Coral Primary School Chinese Orchestra… Bronze
Yes i know, this post is 3 days late and supposed to be due on tuesday.
Okay basically, coral (i thought they played well), they got a bronze.
On tuesday, 1st April, i went down to Coral Primary at about 10.30 am, and they have started finally rehearsals in costume with Mr Wu Xiang Yang (SCO perc.) and it seems that they’ve decided that Yan Heng would play only the 2nd last line in the set piece. At least he won’t get it wrong or mess up the parts he doesn’t know…
At break before departure, had the try of very unappetising primary school canteen food from e muslim stall, and it seems yan heng’s mom had bought sushi for him to eat. Alot of it, the kids came to kope and the principal walked pass and was amazed as well. Then Mr See told me he would be quitting Coral after this and hoped that i would be able to take on the job full time as the schools guanyue instructor. I’ve been considering this but with my lack of Dizi knowledge and being a confirmed student of NAFA, i wonder who i’d make the ends of time meet, since i’d be signing a minimum 1-year contract with Mrs Ooi, their TIC. Seow pang also told me he would be venturing into buisness but would not drop teaching anglican dizis, until Mr Lim “fires” him (evidently, probably not, lol). After the break, i spent the next 40 mins tuning ever instrument i could, cellos, basses, zhong ruans, but pipas and liuqins were simply out of my control, extremely difficult to tune and the pegs don’t stay (might be the age and quality of the make?)
After the kids boarded the buses, we took Mr Guo’s (erhu SCO) car to SCH, and what a coincidence to see Liu Jiang smoking outside and chatting with Mr Lim Kiong Pin at the carpark. I guess the day he knows i’m teaching coral pri had come. Entering the back door of SCH, the ever familiar scene of schools lining up at the foyer/lobby with a bunch of attendants awaiting teachers to register their school for the competition (incase they do not arrive). Liu bin was standing in the centre of the lobby and we talked briefly. Then i walked furthur, Mr Huang Zhi Guang had just arrived with the primary sch he was handling. I bugged him about e cizhong suona reed and the told me to call back next week at SYF. Jun An had just arrived to meet me (watch kong hwa and support Keith, e pipa boy from payco) and just a few steps ahead, Chu He Lao Shi was there and after knowing in shock that i had been “disposed” to NAFA to study trombone, he urged me to perform for TJCO if i was free. Imagine the shock on clarence’s face if i would to attend their CO next week…
We went back in, Mr Ng Seng Hong had just arrived as well, to count this is the 6th teacher i knew and greeted… and i talked to him about me playing for TJC and he seemed fine with it, jun an is probably playing as well.
As yes, and jun an and seow pang (mr see) had lunch with me at the overpriced SCH cafe, and i had fanchoy which cost $2…
After all this talking and lunch, coral primary finally arrived, with basically all the instruments out of tune again. Luckily i had purchased the contact microphone from sweelee and all that noise in the lobby didn’t stop me from tuning, until the malay guy walked over and said,
“Sorry sir, no tuning in the waiting area!”
Finally our turn came for coral primary at about 3.30 pm and we proceeded to the tuning room, which was hall 1+2 where we have syco suona sectionals on thursday evenings. As they rehearsed one last time, i ran around to tune the cellos and zhongruans.
Walking up to the bianzhong foyer (outside the hall, where schools will enter to compete), i met liujiang (darn.) and he asked me about the suona kid: “他的哨子呢?”
I said, “其实，是你的”
“哎哟，真是的，不是跟你说过，”
Then Ms Liu the coral conductor came over and jutted in, “刘江老师，又问题吗你说，那唢呐孩子”
Liujiang: “哈哈，用了我的哨子，那会有问题！”
Talking about automated self-praise! Lol, okay his shaozis are good no doubt.
Went in and sat behind with jun-an, lugging along the 4 dizi bags that seow pang passed me to keep.
They played, and one guy beside me said coral’s playing was a waste of time. Its not THAT bad…
Tuning was good, but i guess the sound wasn’t mature.
When they ended i walked out and saw Mr Yang Xiu Wei (karl heng boss, TPJC suona teacher) noticing all that stuff i was lugging (trombone gig bag, 4 dizi bags and my crumpler) he said, “哦，你在买东西啊？！”
I looked at the watch and it was 4.40 pm so, but decided to wait on for the results (fredi’s PS was just at 6 pm)
Proceeding into the hall again, we were seating and waited for results, after hearin rulang had gotten a silver, i told junan “If rulang can get silver only… coral no hope liao.” As expected, the next result was coral primary school, bronze. There was that SYF disappointment sort of feeling, but 10 seconds later, i realized that as the suona teacher only, i couldn’t do much to have changed the overall performance of the CO anyway…
After which, i sorted out my 10 hrs of teaching with seow pang and he told me he would bank in to me in the next few days.
After which a taxi to nafa was inavoidable, already 5.40 pm.
To much more too say really just a summary. So i guess, i’ll see you again soon.
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