Hi everyone! In this blog entry, 'she' would be sharing with you one of the most memorable experiences she ever had.

2 March 2010. It's recess week. It's Tuesday. It's 6.50am. Ouch! She jumped out of the cosy bed and rushed for her 30-min preparation b4 settin off.

8am. Boarded the bus and began the 1-hr journey to Esplanade.

2 March 2010. Cultural Kaléidoscope. Esplanade Recital Studio. 7.30pm. 2-hr concert. Are you excited?

It's her first time, performing at Esplanade Recital Studio. ah, recalling how the place looked like?

 -- certainly nt this.

 -- Nt this too.

 -- it's this.

9.30am. Headed to the backstage to place those garang-garang.

Appx 10am. The allocated time for the performers to practise their pieces. Her adrenaline hadn't even reached the middle level. WhY? Other than her partner, Xintang and her coursemate, Youbao, she hadn't spoken to anyone else for more than 10 sentences. So, she went around....

 --hugging peeps.

 -- diggin noses

 -- kissing Ms Nia

 -- munching Ms Mun Ling's pizza.

friendly. nice. jovial. we had our rehearsal in the afternoon. Adrenaline just made it to 70% level. Nt enough. So, she went around takin snapshots.

 -- these flowers were meant for VIPs

-- this room was meant for the guys.

 -- this moment. was meant for the anticipation of concert to start.

 -- this intermission time was meant for short discussions with regards to 1st half of concert.

As the time allocated for her and her duet partner was at the 2nd half of the concert, her adrenaline level jus shot up to the max during intermission time. Nonetheless, both of them managed the piece throughout with a slight mistake - 1s timing diff between the 2 players. It was great!

Finally, the finale arrived.

 -- the group of performers + VIPs

 -- Post-concert celebration @ New York x2

Thoughts : Friendship. Experience, Laughter, Anxiety, Enjoyment. And not forgetting, food. Tt's what she brought away at the end of the concert.

Best regards to everyone. The future is in your hands.

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Dear all Eleganza performers,

 

Our annual concert Eleganza will be held next next Tue night (2nd March 2010). You all will leave for Esplanade early that morning.

There are actually 13 days left. Do have more practice for the last period. More importantly, keep healthy and enjoy your piece~

 

Let's count down for the splendid concert !

 

Cheers,

Yang Liu

Tags: performance | Announcements

Please check out our new photos for the Second Half of 2009

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For those who haven't known this yet..

Check NTU Music Library Databases! They have wide range of pieces available to be heard online.

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I'm planning to demolish the left side menu, so that every article could be accessed just from the top menu. And hopefully, PHPBB Forum module could be integrated in this website. Do you have any other suggestion?

 

Changes:

 

06 Sep:

1. Added forum module.
   

 

22 Aug:

1. Consolidated "FAQ" under "About Us"
2. Removed "Past Committee" from menu. However, it still can be accessed from "Committee" article.
3. Introduced "Events" menu, and consolidated "Past Events" & "Gallery" under it.
4. Introduced "Blog" menu, added "All Blogs", Write a Blog", "My Blog", "My Friends' Blog" & "My Friend List" under it.
   
5. Introduced "Members' Area" added "MR2 Booking System", "Library", "Master Class", "My Profile" under it.
   

 

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A lot of you have taken piano courses since you were little. Have you ever pondered how your journey of learning piano was? If you haven't, you can try XD

These are some questions that may help you go back to your past... for a while. It's not necessary that you tell me your answers. If you share them with your friends, probably you'll find something :D

 

Duration of Taking Piano Course

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Yup, I know it’s a bit late to write this. But it doesn’t matter, as long as I can remember, I will write down what happen during these 2 days. I think besides having fun, there is a sense of achievement! Am I right? ^.^

First of all, I have to apologize for my bad English. But… Who cares? Haha~

The first day of the concert, we were asked to gather at can 2 bus stop on 8am. Hmm… I was feeling very excited that day, this was most probably because that would be my very first time to perform in Esplanade, such a high class performance venue. Besides, the song that me and Siew Ping had been practicing on finally on stage. Hmm…. Yup! Excited…

Reaching Esplanade around 9.30am I think. After taking our performers’ pass, we were amused by the huge… oh no… I should say… ENORMOUS LIFT!!! It is almost the size of my room… T.T

After reaching the dressing room, the Chong’s brothers dumped out all the snacks they bought. I would say that, the speed for NTUPE members to eat is very… ASTONISHED!!! Hmm… Luckily Huei Li managed to rescue a few pack of the snacks before they get eaten by us. Haha~

Basically, we rehearsing and rehearsed...

eating and ate...

having fun and had fun…….

(Mugging and mugging perhaps? x)

Oops! All K.O.?

haha~ Finally, here comes our lunch… KFC!!! Yup, it was delicious… Thanx Huei Li!!! ^.^

I was assigned by Zhuang Jie to take “some” photos these 2 days. So… Those who get “caught” by me, please don’t blame me for taking your “unsightly” pictures… I am so… *innocent* @.@

NTUPE F4??? haha~ Xi Kun looked innocent... >.<

After don’t know how long… (The first day seemed to pass very slow…) Our dinner came and it’s jap food!!! (I think so) After taking dinner, everyone of us started to feel a bit stress… nervous… EXCITED??? Haha~ depends… It was quite a successful one… ^.^ Great job everyone!!!

Second day, we met at can 2 bus stop again at 12pm. Ji Qing get her hair styled!!! @.@

Basically it was just the same as the first day, just that, the unfortunate thing is, Jia Yin get her neck sprain.

=.=” MRS LOW MASSAGE FOR HER!!! Oh my god!!! How precious is this???!!!

What else? Oh ya… Me, Siew Ping, Hui Chin and Mun Ling went to Vivocity as soon as we reached Esplanade. And, *proudly* we bought some snacks(POCKY!!!) and drinks for the members too!!! *APPLAUSE* hehehe~ thank you thank you!!! ^.^ I continue taking photo… everybody continue doing their stuff…

After dinner (PIZZA!!!), the atmosphere was getting abit… HIGH? Hmmm… Maybe it was the second night already, so everybody tried to show their best… appearance… piano performance… and…

*ah-hem* MISCHIEVOUS!!! x)

Yup! It was another successful one… successful(1^st night) + successful(2^nd night) = very successful ELEGANZA 2009!!! Ya… I believe that most of you will agree with me… Cheers for NTUPE!!! Looking forward to Eleganza 2010!!! ^.^

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Hi all,

Ever thought of being a piano accompanist? Here's a great opportunity!

A grade 8 clarinetist, Jocelyn is looking for a piano accompanist. Her examination period is around july to september, as of this moment it's still not fixed. Her pieces are first movement of a brahms sonata and the other is a 20th century/modern piece. I think the main problem wouldn't be the notes but more of the coordination with the clarinetist.

In case anyone's wondering, i'm going on an exchange so I can't help out. :X

So if anyone of you are interested or have any queries please send Jocelyn an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thanks!

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Use Post-It Arrows!

They can be useful to remind you rushing parts, wrong rhythms, troublesome stuff, and... 

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Have you ever been to a long long concert, about 3 hours, and complained that the concert is too long? Well, it is nothing compared to the longest concert in history...

There is an organ concert at Halberstadt, a small village in Germany, which started in 2001 and have NOT ended till now. It is scheduled to end in the next 639 years! John Cage, the avant-garde american pianist, composed the four-page music for the organ, titled "As Slow As Possible." And the performers take it literally- they played a chord for five and a half years, before continuing to another chord.

A video footage of the organ and the church is available at BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7880793.stm

 

Good day,

Adrianus

Tags: concert

Hello all members and performers,

Exactly 19 days from now we will be at Esplanade Recital Studio for two nights on 22nd and 23rd February 2009! (Jie might have to create countdown timer on the homepage to spur all of you on!)

Do keep up your practices and sell more tickets!

 

JY

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From this blog post, it can be concluded that the point of such piano lesson is to build and maintain relationship.

Tags: reference

Common [Stressful, Possibly Destructive] Suggestions

Why I call them stressful & possibly destructive? It's simply because they'll create more stress on the performers. This is just like... answer all exam questions 100% correct. Do you feel more stress?

Get all the notes correct

Try to listen to a pro's performance recording. Do you find any mistakes? No. Try again. Still no. Try again. Try again. Try again. Yes, they may have done some mistakes, e.g. missing notes, tempo inconsistency... but we can't figure the mistakes out at the first time we hear it! Perhaps you don't believe that, anyway... Those mistakes may still be unnoticeable after 20 times being heard :P

Who can tell whether we get all correct notes in a piece? Only the ones who hear it often... I guess...

Classical music is not normally heard often, so it should be safe to make some unnoticeable mistakes :P

[errr depends on the audience...]

Play fast and correctly

Fast tempo with mostly correct notes is the one that really amazes a lot of people. That builds people's [including performers?] perception that the good piece is fast.

Remember that getting correct notes plus fast tempo really requires a lot of time. We could get a lot of practice time when we were very very young. Now, most of us are focusing on non-music stuff. We have very very limited access, less time and little energy to practice.

Unless you can practice everyday or you have very good hand coordination, you should avoid learning pieces just to get fast tempo...

 

Effective Alternative!

Learn adding up dynamics by yourself

Dynamics = Loudness or softness [Amplitude difference]

p, pp, f, ff, crescendo, decrescendo... all those things are dynamics.

How to get dynamics??

Being told where dynamics should come everytime you learn pieces will not help you understand it...

Simply follow the notations given in the score. Unfortunately, the score sometimes do not have notation at all!

There is a simple unwritten rule. If notes are going up, crescendo should be made. Similarly, if notes are going down, decrescendo should be done. This is not absolutely correct, but this helps making pieces more interesting to hear.

Whether the notes are going up or down really depends on your 'level of view'. You can view in one measure, two measures, three.. but not too many,.

You can have dynamics in accompaniment and/or melody. When the melody is too short, accompaniment can help to create difference. 

Benefits!

Pieces will not sound boring.

Pieces will have 'life'.

Learning dynamics can develop your touch and sense of direction. [hmm I'd like to demonstrate this, but... err... -_-]

If you get dynamics by yourself first, you may have less comments from the instructor. This can give you another room to improve yourself in other areas. Moreover, you generously give time to other performers. :D

Good dynamics + some mistakes makes audience less bored rather than less dynamics + less mistakes.

Tags: how to

Some tips to practice…

I guess these may be Mrs. Low’s teaching pattern…

 

Notes

If we don’t get them mostly correct, she’ll tell us to practice. Don’t ever think of playing perfectly correct. Striving for perfectly correct notes is very stressful… There are some other else besides notes…

Rhythm, timing

Counting problems (incorrect timing, rushing, slowing down, being not together, polyrhythm difficulty) are very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very common.

Mrs. Low may not be keen on highlighting them. I guess she will only say something like “You must count” or “You should hear each other” (= a polite version of “use your ears!”).

The following are my own translation of those two common phrases:

“You must count” = Let your head plays a metronome for a while and follow it, or check the notes again.
“You should hear each other” = Follow partners, remind your partners if they are rushing or slowing down by playing the correct rhythm. If they can’t be reminded, ...follow them.

I think a bar of pause can be used to check whether the current rhythm is correct.

Dynamics, techniques

The hardest to teach, the hardest to get, yet the most beautiful part of music... [I even don't know what I'm talking about... hahaha]

She can start to touch your hands/wrists if some notes does not sound with the correct amplitude (too loud, too harsh, or too soft). If you don't do pedaling, she'll point you some places to do pedaling [pedal here and there, put your foot on pedal, etc.]. She can also ask you to visualize certain parts of pieces (if they can be visualized).

Techniques are something to get as exact as possible, so she will tell a lot if you do not get them correctly. [oh yeah, I'm one of the victims :P] Errrrrr but notes and rhythms must be correct first.

On the other hand, dynamics may be...somewhat free. So, putting own's interpretation is somewhat encouraged.
"Is that what you want?"
"You don't seen happy with it."
"Does it sound like what you want?"
"We can do either this or ...this. Which one do you prefer?" 

Well, sometimes it's not that free... If you want to be safe, try to copy dynamics from a lot of recordings.

 

Tempo

I guess this is rarely discussed… She can definitely tell our maximum tempo, though.

 

The pattern really makes sense, anyway...

Coming up with our own 4 things will boost progress during master class or rehearsal with Mrs. Low. It’s similar to reading lecture notes and coming up with one’s own understanding before a lecture.

But... don't think about this too much. Most of us are not from music major...

 

If she doesn’t give any comment, a miracle happens! XD
Of perhaps it's not the time for her to give comments... 

 

Handling nervousness is not taught. Please practice in front of your friends or any strangers to get used with it.

 

Anyway... now you can try to teach yourself...

 

Tags: how to

Hi.

A ex-NTUPE member, Vanessa, will be doing her Grade 3 Flute Exam in Feb/Mar and she is looking a piano accompanist for two pieces. Those who are interested, please contact Vanessa directly at 8133 8922.

Thanks!

Tags: Announcements

I'm so happy to hear that from Art, Design and Media Library blog!

To access the databases, login using NTU network account is needed.

Tags: library | pieces

National Library has came out with Digital Library, it includes Naxos Music Library, a digital repository where you can hear most Naxos label recordings for FREE.

Link: e-resources.nlb.gov.sg

In homepage, select "e-Books, Music, Children's Resources", on the next page select "Naxos Music Library."

 

Note that you have to be an NLB member to access the digital library.

 

Enjoy!

 

Best regards,

 

Adri

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Lang Lang played that on Carnegie Hall.

[wow Advanced Link is cool XD Thanks admin!]

At last, after I heard that recording more than 10 times, I found that...... He started with the tempo too fast. At 0:28 (measure 8), he slightly slows down to his own convenient tempo........ So, that's why sometime ago I found that at the recapitulation, he didn't use the same tempo as the beginning O_O

Anyway, I like how he played the piece [ehm.. excluding his face :P]

Another one... played by Hamelin.

He played faster than Lang Lang. But he used pedal a lot. This makes some notes quite unclear...

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It must be frustrating when copying something to this HTML editor from some word processors like ms word or so. Usually, fonts and arrangements change suddenly then. That happens because... Well, I don't know exactly why it happens though. But perhaps, it's because...

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Word#Layout_issues
  Hmm... no comment...
• HTML on screen and printable HTML page should use different font units.
  Screen is hardware, which can come with different specifications. Screen can have different resolutions. To make the HTML displayed on screen seems to have fonts and arrangements, relative units should be used. This is to keep the sizes are relatively consistent with different screen sizes.
  However, fonts on printable pages should not use relative units. If they use relative units, you can have different font sizes relative to the size of a sheet of paper! This, of course, should not happen. Therefore, fixed units (pt) is used for printable pages.
  Word processors are designed to create printable pages. So, they use fixed units.

Hmm.. ok. Forget about those technical stuff.

FYI, this is not formatted using word processor like ms word or so... this was formatted using HTML tags with help of a server-side scripting language of which hosting sites are quite expensive

 

What do you think about the formatting?

 

Master Class 5

Date: Tuesday, 21 October 2008
Time: 07:00pm-09:00pm
Venue: Nanyang House, Level 3, Music Room 2

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[1]	Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major Op. 47 Composer: Frédéric Chopin Performer: Phua Xi Kun

Chopin was inspired in many of his works by Adam Mickiewicz, and so he may have been when he wrote this ballade. It may have been written according to a ballade about a water nymph who wants to make sure that her beloved loves only her and so she changes her appearance and tries to seduce him. He follows her to the water where she drowns him. Chopin, in contrast to Mickiewicz, did not let her drown him and therefore this is probably the only 19th century ballade with a happy ending (as well as being the only ballade of Chopin's that ends on a major chord)

Chopin's ballade can be divided to three parts, in accordance with the poem's narrative:

In the first section (bars 1 to 51) there is a dialogue between the two people assuring each other about their love. The first two bars represent the girl's question; the urgency of this question is strengthened by the first tone being the dominant. The answer comes in the left hand in bars 3 and 4 and begins on the dominant as well. From bar 9 there are obvious doubts of the girl because she is not convinced about his love and she is thinking about the examination for the first time. Therefore it is far more dramatic and octaves in the right hand foretell the dance rhythm in the second part (mainly the beginning of the theme in bars 52 and 53). In bar 26 their parting begins.

The second part shows the dance of the nymph and her tempting of her beloved. The main theme of this part returns several times in different keys. At the end of this part (bar 212 and earlier) he yields to this temptation before the third part coda. Here Chopin's story differs from the Mickiewicz's poem. Chopin does not like the idea of drowning the man because he may have identified his love in the dancing nymph and he also wanted to show us a moral lesson. In this fairy tale he says that excessive distrust only assists us to succumb to temptations. In bar 213 the main theme from the first part returns in much more complicated chords. In bar 231 comes one of the themes of the second part (bar 116). Octave leaps and wrist/forearm rotation techniques are important in executing the piece properly.

Recording: Performer: Krystian Zimerman

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[2]	Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66 Composer: Frédéric Chopin Performer: Egil Bae

Fantaisie-Impromptu Op.66 is one of Frédéric Chopin's most well known pieces. Composed in 1834, it is a typical example of music from the romantic period, with large contrasts in tempo and dynamics.

Interestingly, Chopin requested the piece to never be published. He was probably feared of being accused of plagiarism, as there are some similarities to Beethoven's moonlight sonata, especially the 3rd movement. Despite of this request, the piece was published after Chopin's death.

Recordings:
Performer: Yundi Li
Performer: Vladimir Horowitz; Audio Only
Performer: Arthur Rubinstein; Audio Only

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[3]	Sonata No. 21 in C Major Op. 53 “Waldstein” – I Allegro con Brio Composer: Ludwig van Beethoven Performer: Nia Mutiara

This work was dedicated to Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein of Vienna, Beethoven's patron as well as close friend. Waldstein was also the one who arranged Beethoven to study with Haydn in Vienna.

French music lovers named the sonata L’Aurore (The Dawn). They interpreted the movements of the sonata as different moments of a day. The first movement is a pleasant yet noisy day. The second movement is a calm night, while the third movement is the dawn.

This technically challenging sonata was completed in the summer of 1804. It was made after Beethoven's personal crisis due to his recognition of deafness.

The sonata opens with repeated chords, played pianissimo. The second group [bar 35-73], marked dolce, is a sweet chordal theme in E major. For the recapitulation [bar 156-294], Beethoven transposes the second subject [bar 196-234] into A major, which quickly changes into A minor and then back to C major again. The piece ends in a heavy coda [bar 295-302].

References:
Waldstein Sonata on Wikipedia
http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/waldstein.html

Recording: Performer: Wilhelm Kempff; Audio Only

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Anybody consider this piece for Master Class or Eleganza ? :D

Tags: John Cage | David Tudor | piano