Old Piano Pieces and Such

Yesterday, or was it two days ago? I saw Mable playing her Grade 8 exam pieces on the piano. I strangely could not recall the melody of the songs she played. Now if it it was Dawn the exam pieces would literally strike a chord in my memory at once! Among the three of us, she's the most diligent when it comes to practicing.

I have been missing my Grade 8 exam pieces for years! Every time I come home I would hunt for it a bit, but give up. I could never find the book, and part of the reason must be because I give up digging for it too soon. But listening to Mable play her exam pieces made my heart itch again. I asked her if she knew where my book was.

I should have asked that question a few years earlier. Sometimes I think Mable knows where everything is. She pointed me to the exact place where it was, in one of the many dusty plastic bags on the last level of our bookshelf, hidden behind Daddy's boxes and other junk. I braved myself to wade through everything till I got the book. Fortunately, it wasn't too dusty.

Anyway I excitedly asked Mable to turn the piano over to me. Since she was having quite some trouble replaying her Grade 8 pieces, she gladly did so. I flipped to the first song - titled Presto (which means 'very fast' in Italian). Since I was very out of practice, I attempted to play it Moderato instead. I still remembered my score for this song was 24/30. Mable wanted to try playing the song too since it looked rather simple. But appearances can be deceiving! It is not easy for fingers to go round and round non-stop, less still in the speed of 'Presto' for 10 pages straight! She gave up after the first few bars and we tried playing a hand each. I still remember a teacher saying that it was a bad choice of a song, because it was too hard to play. I should have chosen another song which was easier (and only 3 pages!) at the back. Unfortunately, (or is it fortunately?) I had taken fancy to this one and had ventured into the land of no return. It was evident by the time I reached page 4 or 5 (Mable had given up by then), that the song was best played Adagio (slow), according to my current level of competency.

After the first song, I turned to the second, Allegro (which means lively or fairly quick), an 8 page piece by Mozart. I got 23/30 for this one, quite dangerous, 20/30 being the passing mark. I still remember my uneven quavers, and fingers seemed to get tangled. Well, things seemed worse than ever after lack of practice. I could barely get past the first two pages. I forced myself to go on, skipping lots of notes in the process, to the last page.

My third song was a relatively modern piece, titled Character Piece No. 2, by a composer named Britten. I have no idea who Britten was, but after choosing and playing the piece, I remembered him as a 'modern time' composer. The Character Piece was short, and certainly had character. It was in E major, which had four sharps (and I hate keys with lots of sharps). But if that wasn't enough, there were all sorts of sharps and flat, and double sharps jutting out here and there throughout the piece. Fortunately, it wasn't a fast piece as the previous two were. It didn't sound nice either. It sounded weird, out of sync, but somehow there was a certain pattern in it. I didn't really like the melody of this song. But I liked the marks it gave me during the exam, 27/30, which was unexpectedly good. I didnt' even intend to choose this piece in the first place - I wanted another song that sounded nicer (during the Romantic Era I suppose), but that was a tad too long (around 6 pages), and since I was already struggling with my first two songs, my teacher and I thought it would be wiser to go with something a little shorter and easier so I'd have more time to practice.

The little Character Piece got me some bonus points which might have helped me pull my results from a pass to a merit. But when I tried to play it again now, it turned out even worse than my first two pieces! Maybe I just needed time to familiarize myself with all the sharps and flats again.

So after the evening of a grostoque tryout, I made up my mind that before I go back to Singapore, I'd better play these pieces until they are at least presentable again.

Hence today, after mopping the floor, irregardless of a cut finger (my mop is falling to pieces and I have somehow clipped my finger against it), I practiced and practiced and practiced for hours. You wouldn't have found me so hardworking if it was exam time. And somehow, after almost 8 years (yes I know I'm old), playing the same songs over again, I felt like I could now add a little something into the songs that I couldn't before. And by evening, I could play all the songs fairly well already.

All the while in Singapore I had been lazy and have been playing everything by ear. Now I sort of realize that I can play by score fairly well too, and back comes my confidence. Those practice memories kept flooding back and so did every small irritation I used to experience. I felt that I was somehow back in my secondary school days again.

Piano practicing made my day quite eventful after all. I just hope my neighbours aren't sick of all the repeated practicing. My piano has a tendency to make everything extra loud. :)

Jigsaw Puzzles

When I was young I played with jigsaw puzzles a lot. Those wooden pieces where you just fit them into the board and if it's the right piece, the picture clicks.

Recently I have been playing with jigsaw puzzles too, but they don't need to be cleared up. I have this set of games inside my computer and I can pick a picture to play with any time I want - and even adjust the difficulty of the game. As before, I prefer playing with more 'cartoon like' jigsaws, because actual photographs and scenery are quite hard to do.

I was bored, so I wiki-ed 'jigsaw puzzle' to find out that some puzzles were in 2D or 3D version. That is so beyond my reach.

Somehow all this jigsaw playing reminds me of the Archi Boy's (Thierry's) blog name: Pieces of Me. Especially since he updated quite recently. The first thoughts this name brought to me was that it sounded very much like a shattered glass, then I connected the words to a jigsaw. Then I felt it had very much to do with archi models too, for my (very crude) impression of them were pieces of cardboard and stuff stuck together.

I don't know where my blogging direction is going to, but I'll just have faith and follow the my train of thoughts as I type. Come to think of it, I haven't blogged like this for some time. Usually I sit down with a set of thoughts, and expand them one by one.

But today is different. Completing this blog entry is like doing a jigsaw puzzles without seeing all the pieces I have in hand.

Sometimes I feel that life is like a jigsaw puzzle too. Isn't this statement a little cliche? But that's the way I find it. Unpredictable. Sometimes you see an odd piece standing out, and wonder - how this funny little piece with its different color and texture will actually fit into the whole picture. As of now, it doesn't seem to match anywhere. Do you think these thoughts while doing jigsaws? I do a lot.

But later, the fun part is as you get along, all the oohs and ahhs! It fits, and now you know why it does! :)

(Hey, this blog jigsaw is turning out not too bad afterall.)

I do always think that life is like fitting pieces of jigsaw together. You get the right pieces and they click when you walk along the will of God. In marriage, in finding a job, in building relationships. And how do you know the will of God? We discussed this once a upon a time in Bible study. Just be obedient to God's Word, and you'll be walking along His will!

But there's one new question I'd like to introduce: Why does the jigsaw puzzle, which is originally a nice picture, has to be broken up, only to be built or restructured again?

Everytime I do cartoon jigsaws, I always think that this helps to improve my cartoon drawing, or copying. That's because when the big picture is all apart, to reconstruct it, I need to pay attention to the little details. If it's all there already, I just tend to casually view it as a big picture, as a whole.

I guess if life was not a jigsaw, we wouldn't really appreciate the little details. All those twist and turns that are already made known are no more exciting.

And I guess to some people, if a picture wasn't in jigsaw form, there would be nothing fun nor addicting in it at all!

21 July 2009

I haven't been updating much. I'm at home in Tampin now for a week. Would come back to Singapore by Sunday.

Quite a bit has changed after my being away for about one month. Daddy has bought a new car (that I yet have to ride in). We have a new washing machine. Everyone in the house seems to be in love with Jacob's biscuits. I am, now, too. :)

I went to my grandfather's house and weighed myself on the scales there to find that I have hit my lowest weight record possible. 40.1 kg. Thank goodness it's not 39! But still I suppose that means I have to eat more. But I think I have been eating more nowadays. I'm even having suppers now!

Hmm. Maybe I'll put on weight here instead.

I finally finished my thick book of over 50 Hercule Poirot stories. Lovely! If only I go through my textbooks at this speed, and with this amount of passion! I can't help stating again what a wonderful read these books of Agatha Christie are. The conceited Poirot, with his famous, curled mustaches that cannot stand the heat, he barges in and out of the most extraordinary mysteries and gets every one of them solved! All except for one during his early days.

I Youtube-d and found that there are Hercule Poirot movies adapted from his novel crimes too! And my, some of the lady actresses are most pretty! It's a great pity there aren't subtitles. The words they speak are a bit mouthed in. And the acting, I won't really say that it's spectacular. But for a fan who's true to the contents of the book, I don't think the movies actually disappoint. Unlike other stories that have been adapted into movies and parts of it here and there are being left out - somehow I think they managed to put in all the important details and leave out just the really minor ones.

I'll write more next time, it's time for dinner :) Ta.

Archive Browsing

Just now I have been browsing through the archives of Campus Blog and also the RH Block 6 block. So many memories flooded in.

I saw all the posts I put and the others put in the blog the past two years. I recalled that we used to be CampNUS because almost all of us were studying in NUS. (Now it's not, to be fair haha.) I saw many people I haven't been seeing for a long while. And pictures of myself with short hair!

I saw the crazy old days when we were all First Years hanky-pankying in Block 6 compounds and the kitchenette, the combined dinners, the combined birthday celebrations.

Funny how all these change for me just after two years.

I suppose in a way I have shut myself from Block 6'ers lovely company. And I have not the willpower to keep in touch with those who left Campus, or to persuade them to come back.

I look and I browse and that part of myself yearns to be that me I was once, just a mere two years ago.

How busyness, stress and competitiveness has shaped me! How much university life has given to me, and yet how much has it taken away too.

I have always regarded myself as being soft in a way as being easily shaped by opinions of others and events in life, and I think to some degree I'm right. I've been changing and changing, year after year. And though part of me wants to go back, somehow, I don't want to go back either.

The change hasn't been all bad. I did make new friends. I did learn the importance of being dilligent and taking initiatives. I learned who I must be in order to be a good employee, to fit into this new world I'm thrust into, one I'm still struggling to learn how to survive in. I learned to take up heavier responsibilities. I regained part of my self-confidence I left behind in Malaysia, and at the same time, learn how to be humble.

Yet I begin to find it hard to hold on to relationships, especially those that have passed. My whole anchor to who I am and who I was before this in relation to people is that I belong to my family, and to them I shall always belong. The rest sort of come and go.

Dear friends, I do not understate your importance in my life. I do take friendships seriously, and I try to be accountable for all. Yet, I regret I have not found time to talk, listen and just be there for people, because I am often confused with my priorities - I wonder if I have been spending enough time on myself, even though it is already a lot.

Oh, I miss those days when you can just thrust the care of growing up and thriving in a working world apart, and just be there with your friends for fellowship and fun, sharing experiences with each other. I wonder why although I have placed great importance in many friendships in my life, I have often failed to sustain them.

And most of all, I wonder why part of me just wants to continue with the state I am now and live with it. I'm confused. Am I really like that?