From the conductor..

Hello everyone!

I'm Ryner, the present SMK BL choir conductor. For those of you who are in the choir, hi hi.. for those of you senior members who have already left the choir and might wonder how the fate of the choir might lie in my hands without Pn Luk, er.. let's just say that I'm a lot of different from the time you knew me in 2004.
Aiyo.. My goodness! Our choir profile / history sounds so cocky (I'm not the creator of this blog), I've got to say (hehe..). You know, our choir has always suffered from the 'cocky' image, which I don't really think you might feel if you really get to know us . Dunno lar... I hope that we can 'kikis-kan' this image this year.. We also like to meet everyone, including our competitors and be friends and stuff.. At least that's what I would like to see.
I know there's some friction between music club and choir club.. *Ahem ahem* I would like to apologize to all music club members if, say, anyone in our club said anything inappropiate or offensive. We hope you guys wouldn't see us in a negative way, because we just love singing and just want to uphold the name of our school, you know. Maybe we can do something together.. both clubs.. end of year..
Well, for the senior members who are wondering how this club is doing, we're fine. We're joining the division level again this year, since Pn Luk is not with us now. We're singing 'My Fair Lady' and 'Tanah Airku'. The 'My Fair Lady' is soo difficult! But we're getting there, so it's cool. Practising almost daily in the holidays.. Hope we can sing those songs well..
Cg Tiong already retired, so Cg Susie is the main teacher-in-charge now, and Pn Sng and Cg Anita are helping out as well. The practices are mostly conducted by myself with some help from the seniors. They're running quite smooth actually. We've got a lot of new members, a lot from Form 2. The only members from the 2004 team still left in the present choir are myself, Nurul and Gloria, and Suk Thin from 2003. Gloria's hasn't joined us yet, because she just came for Lower 6 and is at somewhere now. Suk Thin is already with us, and I must say she does help the sopranos a lot. Nurul has been a big help to the choir, Jonathan who joined in 2005 also helps out a lot, and not forgetting Jeremy who was conductor in 2005 who sometimes helps to teach and handle sectionals.
Well, discipline is quite ok.. Sometimes people do come late, but usually no later than 15 minutes. So punctuality is still quite an issue here.. But improving.. As for attendance, overall I'd say is ok because they all know choir is a team and attendance is essential to the raising of a choir's standard because it's all about teamwork.
We're making steady progress now actually. I mean, when the choir first started practicing in March, it was almost utterly hopeless. The voice quality was really horrible and everything didn't seem to get together. But slowly, our choir improved steadily. Now, I'd say we're getting to the more detail stage, where we're concentrating really a lot on the detail stuff of the song, like interpretation, dynamics, balance and stuff..
For those of you senior members who might wonder, conducting a choir without a choir coach is quite challenging, especially in the initial stages where auditions need to be made and stuff. There was a lot to be concerned about: discipline, venue of practice, time of practice, voice quality... *headache headache* But with the help of the senior members I mentioned and the teachers, we managed it. (By the way, this year the maximum number of singers, plus the conductor and the pianist in a team in nationals is only 35). Now I'd say practices are more steady and it gets easier after a while.. Voice quality is our main concern right now..
So for all of former choir members out there, do pray for us and drop by any time if you'd like to see our progress and give some pointers. For those of you who just dropped by this site, hello to you all and our choir is more than willing to make friends with you guys. To the present members, get your notes right, work hard, and let's give back something to this school and this choir of ours!!
That's it for now.. Long blog post I know.. First time also.. See ya all.

Conductor,
Ryner