Internal Exchange Program III

内部交流 III

Vedrai, carino : No. 18 from Act II, Scene I of the Italian opera Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After Masetto had been beaten up by Don Giovanni (who was disguised as Leporello), Zerlina found him and asked what had happened. He replied that Leporello beat him up and Zerlina promised to soothe his wounds with her love.

I was delighted that the Internal Exchange Program occurred eventually. It was such a big thing for me! I had this urge, tendency and need to sing in front of the others. My conclusion was that when I sang, I should use my head/brain more often and at the same time, let my inner emotion flowed freely! The logical and emotional feeling should co-exist and connect at the same time in order to sing well. Did that make any sense to anybody? Hellooo?!

                      

In the end, I was happy with my own performance, but I could and I should improve in the following areas:

• singing with more emotion;
• better vocal resonation;
• grasp the rhythm naturally;
• improve the voice placement
• stage demeanour.

First review on my singing progress...

I had been singing with a chorus group for three years already. It was time to review what had I accomplished so far. 

I spent a reasonable amount of time learning the music theory which was quite boring. However, if you wanted to be better than average, you had to work hard! Also, I often sang with different parts of my mouth and listened to myself carefully. After thousands times of trying, occasionally you would find the right combination of your mouth movements which gave you the best of your singing voice... and sadly to say, this was only the first step.

 

There were two major areas that I needed to focus on: sight singing and breathing with the diaphragm. As a matter of fact, a lot of good quality chorus groups expected you to do the sight singing. Also, singing without the technique of breathing with the diaphragm would be impossible to improve your singing further. 

In the end, I just had to think and practice more... 

Songs that I had learnt during this period: 

葬花吟

紫藤花

O mio babbino caro

Vadrai carino

LCSD Choral Concert, Chai Wan Park Clock Tower Plaza

柴灣公園鈡楼對出廣場

It had been very cold for a couple of weeks until the day before the show. I was a bit worry whether our dresses would be warm enough for the bitter cold! I certainly would not want to see anyone of us caught a cold during the performance. Luckily, the temperature went up to around 25 degrees in the morning on the day. The trees around the stage provided plenty of shading and we all had a wonderful day after all. A few audiences came up to me afterwards, saying 'well done' to us all. Thank you!

The Hong Kong Government provides this kind of entertainments regularly all over Hong Kong. It was a very good opportunity for the general public as well as the unprofessional entertainers like us. As a matter of fact, most of the general public might not be willing to pay for any theatre ticket. After all, the price of a ticket was more or less equivalent to a day of their hard work! An arrangement like this was good for all parties. As an unprofessional singer, we also needed the opportunity to show off and to improve our skills further.

Related News :

高校聯

TV is called a medium because it's neither rare nor well done

Jokes on Sickipedia are like your average steak.
They're neither rare nor well done.

"Spectrum Teen sing” at Hong Kong Coliseum

刷新健力士世界紀錄 「譜Teen同唱」

2014 was a very busy year as far as my singing concern. We had a few major performances, been invited for the singing tournament, had a chance to sing solo...  etc. I had a very fruitful year! Moreover, that was not the end yet. I was also in Guinness World Record "Most People Singing Live on a Radio Broadcast". Didn't I promise you that I would be back in Hong Kong Coliseum before? Yes, in order to make this Guinness World Records more memorable for me, it took place in Hong Kong Coliseum.

The occasion was organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, the Hong Kong Opera House, Radio Television Hong Kong and was sponsored mainly by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

The idea of having so many young people singing together was to magnify the youthful enthusiasm and gave a new interpretation of the classical music. Everybody singing the same songs helped to highlight the harmony in our society and been united together. I could feel that most of the people left the concert with a cheerful heart. In my case, my feeling was more than just cheerful, I also had another interesting story to tell!

What an end to my 2014!

Click here to enjoy this special event, I hoped you could also feel the positive energy...

Related news:

「譜Teen同唱」 青年音樂培訓計劃

譜Teen同唱萬人音樂會

Community Singing Trailer 2

紅館萬人音樂迎聖誕

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest recorded mother is a 66 year old Romanian woman.

My mother is 74. Top that!

My neighbour was killed in an accident overseas last week.

On the plus side, he's set a new world record for fastest descent from the peak of Mount Everest.

LCSD Choral Concert, Xin Cui Estate Shopping Center, Sha Tian

新翠村商場對出廣場, 沙田區

Since 1970s, Sha Tian (沙田) had been developed as a satellite city. Nowadays, the population was well over 630,000. In the old days, Sha Tian was miles away from the rest of Hong Kong. One had to take a steam engine train and went through a few pitch dark tunnels before this little market town appeared. Now, one could take an efficient electric train from any part of Hong Kong to Sha Tian within 30 minutes. Who would like to say no to the modern life? Let's be fair, who didn't want to have free flow of water from a tap or enjoyed the air conditioner in a 35 degree hot day at home? Or would you rather burn the cow dung to cook your dinner in the dark?!

If you were interested in the history of Hong Kong's railway, you could have a look on this site. It would be even better to go down to the museum and to see the real thing yourself:

Hong Kong Railway Museum

It was the first time I sang solo in public. I was very nervous, needless to say. However, after 30 seconds, my fear/worry disappeared and I was much more relaxed then. I completed the whole song without any hiccup! I guessed the whole episode was part of my growing up really. 

瑪依拉 (XinJiang folk song)

This time, we sang a song call Tumbalalaika which was a Russian Jewish folk song in Yiddish language. 'Tum' was the Yiddish word for noise and 'balalaika' was a stringed musical instrument of Russian origin. The rhythm of the song was very light and one could dance with the music easily. Singing makes me happy, it also helped me to understand the world better. I could sing all day and night!

To know more about Jewish Culture?!

Tumbalalaika

Tumbalalaika

The Sixth Singing Contest

第六屆國慶盃歌唱比賽初賽

What?! A singing competition... sure ...there was no harm to step out of my own cocoon and tried something new. For whatever reasons, my program delayed by two hours. By the time my glory moment came, I was already half frozen and very hungry.

There were lots of interesting very young people and quite a few of them seemed to know each other from other competitions before. Some people even came with their parents and/or friends. It was like having a family gathering to witness their little ones growing up.

Talking about kids, my primary school was full of country pumpkins like me. We all had outdoor looked and unruly short hair with a wrinkly school uniform on. Despite all these, I also loved music! I once asked my mom for piano lessons. In replied, she said something about the rats at home might finish the piano well before I could finish my learning. I was confused by her comment, was it a yes or no?! Although I never had a chance to fire up my career with music at all, nevertheless I had done other things which were far more interesting than just music in my life. <<MyTravel>>

Internal Exchange Program II. 曲蔓地

内部交流 II

《曲蔓地》was a famous Xinjiang folk song and originally, it was a girl's name. But here, it referred to a flower's name which was the most beautiful specie of roses. The music was lively and warm, typically showing the Xinjiang Uygur folk style. The song expressed the yearning for love, the love of working hard, to live in peace and enjoy the music of good wishes.

I managed to complete the song without any hiccup, but sure, I needed to focus more on my singing skills! 

One could find many versions of this song from the internet, but the one I liked most was sung by Dilber Yunus. She was born in Kashgar, Xinjiang Uyghur, Autonomous Region, China and she was a lyric soprano with coloratura technique. You could get to know her more here: Dilber Yunus. I liked her voice and the way she handled the song. She made the singing so easy and relax. How did she do that?!

曲蔓地 (Qu Man Di)

What did the bee say to the flower? Hello, honey!