Georgina's CAS Journal

These days, in string ensemble, we're practising songs to play at yet another Ritz-Carlton dinner. I'm not complaining. It's very ritzy. Makes me feel special. The songs we're practising are themes from Pirates of the Caribbean, Intermezzo from St. Paul's Suite and the Holberg Suite. I think I got that right. Anyway, Miss Ling says we might or might not be able to play for that dinner, since they found something that fills our slot. I think it's pathetic. They're the ones who should be asking us to play for them. Make room for us. We're not about to go to them asking them to let us perform. Personally, I would rather play for people who WANT to hear us play. This may sound egoistic, since we're not exactly phenomenal performers yet, but really. We're not earning any money. It's all the same to us that way. No one's going to pay us anyway, so there's no need to pick and choose audiences who are going to pay more. But what we CAN choose is to play for an appreciative audience. No matter who we play for, we get experience. No matter who we play for, we don't get paid. But we can choose to get satisfaction and motivation from playing for appreciative audiences, as well as experience, or we can get the cheaper deal and play for an unappreciative audience. There probably are other factors involved, but it's 1.30 am and they're not coming to me right now. From what I can see right now, since we basically have nothing to lose by choosing one audience over another, we might as well pick the one that actually wants to listen to us play.

I've been going on and on. Sorry. This is what happens when I'm stressed out. History IA's due in two days, my English Individual Oral Presentation's on Friday and my Extended Essay is due in two weeks and I'm only halfway through the first draft of that. But that's neither here nor there. This IS my CAS blog. No place to be talking about other IB things.

I haven't been going for dance lately. I need to, to get my NYAA hours (not CAS anymore, my action hours are DONE) but there's just been so much going on. I needn't go into details. I'm really worried. I WANT that NYAA. What if I don't get it and don't get into NUS because of it? But right now in dance they're doing that My Dream thing (which thankfully has been renamed to something that I can't remember but is ten times better) and I can NOT dance for it because I'm already playing in strings for it. There's no point in going for dance practices then, and I won't be able to get NYAA hours until that musical thing is over.

This is what happens when you're in the pioneer batch of IB students in your school. The administration doesn't think of anything until you're in your second year of IB. Only then do they come up with plans to make sure we get our CAS hours and NYAA hours filled up in time. Everything's so rushed this year. I envy those year 5s.

There was a string ensemble performance on Founder's Day. We performed the Thorn Birds Theme and Aus Holbergs Zeit. It was a huge rush, and we were almost late to get up onstage - the minute I had positioned my double bass properly, put my score onto my stand and held up my bow, we had to start playing. The stage people gave me too high a chair and I chose to kick it away and play standing up. I feel that we could have played better if we'd had gotten up on stage earlier so we could set up properly.

However, I feel that the weeks of practice before that had quite a positive effect on our playing, and overall we sounded quite good. I shall organize regular sectionals from now on in order to ensure the quality of playing from each individual section - only then will we be able to sound better as a whole.

Happy New Year! Well, belated New Year, seeing as it's already February.

My CAS coordinator has very kindly reminded me to update my blog, so that's exactly what I shall do now.

A new string ensemble committee has been chosen, and I'm the new president. That's certainly a title to be proud of, and I hope I can be a good one. I'm still on probation for one month, as is the rest of the committee, though. I intend to have a committee meeting of sorts this Thursday and I'm a bit nervous about what to say. I don't want to come over as too bossy but I want to do my job well. Well, I'll learn, I guess.

Right now we're rehearsing hard for the Founder's Day performance next Friday. There's this song which we seem to have trouble getting just right, it's called Aus Holbergs Zeit and it's by Edvard Grieg. I like it. Very epic sounding and interesting. Hope it sounds good on the day itself.

The musical's finally over, all... let's see, two nights of it. I would have liked it to have more performances, even though, say, four nights probably wouldn't have been as well attended as two nights. On the whole, I'm proud of what I've done for the musical. The 'Joseph Band', as Mr West called it, sounded great to me. I'd forgotten how much I'd missed being in anything resembling an orchestra. Being in a rock band has a different feeling from being in an orchestra or concert band, and frankly, I wouldn't be able to choose between them. I just had this happy feeling when I entered the school multi-purpose hall and heard the flute/piccolo player doing his warmups.

There were rehearsals on the 4th and 7th of July, each of which lasted 2 hours. There was also one on the 21st, which Tabby and I went for and played to warm up for the band rehearsals that were soon to come. The first full band rehearsal, the very next day, was very enjoyable. The musicians hired in were so good- they sounded better sight-reading the score for the first time than me, and I'd been at it for weeks. It was a very productive 2 hours. There were two full dress rehearsals, band included, in the subsequent days after school, which lasted for at least 3 hours each, with preparation beforehand.

The musical itself, I'd say was a success.

Had musical rehearsal again today. I expected it to last longer. Still, I got about 2 hours from it.

Went to join in on the Joseph rehearsal today with my bass guitar. I can play most of the songs, yay. Spent about 2 hours there, then had to go home.

So today was the under-18 T-ball competition thingy. To cut to the chase, we won one out of three matches, and one of those two we lost was pretty close. Not as bad as we'd expected.

Our first match was against my old secondary school, St. Anthony's Canossian Secondary. I got a bit of a surprise seeing them there, and wondered how good they were. I thought they'd be wonderful (then again, rule 1: never underestimate your opponent) but we beat them, 9-4.

Our next match was against a team we knew would be very good- I'm assuming they're the de facto national girls' team for T-ball, or something. Their acronym was YDS- none of us know what that stands for. I suggested 'Your Dorky Chickens'. I know, my humour gets a bit off-kilter during stressful situations (such as sitting around waiting for our match to begin). To my surprise, we didn't get utterly thrashed. We almost won. They got 15 points, we got a close 12.

Our last match was terrible. We really got thrashed, 14-3 or something equally (or more) disgraceful. I shan't say more about it because it makes me feel bad about myself. Mmhmm. The number of balls I didn't catch... and them, on the other hand, had a defense like a brick wall.

Still, we didn't do too badly for a team who's never heard of T-ball until three months or so ago, and don't practise anyway. We'll practise harder the next time round, we promise.

Today we had a t-ball practice. Don't make me say the name of the sport. We're all quite anxious because we haven't been practicing all that much and the competition is the day after tomorrow. Furthermore, we didn't exactly accomplish much during today's practice. Not to say we didn't do much, we just didn't accomplish much- we practised shooting a lot, but we didn't get a lot better. In our defense, our equipment today wasn't quite up to standard- we only had one ball, and it was out of air.

I have to get this out of my system. I hate the word Tchoukball. It isn't even worthy of a dictionary entry on Dictionary.com. There are entries for 'cockbill', 'forkball', 'Pokeball', but no Tchoukball, and I'm guessing it's because it's such a cringeworthy word. Technically I am allowed to rant about this since it's under 'difficulties I had to overcome in completing this CAS activity', so please don't penalize me. Seriously. I shudder every time I have to type that word in here. It's just such an... undignified word. Not that I'm a very dignified person, but- hang on while I try to identify the exact feeling it gives me- it doesn't make sense. Maybe if I knew what a 'tchouk' was, I'd feel better about the word. But I don't know what a 'tchouk' is. So from now on, I shall refer to that thrice-blasted sport as T-ball.

So, I went for T-ball training at Braddell Community Centre today. I have another complaint about the sport- wasn't the aim of the inventor, according to Wikipedia, "to develop a team sport which did not involve the horrific injuries which he viewed as plaguing other sports."? I don't recall getting any injuries from tennis, badminton, netball, hockey, soccer or even skateboarding. But somehow, during this training session, Kate threw the ball to me and it fractured my finger. I had to get it bandaged, and I can barely play my bass guitar. I intend to sue.

Still, I learned more about shooting, and hope to apply my newfound knowledge during the next practice.

Today a bunch of us decided to practice for the competition in the school hall. It was quite a productive session- I ran ten rounds around the hall of my own volition, which is quite amazing. We practiced shooting and passing the ball, and by the end of the 2 hours I'm pretty sure we were better at the game than we were before the practice.

Today I went for the first training session for the Tchoukball competition later this year. Although we already knew how to play the sport, having done it for about 4 weeks for PE, our instructor wanted to go back to basics, so what we did this time was simply practising how to throw the ball correctly. I managed a 'good throw', according to the instructor, which was somewhat encouraging. The next practice will be next Saturday, and I will certainly attend it.

There was a full cast rehearsal for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat today, which I went for. I'm not part of the cast any more as I'm playing in the band, but I went anyway, like I always do. They were supposed to do the whole of Act One, but I don't think they managed to accomplish that much. When I arrived at school, they were doing Joseph's Coat. Which made me rather relieved that I wasn't part of the principal chorus any more, as there's that long list of colours they have to memorize- red and yellow and green and so on. Not that I'm completely incapable of memorizing that, but still. Speaking of memorizing, I'm vacillating on whether to memorize all my parts for all the songs. I don't know if it'd be too time-consuming and brain-damaging, and if the rest of the musicians (professionals all) will have memorized THEIR scores. It'd be awful to turn up and find that I didn't have to memorize anything after all, but even more awful if I turned up and everyone had memorized their scores except me. The thing with bass guitar is that it never rests. Not for more than 4 bars at a time, at least. There always has to be the bass thumping in the back to lend support to the music, unless it's an acoustic set or something.

Anyway, I found myself struggling a bit with Go Go Go Joseph as Mr West had altered the score a bit, and I wasn't sure when and what to play. It'll be all right. Or I hope it will be, at least. He said he'd rewrite the score for me, which is good. I enjoyed playing Song of the King. This big boy from China is the Pharoah. He's really good, cause he has this broad booming voice with vibrato and everything. He's not the slightest bit practiced or experienced, but he's perfect for the part. I love the bassline for Song of the King, it's very typical 80s rock. And it was really funny when Pharoah has to go "heeeyy" to the girls and they're supposed to swoon and squeal like groupies because they 'absolutely worship him', as Mr West put it. If you ever meet the Chinese boy, you'll know why it's so funny.

Today, I forgot to go to rehearsal for Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Actually, I overslept.

However, I assure you, distinguished IB person, that I have been attending the rehearsals diligently since Day One. At first, I started out as a singer/dancer in the Principal Chorus, which I was rather dissatisfied with. When I could take it no longer, I requested to Mr Paul West, who is in charge of the production, if by any chance I could play bass guitar in the band for the musical, as opposed to singing and prancing around onstage as one of Jacob's wives. He said yes, and I was really happy.

So although I do not actually have to attend rehearsals as the band is supposed to practise separately from the singers and the dancers, I still do. This is because I want to be able to practice coordinating my playing with the singing and dancing better, as well as get more CAS hours from rehearsal time.

Rehearsals have been fun- I find playing bass guitar a lot more fulfilling than singing. I'm looking forward to the musical. I'm a bit nervous about starting band practices with the other musicians, though, because they're all hired professionals. The only amateurs, so to speak, are me and Tabby, a friend of mine in year 4. I just have to hope that instead of intimidating me, playing with professionals will raise my playing to a higher standard.

Today our string ensemble performed at the Singapore Institute of Architecture's 46th Annual Dinner. It was held at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Ballroom, which was very ritzy and grand. The dance people from our school performed too, which was nice.

Goh Chok Tong, our country's senior minister, was sitting at the VIP table. I saw him when we came out to perform, sitting there with a serene smile on his face and looking like Albus Dumbledore, only he didn't have the beard and half-moon glasses. And the pointy hat. We did the Friendship Day Medley again, and I think we played it better this time, and so I've heard. Though halfway through our performance, I sensed that no one was paying enough attention to us, and got slightly mad. I whacked my bass during the percussive parts harder than was necessary.

We then took the bus back to school, where Lishan, Steph and I had to stay overnight for the movie marathon we were organizing to raise funds for our June service trip to China (both of which were going to give us a good number of CAS hours). Wahahaha.

Today was the long-awaited (or not) International Friendship Day. I really did expect the school administration to give us a day off, or at least a half day, considering it was International Friendship Day and everything, but they didn't. Our string ensemble's performance was just an assembly thing- we had to come to school much earlier than usual, about an hour and a half earlier than I would usually reach school, and an hour earlier than I would usually crawl out of bed.

As usual, I refused any offers of help to carry my double bass from the music room to the hall. Yes, I know, I am only 5 feet 2 inches tall and weigh little more than 7 stone, but it doesn't necessarily mean I am completely incapable of carrying my own instrument. Through sometimes I do wish I were a piccolo player, or something of the sort. My instrument would then fit comfortably in my blouse pocket. I know, I'm not very funny.

The performance went relatively smoothly, although the violins rushed a bit during Frippery No.2. The Friendship Day Medley was far from ideal, in my opinion- that part I was talking about in my previous entry, where I have to make his percussive sound by hitting the back of my bass ? Yeah. The audience seemed to find it terribly amusing. The first time I made that noise, there was a sort of bemused silence. The second time, a few kids sniggered, and on the third time, everyone, including Dr John Barrett, our esteemed principal, laughed. What could I do but laugh along?

Furthermore, at the end of the Medley, the cellos screwed up by coming in two beats too late. Only they made it seemed like it was MY mistake, because the violins followed the cellos and I was the only one counting in time. So my grand finale, where I hit my bass and snap the D string and come in on the final two beats with the violins, was two beats too early. I was really embarrassed, but it turned out okay, as I found out later, no one even noticed the blunder.

International Friendship Day's on Monday. The string ensemble and I have been preparing for it for the past few weeks- at least there's not much to prepare, we're only doing one medley and (possibly) the ACS anthem, both relatively easy songs. I actually kind of like the ending of the Friendship Day medley, I get to hit my double bass to make this percussive sound and then pop the D string. I almost feel like I'm doing some sort of dance whenever I do that. Heheh. Funny.

We had a bass sectional some weeks ago. I wasn't present for a bit of it because I had to go for a rehearsal for the musical in July, but I was there for my section long enough. We had the sectional with the second violins, as the general consensus was that the bass section playing by itself for an hour and a half was rather boring. Which is true, of course. And it was a good idea, too. The thing was, the second violin has a part where they have to play on the 2nd and 4th beat of every bar, while I, the double bassist, have to play on the 1st and 3rd. We had a little trouble getting the coordination in order. The second violins kept getting confused and playing the on the same beats I was. So I went over to the drumset in the corner and told the second violins to play whenever I hit the high hat, which worked quite well. Even though they tended to revert to old habits once I wasn't there to hit the high hat for them, our coordination was greatly improved.

I have to be in school on Monday by 7am for a run-through before our actual performance. Which is awful, since I wake up at 7.30am on normal school days.