Dear ALL alumnus,
Please do spend sometime reading what I have posted.
First of all I would like to clear something. The Committee does NOT wish to post or react so strongly with this postponement of concert. ALL of us (whether committee or band members) do feel disappointed due to the postponement of the concert but I hope everyone do give a bit of thoughts to the others. It is unfair or waste of time or whatsoever you want to give word for it BUT I seriously hope that nobody feels that we are cheating on them. We do not cheat on our members, if we are to do that I don't see a need for us to spend so much time doing so many things,: posters, scores, tickets (let me tell you all the concert stuffs are all done except for booklet) and etc. We were still doing our very best till the very end or I should say, we are still doing this upcoming concert stuffs till the final decision of the postponement of the concert has been confirmed. I hope some member should reconsider the usage of the word "cheated" on this matter. If you think so then the committee and conductors too been "cheated" to work so hard and prepare for this concert. We do not feel cheated as we are really preparing it for real. I guess you yourself have seen how much and how hard we have worked. It does not do us good with the usage of the word. So please think carefully and think of others before you are sure in using certain words that will directly or indirectly "cancel out" all the efforts the others have been contributing to the band, be it committee or the band members.
As part of the Alumni band, I guess you are very very clear about our alumni band stand and position in the school. We are trying our best to have the best outcome for everything for the band already. All of you are contributing to these outcomes too. So please let us WORK TOGETHER and produce even better things with what we have now. I believe we will be able to have what we want soon.
NOBODY is to be blamed for this, NOBODY wants this postponement, so we just need to work out the best with what we have. ^^
* If any of our members think the committee react too strongly over this, I would like to apologize on behalf BUT do bear in mind that we are not those that will react so strongly or make a big fuss out of anything whenever we want. Most of the time I am the only one doing the "nagging" and "complaining". Now you have the other committee members posting too, you all should know the seriousness. Thus, I would like to apologize on behalf if all think we have over react. I would like to remind our members once again about the usage of word too. You may be expressing your own feeling,we know. Definitely we welcome and accept all the things you all want to feedback to us but do make sure you choose an appropriate word. ^^
I know everyone is disappointed BUT PLEASE TAKE NOTE THIS CONCERT IS NOT CANCELLED!
I do hope everyone can take note IT IS POSTPONED BUT NOT CANCELLED. ALL are supposed to still practice their own parts for those pieces and as well as other pieces that will be given to you all soon for the next concerts.
let's JIA YOU TOGETHER! ^^
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2. mssba in 2008.
I have roughly named some of the events for 2008 for the alumni band in the last practice. We will be sending out emails to you all for the FINALIZED events and plans for mssba in 08. We hope all members give their fullest co-operation with us. We do not wish to tax everyone too much SO we hope everyone can give their fullest support.
Be Present for the designated practices given by us THUS we save on time to RE-DO pieces over and over again. Going Through the same mistakes or different members over and over again. I guess it won't help us very much. When we have practice, I hope all members can spend some of their time to come down for pract. Let us MAXIMISE the "yield". I guess none of us would like to go through same mistakes over and over again. If everyone comes and settle all these thing, we won't need to spend or waste so much time. The pieces we are playing are getting more and more difficult. This is the thing I hope all members to cooperate with us.
* Those members that have been slacking to much or trying to skip our practs please think again. You are one of the people that has caused the band to have such little improvement and drop in morale. I don't see a reason why MSSBA will play badly when we have good players and good conductors. I seriously hope, those members that can only think of skipping pract or slacking to reflect on their own. If it is due to exams or family matters or any other emergency, it is excusable but if it is because that you are lazy or whatsoever, I guess you are NOT being very fair to the others that have been coming.
SO ALL MEMBERS, PLEASE DO MAKE AN EFFORT TO COME DOWN FOR EVERY SINGLE PRACTICE!
This band is will not be complete WITHOUT anyone of you.
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3. Absence from practice.
I do hope all members are POLITE enough to inform us if YOU ARE UNABLE TO attend ANY PRACTICES. I guess it is a BASIC COURTESY to tell us if you are not going to be present for practice. It is very difficult for us to tell the conductors when some of you never even tell us you are going to miss the practice.
So please inform us if you are going to miss any pract. I don't think we are that unapproachable.
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4. 15th April 2008, ESPLANADE CONCERT.
Please do help to promote for this concert even though we do not need to sell tickets. Thank you very much.
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That's the end of my nagging. Thank you for reading...
and...
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Let's us JIA YOU for our future projects. We have done quite a few and let us continue! Everyone! GOGO! ^^
Fredy
maris stella symphonic band alumni
~the legacy continues~
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
My First Words
Hi. This will be the first time I am making an entry in this blog so i would like to say Hi to those who frequent this blog to get updates for the alumni band activities.
Well, who am I you ask?
Clement here. Some of you may have seen me before. I am a Trumpeter from the '03 batch, which is Fredy's batch. I can be considered the Alumni Band President now although i believe i need a lot of guidance from Mr. Lin, Mr. Chiang, Fredy and many more.. So i am still in the learning and if i do make mistakes, pls forgive me and i will improve day by day.. Hopefully.. haha..
Anyways, Before i made this entry, i have been frequently visiting the blog and i believe this blog has been a very good means of communication between members, regardless of committee members, alumni members and main band band members. This is also a good place to give all your suggestions and opinions. So keep it up!! We will also keep u posted of the things happening in the near future.
I would also have to apologise to you all for not being able to attend the few recent band pracs. Reason being i just had an operation on my ankle, and i am not able to walk. My cast has been removed, but i still cant walk yet because they sort of restructured my ankle so i need to learn how to walk again. Hopefully i can go back to prac in mid to late november. I am dying to go out. Cooped up at home for nearly two months is driving me crazy.
Coming to a more serious note, i wanna address the issue of the Jan Concert as well. i have heard that people feel "cheated" and are not happy about this issue. I am sure Fredy has explained to you all the reasons for this postpone. I hope you all should know that we also do not want this concert to be postponed. We know that you all have put in a lot of effort in the preparation of this concert. We are aware of this effort as we have seen the band improve prac by prac. Then the plans were scrapped because there were just too many clashes on the concert day itself. I want you to know that not only you have this feeling, we also feel the pain. It's like an expectant mother who is about to give birth suddenly had a miscarriage. We feel as upset as you do. Also taking from what Haryl has said, we did not withhold any information that you all ought to know. Nor did we wait until now the we break the news to you. We would have told you all sooner if all this happened earlier but this is not the case. This happened now unexpectedly and we told it to you all as soon as we have got the chance. Indeed, we are going through a rough patch right now. That is why we need this band to stay together. The committee has made so many other productions successful. So why not have a little more faith in us and believe in us? Only when we brave through this together will we cross this hurdle. I earnestly ask for your understanding in this matter.
But, on a more positive note. I would like to tell you all that all your efforts that you all have been putting in for the past months will not be for naught. The pieces that you all have been practicing will not be shelved just because this concert has been postponed. We will most certainly use them in time to come. I hope that this will cheer you all up.
Another issue i would like to address would be the regularity of attendance of band pracs. Yes, I know that this is an alumni band and we are giving you free will of your attendance. However, i would like to point out that a band is made up of the people who are in the band. A band will cease to exist if there aren't any members in the band. Although I know that you all, including myself, have heard this phrase a lot of times: "It does not matter whether you have a lot of good players on each section. A band will only be as good as the weakest member the band has." Harsh, but true. That is why attending band practices are so important in the development of the band. I quote from what Haryl has said:
"I am quite certain that all of us who have attended the practices have experience some degree of improvement, whether it is individually or as a section or as a band in whole. if any of you think that you (or your section) have not improved, den perhaps its time to think about how you have been spending your time during all these Saturday afternoons. have you been just fooling around? could you have put in more effort and concentration during practices but you just chose not to?hence, pls dun think that the time was wasted."
What Haryl has said is absolutely true. As long as you come for pracs, and if you put in effort and concentration, you will find yourself more familiar with the piece and you will definitely improve on the pieces that you have been practising on. And if you find that no improvement has been made, you should also be the first one to realise that not enough effort was put into improving yourself. I am not asking you all to improve straight away after one hour of individual prac. or sectionals. As long as you put in that effort to improve yourself, you will see the results, regardless of how long you might take.
For that, I really would like to commend on not one, not two, not three, but all of you for your efforts to the band. I have really seen this band grow. We came so far together and we have grown so much. Think about it.. From the simple idea of making music together, we have organised annual concerts, and now, we have gone as far as participating in Competitions, both locally and on an international level, and we came back with good results. These acheivements are the results of YOUR EFFORT, not the committee. And i would like to urge you all to continue this effort of yours, to keep the band at it's current standard. Only when we see this will the committee be able to take a step further to bring the band to greater heights.
Yours Sincerely,
Ng Zi Hau, Clement
President
Maris Stella Symphonic Band Alumni
Well, who am I you ask?
Clement here. Some of you may have seen me before. I am a Trumpeter from the '03 batch, which is Fredy's batch. I can be considered the Alumni Band President now although i believe i need a lot of guidance from Mr. Lin, Mr. Chiang, Fredy and many more.. So i am still in the learning and if i do make mistakes, pls forgive me and i will improve day by day.. Hopefully.. haha..
Anyways, Before i made this entry, i have been frequently visiting the blog and i believe this blog has been a very good means of communication between members, regardless of committee members, alumni members and main band band members. This is also a good place to give all your suggestions and opinions. So keep it up!! We will also keep u posted of the things happening in the near future.
I would also have to apologise to you all for not being able to attend the few recent band pracs. Reason being i just had an operation on my ankle, and i am not able to walk. My cast has been removed, but i still cant walk yet because they sort of restructured my ankle so i need to learn how to walk again. Hopefully i can go back to prac in mid to late november. I am dying to go out. Cooped up at home for nearly two months is driving me crazy.
Coming to a more serious note, i wanna address the issue of the Jan Concert as well. i have heard that people feel "cheated" and are not happy about this issue. I am sure Fredy has explained to you all the reasons for this postpone. I hope you all should know that we also do not want this concert to be postponed. We know that you all have put in a lot of effort in the preparation of this concert. We are aware of this effort as we have seen the band improve prac by prac. Then the plans were scrapped because there were just too many clashes on the concert day itself. I want you to know that not only you have this feeling, we also feel the pain. It's like an expectant mother who is about to give birth suddenly had a miscarriage. We feel as upset as you do. Also taking from what Haryl has said, we did not withhold any information that you all ought to know. Nor did we wait until now the we break the news to you. We would have told you all sooner if all this happened earlier but this is not the case. This happened now unexpectedly and we told it to you all as soon as we have got the chance. Indeed, we are going through a rough patch right now. That is why we need this band to stay together. The committee has made so many other productions successful. So why not have a little more faith in us and believe in us? Only when we brave through this together will we cross this hurdle. I earnestly ask for your understanding in this matter.
But, on a more positive note. I would like to tell you all that all your efforts that you all have been putting in for the past months will not be for naught. The pieces that you all have been practicing will not be shelved just because this concert has been postponed. We will most certainly use them in time to come. I hope that this will cheer you all up.
Another issue i would like to address would be the regularity of attendance of band pracs. Yes, I know that this is an alumni band and we are giving you free will of your attendance. However, i would like to point out that a band is made up of the people who are in the band. A band will cease to exist if there aren't any members in the band. Although I know that you all, including myself, have heard this phrase a lot of times: "It does not matter whether you have a lot of good players on each section. A band will only be as good as the weakest member the band has." Harsh, but true. That is why attending band practices are so important in the development of the band. I quote from what Haryl has said:
"I am quite certain that all of us who have attended the practices have experience some degree of improvement, whether it is individually or as a section or as a band in whole. if any of you think that you (or your section) have not improved, den perhaps its time to think about how you have been spending your time during all these Saturday afternoons. have you been just fooling around? could you have put in more effort and concentration during practices but you just chose not to?hence, pls dun think that the time was wasted."
What Haryl has said is absolutely true. As long as you come for pracs, and if you put in effort and concentration, you will find yourself more familiar with the piece and you will definitely improve on the pieces that you have been practising on. And if you find that no improvement has been made, you should also be the first one to realise that not enough effort was put into improving yourself. I am not asking you all to improve straight away after one hour of individual prac. or sectionals. As long as you put in that effort to improve yourself, you will see the results, regardless of how long you might take.
For that, I really would like to commend on not one, not two, not three, but all of you for your efforts to the band. I have really seen this band grow. We came so far together and we have grown so much. Think about it.. From the simple idea of making music together, we have organised annual concerts, and now, we have gone as far as participating in Competitions, both locally and on an international level, and we came back with good results. These acheivements are the results of YOUR EFFORT, not the committee. And i would like to urge you all to continue this effort of yours, to keep the band at it's current standard. Only when we see this will the committee be able to take a step further to bring the band to greater heights.
Yours Sincerely,
Ng Zi Hau, Clement
President
Maris Stella Symphonic Band Alumni
Postpone of Jan Concert
Hi, this is Haryl here. i would just like to comment on this issue of the postponing of the jan concert.
firstly, to the members who have been attending practices regularly, we are of course thankful that you have been coming for pract. i would not deny that you guys have not contributed. rather, its great that you all have been coming for pract. However, pls understand that we were ALL under the impression that we were practicing for a concert in jan which was supposed to be of quite 'high standards', none of us expected this to happen. neither did the committee withheld any information from you guys intentionally. therefore, if you are feeling upset, 'cheated', disappointed, angry etc. , pls try to be a bit more understanding as to how the ppl, who have worked hard behind the background to prepare for all this, would feel when these comments are directed at them. put yourself in their position and imagine how you would feel. they did put in just as much effort as you guys did. i hope that as members of this band, we can be more gracious to each other, regardless of whether you are in the committee or not. just a bit more sensitivity would do everyone good. 忍一时风平浪静，退一步海阔天空。
Definitely, i did not expect all of you guys to be totally void of any negative emotions when you heard the news, i also understand that you have sacrificed numerous Saturday afternoons to come for practices. if you are under the impression that all your efforts have amounted to nothing, den i would say that even if the concert were still to be 'on', all your efforts would still have amounted to nothing.
why do i say that? well, if the time spent in practice have not resulted in any improvement (individually or as a section or as a band in whole), den it would not matter whether the concert is postponed or not, because all the time spent would still be wasted.
Even if you claim that you could play the pieces perfectly(which i doubt anyone would dare to do so) even before coming for all the practices, den are you able to say with conviction that your section could play the pieces perfectly prior to all the practices?
I am quite certain that all of us who have attended the practices have experience some degree of improvement, whether it is individually or as a section or as a band in whole. if any of you think that you (or your section) have not improved, den perhaps its time to think about how you have been spending your time during all these Saturday afternoons. have you been just fooling around? could you have put in more effort and concentration during practices but you just chose not to?
hence, pls dun think that the time was wasted.
well, having said all that above, i would like to appeal to ALL members, regardless of whether you have been coming regularly or not, please do come for practices.
a band is only made up of all its members, without you guys, this band cannot exist. if you choose not to come, den what would become of the band? furthermore, its unfair to those who have been coming for practices regularly.
even if we dun have a conductor to facilitate combined band practice, we can still do sectionals or individual practice.
we came together and formed this band for a reason. i hope we all remember that its to make music together as ex-members from the sec sch band. skipping practices would NOT help us to make music together. fine, even if our standards are not acceptable enough to term it as music, at least we can improve and learn. what about all our previous achievements together(WMC, NBC ..), are you going to just let them fade away?
If you guys are still worked up over this issue, let us all calm down, and move on. if you guys are not worked up over this anymore, den great, let us focus and work on our future plans.
Regards,
Haryl
firstly, to the members who have been attending practices regularly, we are of course thankful that you have been coming for pract. i would not deny that you guys have not contributed. rather, its great that you all have been coming for pract. However, pls understand that we were ALL under the impression that we were practicing for a concert in jan which was supposed to be of quite 'high standards', none of us expected this to happen. neither did the committee withheld any information from you guys intentionally. therefore, if you are feeling upset, 'cheated', disappointed, angry etc. , pls try to be a bit more understanding as to how the ppl, who have worked hard behind the background to prepare for all this, would feel when these comments are directed at them. put yourself in their position and imagine how you would feel. they did put in just as much effort as you guys did. i hope that as members of this band, we can be more gracious to each other, regardless of whether you are in the committee or not. just a bit more sensitivity would do everyone good. 忍一时风平浪静，退一步海阔天空。
Definitely, i did not expect all of you guys to be totally void of any negative emotions when you heard the news, i also understand that you have sacrificed numerous Saturday afternoons to come for practices. if you are under the impression that all your efforts have amounted to nothing, den i would say that even if the concert were still to be 'on', all your efforts would still have amounted to nothing.
why do i say that? well, if the time spent in practice have not resulted in any improvement (individually or as a section or as a band in whole), den it would not matter whether the concert is postponed or not, because all the time spent would still be wasted.
Even if you claim that you could play the pieces perfectly(which i doubt anyone would dare to do so) even before coming for all the practices, den are you able to say with conviction that your section could play the pieces perfectly prior to all the practices?
I am quite certain that all of us who have attended the practices have experience some degree of improvement, whether it is individually or as a section or as a band in whole. if any of you think that you (or your section) have not improved, den perhaps its time to think about how you have been spending your time during all these Saturday afternoons. have you been just fooling around? could you have put in more effort and concentration during practices but you just chose not to?
hence, pls dun think that the time was wasted.
well, having said all that above, i would like to appeal to ALL members, regardless of whether you have been coming regularly or not, please do come for practices.
a band is only made up of all its members, without you guys, this band cannot exist. if you choose not to come, den what would become of the band? furthermore, its unfair to those who have been coming for practices regularly.
even if we dun have a conductor to facilitate combined band practice, we can still do sectionals or individual practice.
we came together and formed this band for a reason. i hope we all remember that its to make music together as ex-members from the sec sch band. skipping practices would NOT help us to make music together. fine, even if our standards are not acceptable enough to term it as music, at least we can improve and learn. what about all our previous achievements together(WMC, NBC ..), are you going to just let them fade away?
If you guys are still worked up over this issue, let us all calm down, and move on. if you guys are not worked up over this anymore, den great, let us focus and work on our future plans.
Regards,
Haryl
Postpone of Jan Concert
This is in response to the Jan Concert. The concert is postponed due to some unforseen reasons. The Committee has already elaborated on the reasons during yesterday's practice.
The committee needs to say afew words about this issue. We deeply regret that the concert has been postponed. But, it has been hurtful hearing things like "cheated" on the tag.
We had not cheated on our members. If we did, the scores would not have appeared during your practices. Also, we appeal to others who think very highly of themselves.
During exam periods, we never force members to come. Take an example last week, some of the members went for a concert and thus skipping alumni practice. But we did not force them to come, we only replied "enjoy your concert".
If members think we have wasted their time, we ought to say the committee have wasted more time. The planning, contacting of the conductors, booking of venue, printing of scores, messaging the members practice time. All these require time and effort. So the time members spend in this band is so insignificant as to compared to the committee.
We feel some of the members are taking things for granted and we hope they do a reflection on themselves about how much effort they have put into this band as to compared to the committee as well as other members who sacrificed their time to come for practices every week.
We hope all our members to think about the many things the committee has made possible like WMC'05, NBC'06, the annual concerts. Much effort has been put by the committee so we feel its unjust to judge us after this issue.
Next, we would also like to thank those members who had taken the extra effort to come down for practices. Although the concert is postponed, your efforts have not gone to waste. We thank you once again for your relentless support for this band.
Zhen Cheng
Logistics Head
Maris Stella Symphonic Band Alumni
The committee needs to say afew words about this issue. We deeply regret that the concert has been postponed. But, it has been hurtful hearing things like "cheated" on the tag.
We had not cheated on our members. If we did, the scores would not have appeared during your practices. Also, we appeal to others who think very highly of themselves.
During exam periods, we never force members to come. Take an example last week, some of the members went for a concert and thus skipping alumni practice. But we did not force them to come, we only replied "enjoy your concert".
If members think we have wasted their time, we ought to say the committee have wasted more time. The planning, contacting of the conductors, booking of venue, printing of scores, messaging the members practice time. All these require time and effort. So the time members spend in this band is so insignificant as to compared to the committee.
We feel some of the members are taking things for granted and we hope they do a reflection on themselves about how much effort they have put into this band as to compared to the committee as well as other members who sacrificed their time to come for practices every week.
We hope all our members to think about the many things the committee has made possible like WMC'05, NBC'06, the annual concerts. Much effort has been put by the committee so we feel its unjust to judge us after this issue.
Next, we would also like to thank those members who had taken the extra effort to come down for practices. Although the concert is postponed, your efforts have not gone to waste. We thank you once again for your relentless support for this band.
Zhen Cheng
Logistics Head
Maris Stella Symphonic Band Alumni
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