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