sing it every school day." Then he told me some things about needing to learn the choir songs as well, and must keep drilling and drilling. I think I just nodded a bit, but then again, I wasn't really interested in that song. Well in the end, I think I slowly got the song because we kept singing it during sectionals and combines.
I think in March there was a camp. It was one of the worst camps I had ever gone to. I remembered there was a time during practice when we had to stop suddenly and run around the school as a choir for who-knows-what reason. It was quite dumb and tiring.
So during April it was Rhapsody VII, our public concert, held at Victoria Concert Hall (VCH). I didn't sell any tickets at all. We had to sing 20 songs, which included some songs from Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was featured in the 2nd half of the concert (after the intermission). The skit was actually just a summary of the story, and I was one of the peasants who came out to pretend to be doing some tiring work, only having to kneel down in front of Joshua NAB and to get killed after that. What a tragic ending haha. Okay anyway, Rhapsody VII was quite fun. Can even remember that each section had one room for changing, and Sopranos took the room upstairs, and when we came out onto the stage during rehearsal on the stage, we could hear the Sopranos who were still in the room screaming. Haha.
It was quite a success I guess. But very tiring. After the performance, I took a bus service 2 home with Eric and his mother, but in the end it went the wrong way, and it was quite late already so Eric's mother flagged a taxi to fetch us home.
After Rhapsody VII, it was handover. The new committee consisted of all secondary 3s (2004) except for Martin, who was a secondary 2 then. Martin was a SL since seocndary 1, and has gone to Victoria Junior College Integrated Programme (VIP) since 2005. When the new committee took over, discipline standard suddenly shot up. I heard that Nicholas' batch of committee members were not united at all, their committee meetings were all splitted into 4 teams disagreeing with each other: Nicholas (chairman then); Laiguang (vice-chairman then); Chuan En (student conductor [SC] then); and all the other SLs and other committee members. I also heard that they didn't choose Johnnie to be the chairman initially, but Miss Lau changed the whole committee because the resulting committee was not satisfactory, so Johnnie became our chairman.
The first event that happened after handover was Choral Festival IX. The first session was a briefing session, in which only Fadhil and I went because the others were involved in this Jubilate festival. In fact, the whole choir was involved except for only maybe Fadhil and I. There was one Jubilate workshop which I attended at MJC. It was quite confusing because Joshua Cheam called me and told me to go, and I told him that I was involved in Choral Festival and not Jubilate, but he just told me to go. I think we screwed up that workshop because no one brought a score for the clinician, someone came late and went onto the stage halfway while we were singing on stage, and some more which I can't remember.
There was also this Paragon performance which I didn't go, heard from Pock Thong that they had to sing in the rain and sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Haha.
So for choral festival, I was in the same group as Theodore, Ling Chung and 4 more people. Coincidentally, 3 SCs in a row. There were 2 other groups of mixed chorus and one more group of female chorus. Johnnie was in another group and sang as an Alto, haha, while Prem was in yet another group but sang as a Tenor rather than a Soprano. For our chorus, we sang Deep River and Gershwin Medley, with the latter being a 19-page song because it's a medley. We only had to sing 2 songs but others had to sing 3 because our Gershwin Medley was very very long. Also, I remembered many people only had odd pages, in the end they photocopied the even pages and the score became 19 paper thick, bundled with a paper clip.
My conductor was Ms Mary Tan, who claimed herself as "vertical-challenged", and "single and satisfied". Haha. She seemed quite old anyway. Well, she conducted Deep River very very slowly such that we had to steal breathe every bar. Haha. I think it's quite a nice song, just like Gershwin Medley haha. Oh yeah, once during a practice, Theodore malu-ed. Tenors and Basses were supposed to sing one part and hold a certain note because that was when our notes splitted from a unison to a clash. Then Theodore continued singing. Then Ms Mary Tan did again and again then Theodore kept continuing to sing. The girls were all looking at him and laughing haha. I think Ms Mary Tan heard also but ignored. But it was a very big malu in front of the girls haha.
During the performance it was quite funny too. Before we sang Deep River, she showed us a piece of cardboard with words to motivate us. Haha, then she conducted real slow, such that we had to steal breathe every half bar! Then after Deep River was completed, she showed us yet another piece of cardboard with different writings. Lol. Choral Festival IX was quite fun.
Not to forget the overseas clinician, Mr Fred Sjoberg. I still don't know how to pronounce his name till now. He was the first person to teach me helpful exercises like lip trilling, siren exercise and what-not. And he was one of the judges for Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) Central Judging for choirs 2007. He conducted a combined song, which had a very melodious tune, and was in Swedish. His conducting for the song was very weird, especially the final 2 bars, because his actions were suddenly very big and exaggerated. Funny guy.
There was also this performance for the leaving of the Permanent Secretary for Education I think. Something like that. It was often referred to the "Perm Sect performance". I think it turned out quite well. I can't remember what we sing already, but I think we sang "When you Believe" and some other songs. We learnt "Come go with me" too but didn't sing it. It's some song which sounded very sick haha.
There was also a Victoria School (VS) 128th Speech Day performance. We sang "When you Believe" with the recording, and did choreography with it. The recording is very nice, except for the fact that tenors are quite flat throughout which spoils it a bit. For that one only some seniors were in the recording, and I was in secondary 1 then so I was not chosen to go.
National Arts Council Awards Presentation. We went there to perform, not to claim prize, haha. I don't know why we got chosen either. The performance was one of the worst I've ever encountered in my life in VSchoir. We sang "Sailing" (which nobody liked), and screwed it up. Plus Theodore exited the stage in the wrong direction, and the whole thing was very messy. In the end, we got pumped by Johnnie for very long. I think we had to hold there for around 15 to 20 minutes, then after that pump 20 by Johnnie and 30 by Joshua Cheam.
Oh I remembered, after that, almost everyone had left for tea reception after the pumpings, only Ms Lau, Ling Chung, Sean Teh, Roger and I were left in the Lockers Room preparing to go out (the place where we got pumped - it was quite a small place and not everyone could fit in the room). Roger was doing a cartwheel when he accidentally knocked his knee against one of the locks of the lockers. Then he just sat there and wanted to unroll his pants to see what happened to his knee, then Miss Lau switched off the lights. He screamed (because of the lights), then when Miss Lau switched on the lights again, he screamed because he saw his injury. It was a very very deep and huge cut and surprisingly there was very very little blood oozing out, close to none. It was like a huge chunk of meat being bitten out of him. It was quite bad, and they had to send him to a hospital, I think. Until now I think Roger still has the scar on his knee.
After that, there was nothing much already, except preparation for SYF 2005. I remembered learning Salve Regina and first 3 pages of Pokpok Alimpako before the exam break. After the exams, we came back for some more SYF practices, all the way until 2005. I cannot remember much events from there already, just that I remembered once whereby Johnnie pumped those who didn't bring the penguin suit for a check, then after that he told the whole choir to move aside and personally scolded and pumped the committee members who didn't bring their penguin suit. He pumped them 60 I think. And it was like more than half the comm didn't bring their penguin suit. I felt quite strange because I hadn't seen any committee members scolding another committee member before.
There was once whereby Mr Kwei was very angry at us because of attendance and other things. Halfway during the practice, he was like staring at my direction but somewhat below, like my legs there, then I thought my standing posture was wrong or something. Then suddenly he said, "Are you sure you all don't want to stand away from there?" I turned around and looked... there was a big mess on the floor - Tamim vomited. Haha, then some people went to get a mop and bucket and clean up the place, and Mr Kwei's mood sort of cheered up a little bit.
The committee organised a camp during March. It was quite alright except that it had a lot of practices because it was intensive training for SYF. I think it was during sectionals at Siglap South Community Centre with Mr Kwei when he told us to sing an exercise one by one. It started off with me because I was at the side then (and it caught me by surprise so I almost did not have enough time to breathe in). He said I needed to be 3 times louder. After a while, he mentioned that I have a pure tenor voice. Haha, but I think it was due to my running nose. Not sure. Then he asked Terry, Reuben and I to sing a note first, then all the tenors to blend in to us.
Then we came to SYF 2005. I didn't really sing much on stage because I was scared of producing a stray sound. I only added to some of the effects like those crescendos and suddenly all stopping at the same time. We went sharp for all the 3 songs anyway. Even though Sunset had the piano accompaniment, the accompaniment stopped halfway and we went a quartertone sharp.
At the end of the day, I sort of predicted that we would get Gold with Honours already. Our songs seemed to be thrashing the other choirs, and they were one of the best I've ever sung, especially Pokpok Alimpako. At the back of the audience seats in the Singapore Conference Hall, we were told by Johnnie not to cheer, and by the announcer that we could only cheer after the whole announcement had finished. When the announcer announced that we received a Gold with Honours, Johnnie was the first one to cheer immediately, haha. But anyway, we were the last choir to be announced so we could make noise. I didn't really feel anything much, just some sense of joy, because I thought it was very expected to get a Gold with Honours. However, it was SYF 2007 which proved me wrong.
Before the SYF, there were a couple of events. First was the Victorian's Family Day performance, whereby Mr Low Xuhao conducted us. A week after that was Inter-section games (ISG), which Desmond, Reuben, Ling Chung and Zheng Whye organised (I think). The ISG was not that smooth because Prem (soprano) and Joshua Cheam (tenor) got into an argument during the soccer finals and the match could not continue. In the end because Ling Chung and Reuben were playing as tenors, they announced that the Sopranos were the winners.
Anyway, in secondary 1 I realised that I had perfect pitch. During one of the sectionals with Evan and Joshua Cheam, they told us to do projection exercises. So I remember myself standing at the 5th floor staircase (the one nearest to the school gate) and Evan told me to blast any note to Joshua, who was at the other end. I just sang a note and unintentionally I slid the note up at a certain note. Well, Evan just gave a comment that I should not slide my note up. I noticed much later (I forgot when) that the note I sang was a middle C. I also noticed that my brain is very used to singing a C note, such that the 'C' gets anchored. So from C, I could pitch to other notes as well. I remember trying to name all the notes from various tuning forks during one of the Physics Laboratory experiments in secondary 2. I could even tell whether a note was in between 2 notes or something like that. Well, I thought I was correct anyway, I don't know if I really was, but I was quite sure I was.
Handover! I got my post as a Tenor SL, along with Joshua Cheong. Even though both of us were secondary 2s, but because almost all the secondary 3 tenors were in the committee as well: Ling Chung as Student Conductor, Reuben as Vice-chairman, Fadhil as Records Manager (aka Librarian) and Sean Tay as Treasurer, so we did not have to worry much. The only secondary 3 (then) tenor who was not in the committee was Dao En.
The first event that we had after handover was the Hong Kong (HK) trip. We had to perform for some choral festival in HK. We were all moved to SSA and SSAA sections through an audition by Mr Kwei. I was tested on my falsetto range and my highest note, as written on his paper, was Ab6. I was in Mezzo-soprano for SSA and Alto 1 for SSAA. In SSA, Ian Lim and I were the only SLs posted there so I somehow worked with him in doing sectionals, even though I didn't really know how to sing well in falsetto.
I remember sometimes during combines when Desmond was taking (Ling Chung did not take because he could not go to HK), I stood beside Jonathan, and both of us could not help it but our voices crack on lower notes. Then I remembered once when he asked me to tell him when a warm up exercise reached a 'C' (Desmond was playing from high to low). Then when Desmond went to 'F', I told him it was 'C', even though I was not very sure. Then after a few more semitones down I realised I could sing that so-called 'C' quite well, and I started to get more airy already. Then after that I heard a familiar 'C' again and it sounded more like one, so I told him, "Oh sorry, now then C," then he was like, "Now then C ah?!" Haha. Quite funny.
I must admit it was the HK trip which made the choir committee for 2005-2006 very disorganised and not really very united. Ling Chung, Chan Wei, Sean Teh, Justin Ng and David Wong did not go for the HK trip. Those who did not go for the trip had separate practices for the VS 129th Speech Day. Discipline among those going for the HK trip dropped tremendously. Desmond did not really do anything about it, Zheng Whye was not really taking the sectionals for his Sopranos seriously and I was not really strict on the singing for Mezzo-soprano, since I initially thought that we should relax a bit and not get too tensed up.
There was once whereby Mr Kwei suddenly told us to memorise the lyrics for the theme song for Spirited Away, because we were all looking at the scores during his practice. He said we could only go when we had passed his auditions. I was not the first one to go up to be auditioned, but I was the first one to pass! I pronounced mainly vowels and let the consonants slip through whenever they fit. I believe that is the way to memorise Japanese songs within a short time, or otherwise, know the language itself. In the end I stayed back to help out others to pass, and in the end Mr Kwei dismissed all of us at 4pm because he had another choir to take.
Mr Low Xuhao was teaching us the Music of the Spheres song on the day just before the HK trip because we did not know we needed to learn and Mr Kwei only knew that we did not learn on that day. So we stayed back until quite late, I think. I remember that I was somewhat representing the Alto 1s because I was standing in the first row and there were many low notes to sing using real voice, so I was singing quite loudly. Whenever I made a mistake, that mistake would surely be pointed out by him.
Well, so the next day was the embarkment of the HK trip. Had a headache just after landing in HK so while the choir was practising Music of the Spheres at one of the lounges in Baptist University (where we stayed), I was sleeping in my room. I shared room when Travis, and did not really talk much with him throughout the trip. At night the choir went to Temple Street to shop while I followed my parents (who were there) to dinner with my grandparents as well. After dinner I went to my father's home to sleep for around 2 hours. At around 10pm my father brought me back to Baptist University.
We performed on the 2nd and 4th day of the festival, which was 4 days long. On the 3rd day of the trip, which was the 2nd day of the festival, we performed and screwed up almost all the songs. We started off with J'entends le Moulin, which was very soft, then the Le Choristes Medley was not very good either. After that we moved to our SATB and did Itsumo Nando Demo and Da Chang Jin (which half the song was SSA and half was SATB).
After that we went to rest first before singing Music of the Spheres. While singing as one choir only it sounded quite empty, but the song was actually written for 3 choirs, so there was something like 12 parts, and when we sang together it sounded very nice. There were accompaniments: tubular bells and a pipe organ. During the rehearsal there was this little kid who was full of enthusiasm. He was standing in one of the first few rows, and he was just in front of me, and every time he sang he moved his whole body and head back and forth! And because our choir (choir 3) had a very long break in the middle of the song, we did not know when to come in, and the conductor did not cue us, but that boy came in correctly all the time during the rehearsal and sang very loudly. Haha. It was very funny, especially when he moved his body and knocked his chin against one of the boys in front accidentally!
The next morning while I was going down for breakfast, I met a girl in the elevator, and she mentioned that our first song was very good (J'entends le Moulin). Well, I seriously doubt so...
The last day of the Festival we did Pokpok Alimpako as our last song. As expected the audience laughed at our last pose. Haha. After our Pokpok Alimpako it was an intermission. The Music of the Spheres was conducted by the Finnish conductor this time, the same guy who came and complained that we were making too much noise that night at around 2am while we were playing cards in Reuben's room. Haha. We were sort of celebrating because the Festival was finally over.
One thing I accomplished during the trip was that I helped Miss Lau and Miss Ding bargain with a bus driver. They asked me because I knew how to speak Cantonese. At first the driver said a one-way trip would cost HK$500 (around SGD100), then I bargained until $400. Haha.
Yeah so it was HK trip. It was an enjoyable trip, but however because of this, discipline has fallen by a lot. Ling Chung, who was supposedly the one who would raise the discipline of the choir among the 3 heads (chairman, vice-chairman and SC), did not go HK because he had an examination on one of the days of the trip. He took charge of Speech day, and it was really bad because those who did not go Hong Kong had to sing for Speech day, and there were not many people. So in the end they had to ask the whole committee to sing for Speech day as well. Actually I had to sing too, but I dropped out at the last minute.
It was very busy during that period of time. There was an SYF Closing ceremony and we were chosen as the top boys' choir. Also, we were involved to do mass signing (hand-signing) at part of Singapore's 40th National Day Parade, over at Marina South. I don't know why they chose us anyway. I remembered that the choir was very misbehaved while the instructors were teaching us the hand-signs in the Music Room. Comparing that standard of discipline with that brought by Johnnie, I could tell that it had fallen very much.
Anyway, thinking about the HK trip made me quite sick. Remembering all the strange Les Choristes songs, as well as the sectionals and combines about it, gives me a feeling which I cannot describe. A feeling of disgust.
I remembered in secondary 1, I could reach at least an 'A' note in real voice, because I could sing the opening part of the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Well, I didn't know it was quite high but I could sing it, while I think I was seeing other tenors trying to reach it either by forcing or by falsetto. Haha. After using falsetto for the HK trip, I could reach only an 'E' note, which is 5 semitones below 'A'! At 'F' or higher, my voice will crack. It took me more than 1 year to reach back to a 'G' and right now I am still trying to make my range go up to an 'A'.
20th August 2005 was an ISG, which was organised by Jonathan, Pock Thong and I. The reason why we were chosen was because the committee wanted 2 sec 2s (then) from committee and 1 not from committee to organise. In the end Desmond chose Jonathan (who was Assistant Secretary then), Reuben chose Pock Thong and Ling Chung chose me (and coincidentally, the 3 of us took their positions as Chairman, Vice-chairman and SC respectively). Anyway, the 3 of us got together at Jonathan's house and planned everything out. It was actually quite easy doing that, except the buying of stuffs because we had to think of prizes for the winners that were useful but not too expensive. In the end the ISG was successfully held, thanks to those who participated in the games actively, and thanks to the good weather of course.
There was a camp in November 2005. My first choir camp was in March 2004, and the second was in March 2005, so this one sort of broke the tradition because it was not held in March. I found the March 2005 camp more fun than this Nov 2005 one because there were more meaningful activities. The Nov 2005 camp was fun, yes, but it lacked substance, and there were quite a lot of free time.
When I was in secondary 3, the first event that I performed for was Mr Ang's farewell. We sang "Itsumo Nando Demo", and Ling Chung had to make a short impromptu introduction before we started singing. In the end he said (crossing fingers and hiding them in his pocket), "Even though Mr Ang may not be with us in person, we hope that he can be with us in spirit." Suited the theme rather well because it is a theme song for Spirited Away.
After that was Chinese New Year. It was a waste of time because we could only sing one song ourselves, and the other song it was with recording plus other performance groups as well.
I immediately knew that that year's secondary 1s had a lot of potential - and they haven't proven me wrong yet - as compared to the secondary 2s when they first joined choir. Their singing was of some quality even though it was only their first few weeks into choir, and they were quite well-behaved. Perhaps this was the only good thing Desmond's batch of committee members had done to the choir: introducing good secondary 1 members.
Another ISG was being organised in March 2006 and they put Neng Wei, Chan Wei and Eric Wong in charged. I played soccer again and our team name was RESELL, because of our team members, Reuben, Edwin, Sherman, Enan (initially), Ling Chung and Lin Han. We changed the cheer of VS Power to: "RESELL! Three for one dollar!" Very funny, haha.
The 3 heads decided to put me as conductor for the Victorian's Family Day for 2006. The Victorian's Family Day was quite screwed up. We did 2 songs, Tantum Ergo and Can't Help Falling in Love, which went sharp, and someone (I think it was either Leon or Pock Thong) suggested doing Ride the Chariot. In the end we screwed it up as well.
There was once when I almost cried while taking combines for a Victorian's Family Day practice. I cannot remember why already, but I think it was because it was difficult and stressful to take the choir, even though I only had to take those performing, which was only around 20 to 30 better singers from secondary 1s to 3s. In the end Ling Chung and Reuben comforted me at the back of the room because I refused to take combines, and Desmond took the choir instead.
I knew I was going to take the Student Conductor post. David Wong and Sean Teh left for Integrated Programme (IP), and both of them were SLs. As compared to the other secondary 3 SLs, I was the one doing the most work. Chan Wei was just helping Ian during sectionals, Justin was helping Sean before he left for IP and he did not do much work during sectionals before his departure. I was often taking sectionals rather than Joshua (sorry Joshua!). I knew the secondary 4s were trying to train me to be SC, but I could not accept it initially.
I was in a dilemma as to whether to accept or reject them. I had thought of rejecting them, but I thought to myself, if I were not to be the SC, who would? None of us SLs has musical background, and I only slowly developed my piano skills while taking sectionals. In the end, after much thinking, I showed the secondary 4 committee a positive side of myself while being interviewed by them regarding the choir committee for 2006-2007, hinting that I would take up the challenge to take over Ling Chung's place.
On handover day, Ling Chung just gave me some hints on how to conduct, and never really equip me with much skills and knowledge. He told me that I would slowly pick them up and told me not to worry too much about it.
Jumping from SL to SC was indeed a very big one. Firstly, you have to listen to 4 sections rather than 1. Secondly, you have to be a leader to the SLs and to the choir as well, and have to know almost everything regarding each section. Thirdly, and most importantly, you have to know very well your priorities while taking combines and you cannot afford to waste much time thinking of how to correct a mistake, otherwise the choir would grow very impatient. But on the other hand, it suddenly became much easier to take sectionals.
Other than a performance for some elderly at the auditorium, the first event after handover was the school's 130th Speech Day performance, which we sang "Go Forth With Pride" and "Keeping the Dream Alive". I was told that my conducting was very rigid for the elderly performance. Anyway, we did recordings for both the songs, and I do not think the recordings sounded nice, as compared to "When You Believe". I did not perform for the 130th Speech Day itself because I was feeling sick due to Choral Festival X which was 2 days before. The performance turned out quite nice and I think those who were present enjoyed it.
I was chosen to go for Choral Festival X, along with 5 other people. Only Joshua and I participated in both Choral Festival IX and X. My conductor was Mrs Valerie Wilson, who is also conductor for Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) choir. Learnt and performed 2 songs for our choir, Como Compongo Poco (at the cover page it was written "A Nonsense Song") and Drunken Sailor. Met this ex-SC of ACJC choir, David, who was one of the volunteers to come and teach us during sectionals, and he took us for combines. He was one of those who inspired me as an SC. I learnt quite a few things from the way he taught us. He did not waste any time; he came straight to the point whenever we made a mistake; he was strict, yet we could all bear with it.
Our performance was in July 2005. Initially we had to do 3 combined songs: Take the A Train, I Can Recall Spain and Tsubasa O Kudasai; but in the end our choir (choir 4) did only the latter 2 songs. I remembered that I could not memorise the lyrics for Tsubasa O Kudasai on time for the performance so I was not singing out really loud. Tsubasa O Kudasai had a symphonic band from National Junior College (NJC) as accompaniment, and hypothetically I thought it was because the choirs were not strong enough. Haha. But I have no idea why they wanted a live band to play... shouldn't it be "choral festival"?
Performance was good. Our 'Como Compongo Poco' and 'Drunken Sailor' were the best we had ever sung, just that at the end of 'Como Compongo Poco', someone dropped a tuning fork on stage while we were doing our very last jump, and it caused quite a loud sound. It was very frustrating yet humorous because it went "Piang piang piang.. SPLAT! (that person stepped on it)".
In May 2006, Joshua, Edmond and I attended a workshop organised by Choral Directors' Association of Singapore (CDAS). It was very useful because from that whole day, a group of conductors there, including Mr Kwei, taught various skills and techniques, like warm up, vocal training and basic conducting skills. And as you may have guessed it already, the latter was taught by Mr Kwei himself. I picked up my conducting technique from there, so that is why my conducting is similar to Mr Kwei's. Although the sectional training was quite boring, because it was mainly a training for SLs on how to teach a brand new song, but others, like the lecture held by Mr Reuben Lai on vocal training, was very insightful and gave me new knowledge.
We also had to perform for the school's 130th anniversary dinner, and we had to sing the same old 2 songs, but this time in the school field. I remembered trying to correct the Sopranos' mistake of having a dark and covered sound just before our performance, while we were rehearsing at the AV room, and I experimented out with the Sopranos until I found a way to solve: to put your hand on top of your head and to ensure that your head vibrates. Maybe this had been taught to me before, or maybe it had not, but I was quite pleased with myself for being able to correct a mistake which I had never corrected before.
We wasted quite a lot of time preparing for the school's 130th anniversary. It was not really very much like a formal choral performance, we only learnt 2 songs, and the songs were very easy.
After this, we prepared for the Malacca trip, my second overseas trip with VSchoir. Malacca trip was quite terrible. We combined with Anderson Junior College (AJC) choir Gesu Bambino and Gaude Maria on the first night. On the second night, I conducted the choir for Tantum Ergo, Wind Beneath My Wings and Wawaki. The singing was quite bad. On the third night, the SYF Presentation night, it was worse. Mr Kwei said after the performance that it was the worst Credo he had ever heard.
Just one day after the Malacca trip, some of the committee members attended a workshop in Singapore by Dr Joshua Habermann. He gave a lecture on pronunciation of some foreign words, then went through his own interpretation of "Everyone Sang". He also gave some warm up exercises and at the last part of the workshop, he told us to sight-read 14 songs. From his workshop, the thing that I learnt the most was the mix of falsetto and real voice. I realised that I could substitute it with my falsetto which I did not practise for a long time. Although I cannot reach as high using that voice as falsetto, it covers a range that I would need to use.
After that was solely preparation for SYF, if you exclude the Chinese New Year performance. Luckily we did not have to perform for Victorians' Family Day this year. The committee organised a choir camp during the March Holidays, which I thought was better than the November 2005 camp but not as good as the March 2005 camp. At least it gave the secondary 1s and 2s an experience to choir camps, since it was their first one in VSchoir. Many ideas were put in by Jonathan himself, including the proficiency test, which I quite disagreed because I found that the choir had more to improve in terms of techniques rather than the musicality. But other than that, I thought the rest was quite all right.
Preparation for SYF was the most stressful event in my whole life in choir. Sometimes, I feel too bored of taking the choir, because I had to repeat things over and over again. The choir just could not remember all the details of the songs, and after constant reminders they would remember it for that practice, and when the next practice comes, they forgot everything. It was very frustrating.
There were also times whereby I feel motivated. However, those were temporary and were very shortlived. From around March, I could already foresee that the choir would not achieve very good results for SYF.
On SYF day itself, it was the worst practice I had to take. Somehow, I sensed that the choir was very bored and was not very willing to sing. However, I knew I could not lose my temper suddenly and spoil everything. I just tried my best to motivate them before we headed to VCH. I was not confident at all. On stage, I thought the songs were quite all right, but it definitely was not the best we had ever sung. Our best was not really very good either, so I was quite prepared when the announcer announced that we received a Gold Award only. Just before the results, I told Jonathan and Pock Thong that I had enjoyed working with them, and the announcement of the results did not make me change my mind on this.
Until now, I have not lost any hope on VSchoir yet, even thought we did not receive our Gold with Honours, and not to say the top secondary school choir in Singapore. I mentioned to the choir that we could have 40 to 50 better singers, like in SYF 2005, but we should keep it at 70+ because there is no point singing on stage as VSchoir without having most of the members participating.
Unfortunately, the secondary 4s have to handover very soon. I suddenly feel a sense of regret and feel like continuing to be the SC of VSchoir. I must admit that it is very fun, haha. But I know all good things must come to an end, and sadly, I think my life in VSchoir will end quite soon, in probably 1 month's time.
It's very nice to relive the memories of VSChoir. Whenever Pock Thong and some of us walk together or something, we may just start a very old song we have sung before, probably Rhapsody VII songs. It brings back many many nice moments I have had with VSchoir, and still, it is impossible to list all of them here in this post.
"A picture paints a thousand words."Labels: Choir
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