A New Start

My stomach is growling. Im home finally, and the performance with LimChooLi is over! Well, there'll be more to come, if she dun mind my horrible playing. I'll touch on that in abit...

Well, after blogging, i headed out to the library with QingLun. He was practicing, and i had to persuade him to go over with me, so that he can do his SAS portfolio. Anyway, when i was there, i took a stack of magazines, which will help him. And he had to buy a cashcard in order to print. Poor him, he dug out $7 from his wallet, and $6 of notes, and many many 5 cents of coins to make up a miserable dollar. The auntie was like... nevermind. So, i took the magazines and got him to start finding some articles. Its so unfair! They only need to do 25 of them. I remembered back then, i was rushing myself like crazy, and spending so much on 50 of those articles! Then, the best thing is highlighting every single one of them. I had to read them all... how pathetic right? I knew it, its never that simple. After i left, and after he had finished printing 20 articles, he realised that its online reviews, and not those from the magazines, that he had to do. So, wasted those money and time. Poor him...

I headed out to help LimChooLi with her Zheng. I was expecting something purple, because that time when i went over to her house, she showed me the attire. But, i was shocked! Today, its a bright red dress, very big, and very Chinese. Well, she looked like she had difficulty walking, well... thats the price of making oneself pretty. There was this guy helping with her Zheng too. After settling down, we got out our instruments and started tuning.

LimChooLi's Zheng has this special designed bag for her legs, i mean the Zheng's legs. Its very nice, and its made by her mother! How interesting! Anyway, we assembled the leg and got the Zheng up. We ran through the piece outside the male changing room. I got myself changed into the white costume that Mom bought for me. Probably the better one that i brought out. I brought the black one, the red one, and the white one. She chose the white one for me, and i think its obviously better than the others... because the others wont match with her Chinese costume.

The rehearsal was fine. We sat around and waited really long for our turn to rehearse on stage. So, we headed for dinner! It was a buffet, and it was good! We ate, then someone told LimChooLi that those people are waiting for us to run through. Just in time, isnt it? They should have allowed us to do it earlier. So, we ran through on stage, which looked kinda small for me. And it felt more comfortable performing on a smaller stage. Im not carved out for big stages. Im not a big person, though relatively so in size. I prefer small chamber like performances, and chamber like ambience for performing. I hate huge crowds and really huge and spacious stage. On stage, it felt different. We ran through, and i forgot some parts. Its inevitable that i'll forget during the real performance, and it did happen!

We sat outside, rehearsing, tuning, talking and laughing. Well, its a farrago of different art troupes, and some different types of Chinese arts. So, there was only one programme which is a traditional Chinese instrumental piece, and thats our piece, 'ChunJiangHuaYueYe'. Some people asked about me and my Pipa. Well, i read the programme booklet, and the resume i sent them was translated into Chinese. Its terribly wrong! I gave them in English, and they did their own translation... and it mentioned that ive learnt Pipa under SamuelWong, YouGuo, LiuYan and ZhangNianBing. Well, the rest are fine, but what about YanYu? They only mentioned about her at the back. I felt so sinful... and moreover, the picture was ugly. LimChooLi told me to go for those professional ones. Well, im just afraid of the charges and stuff. There are so many different charges and stuff. Actually im kinda fine, but after looking and Dedric's one... im kinda confused.

I just spammed QingLun with many online concert reviews, and he asked where i got it from. Well, he is just lazy to search!

Im so stressed now, i need to finish writing out the parts so that i can rehearse with them tomorrow. We'll be meeting at lunch time, at Bugis, and im treating all of them to lunch! Well, good thing that im only writing for 3 instruments. So, its fixed, i'll meet them there. Before that, i'll be having lesson with YanYu, and ive to rush down afterwards. I hope it'll be good tomorrow! Im going to force myself to finish up with the scores later, and i still need to compose for QingLun's sister's birthday. Well, i dun think im sleeping tonight. How nice right? Priorities first... Anyway, im not getting paid for QingLun's performance. So... i shall screw it up!

Im joking, im never evil with my good friend. Im only evil with people like... joking! Im always nice. Smile.

Soon, its our turn. We were talking and talking... then she mentioned about a tribute concert to QiuDaCheng, her Zheng teacher in China, and he was the one who arranged the duet piece for Pipa and Zheng. Well, its the version that everybody's playing. And she asked if i can play for the concert, playing the same piece but with her junior. Well, im not sure... im afraid that i'll screw things up. Im a cursed performer!

On stage, the applause wasnt kinda mad, and i followed LimChooLi's instruction on the bowing. And we started, the starting was kinda nice. I felt very comfortable on stage this time, and more relaxed than usual. U know, ive this stage fright crap, which handicaps my performance on stage. So, with LimChooLi, she guided me and brought me throughout the piece with a calm mind. My heart wasnt beating wildly like my competition last year. Im fine, and the piece was fine. There was one part which i screwed up because i couldnt remember the score. So sorry, and in the middle, they started clapping, i think its because of my wrong signal. I lifted my hands too high, and i think that they thought that its the end.

Anyway, we played through and im kinda happy. Im not sure how she must have felt, being a professional and almost a perfectionist, i think she must have kinda regretted performing with me. We headed out together, and we flagged for a cab for really long. Before leaving, we took a photo together. So, she called a cab, because we cannot manage to flag for one.

In the cab, we were talking about private family stuff, and she was telling me alot about her schools, the things that she do in school... and the children of course. Well, i kinda admire her. Smooth sailer, sail on. So, she just dropped me at my house, and she left home.

While i was bathing, somebody called... and its XiaoHong, WeiFeng's friend! She has a performance for me, and i was told to play the Pipa again. Its for DrKuan, but he's not paying? Its very wierd. So, i insisted that she go ask DrKuan for money. So rich, yet so stingy? Its impossible, or even if its true, its not right! Anyway, i think she called me just now... and i told her that if she pays me, i'll get another friend to play for the gig, and i'll charge lower. Well, who else? My poor friend who doesnt have any gigs, and crying at home, wishing for one. I didnt say that its QingLun, so dun ask me.

LianWei is telling that there is music technology class tomorrow! I told him to pretend that he has never told me anything. He kept typing it... so ive no choice. But well, its so last minute! Im having lesson with YanYu anyway, its not that i wanna skip. What happens if im visiting relatives? So, i think its alright. Its so unorganised and so unofficial anyway. Its strange how the system in NAFA works, LimChooLi is right that the system is kinda screwed up.

Well, ive something to say. From my own view, i think that NAFA isnt helping students, or raising talents. They are using our interest, passion and love for music to earn money. Im not sure, but this is how i feel, honestly. Please do not expel me from school because of this paragraph. Well, i wanna just be honest with my feelings for NAFA. Just think about it... NAFA is always failing students, making them pay and pay and pay. Why pay more? Somehow, instead of failing students, they should do better things... and not sending them back for another year, because it'll be a waste of time. Age is our weapon, and graduating at an older age isnt a good thing at all. The gist is that... is NAFA really helping us? Or using our passion for music to earn more money. Its our loss if we leave anyway, do they even care? Look, they can even kick Daniel out of school. Its just... too strict with rules, but yet their system aint keeping themselves in the rules at all. Come on, we are alive, sometimes they should just close an eye. The rules are dead, and they are for breaking!

Somehow, i feel that its a new beginning for something. Somehow, a new start for me. Ive joined LimChooLi's dunno what organisation, and i was told about their facilities and stuff. Somehow, im sure it'll help. So, we'll be performing together more often i guess?