TJC guitar concert

The first guitar concert that I visited was Temasek Guitar concert. And they actually played the song "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" before! It's on the 30th April 04.



Their president, Ryan Kong, was a good friend of my brother somemore. Remembered him always smiling throughout the concert! Cool! It's hard to keep smiling all the time, furthermore, it's a concert!



Thanks Sharon for the Pic. That's Ryan(Right). Someone with numerous positive traits! Cheers! The left guy is none other than Mr Liauw!

They were also one of the few schools whom got the Gold in the year 2003. Looks like they got the Wow Factor!

Commitee at work!

Well, the first task given to us was to come up with a guitar T-shirt, a collar pin, we even came up with designs of a guitar pick! Both the guitar pick and the collar pin did not materialise. However, the guitar Tee was definitely a work of art and I suppose I'm not wrong to say that we are all proud of the Guitar Tee. It is something that represents us! Furthermore, it is definitely one of the nicest around in MJC! Or rather, through all the JCs! No doubt about that! We had skillful designers like Charlene and Shu Yan to make sure of that!



Isn't the guitar Tee just nice!

Here's the "rejects"



See! Even the rejects are so beautiful! Look at the artists of Guitar Ensemble!

Commitee Rally

The commitee rally for Guitar Ensemble of Merdian came before many other CCAs. Reason being, we did not need to wait for our seniors to step as apparantly, we are the pioneer batch of guitarists that manage to survive every ordeal!

On that very fateful day, I did not have a speech in hand. It was impromtu, even though I did think of some points to say, and some points to take note. There was no rehearsal or whatsoever. There were 11 spots chased after by 15 members. I realised my speech was rather irrelevant after the council election, because the things that I said are not saying how I will help benefit the CCA, but is like a form of self introduction. Only 1 sentence is relevant:"Together, let's scale Guitar to greater height." Haha! I mention I was from NCC and council, and I remembered Ci Yuan was from NCC and Council too, similarly, We were both staff sgt. as well as Com. in Council. Such a coincidence! Well, anyway, I suppose my plentiful hand gestures did help me in one way or another, whether it was to attract attention or to show that I am confident of myself, or if that was just to help me keep calm. I managed to squeeze through the rally. Another reason could be that, I was the only one placing "Secretary" as first choice option. The other was Mei Jie, who placed it in second choice option. [I do have good memory!]

Thoughts: I'm very grateful to be elected as this open up a brand new chapter of my life and made staying in guitar more memorable and fruitful. Come to think of it, it is even more prestigious than being a staff sgt. and council com. There are only 14 guitar secretarists in the whole of Singapore in that year, the number may even be 13! However, there are so many hundreds of staff sgts, and council people around! Being the secretary also gave me valuable insights on stuff and allowed me to continue taking up leadership positions. I gained lotsa experience working with the commitee too. I was taught many valuable skills, eg. how to type a note of meeting even before PW taught us! This is also one reason why guitar mean so much to me, and also, why I was so attached to guitar, why I adore guitar so much, why I was so enthu about it. Thanks for giving me this opportunity, and I really treasure it!

The commitee members are:
Chair -- Jun Kit
Vice Chair -- Cheryl
Secretary -- Han Zhong
Treasurer -- Bibi
Student conductors -- Johanna
-- David
Quarter master -- Jonathan
Quarter mistress -- Fazlinda
Publicity Head -- Mei Jie
Section Leader -- Dody



There's some stuff that I had to do immediately after being appointed. That was to type out the Note of meeting on that day, the commitee contact list, plan the relay system, the particulars of members, etc. Subsequently, I need to find out the birthdays from every single one of you, and type out all notes of meetings. Other than that, it is actually quite an easy task. Oh yah, not forgetting need to set up music stand for Mr Liauw, and occasionally help the chairs do some stuff when both of them have something on, which is rare. However, all these are enjoyable and fun! Haha!

First guitar performance

Well, this was after the first 3 months, I suppose. Guitar was to perform an opening act for English Drama. We played Yesterday and Dahil Saiyo. It was out in the open "balcony" of MJC. The principals came to support Drama of course, however, it is inevitable of them not to watch the Guitar Performance if we were the opening act. I don't suppose I have any pictures of this performance though.

Thoughts: I think I did not play that well, even though those were relative easy songs. The panic factor had always been there. However, I suppose the overall feel is not that bad!

That was the first exposure to MJC students and teachers telling them that MJC guitar ensemble is around!

Recruitment and Orientation for second intake

Recruitment

Yup, a particulars list, and a table was all we had for recruitment. However, with the enthusism of the people, always going around and pulling people to our booth, enticing them with a small and soft guitar "performance", we managed to rope in 50 odd members. Mr Ng is so proud of us that he gave us the very first treat--> Swensen! Inside Swensen, I remember meeting Johanna, Mei Jie and Rebecca. Rebecca I remembered because she was a former guitarist in her Sec School. Mei Jie cause she was the publicity of Library in her former school, Johanna was just that "What, you mean you did not know her throughout the first 3 months?" Haha! Anyway, Mr Ng already like to split the cliques up and have them sit at different corners! Haha!



Orientation
As I stayed on, there was this privllege to "run" the second orientation. I suppose I took part in it because people like Cheryl and Jun Kit are sort of in charge for it. (Ya, they already harbour thoughts of vice president at this point of time. Haha! Yah, Vice pres, neither wanted to be Chair.) Well, all I remember was that we played a running and chasing game, and the person that I could remember running the most was actually Elaine Toh! Frankly speaking, I doubt that it is a good game for interaction and ice breaking because not everyone could be part of it. (As in not everyone was "tagged") So it may be boring for some. However, It exposed me to more people, and well, that was the start with the current batch of Guitar Ensemble members whom rock my life!

Thoughts at this point of time was that actually, guitar members already have passion for guitar. Throughout the recruitment, the commitment for guitar could already be seen. Started to look at guitar in a different light after orientation. It may not be my cup of tea, however, the people are worth making friends with!

Life in the first 3 months

I can't remember much about this though. I remembered this guy, (I think his name was Sameul), and he set up the first guitar webby for us. However, frankly speaking, I did not have a good impression of him. This is because I find that he only communicate with the girls and not exactly interested in making friends with the male counterparts. Haha, anyway, I don't remember joining the webby though. I realise why I did not know Li Jun, Rebecca, Johanna, etc. because they were in Group A! However, I don't exactly remember talking to Dody, Mei Jie, Jonathan, etc. Well, guess there's this anti social personality inside of me whenever I start on something new. Anyway, the first 3 months passed like a breeze.

Songs that we learnt then was Kojo No Tsuki, Polka, Munchen Polka, Stand by me, Etc.

Thoughts at this point of time. It's quite boring. The Conductor, Mr Liauw, was going at a very fast rate that people like me, who could not read scores, are struggling to catch up. Fortunately, there's Jun Yi who is always willing to teach me the fingerings to play for the song. There was no bonds, and very slight interactions. At this point of time, the people I knew in guitar did not increase at all. It's quite pathetic.

Beginning of my Guitar career

Well, it started out with Jun Yi, Jun Kit and I sitting outside the General Office, waiting for the very first lesson of guitar to commence.



It was then Vincent introduced to us Bibi and Cheryl, who happened to be joining guitar too! Thus, there was the self intro part. I don't quite remember though, but I think it was ZZ who introduced us to one another. Haha!



That kicked start to my 2 years career in guitar. The very first lesson was actually a briefing conducted by our one and only Mr Ng! Did I remember wrongly or did he actually played a song for us? Or was it some other time? He played romance right? Cool huh! I mean, How many CCA teachers actually know their cca till they can play it so well? I will say not many. I suppose there was no orientation for us. It was some self introduction, name and school, etc. Was assigned to group B, naturally, since I had absolutely no music history or music background. (My father played in the SAF band though!) Well, from then on, I began to embark on this pleasant journey.

Thoughts at this point of time was that, guitar people aren't friendly. Well, at least no one bothered to really make "new" friends. Therefore, was quite bored actually. The first lesson passed so slowly. Jun Kit, Jun Yi, and I even went to Mr Liauw's shop twice to have a look at the guitars, before finally deciding on the $199 guitar! It just looks much much better then the rest.