Welcome to NJC Angklung Ensemble's blog! :)

We are a group of carefree students who have gathered together,
regardless of bawahs, normals, atas, kulintang and percussions
to create music like none other with our conductor, Mr Dzul. :D
Teacher i/cs: Mr Tan Chor Yean, Ms Sun

hey everyone, thanks for putting in the long hours and hard work for prac today! =)

anw, just in case some of you are wondering, 'eclectic' means a representation of the combination of a variety of influences! the reason why we chose it was 'cos angklung & harmonica music are worlds apart but we're gg to try to meld the 2 into 1 for the concert! =)

i'm so excited for it! aren't you? =)

posted by cons at 6:57 PM

just popped round to read some blogs by the juniors and well, i have some advice for the juniors...

yes, studying's impt and yeah, you shld worry abt not doing well but is life really determined by grades? is your value as a person measured by how well you do academically? maybe sometimes, just sometimes, we need to take a step back & re-evaluate what we want in life to put things in their perspective?

and don't ever lose hope, you all came into nj with an aggregate better than mine - i only scored 10 pts? it might seem overwhelming to you with the heavy wrkload but take the time to adjust. for according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me."

for those of us who value relationships, jc seems so scary 'cos you're suddenly separated by the pple who you've grown up with [4 yrs, 10 yrs?] and yes, you're worried tt those long-dist relationships [is the contxt this is being used in even correct?] but take control of the situation instead of just worrying abt the possibility of you growing apart! organise those get-togethers, jun is busy but make time for those you cherish for 'If you love something, it'll never be any trouble and you always have time.'

[incidentally, there was this article on the newspaper today abt this ij [my alma mater] girl who was organising a 1966 reunion. it's like 40 yrs ago & 2 pple have passed away... it seems so poignant tt after so many yrs, they still keep in touch?! can we make the effort to do the same for the pple we love, can we still keep those friendships burning strong?] i believe tt our friendships are surely worth the test of time!

then there are so many of you who have blogged abt not being able to play well, being worried/stressed when i mention/scold you/your playing. i can only say tt i'm sorry tt i can't put things in a nicer way; thank goodness for joyce who's such a sensitive, compassionate & diplomatic person! everyone, don't worry, we're gg to do it, we're gg to make it; we're gg to ace it. yes, ecelectic is gg to be a success!

everyone just needs to relax, don't think of getting the timing right, getting the techniques right; rather, we need to listen with our heart and when we do, everything will fall into place. with mr dzul as our admiral, the teachers as our captains, the exco as the commanders & you all as the lieutenants, we're abt to embark on the exciting voyage into un-charterted waters. as long as we have our hearts in the right places, we're never have anything to fear. as Homer said, "Nothing is too high for the daring of
mortals; we storm heaven itself in our folly."

'Everyone is indispensable in making a perfect melody. alone, we are nothing; together, we are everything.'

on the personal side, got my autograph book from yijun today and while reading i suddenly started crying. thanks to the wonderful angklungnites who asked if i was feeling ok. i assure you all tt i was.

the thing was i suddenly realised tt this is the last yr tt i'll be schling with yj. we've been pri sch mates, sec sch clsmates and now jc mates too! through it all, i've been in the same CCA with her for 10 yrs. [civics club, MMC, ARC, angklung] and we've shared so many things in common, shared so much of ourselves, shared too much of our lives tt i'm loathed for this to all end.

and it will, right this yr. what a frighteningly horrid thought to contemplate!
it was all too overwhelming for me and i just broke down. started by tearing while coming down from the angklung room and zl and zh left me to it. then it got worse when i saw yj & joyce and it suddenly seemed so imperative tt they know how much i really do love them.

cldn't help it; i bawled like a kid. but i'm not to let thess friendships dim with time [not if i can help it] so i'm gg to keep fighting to keep them alive!

*thanks for the lovely concern you all showed, thought you deserved an explanation.

posted by cons at 11:32 PM

hey peeps! june hols, as yijun has mentioned, are here!

of course, many of us will be going : WHAT HOLS.

but nonetheless, as our inspiring principal has adviced, we should spend the break meaningfully and fulfillingly.

so please people, go out with your friends! meet at a local community library, our Macs and start dishing out your maths/chem/phy/bio/geog/econs/gp/lit/hist (did i miss out anything?) questions! (:

that way, you'd have effectively captured the essence of Mrs Cheng's speech during assembly today

yes! anyways study hard people!

J1s: this is your first taste of what NJ has in stored for you! so must work hard cause it's going to be really different :)

J2s: CT2s will be similar to A lvl stds, so let's all work hard to see where we are exactly academically(does tt make sense?)

less than 2 months before concert people! let's try our best to manage our time well k (:

loveya loads :)

posted by joyce at 10:09 PM

Hi everyone, YOu know what, you guys deserve the praise as you guys had been working your @#* off practising for the performances and also the concert.
By the way, I was witnessing the investiture too and can't help thinking about my experiences for the past 6 years. Yup, for the past 6 years we have been having Council members in the Angklung ensemble and every year I will have to go through a painful experience of talking to some of the councillors who voiced their interest in quitting the ensemble due to results or commitment or others. I am a firm believer of "everyone is a leader and everyone matters" thus I encourage everyone to take up leadership position and preferably within our ensemble so that you guys can carryone the good name of NJC Angklung Ensemble.
It's going to be tough next year as we prepare for the SYf and it is during that time that your true character will be tested.I only hope that I will not need to go through all the heartache and dissappointment as I talked to students that express their intention to quit for one reason or the other. For me, for every member that quit signify my failure.
for all of you, please use your JUne hols wisely and study ok.
As for the concert, I know you guys will be great so, tomorrow the tickets will be ready and do encourage your loved ones, your friends, your seniors to buy the tickets ok. I promise you it's gonna be an splendid and memorable and different concert.

Lastly,the group is only as strong as it's weakest player. So, take ownership of the responsiblity and encourage each other so that NJC Angklung will progress as ONE.

Cheers and good night!!

posted by deroni at 12:08 AM

Disclaimer: Some parts of this post may be quite negative.

Today was quite an interesting day. In the morning, there was the 39th Student Council Investiture, then in the afternoon there was the Track and Field Meet.

I regret not eating enough breakfast before the Investiture. I was feeling so hungry that I just stoned throughout the ceremony. But I did realise that there were a few Angklungnites who are in the 39th Student Council (of course I knew beforehand, but it was a confirmation). One particular Angklungnite, Faisal, was impossible not to notice. Firstly, because of his physical size, and secondly, because he is the new president.

While it is an honour of the Angklung Ensemble to have the president as one of its members, I was worried that a key member is the president.

Seeing what happened earlier this year when some of our councillors quit, I was imagining what will it be like next year if the same thing happens again.

What if it happens? Hmm...

What can we do to reduce this possibility? Hmm...

---

Anyway, worries aside, I prefer to talk about happier things. During the sports meet today, I ran into one of the harmoc students I taught last year. She asked me "Do the Angklung members practise often? They are so good!"

Ermm I cannot boast and say things like "No, they are natural talents" right? So I diplomatically said "No lah, it's because Angklung instruments are louder, so they seem to drown the harmoc music, so the music sounds good."

The point is that we must encourage the harmoc side also right? Else how can we have a successful concert?

They think that you are good, so you must be confident of your abilities, then will you get the flow and the "feel". Get it?

Angklung shakes!!!

posted by the winner at 10:03 PM

After the college day performance. I met with the GOH (guest of honour), Mr Hawazi together with your principal. Mr Hawazi was impressed with your performance. He also remembered last year's performance at the Taman Warisan.
He particularly impressed with how we "angklunised" a non-angklung music...its very refreshing and different.
Well done people.
Hope, it will further open up to other opportunities.
Take care, seeya at practice.

posted by Dzul at 5:06 PM

All the best for the college day.
Its your day.. so have fun and enjoy.

posted by Dzul at 10:50 PM

here's the link for pple who want photos for the esplanade performance!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZs2jli4ZOGW6¬ag=1

i will include a section on the blog for photos taken previously for those who have no access to KM. [you shldn't if you're a member?!] it's for preusual by pple who chance upon this blog/ pple interested in finding out more.

and perhaps some j1 wants to take over the running of the blog as a webmaster/webmistress? yijun and & i wldn't be able to maintain this blog as often as we like henceforth! interested pple, pls volunteer your service! =)

btw, i have this very interesting link:

http://www.njcarchery.blogspot.com/

it's our archery club! maybe we shld do something like tt? [*hint!]

posted by cons at 7:12 PM

Mr Fuad and I received this email from Mr Sharin on Wednesday, who saw you guys perform on Tuesday night at the Esplanade. He was deeply impressed with your performance.

Kudos to all Angklungnites! And keep it up!

Here is the full contents of his email. I will upload the photos he sent onto the KM.

Photos of NJC Angklung performance on 9th may 06 @ Esplanade

Dear Sir,

Reference to the above subject.

Hello, my name is Sharin. Not sure who should i email to but i got the above contacts from the school's website. Anyway, I was at the Esplanade when your Angklung group made their repertoire performance yesterday. I managed to get a few snaps of them.

Attached are photos taken from last night event. I am pleased to share these images with your group. Kindly let me know if you require the original images (very large file sizes though).

Lastly, kindly convey the message to the students that my friends and I enjoyed their performance as much as the rest of the crowd there. Keep up the great work!

Thank you. Have a nice day!

Regards,
Sharin (Mr)

posted by the winner at 11:29 AM

As you all know, Ilona & I are overseeing the designing process. [with Zi Hao also.] After discussion with our fellow Exco members, we have decided that you all hvn't had time or enough manpower to submit enough designs [we were hoping for more!] and thus, we're gg to extend the deadline to 26th May.

This time round, there'll be no sub-committee [thanks for the pple who volunteered for the previous one!] so the Exco will collect them personally.

You can:

1) pass it to any Exco when you see us in sch;
2) upload it on KM under Public Resource Library/Designs or
3) put them in 05S22 letter tray

We're hoping to see more designs and more pple wrking on the designs for this 2nd round of submission. Make good use of the subsequent 2 weeks!

Don't forget, it's your shirt, your collar pin! The J2s may not have the chance to wear this shirt since we're only gg to be around for abt 2 more mnths! And don't forget tt we won the Best CCA T-Shirt Design Competition so can't lose out this yr, kk?

Note: This is a good chance for the pple who are running for EXCO to showcase your talent! =)

posted by cons at 11:51 PM

Heyo!
come to my multiply site for more of ur pictures
http://mahaguru.multiply.com/
Have a good weekend!

posted by Dzul at 5:15 PM

hey angklungnites!

it's been a tiring 3 days but i hope you all enjoyed yourself! i know tt i will rem this public performance 'cos it's our joint 1st: you as j1s performing in the public for the 1st time and us, as j2s performing with the 1st time along with you all.

i'm very proud tt you all managed to pull together and play all the pieces relatively well! we're gg to need to wrk on the 'feel' of the music but i'm glad tt we finally managed to wrk out some 'kinks' in our pieces.

sometimes, i feel tt i hvn't really given you all credit when it's due and only crtitise every minute mistake. i guess in pursuit of tt 'perfect' piece, i neglect the considerable amt of wrk you've put in. fantastic tt you all are wrking and enjoying yourselves during the performances!

we still need wrk [as i mentioned today] and yes, i know tt it sounds very distressing but it's the truth. some of the j2s think i'm very harsh on all of you i have to agree. i really, really want for us to do well and yeah, i guess my urgency's gg to stress some [if not all] of you. just acknowledge tt we do have our wrk cut out for us but yeah, don't stress yourselves over it!

i have ABSOLUTE faith in ALL of you tt we'll be able to pull through so long as you listen to what the j2s recommend and if you put what we show you into effective practice. so don't worry, don't panic, don't fret! you all CAN do this!

anw, i uploaded some pics for you all on KM, go d/l when free, alright? =)

rest well this wkend and we'll see one another on tue!

posted by cons at 9:22 PM

hey hey!!! major performances coming uppppp! hope you guys are geared to giving it the best that you've got (:

must thank you all those we came down religiously and commitedly for all 3 pracs last week! (: *glares at those who didn't*. i too feel tired but we must keep the momentum all the way till the big BIG big BIG day k!

haha i must sound like i'm blabbering rubbish now ><

anyhow, must thank mr dzul too for coming down for all the pracs despite his busy schedule! hence, no reason for US not to make it on practices when HE can k?

i hope the j1s are coping fine with your acads! don't hesitate to ask the snrs since we're all so smart (with the exception of me hahaha) and we've even got straight As students (:

for the j2s who might be reading this, it's been a stressful first term. i cannot guarantee for us to be more relieved of stress this term but i'm asking that you understand. it's the last leg for us and it'd be a waste to see all our past efforts put to waste. you know that we are more experienced than many of the j1s hence we need to be there to guide them, just as our seniors guided us.

don't just interact with the fellow yr 2s. take the initative to approach the yr 1s, especially if he/she is playing your note and he/she's doing it wrongly. (am guilty of not doing that too! ><)

anyhows, esplanade performance is coming up! hope you've talked to ur parents about the late nights! don't want them worrying about your whereabouts!


oh yes yes! and here's urging the j1s who haven't already d/led the exco application form:
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? haha if you are hesitant, remember that this is a good experience and an eye opener. don't let this chance slip away k? (:

cya ALL at the next practice! love!

posted by joyce at 2:17 PM

Click GO once and Click CHAT once again :)

Mr Dzul

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