Busy with nothing

It's been quite some time since I last updated. Many things have happened. One of which about to begin is prelim 3. Well I should be studying and all but sometimes I just do covers. I don't enjoy doing covers of songs which are meaningless to me. But then again, 'enjoy' wouldn't exactly be the word I'd use to describe covering songs which are meaningful to me. I think reminiscing is what I do when I cover songs. Memories, sweet sour or bitter, are things that never change. It's educational (i'm only using educational because I've got poor vocabulary and it's the only word that came to mind) to revisit and understand the lessons that were taught.

Shards

It's been a week. I really don't know what (not?) to do anymore. It seems like every move I make is wrong. I want to do something, but it's so fragile I'm so afraid that one wrong move'll end it all. Is this the end of the line? I really don't want it to be. But in any case, I hope all is well with you.

Happy!!! :D

Haha I guess having a birthday warrants a blog post, so here it is :)



Wow, it's already been sixteen years here spent on earth. Granted, there have been many ups and downs. But still, albeit being pretty arduous, the journey has no doubt been very rewarding. Am I happy to be living? Without a doubt. I thank God for all this glory. That I've got awesome friends around me. That I've been to experience all that I have. That I am able to feel.



I have been living like a robot almost all my life, following schedules and plans. Well, this has slowly changed me from a fun human into a stiff robot. But still, at least for today, I get to be human again. It's really amazing how people's wishes and deeds can change oneself :) It's these precious little moments that make life worth living:)

Thank you all for the well wishes :)

Thanks Go Go for being my firm(when needed) mentor and role model. Thanks for the countless fun times together. Thanks for for being the best-est (yes I know my English sucks lol) brother you can be :)

Thanks(Not in order of merit lol) Denise, Bryan, Poh Yi, Zi Feng, Zhen Sheng, Gemonn, Angeline, Charis, Charmaine, Joshua for the card. Thanks Denise and Poh Yi for the present:) More than that, thank you all for being the awesome-est friends you could be :)

Yes I didn't forget Thanks Dwayne for being a cool brudda

And definitely, Thank you Denise, for all the things you've done, big or small, for all the joy that you've provided me with. I'm really thankful for them. I'm really thankful for you :)

All right to end off, here's to you guys, here's to sixteen years of pure awesome, here's to more awesome to come, and here's to God :D

Poor results

Chinese results were mediocre:(This is the worst ever results I've ever gotten for an exam... I knew my chinese was bad, but I never knew it was this bad. Sigh I've got a bad feeling about the other papers too. This exam is an utter screw-up :(:( I'd better buck up soon.

All right enough whining.

It's been a while since I touched the guitar. It feels good to be playing it again:)

Antisocial robot

Yep. Maybe that's just what I am. Who'd ever think that a little immature thing that I used to do would affect me so much, making me become what I now hate? To think that once upon a time, the words 'talkative' and 'outspoken' appeared in my report book comments rather than 'quiet' and 'conservative'. Man it really sucks bad to be an antisocial stone.

Hmm, maybe it's the little rubbish things that I used to do that makes me feel so incompetent, but I feel like I've gotten what I don't deserve:/

Happy :)

At the start of this short holiday, I wasn't so sure I'd be happy. I thought I'd be staying at home all day, studying like a robot and disconnecting myself from the world. I thought that it'd be yet another boring holiday. Thank God I thought wrong. Thursday and Good Friday wasn't that good for me, learning all the problems and feeling helpless about it. I mean, it's already pretty bad to learn that some of your primary school friends hang out with a bunch of underage smokers. And then there was The Matter. Things didn't start out so well, so naturally I got quite pessimistic about the rest of the holidays.

But things turned out for the better the next day. It was quite an eventful day, with choir and church. Choir was pretty fun and the singers there (mainly the tenors) are of higher calibre. Despite this, I still feel that ahschoir is still the best. It's not only a choir where I sing in. It's a family full of great people. Haha pretty late for the realisation to dawn upon me but hey, better late than never yea? Okay moving on to church. It has been a VERY LONG time since I got back to church, but I thank God I did. HOGC has changed a lot, becoming more awesome than ever. Initially I felt a bit awkward and lost, having missed so many months of church previously. But After a while, thanks to the familiar friendliness and kindness of people in HOGC, I managed to fit in more easily. Thank God for the wonderful message. And Thank God for Jesus.

As the next day came, it started to get boring again, as I studied and had tuition for the majority of the day. It was becoming the boring holiday that I thought it would be. I refused to let the holidays end of on this terrible sour note. So I decided to head out for parkway and east coast park to kill the boredom. It was pretty fun and relaxing as I got to take some photos and take my mind of all the unhappiness and troubles. So, this 3-day break has finally come to an end, and I'm thankful for all I've managed to experience. I'm really happy :)

Here are some of the photos I took
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Thank you Denise, for allowing me to be a listening ear and for being a listening ear yourself. Also, thank you the priceless joy you have given me. This holiday wouldn't have been half as awesome without you:)

I got a feeling

I have never really been good in socialising with people. Especially girls. So sorry

Maybe my body is missing a socialising gene or something. Anyhow, I'm still thankful that I somehow manage to guide people, especially my tenors to greater heights. It feels really good to know that you've helped your members in one way or another to tap into their true potential. Of course, I've also been blessed with the fact that my section is really very focused and well behaved one. I've got a good feeling about this. Let's just do our very best and make true music on Wednesday.

hmm

I hate hospitals. I’ve hated them since young. The last time I went to a hospital was in primary one, when I had to put on a cast for my fractured elbow. When you go to a hospital, it’s rarely ever for a good reason. Today was no exception. This afternoon, I went to the hospital to visit my grandmother. I pray for God’s healing hands to be upon her.

Vocal Production!

VOCAL PRODUCTION

1.1 - SPACE

Some/most of you face various problems of not being able to give enough space when singing such as sounding nasal, sounding like kids etc. Though your SLs tell you to drop your jaw and raise your soft palate, some of you may feel like you still can’t seem to sing openly after following their instructions. Well, there are two conclusions one can draw from this: You are either doing it wrong, or there’s another factor that prevents you from succeeding. One such factor is your tongue being raised when you sing. When you sing, your tongue should remain at the neutral position, resting behind your lower front teeth

1.Dropping the jaw

What dropping the jaw does is that it helps to reduce upward larynx movement. This is important for singing with space as it will prevent your throat from closing up too much. When you swallow, you can feel that your larynx goes up all the way. If you’d notice, it’s impossible to sing while swallowing. In the same way, singing with a raised larynx will make it almost impossible to sing relaxed.

Things to note:

With what was mentioned above, you now know that dropping the jaw will aid in allowing you to sing with space. You should note that your larynx shouldn’t go higher as you sing higher. When you sing lower, your larynx shouldn’t go lower either. Try to sing with a neutral larynx throughout your range. One important thing to note: Your throat shouldn’t hurt from trying to keep your larynx neutral. If you do it right, your throat should feel totally relaxed. Also, too much of a good thing is a bad thing: Dropping your jaw too much will tend to make one sound muffled

2. Raising the soft palate

Raising the soft palate will allow one to create more space at the back of his/her mouth, allowing one to sing with enough space and blend. In addition, it can also help to reduce one’s nasal sound. Usually, one tends to sing like in example one because that’s how we usually talk. However, in choral singing it is usually better to sing like in example 2 as it allows one to create a lot more space and blend more easily. Raising the soft palate can be done easily. One can ‘import’ the sensation over from yawning, imagining biting an apple or raising eyebrows. If done correctly, one should be able to sound a lot better over a relatively short period of time

Things to note

Once again, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. If one raises the soft palate too much, he will sound too forward and constricted as tension is created in trying to raise the soft palate. Hence one must raise the soft palate in moderation.

1.2 – PLACEMENT

What placement means in layman’s terms is how high/low your voice sounds like, regardless of whatever pitch you’re singing. Common problems related to placement are sounding too dark and going flat all the time. Here are two solutions to help combat the problem.

1. Win the mental game

Singing has a lot to do with imagination. So, it is actually possible to trick your mind such that you can maintain your placement. One such way is to imagine going up a staircase while singing a descending scale and vice versa.

2. Raise the soft palate

Raising your soft palate not only helps to create more space in the mouth. It also helps to focus your sound more and make it brighter. Here are two examples of singing with/without the soft palate raised. Notice the difference in placement.

Soft palate not raised:

Soft palate raised: