邱旭泉
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Updates.. :)
Updates
well then... it`s been quite a long time sinc i`ve blogged eh? :)
my last post was like wat? 2 months ago? haha...
anyways.. Most of you all should know... i`m now in UM(no more bumming around at home harvesting grapes) doing my degree in Performing Arts - Music. My life there? hmm... let`s just say it`s like a major addition of my form 6 life... haha.. In my class, there`s 36 students.. and out of the 36 students, there are 36 chinese.. surprised? lol.. welcome to music course of UM.. :) there aren`t even any malay seniors in my course...lol.. and out of these 36 students in my class... there are only 2 guys.. guy engineers.... wrong course la... LOL.. sorry yea.. =p
*
Orientation week... phewh... it was a blast... tiring, got sick(badly), but it was fun! Met some friends there.. can`t remember all in specific... i just remember meeting the only other guy in my course on the 1st night of my orientation week itself... Goh Hao Tian... he was in the same group as me during my orientation week and stayes right beside my room.. lol.. small world eh.. haha..
well.. classes started... i have Theory Classes... well in the 1st sem we`re supposed to take Theory 1... but because some students(including me) either have no basics or have basics(grade 5 at least) but have forgotten everything, so we have to take Rudiment Theory class.. which is REALLY rudiments... Learn about crotchets, quavers, C,D,E,F,G,A,B major/minor and so on ALL over again.. lolx...
Also have Aural Classes... In this class we`re taught to sight sing(meaning when u see a music piece, we`re expected to sing it correctly right on the spot), differenciate intervals, dictate pieces that are being played and so on.. toughest so far is intervals... kind of hard to differenciate them.. lol.. Initially sight singing was hard for me too... well not only do we have to sing it in the right pitch, but with the right solfege... For e.g, in C major there`s C,D,E,F,G,A, and B ; and we sing it Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. so in the piece, if the notes go G,C,E,A,D ..... ; we have to sing it Sol,Do,Mi,La,Re..... WITH the correct pitch.. lol.. correct pitch wasn`t quite a trouble for me... the solfege was.. lol.. slowly getting it now tho` ;)
World Culture Music.. we`re taught about other countries music culture.. so far i`ve learnt Indian music, Gamelan(Indonesian) and Klezmer(Jewish). Indian music was kind of a bore... lol.. didn`t really get much of it tho`... Gamelan was quite interesting but yet sometimes a bore too.. haha... better than Indian music tho`.. lol... currently i`m learning Klezmer.. well... among all, it`s one of the most interesting... Wanna know how klezmer sounds like? lol.. go watch Fiddler on the Roof.. :)
Another class is called Ensemble 1 where every student has to decide which ensembles they wanna enter. There`s the choir ensemble, percussion experiment(which i`m taking), gamelan terengganu, gamelan sinkretik, taklempong and so on.. in my class, well... most of the time i play the conga... lol.. quite fun tho`... but not good for my hands tho`... hurts like crap!! =s lol.. pity my classmate who also joined... only gets to play the shaker..haha.. =p
There`s also this thing called the Forum which is considered as a class.. in this class, every student of every year(year 1, year 2, year 3) in music course attends this Forum. And in this forum, there will be students performing according to year. For instance, the first 3 weeks of the sem the 3rd years take 3 weeks to perform and after the 3 weeks, 2nd years take the next 3 weeks and so on.. It is compulsory for every student to perform at least once. So the past 2 weeks was my year`s turn to perform.. Mine was last week.. lol.. kinda scary.. played a snare drum solo piece called "Left Light March". Also played the conga for a while.. haha.. The idea of this class is just for students to bring something and show to the students and also lecturers. If students perform badly, they will have to perform again the following week.. lucky i didn`t have to.. =p the scariest part is... the lecturer will comment on our performances!! gaaahhh!! =s lucky i got good comments too tho` =p
Last but not least, i have tutor classes. I have a tutor who teaches me personally how to play the percussion instruments.. this semester, i`m required to learn the snare drum and the xylophone. Anyone who thinks learning music is cheap, think again. Just to purchase 2 pairs of snare sticks and a mallet stick for the xylophone, i spent RM180++. All this only for the 1st semester... imagine my 2nd... 3rd...4th..5th or 6th..wah... can pokkai man... lol.. learning the xylophone is quite interesting.. it requires a little knowledge of snare drums(the way you hold the stick) and a little knowledge of the keyboard or piano.. lol..
Well, other than these classes, i also have the university classes which are Hubungan Etnik where we learn about perpaduan, harmoni and bla bla bla.. lol.. super boring class.. lol.. we attend it, the lecturer talks in front and students dun even listen.. haha... another class is Kemahiran Maklumat which basically teaches us how to find books, journals, dictionaries and so on in the library.. lol..
*
well then... it`s been quite a long time sinc i`ve blogged eh? :)
my last post was like wat? 2 months ago? haha...
anyways.. Most of you all should know... i`m now in UM(no more bumming around at home harvesting grapes) doing my degree in Performing Arts - Music. My life there? hmm... let`s just say it`s like a major addition of my form 6 life... haha.. In my class, there`s 36 students.. and out of the 36 students, there are 36 chinese.. surprised? lol.. welcome to music course of UM.. :) there aren`t even any malay seniors in my course...lol.. and out of these 36 students in my class... there are only 2 guys.. guy engineers.... wrong course la... LOL.. sorry yea.. =p
*
Orientation week... phewh... it was a blast... tiring, got sick(badly), but it was fun! Met some friends there.. can`t remember all in specific... i just remember meeting the only other guy in my course on the 1st night of my orientation week itself... Goh Hao Tian... he was in the same group as me during my orientation week and stayes right beside my room.. lol.. small world eh.. haha..
well.. classes started... i have Theory Classes... well in the 1st sem we`re supposed to take Theory 1... but because some students(including me) either have no basics or have basics(grade 5 at least) but have forgotten everything, so we have to take Rudiment Theory class.. which is REALLY rudiments... Learn about crotchets, quavers, C,D,E,F,G,A,B major/minor and so on ALL over again.. lolx...
Also have Aural Classes... In this class we`re taught to sight sing(meaning when u see a music piece, we`re expected to sing it correctly right on the spot), differenciate intervals, dictate pieces that are being played and so on.. toughest so far is intervals... kind of hard to differenciate them.. lol.. Initially sight singing was hard for me too... well not only do we have to sing it in the right pitch, but with the right solfege... For e.g, in C major there`s C,D,E,F,G,A, and B ; and we sing it Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. so in the piece, if the notes go G,C,E,A,D ..... ; we have to sing it Sol,Do,Mi,La,Re..... WITH the correct pitch.. lol.. correct pitch wasn`t quite a trouble for me... the solfege was.. lol.. slowly getting it now tho` ;)
World Culture Music.. we`re taught about other countries music culture.. so far i`ve learnt Indian music, Gamelan(Indonesian) and Klezmer(Jewish). Indian music was kind of a bore... lol.. didn`t really get much of it tho`... Gamelan was quite interesting but yet sometimes a bore too.. haha... better than Indian music tho`.. lol... currently i`m learning Klezmer.. well... among all, it`s one of the most interesting... Wanna know how klezmer sounds like? lol.. go watch Fiddler on the Roof.. :)
Another class is called Ensemble 1 where every student has to decide which ensembles they wanna enter. There`s the choir ensemble, percussion experiment(which i`m taking), gamelan terengganu, gamelan sinkretik, taklempong and so on.. in my class, well... most of the time i play the conga... lol.. quite fun tho`... but not good for my hands tho`... hurts like crap!! =s lol.. pity my classmate who also joined... only gets to play the shaker..haha.. =p
There`s also this thing called the Forum which is considered as a class.. in this class, every student of every year(year 1, year 2, year 3) in music course attends this Forum. And in this forum, there will be students performing according to year. For instance, the first 3 weeks of the sem the 3rd years take 3 weeks to perform and after the 3 weeks, 2nd years take the next 3 weeks and so on.. It is compulsory for every student to perform at least once. So the past 2 weeks was my year`s turn to perform.. Mine was last week.. lol.. kinda scary.. played a snare drum solo piece called "Left Light March". Also played the conga for a while.. haha.. The idea of this class is just for students to bring something and show to the students and also lecturers. If students perform badly, they will have to perform again the following week.. lucky i didn`t have to.. =p the scariest part is... the lecturer will comment on our performances!! gaaahhh!! =s lucky i got good comments too tho` =p
Last but not least, i have tutor classes. I have a tutor who teaches me personally how to play the percussion instruments.. this semester, i`m required to learn the snare drum and the xylophone. Anyone who thinks learning music is cheap, think again. Just to purchase 2 pairs of snare sticks and a mallet stick for the xylophone, i spent RM180++. All this only for the 1st semester... imagine my 2nd... 3rd...4th..5th or 6th..wah... can pokkai man... lol.. learning the xylophone is quite interesting.. it requires a little knowledge of snare drums(the way you hold the stick) and a little knowledge of the keyboard or piano.. lol..
Well, other than these classes, i also have the university classes which are Hubungan Etnik where we learn about perpaduan, harmoni and bla bla bla.. lol.. super boring class.. lol.. we attend it, the lecturer talks in front and students dun even listen.. haha... another class is Kemahiran Maklumat which basically teaches us how to find books, journals, dictionaries and so on in the library.. lol..
*
I have roughly less than 3 months left... it`s not much... it will just come and fly away.. next... really flies away... how long? 3 months...
i used to think it would not happen at all... but as i come closer to it... it starts to smack me right on my face like the "real world" smacks an innocent kampung boy visiting a city... i could only hope for one thing...
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Cheerios :)
