C started on her music lessons when she was 3 years old and for the longest time, she has been under the caring guidance of Teacher Sophia. Over the years, C has blossomed and her love for the piano slowly grew.

We have never pressured her and let her develop at her own pace. During those times when she had to perform for concerts, Teacher Sophia would give her pieces to play and practise on. The idea of her sitting for the piano exam never really crossed our minds. Teacher Sophia was well aware of our intentions. She was in fact, quite against it too as she felt that the constant practising of the same 2 pieces would kill C's interest. C's friends at the music school talked about their exam pieces and C asked Teacher Sophia about it. Teacher Sophia asked if she would like to and she sheepishly said "Grade 1, please." much to all of our amusement.

So there.

Our Precious, on the day of her music examination.

Teacher Sophia would have proposed letting her go for a higher grade but she reckoned that since it was for experience, Grade 1 would do. As to whether C was motivated, well, she was and she also put in the extra effort to practise her pieces when she could. As to whether she would go on to sign up for other Grades, I doubt it. C said she just wants to play for pleasure and love and Teacher Sophia said that that would not stop her from giving C "harder" pieces to play, like how she has always done. 

Every now and then, the children's choir puts  up a performance and this morning, they praised the Lord with this lovely and meaningful piece, Listening for the Call.



It was definitely a wonderful way to start the new week. :)

This is the piece that C is learning now. Apparently, C had requested Teacher Sophia to teach her this piece and Teacher Sophia found a rendition that was easy enough for C to manage. I like this piece too and we can't wait for her to be able to play it. :)

Every now and then, the Pentecost Methodist Church Children's Choir performs for the congregation. This morning, they sang "Glory, glory, Hallelujah!" A beautiful song about how and why we should praise God everyday. :)

Cheryl, Zinnia, Yeva and Emma with The Pentecost Methodist Church Children's Choir. 

I received this in the mailer today.

I have always wanted to expose C to such music and when this came in, I was thrilled. My love affair with the classic music started way back when I was in school and then in secondary school, I was in the school concert band and played some of the best pieces of my life; love the rich mellow sounds of the french horn and the fluttering melody of the flute, then of course there was the thundering roars of the timpani drums. I could go on forever... Haha. 

Concerts for Children: Symphonic Sorcery - The Music of Harry Potter

Fri, 31 Aug 12, 3.00pm Sat, 01 Sep 12, 11.00am Sat, 01 Sep 12, 1.00pm Esplanade Concert Hall Jason Lai  conductor Dandi Productions WILLIAMS, J. - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Children's Suite for Orchestra I. Hedwig's Flight IV. Nimbus 2000 IX. Harry's Wondrous World (Excerpts)WILLIAMS, J. - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Suite for Orchestra II. Dobby the House Elf (Excerpt) I. Fawkes the Phoenix IV. The Chamber of Secrets WILLIAMS, J. - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Suite for Orchestra I. Witches, Wands and Wizards III. Knight Bus (Excerpt) WILLIAMS, J. & DOYLE, P. arr. BRUBAKER, J. - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Concert Suite Hedwig's Theme (Excerpt) The Quidditch World Cup & Foreign Visitors Arrive (Excerpt) Potter Waltz (Excerpt) Hogwart's Hymn & Hedwig's Theme (Excerpt) WILLIAMS, J. & HOOPER, N. arr. LOPEZ, V. - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: Concert Suite Flight of the Order of the Phoenix (Excerpt) Dumbledore's Army & The Room of Requirements (Excerpt) HOOPER, N. arr. BRUBAKER, J. - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: Concert Suite In Noctem, Wizard Wheezes, Ron's Victory, The Slug Party & Journey to the Cave (Excerpt) Dumbledore's Farewell, The Friends & The Weasley Stomp (Excerpt) Take a ride on Harry Potter's flying broom, and race across the night skies to Hogwarts Academy, reliving the intrigue, magic and wonder of the first six Harry Potter stories... all on the wings of music. Enjoy the magical compositions of John Williams and Nicholas Hooper as they create a world filled with witches, wizards, warlocks and muggles. Your host is a delightful old wizard, assisted by his loyal servant Igor. They will guide you through Harry's thrilling years at Hogwarts Academy. You'll meet giant spiders, learn about potions, and fly on a Nimbus 2000. Each concert lasts one hour and is suitable for ages 4 to 14.No admission for children below 4 years. For school bookings, please call 6602 4225 or email Myrtle Lee at myrtle@sso.org.sg.

I will try to see if I can make some arrangements to C's schedule and take her there.

We are on the look out for this little thing, a metronome.

Cheryl, together with her friends, performed an item in Church this weekend. 

Princess saying her prayer just before the Service.

C has been singing with the Choir for more than a year now and she looks forward to meeting and singing with the group 

We are thankful that C's music school organises such mini concerts. These mini recitals expose the budding musicians to public performances and help build confidence.



C has been practising these two pieces.

More than  a month ago, C started practising for her piano recital. It was a small scale one but definitely a good platform for young aspiring pianists like Cheryl to show her skills. :)

:) She got to play on a grand piano! How cool is that? :) 

Cheryl has another piece of music to practise for her recital.

And this time, she had her Hello Kitty and Bunny to listen to her.

Okay, why is C holding her ukulele?

She was inspired by a clip she saw on YouTube. It was a clip of a 5 year old Japanese boy who could strum the ukulele like an expert. You have to watch the clip to believe me.

These days, she has been carrying her ukulele every where she goes.

This evening was very productive because C wanted to do so many activities.

Updates from Ms Novelle about C's progress for English. She is doing very well indeed with her plural and singular nouns. Her handwriting has also considerably improved.

For music, C has moved on to a new music book and Polka was the first song she learned. Teacher Sophia commented that C is improving too and playing better in class.

Several months back, I spoke to Ms Ling and asked about C's progress for her Mandarin because besides the Mandarin Readers that C returns with every now and then as well as the fortnightly updates on what has been taught in class, C doesn't have any writing to do. Hence I was wondering if C was able to recognise simple Mandarin characters. This evening, while we were doing our nightly craft activities, C showed me that she could recognise and in fact write some Mandarin characters. I "tested" her and she "passed". Ha ha.

I flipped through C's music book this evening and realised that she is almost nearing the end... at least for Book 1. Come to think about it, C has been learning the piano for 1.5 years under Teacher Sophia and her progress has been good so far though Teacher Sophia comments often that she wishes C to practise more.

C tells me that she does play on her piano during the afternoons so I feel hearten. 

Although I know music myself, I still need time to figure out the notes. Ha ha! That's because I have become rusty and often when I sit with C to listen to her, I have to ask C to read the notes to me.

C is usually reluctant to show us how she has progressed with her piano playing. We may coax but she hardly gives in to our requests. Lately, I have been reminding her to practise and since we started on our list of "dones", she has been more forthcoming with her playing.

This evening, we asked that she play a little something for us and she did.


See that shrug at the end? Ha ha!

Teacher Sophia, C's piano teacher, commented that she has improved tremendously and is ready now for a longer session with her. :) Excellent news actually!

Today was Easter Sunday and we were in church earlier than usual because the children had a performance coming up during the 9 and 11 am service. Since the beginning of the year, the girls were enrolled in the newly established Children's Choir and they had been training every Sunday for close to 3 months, all for today's performance. 

The children were doing their sound check at 830 in the morning and soon after that was done, the 9 am service commenced.

Part of their performance

After their performance, the children were given a little goodies bag. Really sweet of their teacher. :)

Come November and C would have attended music class for a year. She only came under Teacher Sophia's guidance in March and since then, her progress has been good.

When Daddy brought C for her session on Tuesday, Teacher Sophia commented that C could play rather well now.

Teacher Sophia said C could play this piece. :) Good job, Precious!

Several weeks ago, we went for a karaoke session with our friends and C picked up this lovely song. Since then, she has been bugging me to teach her the song. Then about 3 weeks ago, she caught the King of Pop on telly and she was mesmerized: by his moves, his dance, his songs and particularly, his "moon walk".

She even told Daddy that she wanted to listen to his songs in the car.

This evening, C said she wanted to dedicate this to all the children in the world so here goes:

"Happy Children's Day!"

Last year, we got mini bottles of honey for C's teachers.

This year, C wanted to do something herself and after much thought, we decided that she could paint her teachers a little something.

We headed to Ikea to get these mugs and then I bought her some stickers and paint.

C started her project 2 weeks before Teachers' Day and she dutifully did 2 mugs every night. She wanted all her teachers to get a mug each so that meant she had like 20 mugs to do up in all.

She got rather frustrated with herself after Ms Blue's mug because she couldn't control the paint brush as well as she would a pen and the acrylic paints aren't the easiest paints to handle. She then looked at me sadly and asked if I could help her write the names of her other teachers. I consoled her and said her teachers would love her gift even if they weren't perfect and then she said she would still complete her project by gluing the pretty stickers.

The completed mugs that were ready to be packed...

 Cheryl, Daddy and I want to give our thanks! :)
.

C learned another Japanese song!

Katasumuri
Denden mushimushi katasumuri
Omaeno atamawa
Dokoniaru
Tsunodase yaridase
Atamadase

It's a song about a snail.

And this is the translation in English:
Snail, snail
Where is your head?
Stick out your horns, stick out your antennae and stick out your head!

Cheryl learned this from Teacher Reiko.

It's a sweet song about a mother horse and her foal and the close relationship they share.

This is a video to the entire song I found on You Tube.