| 9th Guitar Camp 2007 - Page 2 |
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23 November 2007 Day 1 - Teacher's concert - 8 p.m.
After the ensemble practice, we have tea and some free time before dinner. Having had our fill, it is now concert time!
65. Ernest Thomas, MC for the night. 66. Jovy Fong in her first ever solo performance. 67. Lee Ji Xuan and Leong Yee Hoo
68. Ng Kean Heng appearing in this Teacher's Concert for the first time. 69. Tan Chee Kian and Lee Thiam Foo 70. Ong Peng Yang 71. Here are the performers all together on stage taking their final bow.
This Teacher's Concert is an indispensable part of the camp for a few reasons. Firstly, they are professionally guitar teachers and not performers, hence, this camp provides them an opportunity to test themselves on the concert platform. A test which they get only once a year as otherwise there are no other avenues for performance since they are very preoccupied with teaching. Secondly, this concert fulfils the society's aims of providing a platform for developing Malaysians to international standards. Thirdly, it gives the students a chance to see their own teacher in performance. Jovy had good support from her students as she shared with me her experience since this is really her very first formal concert. Her students told her how proud they were of her despite her nerves that caused a few memory lapses.
Finally, for the participants, watching this Teacher's Concert will help them to prepare for their own performance the next day.
24 November 2007 Day 2 - Guitarobics - 9 a.m.
72. Simon organising the participants and explaining what they are supposed to do. 73. Here is one half waiting to do their exercises while 74. this half plays the rhythm - they seem very happy seeing us do the stretching exercise 75. Simon and Frank stretching while Peter leads with the rhythm. 76. After the physical exercise it is now the fingers' turn.
77. Everyone trying out the finger stretches with the committee members going round to help those having problems. 78. While everyone is trying out the finger stretches, Siti with her hands on her chin seems to be asking ...' how do I do this?' 79. Here are Simon and Frank leading the next round of exercises - jumping to a beat played by the other half of the participants led by Peter. 80. This half is enjoying the jumping. The jumping exercises are translated onto the guitar as changing positions.
81 & 82. Enthusiastically, Frank have another exercise introduced impromptu. Another stretching exercise. 83. Jovy helping out with one of the participants. 84. Here's a lovely photo of the participants in this 'guitarobics' in their green camp T-shirts filling the hall.
85-89. Well, after a lovely concert entitled 'Tanah Pusaka' that featured KLGE II, Simon Cheong and of course, Duolisme, Christopher and Jeremy decide that Duolisme must be made even more powerful so that their concert tonight will be even better. They teach the duo a most powerful dance they learnt from the popular Japanese cartoon 'Dragonball' - a dance of two merging into one! Since playing a duo means playing two as one, they find this most suitable...
24 November 2007 Day 2 - Photo session - 10 a.m.
90. Group photo 91. Committee photo 92. Here's another angle for the group photo.
24 November 2007 Day 2 - Having fun...
After our most important event - the campers' group photo, we had tea. Here's some fooling around. It is obvious that the duo's KL concert encore had an effect... for those not in the know, Peter and Frank's encore was playing together with four hands on a single guitar. 93. Sew Hong leading the pack of eight hands on a single guitar and Peter could not help himself but join in the fun. 94. Frank decides to have a go as well but this time without his usual partner but with three maidens...
24 November 2007 Day 2 - 11 a.m. Masterclass by Frank
This masterclass was not scheduled as it was supposed to be at 3 p.m. but was exchanged with the workshop. The reason was based on the fact that the duo wanted some time for themselves to prepare for the concert in the night. The planning of the programme did not take into this consideration - we will take note and not make the same mistake next year. A point to note for those who would like to give a good performance - the concert should not be taken for granted in whatever circumstances but one has to prepare well both mentally and physically. Here are those who played in the masterclass -
24 November 2007 Day 2 - Participants' Concert - 1.30 p.m.
Nerves, nerves, nerves... below are the participants who wanted to play in the students' concert (excluding picture 113 as Tan Chee Kian who is in charge of this part of the programme is obviously the MC as well). As we have almost 70 participants ranging from the youngest at 10 and the eldest at 49, with varying abilities from beginners to advanced players (some are guitar teachers as well ), not everyone could play in this concert. If everyone were to play, can you imagine how long this participants' concert would last? Let's do some simple calculations. If each participant took an average of 3 minutes on stage: 70 times 3 will make 210. 210 minutes means 3 hours 30 minutes!
We had to pick and choose. Different age group, gender representation and levels. They played like professionals...a great show. Well, I must remember to give a talk in our next camp on stage presentation and manners.
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