After
the crash course of music theory at home and joined a group for singing
therapy as the Loudspeaker, I was ready to improve my basic skill
further. I signed up a singing group in my home town in the Yuen Long
City Hall (元朗大會堂).
Our teacher, Ms Chiu was graduated in The Hong Kong Academy for
Performing Arts (香港演藝學院)
and she was ever so patient with us. She had to be very accommodating since most of the 35 singers-wanted-to-be are beginners. We
had chances to sing in front of the others and it was a very good
training for me.
My
singing teacher had a good voice and you could judge by yourself from
these songs. 趙老師
Where
did the music teacher leave her keys? In
the piano!
There
were many funny and heart warming incidences during the trip.
However, the most memorable things were the friendships and the
chances that we got to know each other better. Most of our singers
were well over 70s and each of them had his/her own interesting
stories. They went through the hardest periods of Japanese war, World
War II and the cultural revolution. Many of them were Overseas
Chinese from South East Asia. I guessed whoever interested in recent
Chinese history would know how much those people had been suffering.
It also explained partly why did so many Chinese left their
motherland and settled all over the world.
For
those who were
interested to know about this part of history could
view the following documents, Xia Nan Yang (下南洋).
By understanding others' backgrounds, one could accommodate each
other better.
What
does a group of singers will do in a long distance bus journey? They
sing …. proudly and loudly!
We
were a bunch of
serious unprofessional singers. We practised
hard for every week and tried
to be on top of
everything. Our team consisted of
a conductor, a pianist, a head manager, 2 make-up artists, field
service manager, 2 assistant general managers, a costume manager, a
security officer and an errand boy. A lot of hard work and thinking
went behind each
show.
The
location for the performance was
rather good, it was
next to a bridge and a small river. The audiences were
sitting or standing comfortably under a huge tree with the natural
breeze and shading. It looked
like a painting consisted
of babies, parents, kids, couples, etc hanging around, relaxing and
having a good time.
Our
soprano group leader, PanXueYue asked me to join a singing, learning
group with Mr. Zheng. At first I was not so sure since my standard
was not even up to scratch. My other fear was that Mr. Zheng might
finally confirmed that I could not sing! Who knew how bad I could
be?! In fact, it was a disaster when I opened my mouth in front of
others the first time. Gee, my throat was stuck. I had no rhythm, no
quality of voice and the lack of emotion in the song. The one and
only one thing I proudly had was the volume of my voice, otherwise
known as 'the loudspeaker' (大聲公)!
Luckily, the group and Mr. Zheng did not make any nasty or funny
comment. I bet they laughed their heads off secretly. Sure, I could
improve one day and hopefully that day would come very soon. For the
time being, I had to adopt a 'don't care' attitude or 'thick skin'
policy.
These
were the songs that we had been learning:
故鄉
雷蒙娜 (Ramona)
野玫瑰 (The Wild Rose)
假如你要認識我 (If you want to know me)
美麗的心靈 (A Beautiful Mind)
我衷心感謝你 (I sincerely thank you)
No laughing matter! TSA
introduces loudspeaker warnings threatening travelers with arrest for
cracking a joke about airport security
o TSA warns people
against 'inappropriate remarks or jokes'
o Public message made at
George Bush International Airport, Houston
o Concerned passenger
Matt Miller recorded the loudspeaker announcement
o Agency accused of
breaching First Amendment right to free expression
LCSD
invited us to give a performance in Kowloon City. As usual, we gave
our best effort to prepare the show. It was a sunny afternoon and the
performance's platform was facing into the full sun. We could
hardly open our eyes. A few of us even wore the dark shades, but
they looked like a blind bat in distress! However, the audiences
were really enjoying the singing and the winter sun. At the end of
the sunny day, a few of us were complaining about the freckles on
their faces. Well, it was so true that one's beauty was the most
important topic at all ages.
菊花台 (Chrysanthemum)
莫斯科郊外的晚上(Подмосковные
Вечера)
乖着歌聲的翅膀(Auf Flugeln des Gesanges)
Keroncong Kemayoran (印尼歌曲 )
An
elderly woman and her little grandson, whose face was sprinkled with
bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were
waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was
decorating them with tiger paws.
"You've
got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the
line said to the little fella.
Embarrassed,
the little boy dropped his head. His grandmother knelt down next to
him. "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always
wanted freckles," she said, while tracing her finger across the
child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful."
The
boy looked up, "Really?" "Of course," said the
grandmother. "Why just name me one thing that's prettier than
freckles."
The
little boy thought for a moment, peered intensely into his grandma's
face, and softly whispered, "Wrinkles."
As
I said before, the Chinese loved to celebrate everything with a big
banquet. 1,200 of us celebrated the Mid Autumn festival with a BBQ in
Wu Xi Sha (烏溪沙).
Details could be read in the following site,BBQ.
BBQ?!
It was a fun day out and we had a good mixture of young and older people together. Our chorus group also had a moment of glory, we were invited to sing a few songs.
While
I was still figuring out what to do with my improvement, we had this
Internal Exchange Program. Basically, one could sing your heart out
in solo or in a group, in front of others on a platform. It was quite a
nervous breaking experience especially it was my first time.... I
picked the song 'I dreamed a dream'. Sadly, I couldn't finish the
last section because I missed 2/3 beats in the middle and did not
know what to do. I kind of gave up! I also doubled up with my singing
partner in another song which didn't go well at all. We practised
hard, however I was just no good. Our voices did not go well with
each other. I had this mental block of singing in public.
Well,
at least I managed to stand up on the stage and completed ¾ of the
songs.
I dreamed a dream
Tell Him
Q: How do you know if a singer is at the front door? A: She can't find her key. A: They don't know when to come in and can't find the key.
