Among vexing matters and others ....

Just realized I had forgotten to credit an entry in my personal bank accounts - thus, amt. in actual bank statement does not equal to my own personal accounts. Nevermind, shall amend it tonight ...

Finally bought the Grade 1 exam pieces book and started my official grade 2 theory lesson today. For today, its' still Ms. Wee whom taught me theory ... as there's some re-arrangement of schedules timing for the new theory teacher whom's going to be teaching me soon ... =_=

Right, I should probably start deciding on my 3 pieces soon enough ... For Section A, its' either A1 or A3 ... Ms. Wee told me to go back and practice all my high notes - especially, A, B, G & F ... somehow, i can't get them all sound 'right'.

She says, if I can get these above notes right ... then we will do A3 for the exam. If not, we'll do A1 - which is 'Greensleeves' - which includes slurs in the piece.

she also suggested for me to practise and use the Chromatic Scales as warm-up exercises ... had to memorize the fingerings for all the sharps. So far I only remembered the 'F-sharp'... and also have to remember/revise my short fingering of B-flat.

Grade 2 theory wise ... more italian terms to remember/memorize. Also, had to start learning the notes on ledger lines and to draw them out >.< (Real troublesome if you ask me ... cause' I take double the time for notes on Base Clef ... )

Had to pay bills soon, and update my passbook too ... Waiting for pay to arrive too ... wondering when it will be given to me, this month. Today, I really spend a lot of money ... the exam fees $138. Grade 1 Exam Book - $15.50 (the one without CD), Grade 2 Theory ($8.80) ... then Flute Beginner Practical - $90 & Grade 2 Theory - $70 (increase by $10 - lucky I got additional cash on me, Ms. Wee forgot to tell me the increase in pricing). So total, spend $322.30 on flute lessons ...

T.T

Increase my working days too, starting tomorrow - I'll be coming in on Monday as well. Then for June holidays - starting 27 June to 29 June, I'll be covering shifts for Jamie as she wanted to go KL for holidays. Not to forget this month end, 28 March (Sat) - I had to cover for her as well, as she had taken the day off as part of her annual leave.

In order to get myself familiarize with the fingerings for chromatic scales, and also to practise my high notes. Looks like I really had to find time for practises - most probably I'll do them on Wednesday afternoon or on Saturday. Perhaps, on Friday afternoon over the next few weeks when there;s no classes. Maa... shall see what happened when we go along.

right, gotta get back to work.

Flute, projects, work and exams...

Seems like I'm rather lazy to blog these days, except when I'm utterly stressed out or frustrated about something. Anyway, just an update to let you people know that I'm not dead - yet ...

The projects that are piling up on me is literally killing me on the slow side ... especially the Financial Management project ... Up until now, I think I still had at least another 60% to go ... before completion and that is not all ... thing is, its' due on the upcoming friday =_=

Hopefully, Xinhui and I will be able to finish it by wednesday so that pauline can compile it =_= ...

That aside, my exams results for last sem is out ... scored both 'C's like Xinhui did - this time around. So I pass my financial accounting paper ... and thus, I owe her sis a meal treat to Subway ... seems like have to put it on hold though ... since we hardly have time that match one another's schedule.

Right, moving on to the idea of flute classes today. I am finally approaching the end of Grade 1 theory, and starting next week - my teacher would be getting her colleague to start grade 2 theory with me as she had something on after my flute class (current timing - 9.30-10.30 am ...) but she had something on at 10 am ... so ...

Anyway, she asked me today - whether I wanted to try for the grade exams. I'm supposed to let her know next lesson, so she can submit my name for the exam if I wanted to try it out. She asked me if I want to go for grade 1 or try grade 2 ... but after we looked at the exam pieces book - her decision was that we tried grade 1 exam first.

I've just finished F and G Major scales, and left with the 3 minor scales ... and so if I were to go for the exams, it will most probably be the september exam. I had yet to get the scales and appegios book since its' still out of stock at many places ... =_= and thus I had to rely on my memory for now ... and hopefully, the book will be in stock soon, cause I simply cannot remember so many scales ... without referring to the book.

Right, and so ... I'll probably say ' yes' to the exam thing next week when I see her ... Right, now its' time for me to go back to work again.

New Year Resolution among the midst of slight annoyance, irritation and others ...

Today is the 4th of January, 2009.

Year 2008 had come and passes by, without warning - starting a new year, a new day for me. Year 2008 had been a year of significance and memories for me ...

In March 2008, I started working for AZ comics on a part-time basis while enrolling myself in PSB Academy. School started in May 2008, and the semester started out well - with foundation studies in English and Maths.

My grades for the 1st sem is quite satisfactory as well...scoring a B and C respectively for each subject. Sem 2 subjects consisted of Financial Accounting and Economics - and the results would only be out, next month.

This sememster, I'm taking Management Accounting and Financial management. For the projects, Xinhui and I decided to base them on our ITE Events Management and Marketing projects - by modifying them to suit our current subjects contents.

Anyway, for the year 2009 - my new year resolution are as follows.

1) Score well for exams, both in music and academic.
2) Learn from past mistakes as failure is often known as the 'mother' to success.
3) Learn to cope with stress, and control own temper.
4) Save more in Bank, and Spend Lesser - unless absolutely necessary.
5) May the 'business' between my ITE pals and me, do well in the new year.

Alright, now back to the subject on hand for todays' entry. I just found out something 'dreadful' from the time sheet calculated by Jamie. Turns out my work done on 25 Dec is not counted in ... which means, my pay drops from the original calculated 428 to 409 only ... =_=

That's what contributed to my annoyance, as if that alone is not enough - I came into the shop this morning to find the area about the counter - a mess. Apparently, the boss had dropped by the shop earlier on in the day and just leave things lying around for me to clear up after him =-=

Its' a thankful thing that I do not have to come in for the next 3 days, else there's a very big possibility that I might snapped. As though, that is not bad enough ... the documents which I needed to fax out simply cannot go through quite a number of our customer fax machines ... =-=

Right, seeing as both my irritation and frustration as well as annoyance originated from my work reason - I shall not bore you ppl with the details. In the meantime, lets' move on to something else.

Today is the first flute class for the year 2009, paid the fees today - and learn something new today as well. Although, I'm still stuck at lesson 4 ... not much progress made. That, and the fact that I still had loads of practises to do for the flute ... I learn the slurring part of the lesson, and the teacher taught me 'D-Minor' as well ...

So now, I've to practise both F and G Major at home as well as the newly learnt D-Minor as well. Think I have to go and purchase my scales and appergios book soon =_= Can't remember everything without anything to refer, at home (mean the D-Minor) ... F and G major was covered in previous lesson, can just flipped through in book.

Theory wise, am onto accidentals and semitones ... shall finished up the exercises at home tml. Alright, I guess I should proceed on with my work now ... had tons to do ... before it piles up on me again ... although, I'm faxing documents while updating this entry ...

To take or not to take Grades Test/Exams?

Recently, I'm debating whether or not to take grades test/exams when the time comes around for it. XH says, I probably should - since I spend that much already on lessons ... and my mom was like: no need to go for exams lah, just know how to play a few songs can already ...

personally, I hope to attain a cert eventually ... but I am not so confident of myself. Last night, I was comparing between Trinity and ABRSM Exam syllabus again ... Eventually, I come to the conclusion that if I were to attain a cert - I might go for ABRSM.

Why? - Simple, first of all ... their directions/instructions are simple enough. Trinity seems more complicated ... Second, you can get information and stuff (such as exam pieces) more easily - as compared to the specified pieces for exams from Trinity.

Right, anyway - its' still too early to be thinking about the exams - since I'm only at the stage of the beginner. Well, I'll blame it on XH - since she was always talking about the grades exams and all... :P

First Flute & Theory Class ^_^

Alright, today's my first day at Do-Re-Mi music school ... XD Reach there about 9.25am ... actually, was much earlier but I loiter downstairs ... eat breakfast XD Journey from home to the school took only 10 mins ... XD

When I went upstairs, the teacher is still having breakfast with someone else. Probably her partner ... ^^;; btw, her co-worker/colleague/partner (?) is a guy XD

Anyway, paid the balance of 85 dollars today ... and I bought the theory book as well. It cost me another 8.80 dollars XD Am so nervous the first 5 minutes, took a long time to get the sound out XD

Ended up learning the slur, when it should have been the tongueing first XD Like the slur better XD finally managed to hold the note for 4 beats, but anyway, have to go back home and practice more ... (e.g. look myself in the mirror when practising ... so I know if my positioning of the mouthpiece is off ... )

Finally, know the correct way to hold the flute and support it while letting go of some of the notes button. She also taught me the correct way to maintain and clean the insides of my flute - with the use of the cleaning rod and cloth. In another few months time, she's gonna teach me how to change the 'cleaning' paper thats' situated behind every notes button - that helps to absorb the water as we blow into the flute XD ...

If the paper's not change, its' gonna be quite sticky as time goes by ... Well, it turns out the teacher is using the same flute model as mine too XD We are both using flute model YFL-221 from Yamaha XD

The school's quite small actually, only have about 3-4 rooms for use. The room that I'm using for my flute class is just like the size of my bedroom - except it now held abt 4 organ/keyboard? Not so sure of what's the name of the instrument ...

Later on, we move on to the room next door for the theory lesson - I suspect the same room is use for grp session for theory as well ... since there's white board and long tables with several chairs around it. ^^;;

As the teacher and the guy is having breakfast earlier on in that same theory room that we are using, when I went in - theres' still the smell of chicken in it XD

Didn't get the chance to see the other student whom turned up at 10.30 XD kinda overshot a little, so the teacher went out to attend the other student whom arrived, and I was kinda packing up my stuff in the theory room XD

>.< so far so good, nothing too complex or complicated. Just need to practise more, especially the breathing techniques ... but my arm ... T.T getting numb after holding the flute in the same position for 30 mins ... T.T maybe slightly more, since the theory kind of took only 15 mins then the time is up :P

Right, have to work now ... shall update another time when I'm free.

P.S: passport ready for collection, so the application went through alright ... and I was worrying about whether the photo is alright for them ^^;;

Shall collect it in the upcoming week ... still deciding whether I wanna go on my free day or on the days whereby I'm working ^^;;

Flute and Theory Lessons Confirmed!

I had finally decided on a school for my music classes ... after much consideration, I had decided to go for the Do-Re-Mi Music School that's situated just a street down from my home. Its' located at Blk 342, level 3 ... XD

Am taking both flute and theory lesson on the same day, back to back. The lesson's on sunday morning, 9.30 am to 10.30 am ... Thus, went to the school with Xinhui earlier on in the day, after my work to settle the admin stuff.

Paid a total of 100 dollars today, and shall paid the remaining 85 dollars on sunday when I go for the first lesson. The total of 185 dollars, included a 20 dollars enrollment fee, 90 dollars deposit for the course, and 45 dollars and 30 dollars for the remaining two lessons in the month of November at pro-rate.

The pricing for the course I'm taking on a monthly basis are as follow:

Theory (Beginner/Grade 1) - 60 dollars/mth, 30 mins per session.

Flute (Beginner/Grade 1) - 90 dollars/mth, 30 mins per session.

I'm supposed to pay the fees on the first lesson of each month, so from next mth onwards - had to set aside 150 dollars every mth for the flute/theory classes ... So have to be more thrifty now ... :P

My solution is - buy lesser comics ... which means, no more ordering of many titles at promotion period. I still had quite a few series left on stock, unpaid XD

*wonder how much does the theory practice bk cost* ... am buying it on sunday morning, when I go for lesson as well ...

As for the flute textbook, I'll just use what Eve gave me for my birthday ^^;; *Save $$, since that one is two grades in one book* XD

Am still waiting for the mail that relates to my passport to come in ... hopefully, soon ... Since the lesson is on sunday morning, it does not affects my work-time XD

Have to work tomorrow as well ... *Sians ...* But for the sake of $$, I'll persevere. After all, I do need more $$$ for X'mas Gifts that I had yet to purchase for you guys xD

Actually, am kind of irritated right now ... cause' my stupid lil' bro is still not home yet ... and he took my 50 dollars to go see doctor ... I wanna know how much he spend then can claim the remaining amt from my mother ... T.T

How I wish I can get my 50 dollars back in one piece ... >.<