A touch of Sweetness

Friday, May 1, 2009

Yesterday was our BIG DAY! We had SYF in the morning, followed by our final project for MU3117 -- our very own musical, "History of Singapore, with a twist!". I learnt a lot from these two performances and will work on my weaknesses more to improve myself.

SYF: This is the first time NUSH took part in the SYF String Ensemble. We only decided to join 2-3 months before SYF and made use of the Mon and Fri CCA timeslots to practise with no additional practices! We just wanted to gain some experience since it was our first time. Our 2 pieces were “Ave Maria” and “Joy of Spring”. These pieces were relatively easy due to the different grades all of us have and were arranged by Dr Wong.

Slowly, as the practices went by, we improved and started to learn how to coordinate as a group – group dynamics, group movement, group articulation, etc. At first, I thought that if everyone just practised their own parts, it should be very easy to coordinate as a group. I was wrong. Nearing the competition, Dr Wong told us that we had to listen out for one another, listen to the different sections and play as a group. Many sounds, one heart. This is really a group effort and we cannot just listen for ourselves.

Though we fumbled in the actual performance, we still managed to obtain a BRONZE which was a pleasant surprise. I learnt the importance of group coordination and the meaning of group effort. Individual effort will definitely improve a group’s performance but the results are mostly based on a group effort.

Musical: This is our final project which constitutes 30% to our final grade. Our storyline is centered on Singapore History. Throughout the whole process, there were hiccups and some conflicts here and there. It was not a smooth sailing process for everyone and it was rather hard to find songs and change their lyrics. Also, many problems arose during the process, for e.g., the transitions were slow and some people had trouble singing the songs.

But we did it in the end! We managed to pull through and in the end, except for the technical difficulties and some missing lines, I would say it was a much better performance than during the rehearsals. As what Fangyi told us during one of rehearsals: this is a group effort, a group project, a group mark, a group result. If we wanted to do well, everyone of us has to cooperate in order to make this musical a success.

Through these 2 “events”, I learned the true meaning of “United we stand, divided we fall”. Group coordination and teamwork is very very important in today’s society as we need to work with people from all walks of life.

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