Semester Random Rants: 1. Subject

This semester has to be one of the most tedious semesters ever. Even though the subjects I took were lesser than my first semester, but now, being a Year 2 Sem 1 student, the subjects are getting harder than ever.

1. Aural Skills 2

Aural Skills 2 is way tough compared to Aural Skills 1!! Honestly, Aural 1 for me was easy and I usually lose marks when I was careless on certain things. However, Aural Skills 2 is mad! On a scale of 10 (easy to difficult), Aural 1 is 3 and Aural 2 is 7!! Such a big jump! The syllabus between both subjects has a very wide difficulty gap as well. What TZP told me last semester was true: Aural 2 is WAYYY harder! However, we are blessed to have Miss J to teach us Aural Skills 2 :) She is really good at teaching us this subject ( better than Miss L for Aural 1) but the downside is that she is VERY PARTICULAR, PERFECT PITCH, VERY STRICT IN MARKING and VERY PRECISE!!! If you are slightly slower/ faster...she'll notice it. Hence, we can't 'cheat' in our timing and pitch. Everything has to be so precise that the 1 beat must be emphasized, the triplets must be accurately sung, the dictation (rest and tie @.@) but be clear, etc. It was really tough that I was worried about whether will I pass this subject at the end of the semester. Miss J said that my pitching is 'near perfect', but I have to work on my rhythmic consistency to avoid losing unnecessary marks..which well, I lost a lot of marks because of that (sadly). Even though she is really strict, but she is like a mother to us :) We can really see her dedication in teaching this subject and make sure we understand the concepts well. The problem lies in the syllabus, where Aural 1 covers very little components and Aural 2 you suddenly have so many 'alien' components to finish in 3 months.

Confession: I only START to practice for Aural tests when i'm taking Aural 2..That shows how tough Aural 2 is.

2. Choir

One word: AWESOME! Honestly, during Choir 1 and Choir 2, I did not enjoy the choir because everyone was super noisy and I don't feel like I've learned anything about singing. The lecturer wasn't strict enough and didn't really polish our skills. During that period, I have always admired 'Senior Choir' (Choir 3) because of their song selections, amazing harmony and skills..well, also the guys :3. Thus, when it's my turn to join 'Senior Choir', I was ecstatic! I still remembered the first lesson we did really useful warm-ups, to learn how to make our voice centered and focused, blending of voices, etc. For the first time, I actually LEARNT something in the choir! The seniors are fun as well!! Playful but they behaved when it is time to behave. The senior girls we quite in their gang but it is normal because we were like that as well. I was sad initially when because the lecturer told me that I still have to be a soprano (I wanted to try for alto) because I have a soprano timbre and I can hit the notes. It was quite gloomy for me because I was the only newbie in soprano!!! Initially, I only had like...5 friends I know there. I remembered dreading sectionals because I was alone ..and during choir class ..but During choir, the class was better because during break time, I'll just hop over to Alto section to see the rest of my friends :) However, soon, I got to know some seniors..and got approached to. One of them even knew my name and called me and tie the scarf for me before the performance. Felt like a little sister among them XD It was quite an amazing feeling.

I was lucky for choir midterms when I got L, M, and J as some of my choir team members. Those are the 'big shots' (L was faculty president, M is JS's pianist). Both were super endearing during practices!! I will forever remember the 'Deh Socco Re Te Ci, Donnetiamabili' part!! Three of them were wrecking their brains to memorize and was doing some natural funny stuff without knowing it!! M was particularly adorable as well..his dimples haha XD and when he tried so hard to speak mandarin to us was super funny. So endearing (sorry guys rant). I am super blessed to have my choir team members because all of them are committed to practicing and they taught me a lot. P.S: I was shocked that M knew me by my name...he was like'You don't need to tell me your name, You are C right?' I was shocked. Happily shocked.

Senior Choir performance :) :




Bonus: Junior Choir performance last semester :)


3. Malaysian Music

Malaysian music is a fun subject to learn. However, the lecturer is really sarcastic which makes the whole experience tad 'sien' one. It is also very insane because of the bulk that we need to study! In 3 months alone, we covered more than 15 types of music and mind you that each genre has its background, music styles, etc that we have to explore and understand! Honestly, this subject is heavier than 'Intro to Music History'!! It doesn't help that we have online quizzes that last for 2 minutes for EACH QUIZ (NOT EACH QUESTION), so we were always rushing to do those questions. It is quite annoying because when we click 'next', it takes 1 second =.= I was happy with midterms because I scored 46/50..man I was lucky then. However, for finals, it is insane! There was one question that came out that none studied for! She is very smart in coming out with weird, vague and difficult questions. I think I 'died' for the essay paper..it was brain cracking and nerve-wracking! I wonder how others fared for that paper. However, I still enjoyed this class because I get to learn more about other cultures and get to know more people from different semesters. I even got to briefly tutor some of them before exams which I find satisfying because I get to help people.

4. Major Instrument a.k.a Piano Major class

Major instrument this semester was okay for me. I am so happy this semester because I get to finally choose my own piece!! I choose Debussy's 'La Plus Que Lente'.

I thought that I'm done with it because 'Yay I've chosen one song and now I'm gonna work on my scales, sight-reading, etc since this semester I'm having a Technical Jury' However, 'La Plus Que Lente' was 1 minute short of the minimum time. Hence, Mr. S recommended that I pick one of the Bach Sinfonias since it is short and it shows off some technical stuff there. I end up choosing the first sinfonia, Sinfonia in C major

I didn't like the piece because it wasn't my style and I dislike Bach's pieces. However, as a pianist, I understand that I have to know how to play pieces of various styles if I want to succeed.

My lecturer was quite satisfied with me for the whole semester that during group classes, I was shocked that I get praised by the people. I still remembered the first group class, where I finished the whole ' La Plus Que Lente' and thought I sucked. However, they commented that I was good and they enjoyed it..except for my stiff shoulders. During the 2nd and Final group class, they were just 0.0 after I played both songs. Mr. S wrote in the comment that ' I improved a lot for 'La Plus Que Lente' and the Bach has to be less robotic. I actually got the one with the least comments. However, it didn't translate well during the jury because I didn't get a good result for Jury. I guess my techniques still need tons of work because it is 60% and because of that, it pulled down my marks to a borderline pass. I was sad but thankful that I passed by jury. I'm ever more excited for my next jury though because Jury 2 is a 'pieces' jury and that means WOOHOO !! NO SCALES! NO SIGHT READING! JUST PIECES !!! I am more confident that I can score way higher for that awww yeah !!

5. Chamber Music Ensemble (CME)

This semester is the very first time I took CME. Previously I was super excited for CME because I get to work with other people and push myself to be a better pianist. I was blessed to have N as my duet partner because she is technically strong and that allows me to push myself to be even stronger in my techniques. During the first lesson, we were all introduced to Miss Y and she asked each of us to tell her about our music preference and style. K and J complimented each other the most because both of them are similar in their taste of music and their strengths. Both of them are equally strong because they are the 2 best pianists of their batch !!! I and N are very different because N is a 'Chopin type' and prefers playing notes while I'm a 'Rachmaninoff type and 20th-century type' who loves to play chords and dissonance. Another two girls are also different because one is a very strong player while the other is a very weak player. Miss Y is a very dedicated teacher (the most dedicated teacher I've ever seen). When she saw us play, she gave us pieces that are tailored to our strengths and preference. Also, she gave each of us an INDIVIDUAL extra lessons to polish our skills !! She is THAT dedicated! :') I also learnt a lot from N as well when she taught me a lot of tips about techniques such as how she 'sayang' the piano with her fingers (only we will know that haha XD). In the end, I think we complemented each other quite well after 3 months of working together. We both got 80 for midterms and 76 for finals. I was hoping for 80 for finals, but I still count that as a blessing. Also because of CME, I get to perform in student recital for my very first time since I first step into UCSI :) So shocked and glad that Miss Y choose us instead of K and J...It really gave me the assurance that I was on par with them...

CME group class performance. Man, we were quite unlucky because we got the first group class :( It was our first time and we didn't get to see others play. However, I thank God because we managed to pull through that piece which we learnt in less than 2 weeks !!! My Goodness, it wasn't easy because the piece is atonal, dissonant, weird, etc..it took me 2 hours just to sight-read the piece because I'm unsure whether I'm playing the right thing @.@

CME group class performance:

I was super touched after we performed this piece because both lecturers gave us really good comments for it! I was really shocked T.T I still remembered after we finished the piece, the audience clapped non-stop and Miss SY was telling us to absorb that feeling because we were that good...Both gave us compliments and the last lecturer just told us that we have to work on a tighter ensemble. It was a good start :)

*p.s: I also posted the video of us playing on youtube and Jeff Manookian (The composer of the piece) commented on my video: "kerikan1953 2 months ago

What a great performance of this work! Best of luck in future endeavors. Jeff Manookian"

Student Recital performance:

*p.s: I regretted posting the CME group class performance on youtube because we did WAY better during student recital T.T

We got compliments from this performance, especially from the contemporary students who usually slept through classical recitals. So touched when they approached me and told me they enjoyed our playing. I also invited J to watch and he enjoyed it. He also witnesses people telling me it's good...and told me to believe in myself more. So touched.

CME finals:

Ahh...so this piece..many might know the 'Beggar's theme' because of S.H.E's persian cat. I didn't post Jeff Manookian's because I've posted twice here haha XD. Anyways, was quite disappointed that our ensemble wasn't as tight as before due to so many works we have to do (the jury was approaching and finals as well). We only practiced this one week before..super faillll...HOwever, I still think we did good :)

5. Music Theory 3

*P.s: I choose this picture because I DON'T know which other pictures to choose haha..we actually did secondary dominant in Theory 2

HONESTLY, I was utterly scared of Music Theory 3 after I got a disappointing C for Theory 2. However, Ms.L was really good at teaching Theory 3 (so much clearer than Dr. C for theory 2). Because of her, I got 39/50 for midterms which is quite a miracle for me as my ABRSM theory is only a Grade 5. Finals I got a B overall which was shocking. Thank God because I don't know whether I'll pass it or not. 

Yay..so this post 'summarized' the subjects I took this semester :) Quite little but super packed aye? :)