I think the current CCA verification system isn't very good.

They say that the purpose of CCAs is to develop leadership, cultivate passion, expose us to non-academic stuff etc... but since when could leadership and passion be measured using numbers?

No offense to anyone, but just because you are the Captain/Chairman doesn't mean that you have good leadership! Conversely, just because you aren't, doesn't mean that you don't have good leadership! It may just mean that you didn't grab the chance, or there might have been other factors...

Take for example, a CCA where there are a very limited number of posts, and a CCA where nearly everyone has a post (I'd consider RIMB as an example, because nearly every single one of the Sec 4s has had a post). Does this mean that the CCA with more posts has more leaders than the other one?

Furthermore, there is no numerical way to grade one's leadership, achievements, or participation. Some CCAs rarely take part in competitions due to the nature of the CCA, while others revolve around competitions! In the end, the competition-oriented CCA get a whole lot more things recorded down while the other gets barely any.

I don't have another solution to propose though, so maybe I'll just leave that there for you to think about...

On to a more lengthy topic.

Now that it's DMP week, I finally have some time to conjure up an essay (yeah, like Benni) to just sum up my life as a band member and leave a message to each batch. Prepare for a long flow of pictureless text exactly FOUR THOUSAND AND SIXTY EIGHT words long.

!!! 4068 !!!

My band life in RIMB has been officially and unofficially concluded, but not personally. I feel that I owe to the band at least a short (relatively) testimonial about my time in it, so here it is. I’ve stopped bothering about being too presumptuous in blog posts a long time ago, so I’ll try to type as honestly and frankly as possible.

I have my mum to thank for being a member of RIMB. She insisted (out of some O.o foresight) that I should put band as one of my choices, in fact third choice or something like that. Coming over from my primary school as a slacky Art Club member, I never really knew the proper concept of a CCA. So when I was placed into band, and told that practices would be twice a week, three hours each, and it would mainly be DRILLS, I nearly switched CCA on the spot.

Thankfully, that never happened, so I had to use other underhand methods to "excuse" myself from attending the killer drill practices. For instance, Infocomm Club was my refuge on Fridays, where I would sneakily stay on longer in the pretense that I was doing some Infocomm stuff so as to skip fall in, and hopefully the later half of the practice would be sectionals. This did have its consequences though; in the middle of the year, my senior asked me to tongue crotchets, and though I knew what crotchets were, I was like "huh how to tongue" and they all O.Oed me.

I have few memories of my Sec 1 year in the band, and perhaps it's due to my frequent absence, I barely knew who was the BM/DBM when Investiture rolled round. I still can recall, though, the drills test. We were graded in groups of three, and I was put into Joel and Benni's group. So then I asked "okay who wants to time"...

... neither of them wanted to so in the end I had to. Well, it was my very first and very last time timing anybody, and needless to say, I failed miserably. At the end of the test, I remember that Melvyn said "okay you all can go now" instead of pesurai, so I was taken aback and didn't know whether to walk away or stay there. Thankfully the three of us continued to stone there, because we later found out it was a trap =D.

Of my Sec 1 Investiture, I remember nothing.

Sec 2 was a pretty bad year for me, practically speaking. Among the (then) three Sec 2 clarinets, I was the noobest. Also, my attitude hadn't improved very much. I remember when Paul asked us to go and learn the Bandwagon score by a certain deadline, I didn't, and in the end got pumped 5x the number of mistakes (which was a lot). Such simple gestures reveal a lot about your commitment towards the band, and I'm sad to say that on my part, it wasn't good.

We had our first performance (I can't remember which one it was), then our second and our third. In the beginning-mid period of 2006 there were a lot of performances, for example Band Fiesta, Lilies on the River, myRIad etc so my impressions of them are all jumbled up. Most of the time, I was faking, because I would always play wrong notes, or out of tune, without myself noticing. For me, Sec 2 was also filled with great difficulty in learning how to play the clarinet.

When Investiture rolled around, I remember our batch still wasn't so united in terms of practicing our batch song, thus that year we didn't play so well. One vivid memory which I have was of the Sec 4s (current J2s) playing Jurassic Park (a long, LONG, lost piece), and it was so beautiful that I cried. Up to now, I'm still not sure why...

Sec 3 was... full of strange events.

Our SYF piece started out as an ambitious Midsummer Night's Dream, then turned into Carmen, then finally settled as And When The Ocean Glows. Even after ending up with the easiest piece of the three, things weren't so good. I remember one practice, David (Lee) told all the clarinet Sec 3s to get down on the floor in push-up position, and started talking about how the Sec 2s were going to overtake us soon. This was perhaps one of the many incidents which started me coming (a little bit) for extra practice (and one time with David) and only a couple of months before SYF did I realize how utterly important it was.

Well, I don't remember much of SYF... but at that time, yeah I had a blog (not my current one), so let me go check it up.

band number one hundred and twenty four, raffles Institution Military Band...

gold.

...of course, if we had gotten a GwH, we would be jumping up and down in joy. But even when we played, we knew it was nearly impossible for that to happen, we knew our standard. So it was interesting to see what happened after that. When "gold" was announced, I felt immense relief; we did not break the Golden streak set before us by our seniors, we did not do worse than RICO, we did not get Silver...

Ooh I just discovered a mass email which I sent out just, JUST before SYF. I don't even remember sending it!!! Check it out:

Everyone's giving encouraging messages.

=)

I would never have thought that of our batch some time ago. I thought only people like David (Lee) could try to give inspiring (close enough) speeches and lead the band.

To be honest, most of us are nowhere as good as our seniors. Imagine, next year Prometheum (or even this year Investiture?), us leading the band, being the seniors who the rest look up to, playing all the solos, creating the correct harmony, mastering the technicals and teaching our juniors. A few of us are already proficient enough. Some others have already taken up the stressful role of a soloist. Some of us will have responsible EXCO positions next year, while others will have become SLs. We will be the backbone and support of the band (look at the Sec 4s now; then look at the rest of us). If we fail, who is there to push us? Who is there to punish us? Who is there to inspire us? We have to inspire each other, or ourselves. After SYF, we will have to intensively train ourselves to match up to even the Sec 4s this year, not to mention the J1s and J2s.

But the proness isn't everything. Even though we aren't the best, even though we may not be the proest band (to be proven tomorrow), we still will have tried our best. Even if the announcer reads "Raffles Institution Military Band... ***enter lousy results here*** ", we won't feel too bad, we won't break down and cry (too much) and we won't regret. Obviously we want a GwH. Or some might be content with a Gold. But all this is immaterial in the end, so long as we try our best, and do our seniors, Mr Oura, and alumni proud.

This has been said many times, by many people, on many blogs. Therefore I just want to wish everyone a contented SYF without regret. That's all we need.

Most if not all of you won't be awake to read this (after taking Mr Oura's advice that is). Some might read it after SYF. You might be full of ecstasy, or full of contentment, or full of fulfillment. Never mind what we got. We know we did our best.

Alastair

So I guess SYF for me went quite well, even though we didn't get Gold with Honours.

One of the more major events after SYF was, well, the loss of Wenjie, Xuke, and Hengrui, due to various different reasons and disagreements. This was confirmed by the fact that after our con bRIo concert, all three vanished. The immediate consequence was that I became the only Sec 3 clarinet towards the 2007 Investiture, which not only weakened the strength of the section, but also meant that we had to play Investiture without them. Which also meant that I had a pretty big chance of becoming the next clarinet SL...

... which was kind of strange, because I remember in Sec 1 and 2, I would always know privately that Wenjie would become the SL in 2008, and I was perfectly fine with that. When the Sec 4s (now J1s) called my batch into the band room to fill in slips of paper to tell them what posts we wanted, I strongly considered not putting down "clarinet SL".

Why? Because if I put it down, it would seem as if I thought I was good enough to be the clarinet SL, which I kind of knew I wasn't. But if I didn't put it down, then it would be as if I didn't know that I was the only person left, and didn't care about the section. In the end I did put it down, though I dreaded the interview: "why do you want to become the clarinet SL? do you think you are better than your fellow batchmate..."

Actually I can't remember if Wenjie played for Investiture that year. But anyway, I became the SL, and had a gigantic problem in front of me; how to lead a section. I'm not going to talk about this, though, because I still think my leadership ability sucks. Really.

Sec 4 was a myriad of obstacles and challenges for me, as the new clarinet SL and UD head, most of which were pretty minor challenges in retrospect but they seemed pretty major to me at the time. For example, teaching the Sec 1s, getting everyone to listen to me, playing a solo, whatever else. In the end, though, I feel that I managed it to the best of my ability.

The three major events for the year 2008 were essentially Prometheum XII, the Japan trip, and SIBF. Oh, and of course there was Investiture too.

Prometheum was the first time I had no senior to "cover up" my mistakes. It also involved three solos, and goodness knows how much stage fright I can get. Well, I know that the whole band worked hard, and the concert was a success overall. The Japan trip wasn't so hard on me thanks to Dao Bo and Paul, who, as the two better clarinetists, could at least match up somewhat to the Japan clarinetists. It was a great experience nonetheless. SIBF was perhaps the hardest to overcome, due to its nature as a competition, not just a performance or exchange. It would give us a solid yet brutally honest read on our standard... something not so respectable as compared to previous years. But as always, we tried our best after practicing a lot, and attained a respectable Silver and tying with RGSSB, which was kind of a big surprise considering how badly we'd thought we had done (and the lousy acoustics of the RPCC).

Investiture was the best performance that our batch had ever put out, but the very worst moment of my life in RIMB; handing over.

The blow from Investiture is still present within me, but it doesn't pain anymore, because after all, I still go back to the band room to watch their extra practice, and I know that RJCSB awaits our batch next year. It's not the same, but as I said in a post before Investiture, it's not supposed to be the same, and who says different is bad?

Some silver lining to this cloud was seeing my juniors take up the mantle. It may be like the joy for some to watch a plant grow, because it's a plant that they planted, and they put time, effort, and care into raising it to full bloom. They have some attachment to that plant because they had a part in cultivating it.

It's excitingly curious, to watch my juniors grow. They are something I can be proud of - Brandon, Andy, Irvin, Hubert, Deepak, Kelvin, Li Yang, Ying Cheng - and although I know that my teaching hasn't been as good as Dao Bo's, as strict as David's, or as interesting as Yi Jie's, but I've had a hand in the process, thus I feel that the joy is also rightfully mine as well.

Apologies to Bumsoo, Jeff; I do not feel that I had much of a role in your development... so I cannot truthfully say that the pride of watching you grow belongs to me.

It was an indescribable feeling, standing up there and handing out the certificates. Joy and sadness.

For the second half of this post, I have a message for the other three batches. I should have posted this up at Investiture, but I couldn't find the stamina nor the time then to churn all of this out.

To the Sec 1s, I'm sorry, I did not make much effort to get to know most of you. Those whom I know are mainly my direct juniors (aka clarinet juniors) and the more famous/infamous members of your batch. For you all, its only the beginning, and you still have three long years ahead of you all. It may be hard for you to comprehend how much I envy you all - looking from the other side, as a senior handing over and stepping out, it brings me no end of longing that I would become a Sec 1 again, and be able to await the next three years. To you now, it may not seem the brightest future too look forward to, but to those who "survive", so to speak, and develop the passion which will spur the band on, in time you will come to realize how much it is worth treasuring.

When I was Sec 1, the RD head then told us that he wanted us to be the revolutionary batch which would bring on a new era of music and glory to the band. In retrospect, we did not succeed in this. However, what we did achieve was to instill in each and every one of us Sec 4s the love for the band, for each other, and this has been the fuel which has kept us burning on, no matter how difficult or impossible the situation my appear. My wish for you all, isn't as dramatic or powerful as becoming the revolutionary batch, but it is just to develop a sense of belonging and deep passion for RIMB. This, I feel, is enough. No matter how daunting the pieces may seem, and how little your experience may feel, I want you all to try your best and not give up, not just because somebody will scold you or punish you, but because you share our vision to sustain the band.

From my perspective, your batch has been one of the better ones to come in at Sec 1. Last year, our band major told us about the three qualities which every batch needs to have: technique, attitude, and bonds. Technique-wise, you're all not there yet, but I can see that in most of you, this is made up for by your attitude. To take for example (apologies, I don't have a very wide selection of experiences to choose from -.-) my four juniors, you all have been extremely consistent with your attendance this year. Most of the time, I see all four of you every practice, which is very commendable. Furthermore, you've never had to make me discipline you or shout at you by showing me that you are working hard with your practice. I sincerely hope that this carries on - now, without the dreaded drills, all your time is devoted to the instrument, so to put it simply, the learning curve has now grown exponentially. None of you are exceptionally talented with the instrument, but it is perfectly fine. As they say, hard work beats talent till talent works harder.

The last aspect, bonds, is something which is close to my heart. To me, the friendships which I've made in band have been the strongest and most meaningful to me. Not that I'm saying that your band friends need be your best friends, but what every batch needs is the grease of cohesion which turns the gears faster. It is imperative that you remain as one batch, as one front that will tackle all problems together. If you feel that your fellow batchmate is losing steam, cheer him on! If he is unhappy and disappointed that he got arrowed in concert practice today, help him to understand. Most importantly, tight bonds are required for the whole batch to stick together and not fragment.

Sec 1s, keep the flame alive!

To the Sec 2s... first and foremost I must express my thanks for cheering me up and making life funnier for me. Kudos to all the lame people in the batch... oh wait, that's all of you, but sincerely, thanks for poking fun at me, it has really made me appreciate you guys all the more.

I guess Sec 2 is the time where your devotion to the band really shows. In Sec 1, things are new and there's plenty of room for change. In Sec 3, pardon the analogy, but most of the "bad" leaves have been pruned off, and the remainder are even better and stronger than ever. So it is in the middle, where we can see your attitude towards band and the likelihood that you will persevere on with it. For starters, it became startlingly obvious at Investiture (I don't know why I didn't see this before) that your batch is a small one, nearly as small as the Sec 4 batch. The implications, are that each one of you will need to work harder to occupy the empty blanks. The responsibility on each of you is greater, and the hopes and expectations are proportionally bigger too.

Some of the Sec 4s see you all as the batch closest to us. Talking about technique, attitude, and bonds, we can see that the bigger proportion of you have the bonds and the attitude. Your practical standards vary greatly, and as you progress to Sec 3 next year (in fact perhaps part of this year too) you won't just be the second violins. You become more and more important (musically speaking) as you are no longer the most junior in the main band. You have the duty and obligation to be role models for the new Sec 1s, as they replace you as the youngest. In this aspect, the Sec 4s are glad to see that you all are, simply put, good friends, and many of you are committed to the band.

What we require from you, now, is to take this commitment and share it with those who are faltering. As I have mentioned, your batch is now the smallest, and this time next year, you will take over as the new leaders. Thus, it is extremely important (not that for other batches it's not; it IS too) that you remain closer together so as to prevent... crudely speaking, defections. It is always hard when the top batch (as in the most senior) is lacking in numbers, up to the point at which it is difficult to manage band matters while concurrently trying to hold respective sections together and teach/practice. Take the example of our batch; certain sections have only one Sec 4, which corresponds to a shortage of (no offence) better players. Last year, my section had three Sec 4s, and they split to play first, second, and third clarinets so as to "cover-up" for the rest of us less experienced members. This year, there was only me, which might have caused some of the other parts (considering the fact that I monopolized the first clarinet part all the time) to suffer... haha, my section has me to blame for that.

Sec 2s, keep up the good work and persevere to emerge as a better, and stronger batch!

To the Sec 3s, I don't know what to say.

Sometimes, your batch confuses me. It may be our lacking, but to be honest, our batch has never ever experienced internal politics. Truthfullly, we don't really know how to deal with the arcane cartography of conflict and (I know no other word to express it) politics. Our batch has always drawn straight and clean lines, in the sense that we work as a united front. Thus, at times when we look at your batch, it's kind of strange to watch certain dramas unfold. There is a particular issue which I might refer to, but I shall not speak of it here.

Using the criteria of technique, attitude, and bonds, there is a vast diversity within your batch. Some of you exude enthusiasm, while others I rarely see at all thanks to "other committments". Some of you have good skills, others barely qualify as Sec 3s. There are close-knit bunches of you, but I also see others alone and outside. What happened to batch unity? As the current leaders of the band, it isn't enough to be good individually. I can't emphasize enough that you all need to work together towards a common goal. It is disappointing that not all of you have this common goal so far. Make us certain, that you all are the right choices not because you are the only choices, but because you are the best and most deserving choices.

There has been improvement though. As SIBF and Investiture closed in, I could see a sudden rise in attendance and practice in your batch. Maybe you suddenly felt the pressure and decided to push through the last stretch of the year. Maybe you did it to impress us. Maybe you did it because you had love for the band. Maybe you didn't even do it >.<. But the point is, that you need to do it, for the whole of next year. SYF is not a joke - though I have no right to say anything about this, as I've never been the senior in an SYF year - and maintaining the Golden streak is not just a obligation, it is a duty. It is MANDATORY. It is a MUST.

An issue which I would like to raise is that of playing the instruments of other sections. Yes, you are now the most senior, and there’s nothing to stop you from playing around with other sections’ instruments. Yes, the Sec 4s have done it before, and pretty often too. Yes, no one is going to watch you and tell you not to do it.

Why shouldn’t you do it? After all, you know how much one should take care of an instrument. You won’t drop it on the floor. You know how much you can press the key before it snaps. You know better than to take a chime hammer and whack the gong.

Simply, because you shouldn’t be spending time learning how to play something that you’re not required to play when they band AS A WHOLE cannot get a piece right. Spend your time teaching, or critiquing, or something constructive. Granted, I did perpetrate too, if you consider joining drumset DMP perpetrating XD.

One more thing, please remember that no matter how cliched it sounds, our band is traditional. We appreciate change, but it's hard to accept drastic and far-reaching change. It's always good to dream big for the band, but do take note that in the end, it all comes down to the three aspects, so I advise that you all don't spend too much time on other duties, but focus on the core elements of what a band must and should have. Get that down pat first, then there's the time to focus on other things.

These negative comments aside, I think that your batch has really put in a lot of effort in this past year. Please, do continue to do so throughout next year.

Sec 3s, wish you all the best and make us proud!

To the Sec 4s, there's nothing more to say =D. See you all in RJCSB!

Labels: band, school