Much Ado about Singing...

Rushed down to ECPrimary after the DWT gig (well okaay, I didn't rush so much, I stayed to watch the gang play two rounds of bridge--which Derek won as usual--before scuttling off to journey from Clementi to Bedok) Quite a distance I must say, almost as bad as travelling to Hougang in 151... It's really from West-end to East-end =\ Then cabbed from the station to the primary school, which was stuck in quite an ulu corner... Perfectly on time, and Gekatiang! I arrived before you! =P

My interest was perked when Gekatiang first told me Miss Ong requested we help her friend teach her choir for the two pracs when she'll be away... if there was any job that sounded like a potentially lovely learning experience, this was it. (We-ell, actually Kidfest sounded really good to me also, but then... heh heh... those days at work were pretty crazy) There was a lotta apprehension, though, because it seems a great deal of responsibility that we make sure an entire bunch of little kids know their notes... Look to This Day was fine, but Wind Song is no joke, with the slightly complicated, different rhythms and clashing notes everywhere. Was faithfully mugging the score just to make sure that if they split me and Gek, (who's been our SL and piano-player for as long as I can remember =P), I could at least sing for the sops. (Eh, no joke leh, all the crazy high Gs)

It was, to say the least, both an eye-opener, and a voice-opener. These kids have SO MUCH to chatter about, and are so humongously active that when we entered the room, they were pretty much all over the place, with an exasperated teacher-in-charge somewhere in the middle. Eileen is quite a nice teacher, I think, sweet-looking and small-ish, like about my height, with quite a pleasant, mild manner, but woah~ Watch her settle the rowdy kids and you know she's got skill =P

It still took some twenty minutes, though, with random people streaming in past time, and everyone moving and talking and scarcely paying attention. "SIT IN YOUR POSITIONS! NOW! No, xxx, you're not supposed to be there... THREE ROWS, THREE ROWS... no, stop moving around, come back..." amid "Miss Cheeee, can I sit here?/ Noo, 'cher, you see, he's not doing what you said.../ OI, I am okay.../ Miss Chee, why..." which all subsided into silence when a very seasoned Miss Chee threatened that they stay in for two extra hours with no breaks. AHA. Now we know what to say in future ;)

The not-so-little ones made quite an impression, I must say. There's a sweet little girl who gave Gek and I directions to the music room when we first met her downstairs, looking at us quizzically at first, then helpfully leading us right up to the staircase, then adding that she's heading in the same direction. Turned out that she was from the choir ^_^ Then there's a very intelligent looking boy in alto who seem to need to put in a word for everything we say, like it was necessary to make sure we hear his opinions more than it was for him to hear us... "Aiyah 'cher, why not you sing for us?" "Why? But why should we do that?" "Huuhhhh..." Exasperating, but he's still charming in his way. I was secretly relieved, though, when he was out next door with the rest of the altos for sectionals. Wouldn't know how to answer his million questions throughout the entire practice. =P

There were a couple more rather likeable girls, the kind of kids you know are listening to you when you're teaching, those that respond when you ask a question and nod when they understand... Another boy full of questions from Sop, and his fellow group of chatty boys who'll pipe up and ask us to repeat a segment they didn't get, or request the bar number we were at, which was quite a relief because we know they were following the score, noisy as they were. I had a sneaking suspiscion that those little boys had greater command of the rest of the sops and mezzos than me or Gek ever did =\ Amid "Sop ones, keep quiet, we're trying to teach the sop twos... okay, *sings* k-k-ka-cim-bo... now this one is different from the next phrase, which goes up and not down, and... Sop ones! can you keep the volume down?" "huh? teeeeacher, can sing again or not?" "yes, ok ok...*repeats melody line twice* sop twos, are you listening? do you know where we are now? *head shaking* okok, we start at the top of page two... here... here, ok? can we start again?" and it repeats, amid "no lar 'cher, actually it's the sop twos making the noise lar, we are very quiet already.../ OI! WE NEVER OKAY! IT'S YOU WHO..." "Listen, people.. HELLO? EVERYONE? WE ARE GOING TO DO THE SONG FROM TOP OF PAGE TWO AGAIN, DO YOU HEAR ME?" "Teeacher! He also not listening! See?" And poor Gek needs to bellow at them for silence again.

Which doesn't always work, by the way... which is why I said that the little group of attentive-but-talkative boys probably have more control than we did. Or perhaps it was merely because they can shout louder than everyone else -_- After a particularly noisy stretch when we tried to pipe them down, one of the boys helpfully went "Hey!! Teeecher said SHHUUUDDDUPP!!" His yell managed to sit on top of the chatter, which subsided somewhat, and he looked up and beamed hugely at us. It took a bit of effot not to grin back.

We managed to cover about 5/7 of Wind Song. Phe-ew. It's a bit scary to hear chords coming out of a unison portion, though, and weird clashes coming out from nice chords, until we decided to concentrate more on sectionals and leave the blending bits till later. We covered a bit more that way... We even went past the tricky high part, during which the sop ones were staring at us in a mixture of confusion and slight disbelief, so we demo-ed the series of high F# G F# D F# G....... at least three times. Believe me, yelling is decent warm-up for your voice, I had no problems going through that line over and over after raising my voice above theirs "Listen, everyone, do you want to go home or not?!?" (that ONE line that always captures full attention and ensures a perfect chorus of YES!es) a number of times, even though my voice dieded somewhere during Dean's Welcome Tea earlier in the morning. It did help that Gek Tiang was quite the seasoned SL, and pretty fierce when she decides to be, too. Woah, don't play-play with our formidable young lady ;)

It's not so bad, really, amid their general rowdiness and restlessness (WHAT exactly is so appealing about visiting the toilet, hmm? I went after prac, and decided that the toilet isn't really so fascinating, what). They are really quite adorable. Talkative Boy in Sop One came during break and held a long discussion about my laptop and the one his dad owns, how come I bought a laptop with such a small screen, whether I got it free from the school, why macintosh is better, how heavy his dad's laptop was... Quite the professional, that one, and he talks really well, too. Little Girl Who Gave Directions came and sat with us at the piano and tinkled with it, as did Chatty Alto from Next Door, who learnt to play a new song but forgot, and got Gek Tiang to play for her instead.

I think we sang as much to them as they did to us. Gee. Gek and I were demonstrating practically every single line of How It's Supposed To Sound Like, but they gave us a skeptical look, and went on cheerily in the general area of where the notes should be, going VERY LOUD in the parts they knew and liked, and then going all whispery at those they didn't. Oh well.

I hope, when we come next week, they will still remember all 75 bars, or I will burst into tears and ask Loud Boy from Sop One to teach instead =P Eileen returned with the altos promptly at 430 and we were free to go thereafter, and taking that last glimpse of the teacher-in-charge surrounded by the entire bunch of little kids who never seem to stop talking, I couldn't help but feel a tingle of admiration for her. Wow. Like that leh, everyday. So lihai. But then again, at the sudden silence the moment we shut the music room door and made our way downstairs, I decided that it wasn't that terrifying, after all. Nah, I don't think I'll teach in a primary school, if I do go into teaching, but they were lovely kids all the same, and it was enjoyable working with them, and with Gek Tiang, too. One more practice to go, and we won't get to see them anymore =\ Awww. I hope they'd remember us, though, brief as our time was together. I certainly won't forget them in a hurry =)

[PS. Because sometimes I post so many entries at one go, and because tagboard is down, I would kinda prefer it if you guys leave comments from the Leave-a-Ripple! link instead, if you wanna say something related to the entry =) Tagboard can only take that many comments each time, and the early ones wouldn't be archived anymore, which is quite sad... Though I find it otherwise a rather useful shout-out function for very brief messages ^_^]