strings memories

Performance @ Pertapis Home

2010-02-20T20:11:00.007+08:00

Asyiqin introduces the instrument:

Frippery

Pertapis Home

2010-02-18T23:13:00.013+08:00

Woohoo! Finally an update after so long.
And I finally know why nobody's been updating -------------------------- nobody knows the password! LOL.

Ok, here's the password:

********

K, seriously, just come and ask me - I will tell you. Just promise that you won't deface this site.

Selected members of the NVSE went to Pertapis Home today together with the Choir and TriTouch to bring some CNY joy to the lovely kids there.

The photos which can be published are here (apologies for quality of photos- they were all taken from my handphone).

The Home has kindly requested that we do not publicly post any photos of their kids - confidentiality issue.
We respect that, so here goes:

Zoey, don't hide. We know its you...

I can't figure out why everyone's so camera-shy

The performance started after much delay. We played after Choir sang.

Group photo (where's Mrs Tan?????? Taking the photo, of course!)

All of you did very well today - you mingled well with the kids, you played well (the 2 pieces sounded SO BEAUTIFUL! Even Mr Tan Loon Tze complimented your playing). The kids were absolutely mesmerized while you were playing, and their eyes were sparkling when all of you allowed them to try out your instruments (selflessly for those whose instrument are personal ones). Someone described to me one boy "sawing" through her violin but she didn't stop him, seeing that he was enjoying himself.

That's the spirit of giving! :)

Special thanks goes to Samuel for overseeing the practices, Asyiqin for her spontaneous 'emcee-ing', the helpers - Zian, Adeline, Wei Pin and Chay Mun, the soloists - Samuel, Zann, Hui Si, Theresa and all the players - Yun Bin, Wei Qin, Jia Ann, Dilys, Jing Yun, Kai Yee, Jessie, Asyiqin (again), Zoey, Rachael, XiuQi, Deniece. Hope I haven't left out any. Oh ya, Mrs Loo for replacing (at very short notice) poor Mdm Tan who had been down with a very bad stomach flu. Hope Mdm Tan gets well soon.

Mrs Tan

All the best

2009-10-17T13:29:00.006+08:00

All the best to our Sec 4s and 5s for your 'O' level exams....

Do your best and do us proud.

SYF Photograph

2009-10-17T13:26:00.003+08:00

Updates on the CD for SYF Photography

Hi peeps, I've FINALLY made payment to the photographer. Will be receiving the CD soon. Hope to make it before the end of the O level exams.

Mrs Tan

Exams

2009-09-12T00:58:00.003+08:00

All the best to everyone, for the coming end-of-year examinations! Study hard.

Love & best wishes, your Strings teachers.

Schedule for Sept Holidays.

2009-09-03T17:35:00.000+08:00

Mdm Tan wants me to pass the message around about the schedule for next week's CCA timing.
On both days, CCA will last for 3hours.
Wed, 7.45am - 10.45am.
Fri, 1pm - 4pm.
Help spread the message around, thanks!(:

P.S. Theresa here. :D

CCA Awards

2009-08-26T15:09:00.018+08:00

CCA Awards Ceremony

Congratulations to the following Strings members who will be awarded the Certificate of Merit

Foo Fanyi
Lim Junze
Ng Wen Li
Han Shu Shuang
Kris Ong
Erika Teo
Orlena Tan
Lynette Tan
Brendy Tan
Ng Jing Wei

Award winners, please be at the ISH at 12pm for attendance taking. Ceremony is at 12.45pm.

The Cadbury Advert, Vistarian-style...
(if you can't see it here, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q_hH4S49XA)

2009-08-25T23:13:00.002+08:00

Hello NVSE,
It's me again, I got bored. :/

Nevermind, anyway! There's CCA tomorrow, enjoy! :D
(Love you babes&hunks. HA!)

Oh, here's something,
Do you know that our school teacher's participated in the, Cabury Eyebrow thing?
Click to see (:

Love,
ORLENA

2009-08-24T20:26:00.001+08:00

Hello NVSE! (:

I had change the alignment of the blog to center. (:
Look better, I hope? :D
Work hard! Enjoy CCA, without me!
(I no longer need to wake up early on Wednesday for CCAs)

Loves,
ORLENA.

Tagging of Instrument

2009-08-14T01:04:00.003+08:00

I promised to post these photos, like.... many full moons ago.....
As someone who always keeps to her promises, here're the photos of some members spending one whole day in the June hols taggin the instrument.

Pantene extraordinary commercial...

2009-08-14T00:43:00.005+08:00

Pantene extraordinary commercial...

SYF Photos

2009-08-08T11:26:00.001+08:00

Dear Members who ordered photos @ $12 each:

I have a suggestion for those who ordered photos:

I noticed that there is a CD available, which will contain ALL the softcopies of photos taken of your performance during the SYF CJ. Once you buy the CD, you can bring it to any photo processing shop to develop the photos, any photo that you want.

If you just order the $12 photo, then you only get 1 photo, the only difference is there's artwork on it.

The CD cost $70, shared among 20 of you, that'll be $3.50 each (i'm sure some other members may want to join in because of reduced cost, so it may even be cheaper than $3.50). Once we buy the CD, we can pass it around for those who chipped in to copy the photos onto their own computer, or burn their own CD (there's NO COPYRIGHT on the CD so we're allowed to make as many as we like).

How? Shall we? We'll only buy the CD if ALL who ordered the photo decide to get the CD instead (we're getting only 1 copy of the CD, in case you're confused, in place of the photo order)

Feedback from Mr Lim

2009-05-11T12:02:00.003+08:00

Hi NVSE peeps!

Just wanna share what Mr Lim, our Principal, said about Strings Ensemble's performance during the post-Speech Day meeting on Friday 8 May.

He specially mentioned how Ms Martens, the Guest-of-Honour for Speech Day this year, was impressed that NV, being a neighbourhood school, had a full strings ensemble participating in the SYF. He knew that the other schools which also had strings ensembles were all the top schools. He told all the teachers present at the meeting that the violin is unlike other instruments- it goes out of tune and creates horrible screeching sounds easily when played. So he was also very impressed by the beautiful pieces that all of you played for the SYF. He said that he was very happy for NVSE's bronze (hint hint: Silver for next SYF!).

Just to let you all know that out of all the performances during the speech day (dance, band, choir, strings, modern dance), he spent most time talking about strings, then he spoke a bit about modern dance also.

WELL DONE ALL OF YOU. LONG-LIVE NVSE! (^_^)Y

results

2009-05-05T05:59:00.000+08:00

Results!

ANGLO-CHINESE SCHOOL INDEPENDENT
GOLD

CHIJ ST NICHOLAS' GIRLS' SCHOOL
GOLD

DUNMAN HIGH SCHOOL
GOLD (WITH HONOURS)

DUNMAN SECONDARY SCHOOL
BRONZE

HWA CHONG INSTITUTION
SILVER

METHODIST GIRLS' SCHOOL (SEC)
GOLD

NAN CHIAU HIGH SCHOOL
SILVER

NANYANG GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL
GOLD

NORTH VISTA SECONDARY SCHOOL
BRONZE

NUS HIGH SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE
BRONZE

RAFFLES GIRLS' SCHOOL (SEC)
GOLD

RAFFLES INSTITUTION
GOLD

RIVER VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL
BRONZE

ST MARGARET'S SECONDARY SCHOOL
BRONZE

TANJONG KATONG GIRLS' SCHOOL
SILVER

2009-04-30T02:03:00.017+08:00

Yes, we WILL NOT settle for just COP. Well done, every single one of you, including Zoey and Yanting and the helpers. Everyone had chipped in for that bronze.
The biggest credits goes to our 4 instructors:
Mr Chua
Mr J. Wong
Mr Wong
Dr Yeoh

Photos taken on 29 April 2009 at http://tanboonyen.multiply.com/photos

James Wong and Diana Ng Visits

2009-04-30T01:51:00.003+08:00

I'm sure all of you were pleasantly surprised on Monday 27 April when both Mr James Wong and Mrs Diana Ng visited all of you.
Both had made the trip specially to wish all of you luck for the SYF...

Violin Seminar

2009-04-09T04:23:00.004+08:00

Just to share...

A friend of mine attended a violin Seminar (named "A Violin Seminar - The New Suzuki Violin School") and gain some insights which I (unshamefully) cut-and-paste off his blog (ok, credits to Jay LOL) :

"Some interesting/insightful snippets (non-verbatim!):

- Talent is not inborn, it is educated.

- Student: When can I learn the vibrato? Teacher: Whenever you are ready!

- Mr Nakamura likened the vibrato to the whirling blades of a helicopter. One must vibrato to the end of the note, like how the helicopter blades must keep on turning for the helicopter to stay afloat in the air. He micmiked the helicopter with his bow spinning vertically in the air, how the helicopter would start descending if the blades start and stop continuously.

- Imagine there is a bird nest in between your left hand palm and the violin neck, and there are eggs inside. If you squeeze your palm towards the violin neck, you will crush those eggs!
"

Maybe we should bring some bird's nest and eggs and try this out! LOL

Erika, your photos were posted here by the person who took those photos. That's an OBVIOUS hint liao lor...

Hero Violin

2009-04-05T23:11:00.005+08:00

Erika's Violin performs heroic act

This post is a special tribute to Erika's violin, hereby conferred the title of 'Heroine Violin', for having cushioned Mr Chua's dramatic fall from the stage to the ground during Saturday morning's practice. It suffered some bruises in its act of saving Mr Chua from any injury, and have since recovered (hopefully). I'm not so sure about Erika's heart, though.

Dance of the Iscariot

2009-03-31T22:23:00.005+08:00

OMG! This is like the Japanese-Bullet-Train version! By comparison, ours seems like trishaw version LOL

CSO Winter 2006 - Dance of Iscariot

I like this version:

The Faraway Place from youtube

2009-03-31T22:17:00.003+08:00

Wilson Jr. High School Orchestra performs "The Faraway Place" by Hofeldt at the SCSBOA Band and Orchestra Festival March 15, 2008.

/

New instruments are in!

2009-03-28T14:01:00.004+08:00

New Kids on the Block

The new instruments are in! Credits and hugs to Mdm Tan who devoted much time, sweat and energy getting the funds to buy these new instruments. *hugs* *muaks*

New instruments represent new hope, fresh expectations, newbies blah blah....

the new instrument residing in the HOD room currently.....

Erika

2009-03-28T13:55:00.005+08:00

OMG! Just found this photo...forgotten about it.... Thought it'll be a blast to post it up... heehee (shhhh don't tell erika ya)

WOW! *pweeet* Who's this PREEETY gal?

Today's Practice

2009-03-28T13:35:00.010+08:00

Today's Practice

Lazy Saturday morning. The Sec Twos just came back from their 4D3N holiday resort at Bintan. The Sec Fours and Five just had 3 days of IamGifted programme. Energy level is low, despite the free chocolates given out. Sigh........................................................................................................

Some links for violin -- Please add on!

2009-03-19T17:27:00.005+08:00

Some Useful Links - please add on!

http://www.violinist.com/

http://www.violinstudent.com/violinmap.html Learn about the anatomy of a violin

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/ Search for and listen to pieces of music

http://www.fjhmusic.com/index.htm Search for and listen to pieces of music

http://www.violinonline.com/violinbasics.htm Violin Basics... (chicken feet to most of you by now)

http://nusso.org/ The National University of Singapore Symphonic Orchestra

http://www.gramercy.com.sg/ That's where all our instruments came from so far

Our Strings Banner

2009-03-19T17:05:00.006+08:00

Our Strings Banner

Hey, Brendy, anyway we can use this banner permanently as a banner for the blog?

A New Season - NUSSO Concert

2009-03-19T15:20:00.002+08:00

Hope everyone of you have enjoyed the concert as much as I did.

To be more correct, I only enjoyed the pre-intermission part. Didn't enjoy Spring, which was the last piece played. Too heavy. Didn't like 'About E.C.O' - it was totally incomprehensible to me (ops, and I teach Geography). Supposed to be an environmental awareness piece, but its way too high-tech for an old forgy like me. I prefer pieces which has a more obvious tune to it. BTW I interviewed Samuel whom I thought would be able to appreciate Spring BUT OH-NO I was wrong! He didn't like it either LOL.

My favourites that night were the first piece, Smetana’s Die Moldau, and Vivaldi's Winter.

Other than enjoying the music, part of the night was spent bio-ing the orchestra members - how they sit, how they stand, how they hold their violins and bows when they stand up and walk in. (Did anyone look out for that other than me?).

Comments, anyone? (if you can figure out how to add comments to each post ---- I haven't!)

Rehearsal at Republic Polytechnic

2009-03-19T14:33:00.001+08:00

Rehearsal at Republic Polytechnic

How could we forget that day - 17 Feb 2009. That was the F-A-T-E-F-U-L day our instructors decided that Helter Skelter would be replaced by the Dance of the Isacariot. Its madness, yes, but hey, I think this piece sounds better than Helter Skelter.

In Mrs Diana Ng's words, after she heard about the change "Very BRAVE lor! Good luck better not sc**w up!". LOL

2009-02-20T19:42:00.002+08:00

Viva Musica 2008

our handsome conductor?

samuel & mrs tan

zann..

here 're the photos for VCH.. our tagboard is seriously rotting..
sorry peeps.. urr dearest blog publisher is busy is a bumble bee..
hahas

2009-01-07T17:54:00.001+08:00

finally open a blog for Strings..
so members pls tag urr url's in the tag board if u want to be LINKED~
anything urr don't like, pls let me knw..
i'll try to change the posts or skins k.

well, shall post some pics of last yrs camp..

playing captains ball..

our teachers, mrs tan, mdm tan & mrs ng

is the camera a monster?

the new commitee members(: