Band Journey(Part 1)

The band is the 2nd CCA i joined after being in sa for one year. That was in 2003.Before i even become the tic,i had heard lots of stuff abt the conductor n his temper. N it gave me a bad impression of him. So when i was put in this cca,i was rather reluctant to work with someone like that.

I was not from band,so to me,i had to learn everything from scratch. The types of instruments, the accessories,the scores, the various sections and how they worked. I started off with the admin. That time, the band was preparing for their band concert at Toa Payoh HDB Hub Auditorium. I went along. That was the 1st encounter with Mr G. As i was not the main in charge,so i dun really need to talk to him but just greet him. Later,he told me he needed to extend the rehearsal hours. Ok,i dun really know how to do it, so i went to check with my school admin n did the paperwork.

The concert was fun and the piece i loved most was "Can't take my eyes off u". Cos the way it was performed was fun. The presentation of the entire concert was unique. After the concert,it was the usual photo taking n loading of instruments. My god! the percussion instruments were real heavy!

The next event was syf. I still remember the nights when the band was rehearsing in the hall with mr g. They were playing "tales of the sea". I was memserised by the music, the goosebumps effect. On that day,i fell in love with the band. It was also on that night, Mr G came to me with a list of instruments he wanted to buy for SYF. OMG! They were like totally foreign to me. No choice, had to check with school admin again and then i realised the necessary documents required for the purchase were not in place,so had to obtain them from ccab website and learn all the procedures. N i was racing agst time cos Mr G wanted the instruments to be in within 1 week. There were like abt 8 instruments to be purchased. To me, it was a real stressful process :P

And there was a night when ganesh made his percussion section moved all percussion from the hall to the bandroom which was on the 3rd floor in 5 mins. OMG!they were running like mad but they did it!hahaha!

On the SYF Presentation Night 2003, when the name of the band was announced to perform on stage, my heart swelled with pride. Cos i believe there is no other bands that deserve to perform on the stage of the esplanade other than sajc.It was music making. Though we did not get the top band award,but the music spoke for itself.

That batch gave me the 1st gift which was a precious moment figurine and i was very touched.BUT someone from my office broke my figurine 2 years ago and no matter how hard i search in singapore,hongkong and taiwan,i just cannot the same figurine again. the pple said it is no longer in production. I was really very upset cos it hold so much value. It is the 1st gift from my 1st batch of band members......

Next,we had band dinner. I could still remember how Mr G said he would love it if his students invite him to their wedding so that he can witness their growth. How the batch dedicated their love to batch mates who were retained. It was my 1st band dinner and i had fun attending it cos i could feel the bonds among the batch mates. Oh, it was held in Carlton Hotel at $45.

The final event that moved me to tears was the stepping down of the JC2s. It was in the bandroom. The JC2s played "Twins" for their juniors. While playing,many teared. I still remember Joshua was one of them. The teachers who were present also cried. The love, the emotions that were entwined in the music. No other batch that came along played Twins like them, and Twins is no longer the passing down piece for the band.

And the other one thing i like abt the band is the band courtesy. I think it is really a tradition that needs to be kept but unfortunately it is lost.As the years go by, as the band changes with the nature of the batch, our tradition has also left us, so did a portion of the legacy even tho each band has left their mark behind, forming a part of each other's memory.