YEF 2005

Just puked and nearly fainted in public. 2nd time this year. And this time's because i lost 5ml of blood. Freaking irritating.. at least i puked cleanly into the drain this time. One of the reasons why I can nv be a doc or nurse.. thought i was over this needles thing but, oh well..

OBS week.. I'd better pass my prac test, if not what a huge waste this is. Acc to the instructor yesterday I can pass, but they always say that I can pass.. Saw that Ivan instructor again, he can still recognise me with my shaggy hair.. Nice to have someone saying hi

YEF2005!! Ok, no more about puking, psyche up for YEF!! (gonna be real long, must record down the 2nd last electone concert I watch in detail, skip if you get bored.)
They were playing Mindscape as background music when xiaowei and I entered, as promo for Andoh's concert. So cool. I am definitely going for his concert. just need a date, and tickets, as usual. (Oh yeah, xw was shocked by my hair, haha, thought I got gan3 qing2 chuang4 shang1)
Participants came out dressed up. Guys in top hats, girls with masks, masquerade kind.. Funky. Really cute how the kids (6 yrs old ones) bow. =) Emcee was lousy as usual. Come on Yamaha, I'm sure there are more professional people out there who can emcee a lot better. Every concert, this woman comes out and make lousy attempts at trying to be spontaneous and funny, end up looking unrehearsed and unpro. Judges were Ms Rita Sze, Mr Jimmy Kok and chief judge Ms Ng Bie Tin.

Competition starts. It's classical this year. Junior section. Pathetique sonata, a hipper version, delivered beautifully, double pedalling that wow-ed me, I can't do that.. He got 3rd. The Cat, quite nice too, but somehow i can't remember how it sounds like.. hmm, she got 2nd. Then Lu Yun with Night On a Bare Mountain. Stunning. Flawless in my opinion. There was this part where she played Eb appegios on pedals, and it was perfect. Impressive. It was very clear that she was going to be the winner. If there was a junior IEC, she'd probably be in it.. great one

Senior section. Quite sad case this yr, only 3 people competing. Rido Yanto with Bacchanale from Samson Et Dalila. What a mouthful. The piece was difficult, no doubt, very difficult, not something I can manage. But I didn't think he played it well, slips here and there, and the piece sounded too fast for his fingers.. nervous maybe, hope he relaxes before the next round cos he won. Guess the judges saw the potential in him. 1 tip to pick up from EFs, if you wanna go on to the next step, make sure you write/ arrange your own songs.. No way u can win with a "canned" song, no matter how beautifully you play it, unless all the contestants are playing such pieces. Greensleeves, not as difficult, but much neater and very nice. Strange rhythms, thought she was off rhythm halfway but turned out that the schore was written that way. Great piece for a concert piece in IEC finals but not really as THE competition piece. She got 2nd. Rondo Capriccioso, way too much piano, I don't think it's a good idea to play piano on the electone, it's much easier than if u do it on the piano, you can have a stationary left hand and it doesn't sound any better. Maybe if it was as captivating as mr tan's piano, it would have won her some points, but well, i didn't like it. Her pedalling was good, but she lost me halfway through the piece, cos I sort of condemned the piece after the long piano part. Got 3rd.

Entertainment Category- Solo. They are all so young but very entertaining. =) 6yrs old girl played Sing. Very adorable cos she can't reach the pedals on this tall STAGEA, and she was swaying like a pendulum when she was playing. Don't think she played much, XG probably added a lot of flavours, but she sounded good. She got 5th. 12 year old boy played a Joe Hisashi piece, from animation medley, but I don't know the title, nice piece. but well, he wasn't paying attention to his expression and touch, so he got 4th. Oh yeah, he dressed up as a Jap warrior who help little insects get their homeland back. So he had to remove his helmet, put down his sword and shield before playing. Next, Jo-Adam Saiful Mizra, 6 yrs old, played James Bond Theme. 6yrs old, short, cannot reach pedals, so he stood up to play. Quite a good idea actually, he was shaking to the music when he wasn't pedalling. Very engaging piece. The right type of music to play for entertainment competition. Rhythmic familiar tunes. He won. Next 7 yrs old boy wore a mexican hat, whatever u call it and played Tequila, a latin piece. cool cos he shouted Tequila! in the middle of the piece. He got 2nd. 16yrs old girl played Circle Line. I don't like the piece, I don't like Reiko actually, so I didn't like what she played. she got 3rd. I'll kill myself if I were her.. =X

Ensemble section. The most entertaining part. Shen Qi Yi Bao, played Miracle, by the 12 Girls Band. 2 on electone, 1 dizi, 1 erhu. Sounded very good, think the dizi and erhu players are real confident, cos they're playing with electronic instruments, any bit of out of tune will be so obvious, but they pulled it off. They won best musical award and best costume. They dressed up in ancient Chinese costumes, brought paper fans up, and this guy was wearing a bian4 lian3 mask. Great outfit cos they have the perfect excuse to wear thin and soft soles shoe. Next Charmed with My Memory, this song from Winter Sonata. Think they're from Tampines, guy sang, girl accompanied. Guy had a good voice but not fantastic, girl, the dynamics a bit off. They reminded me of this guy and girl from my class. I'm biased but I do think my classmates could sound bettr than them. =X Next, I-STARS playing Hedwig's Theme. Young girls, 6 yrs old maybe? Dressed up as witches, showed 3 amazing magic tricks before playing, too bad they were doing 3 tricks all at once, and I didn't know which one to watch.. haha. They got best entertainment award. Then Latino Meeq! playing Copacabana, which happens to be the latin piece that Renee and XM played at my house. Nice. They had mo4 qi4 and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. They got best audience choice award.

Guest Performances. Sop sax playing going home acc by Sharyn Toh. He was good, really. Flute played Spain acc by Sharyn again. Piece was difficult but i didn't really like it. Melvin Png, elec guitar, acc by Sharyn and her Sparkz group, played Smoke on the Water. Actually I couldn't tell he was playing that piece. Elec guitar. hai. He's very cool, Sharyn looked really good, but the others were, um, well, erm, let's just say, not that comfortable with those shaking. Anyway i think this is the only piece Sharyn needs to practise. The other few just memorise, and since she probably written them herself, just improvise and look pretty. Then Sparkz played Sway and Bad Boy. Kinda hard to tell who's playing what when they are facing the audience instead of the keyboards facing us.
I'm still fascinated by all those sound effects during the changing of pieces. Did they come from the Stagea, it's probably MIDI or XG or even recordings, nope, should be MIDI. If they did come from Stagea, how does it stop exactly at the start of the piece? Unless it's all timed and recorded in the tracks. no idea..

Entertaining evening. I will go for Andoh's concert, just need a date and tickets. If you're interested to go with me, let me know, I'll prob order tickets this week. Gosh, I've been blogging for an hour.. Need to drink more water, think I'm dehydrated from puking.. urgh..