A Problem That I Encounted and How I Solved It

I thought that this topic was the hardest to write about. But THEN! Eureka! I could write about my mental block being the problem. So the story goes like this… I was stuck thinking about what to write for my final post. I read and read other’s blogs and still came up with nothing to write about. I got an idea. Perhaps I could copy someone’s blog and change the names and words. However, integrity was important to me. I knew that it was not right to plagiarize other’s works so I sat in front of my computer and started to think about which topic or rather theme I should talk about. So then I entered the websites that the English teacher, Miss Tan Yin Leng, recommended. Unfortunately, the websites did not seem helpful. I was in despair and paced around the house thinking about what to write. Joel, my good friend (not from Victoria), suggested that I try something most people would not think about. So I thought out-of-the-box. Lo and behold I thought of the simplest idea. Because people think so hard try all they can but forget about the most obvious thing. You see, the topic is ‘A problem I encountered and how I solved it.’ The problem is me not knowing how to or what to blog about. Thus, this post sums up the problem I encountered and how I solved it by stating the problem by itself. Now I have a problem that I can solve.

Something I enjoy doing with my family

My family and I love to do many things together. The simplest things we do are sometimes the ones that knit our family close together. This ‘normal’ thing I am talking about is called dinner. Yes! The meal that people cannot live without. People think that breakfast is important but dinner is the meal that the entire family can enjoy together. No matter how horrible the food tastes, (no offence, Mom) we will all sit together and enjoy each others’ company. Love is the ingredient that makes food taste great. We go to many places to makan (eat in Malay). For example, we went to Malaysia last year and had a whale of a time. Of course, we ate many delicacies at KL and visited a close friend of my mother. They gave us a tour of Subang, a town in Malaysia. Over there we ate great food like Chilli Crab, Chicken Rice

(not the usual type) and Bak Kut Teh (herbal pork stew)

. We also had fun bartering with shopkeepers. We bought a couple of T-shirts and jeans for cousins and friends at a very reasonable price. We also went ice-skating. I was confident of not wetting my pants…no, no, no, I mean falling on the ice and getting my pants wet To my dismay, I did indeed get wet. Anyway, that was the one moment where I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My family would agree. Family does indeed does play an important role in one’s growing up years. Cheerio, Jay

Something I Enjoy Doing Alone (2)

I thought that I might tell you about the classical concerts I attend. Concerts are like watching a movie but the difference is that in concerts you can see or rather hear the mistakes made by the performers. The reason why I attend concerts is explained in my previous blog entry (For those who have not I think you should read it). Recent classical concerts I have attended are like ‘SSO 32nd ANNIVERSARY CONCERT’, ‘From my Life’ and a casual concert by the SSO too. (By the way, SSO is our very own Singapore Symphony Orchestra) I had also gone for one by the Bradell Heights on New Year’s Eve. It was titled Nodame Live. Nodame is a Japanese movie about a conductor, a gifted pianist and a few orchestra members. So the programme that night included music in the classical and baroque era. (You should know what it is if you read my previous post :D) Anyway, just to share with you my experiences in concert halls. Most of them are quite detestable. Here is one of them… There was one concert last year entitled ‘Magic of Brahms’ also by the SSO. Two overly-excited teenage girls were discussing a bit too loudly during the concert

. The problem was that the piece by Brahms included a sudden pause then continuation. During that pause the entire concert hall (it was the Victoria Concert Hall)

could hear this two girls chatting away. It must have been embarrassing for them but it irritated me that the melodious music was interrupted by this two girls. Some people would ask me,’ why do you enjoy going to concerts?’ My answer is because of my love for music and the inquisitiveness in me. I want to be exposed to different types of music and recognise most of them instantly. However just going to concerts would not increase one’s knowledge in the world of music. One has to do research and read up on music. Music is alive. Meaning it changes over time and does not remain stagnant. Reading up on the history of music is also another moment of time I spend alone of which I enjoy.

Something I Enjoy Doing Alone

I enjoy going for classical concerts. It improves my knowledge of pieces composed in the 4 eras of classical music- Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Pop Music. Let me elaborate and explain further. During the Baroque era (, keyboard music played on the harpsichord and pipe organ. A harpsichord

is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. It also produces detached notes (a tip for piano players when you play Bach, play quavers detached :D) Composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Some composers are Bach (my favourite), Telemann, George Frideric Handel, Antonio Vivaldi and many more. Well-known pieces during that period are, for example, Concerto Grosso ( Christmas Concerto) by Angelo Corelli and The 4 Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi. I can actually tell you more but perhaps in another entry. So if you want more musical nuggets (or fries haha… ) you must follow this blog, comment, ask questions and keep reading. Moving on to the classical period (1750-1830). The term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or seventeenth to the nineteenth. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven were the famous most well-known composers in the entire world of music and are from the classical period. You can ask MOST people and they would tell you “ Oh! Beethoven! Isn’t he the composer long time ago ?” Classical music has a lighter, clearer texture than Baroque music and is less complex. It is mainly homophonic — melody above chordal accompaniment (but counterpoint is by no means forgotten, especially later in the classical period). Variety is more obvious and contrast can be noticed more easily. Keys, melodies, rhythms and dynamics (using crescendo, diminuendo and sforzando) were more common in the classical period. Now the romantic period(1800-1910)…You can roughly tell from the name what kind of music is being played… Romantic! But romanticism does not necessarily refer to romantic love, though that theme was prevalent in many works composed during this time period, both in literature, painting or music. Romantic music was a movement evolved from the formats, genres and musical ideas established in earlier periods, such as the classical period, and went further in the name of expression and syncretism of different art-forms with music. Famous composers are Niccolò Paganini(was known for his exceptional skill in playing the violin, and composing what people call crazy pieces. People believed him when he said he sold his soul to the devil to get the skill.) , Franz Schubert, Chopin (pronounced Sho-pun, I added this so you might not be like a joke when you pronounce it wrongly :D ) , Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff ( you can check out my dog singing to one of his piece in my previous entry). Finally, the contemporary music period. To sum it up, it is the songs you here the moment you turn on the radio. This is the amount of knowledge you can gain from attending concerts of course not just listening but researching and reading the programme notes. (Just for fun: You can get a good laugh, if you need one, by searching for ‘viola jokes’) Till the next entry, JJ

Something unusual that happened (English Blog Assignment)

I love playing the violin. But performing and practicing is a whole lot different from each other. The performance is the sharp sword and practicing is where we sharpen the bluntest of swords. In music, we usually go into our studio and start practicing. Be it scales, etudes (exercises) or our repertoire, we still aim for the same goal. That is PERFECTION.
Don't you find it boring playing the same old thing? What I mean is that won't we find it tiresome to play it alone? The first time I saw the theme of the blog, I wondered...Wait the alone part means like Me and Me alone? In other words, no other humans doing it with me. However, Dogs are not HUMANS. So I decided that just blogging about practicing the violin would not make much sense because... WHO LIKES PRACTICING? Okay maybe some BUUUTTT when we add another dimension to it, it changes a lot. And this 4th dimension that I am talking about is Accompaniment.
My dog a Shih Tzu

which loves to sing, especially when I start to practice my violin. Jussi, my dog, is what some people call a prodigy, but I just call him my accompanist. When I start to play the hard parts of songs, he would join in and sing.

Many would ponder:" Wow! How do you train your dog to do that?" My answer? I did not teach him to sing. That was the unusal thing that happened. I was listening to a radio, Symphony 92.4(a radio station that plays classical music), one day where unexpectedly he started whimpering. I ran over to check what was wrong but found nothing. Later, it dawned on me that my dog could SING! Subsequently he started to sing along when I practiced and he sang in tune too! How unusual! Here is a video of him singing to a part of Rachmaninoff's Danse Hongroise. Enjoy!

My dog has had a long history and a pretty unfortunate one. The first owners were a young couple. Due to some committments they could not take care of Jussi. they then left him in a pet shop and paid the shop keeper to take care of Jussi. The shop keeper suggested that they put Jussi up for adoption. Somehow Jussi ended up in my mother's long lost friend whom later gave it to me as a Christmas gift. Since then I have spent 3 1/2 years with my beloved dog.

Something That Took Place in School (English Blog Assignment)

               Last Friday's 4th Victorian 'Lohei' dinner was great. The teachers enjoyed themselves and so did I. The Parents' Support Group, a.k.a PSG, put together a wonderful evening of fun and games. The two main characters that orchestrated the event was Aunty I-Lin and Uncle KC our emcees that night. At this point of time, you may ask questions like 'Wait, where is the part where you come in?' or 'I thought that no children where allowed that night?'. Be patient my dear readers your questions would be answered soon, I promise. But first I would like to share with you that night's events.

              The night kicked off with a 8-song repertoire by our very own Victoria School Chinese Orchestra. They played a medley of Chinese New Year tunes. Well-known ones like 恭喜，恭喜  and 新年到( both familiar tunes you can hear while walking down Chinatown) where delivered and well-received. Following that was a 8-course meal. The second dish was the traditional Lohei. Lohei is a dish where different ingredients were mixed together with chopsticks.

Each ingredient had a phrase of blessing behind it. For example, ‘年年有钰(yu)’ means having prosperity every year but 'yu' also means fish. So the ingredient is sashimi. 
             "Knock,knock, where is the part where you come in? "Here is. I was asked to perform a few magic tricks to entertain the crowd. Of course I agreed. My arsenal of tricks include Linkin' Rings,

some rope tricks and street magic... of course not forgetting the old faithful card tricks. I tricked Ms Sharma into being my volunteer. Our conversation was something like
            " Ms Sharma, do you mind rasing up your hand for a moment? Yes, thank you."
            ( She gives me a quizzical look but obliges.)
            " For my next trick I need a volunteer..... Oh thank you Ms Sharma for helping me."
            The entire room broke into laughter. I am still smiling as I recall this incident. So now I have answered your question...I hope am sure. The evening included a test on the teachers' knowledge on the school's history. The most exciting part was the bunny dress up. There was also a lucky draw that saw teachers like Ms Tan Jia Ying winning a DVD player and Mr David Lee winning a Nokia C7 Phone, both sponsored by PSG members. Other prizes were also won.
             That was an enjoyable evening. Everyone went home with two mandarin oranges. I was commended by Mr Loh our Principal

. Everyone went home happy but the PSG members were exhausted. I thouroughly enjoyed myself also. ;D

Day 1

Yay!! Today I have done and created my first ever blog. Creating a playlist for music ( which I personally like :-D) and a chatbox for future followers to imput their comments or communicate with me is really cool... AWESOME. Not bad I must say... I am really proud of myself to achieve such a feat... hehe. Now to get some eye-shutting... and get ready for tommorrow's CCA. Cherrio!!!