Next Practice

Hey Alumni Members! Our next and very first formal practice will commence next Friday, the 6th of March. Time is officially stated as 7 to 9pm, though we know that people will come later than 7...please try to come on time or earlier! Your co-operation will be very much appreciated...do come on time to ensure that the allocation of instruments can be done as quickly as possible!

We have chosen certain pieces to get started off with. For one thing, much of the Band's library has been disposed of; all photocopied scores with no copy of the originals present have been thoroughly disposed of. Before you lament the loss of all the scores of the pieces we've played during our times, know that CLASS (The Copyright Licensing and Administration Society of Singapore) has been making their rounds around Singapore's school bands and more; a certain school band has just been fined a whopping amount of S$20'000. Thus, our music library is less than half of what it was during most of our times...

The pieces decided are:
1. Japanese Graffiti 4
2. Salut D'amore
3. Japanese Folk Song Medley
4. 'America' from West Side Story
5. Puszta
6. Forever
7. When You Believe

No worries, it's not gonna be a fixed programme; its subject to changes decided by all of us. Also, not forgetting the Bach chorale books that will be used for short warm ups..

See you all there!

CHSAB - Opening Meeting Minutes

Dear Alumni Members, Welcome Back! If you have not joined the Facebook group for the alumni band, please do so here:

-Please take some time to read through this. It’s very important! :D

-This meeting was held on the 19th February 2009, in the Catholic High School Symphony Band Room. Contributing members present were:
1. Mr Victor Tey (Current Band teacher-in-charge)
2. Mr Edwin Heng (like, DUH)
3. Ian Ketsu (2004)
4. Daniel Zhang (2004)
5. Terrence Wong (2005)
6. Wilson Lin (2006)
7. Isaiah Ho (2007)
8. Lee En Hao (2007)
9. Ingmar Salim (2007)
10:Low Yue Sheng (2007)
11.Clinton Tay (2007)
12. Daniel Lim (2008)


1. DIRECTION
-Membership in the initial stages is important. We will rely on three main batches: those who graduated in 2007, 2008 and 2004. We expect these to form the bulk of the band, and we are trying not to rely on the batches that are currently serving NS or who will be enlisting this year. We expect:
-2004: 8 members
-2007: 10 members
-2008: 10 members
Which will form a small band of at least 25 members. Please pull in as many of your alumni friends in as possible!

-We plan to have a joint concert with the main band around the end of this year. Aesthetique 2009 is not in the works because of some issues of concert timing and dates clashing with the school’s Gala concert in July. We may also have another joint concert next year in May, which will most likely be THE Aesthetique.

-In the long run, the main band plans to hire our own alumni members as instrumental tutors. This will only work if the alumni band keeps on running…even after concerts are over.


2. MOUTHPIECES
-Brass players should get their own mouthpieces if possible. To our knowledge, most batches of brass players do own their own mouthpieces, so this should not be a problem.

-Woodwind players will have to share mouthpieces with main band members, but should try to get their own reeds if possible. If not, they may use the school’s…tentatively. Players should ensure that they wash the mouthpieces and take good care of them.

-We will not touch most of the new instruments that the current conductor, Mr David Glosz, has bought for the main band. Instead, we will use the medium grade instruments, which are practically the ones we have used when we were still in band…unless you come from a batch before grad’03.

-Bring and use your own instrument if you have one! :)


3. LEADERSHIP ROLES
-Librarian: a member who needs to know the workings of the library as it is now (there have been many changes since the time Mr Glosz took over) and who needs to work with the librarian from the main band. Tentatively, we voted for Ingmar Salim to be the librarian…we may pick another one if the need arises.

- Quarter-master: this position will be left to the main band’s own QM(s), for they will need to allocate the right instruments to us. In time, we may have our own QM when we are more familiar with the band’s current itenery.

- Conductors/Music Directors: People who will lead the band musically and technically. We need two at any one time; if one has urgent matters to attend to suddenly and cannot make it for rehearsals or even a concert, the other must be ready to take over the entire role at any given time. Under normal circumstances though, the two may share the workload. Currently we have appointed:
1. Terrence Wong (2005)
2. Daniel Lim (2008)


4. UNIFORMS
We have decided on a ‘non-uniform’ where the concert dressing may be based on the theme of the concert or a simple dressing (like black and/or white) with variations between members, leaving behind the tradition of wearing black on black for concerts.


5. PRACTICE TIMES
-As we have agreed, the timing of our practices WILL be decided by means of an online poll. The link is posted below and if your friends do not have Facebook, please forward the following link to them: http://www.polldaddy.com/poll.aspx?p=1386568

-We will not have practices every week. Like any school term or orchestral season, we will have ‘seasons’ of 7 to 8 weeks in a row with a 1 or 2 week break. The actual duration of these seasons and breaks will be decided later when we have more members.

-Poll closes 2359hrs, 28th February 2009.


6. REPERTOIRE
-Choice of repertoire may depend on the theme of the main band’s concert; we don’t want to play something that is too similar or too contrasting to their repertoire. As an alumni band, we should seem to the audience as an ensemble of musicians who have benefited from the musical education of the main band, and thus a notch higher in terms of quality playing.

-We will play at least 1 pops (fun) piece and 1 symphonic (serious) piece for any future concerts. However, we will attempt to build up a playable repertoire of about 7 to 8 pieces that we can select from anytime…we wouldn’t want to play 2 pieces for the rest of the year would we? :D


7. REHEARSAL SCHEDULE
-Most of us have to admit, we are not exactly in top condition on our instruments, thus our rehearsal schedules will have to include –ahem- basics, which everyone either really loves or really hates. Nevertheless, they are important in helping us to build up our sound and technique again, and will have to be faced by every member of the band.

-The agreed schedule for a two hour rehearsal is this:
-20 min warm up and chorales
-Rest of the time: pieces
-Any remaining time: sight read new pieces to train our reading skills


8. FINAL WORDS
If you have read until here, congratulations! Please help to pull other members in when you can, though no forcing! :D