A random collection of things I've done

okay, so it's been a while. but here we go. in no particular order (well, we'll see..)

on friday 4th april, i went to participate in a psychology study. the postgrad student is exploring perfect pitch, and whether there exists a spectrum of abilities. now, i already know i have absolute pitch, so i figured that i might be able to help out - i figure that there's so few people in this world that have it (something like 0.01% of the population) that i might as well help out if i'm able to. it was kinda fun. this is the 2nd study i've taken part in exploring perfect pitch (various aspects of it), and the people have always been really nice.

we finally found out our chamber music tutor, but as anticipated, it is very hard to find a mutually convenient time for four people. we have just one time so far, and hopefully it goes well.

had a good music training day at church. learnt some stuff, although i felt quite alone because i am the only 'instrument' per se. perhaps i should whip out a new instrument every time we play. just to confuse everybody. at least it'd be amusing. :)

had the 3mbs recital as well. the bakery was good... :)
the playing, not so haha. oh well, it went alright, but we knew we could have done better. oh well, stuff happens. but it was fairly enjoyable, and fairly cruisy. and apparently doesn't sound as bad as we thought it did. sorry that non-local people couldn't listen in to it because the server was down...i will try to get that recording.

had a couple of dinner appointments last week....one was a bunch of (mostly) wyverns plus extras. we all traipsed over; it was the first time most of us had been there; we have a fantastic time, the company was wonderful, the food was great, and the conversation entertaining. we were most impressed. we all raved about how great a time we had for the next week - it was that good.

the other one was held at my place, with three of my close friends. i cooked (eek....although it turned out well!) which i did enjoy quite a lot. dessert was almost experimental, though fool-proof (it comes from the women's weekly receipe books.....triple tested!) and turned out fantastically. i have decided (although a while ago..) that if you know, uni didn't work out for me, i'd go into dessert production. haha. it's all about presentation - this i also observe from my uncle. we had a fun evening, i laughed so much, the boys didn't need any provoking at all. that is one of my secret sources of amusement. :)

and talking about cakes and uncles, my aunt and uncle (and parents) have generously organised a cake for my 21st, so that i don't have to bake 100 cupcakes...! they just asked when and where the party is and whether i would be able to pick it up. easy peasy....

my trios are going well. although the viola trio often struggles to find a mutually convenient time for us all...the violin one had a rehearsal on friday morning just gone. it went well. we had intended to ask if we could play in class, but due to this new system of signing up, we weren't able to guarantee us a spot. however, we'd heard on the grapevine that the original quintet were unable to play, and also that the replacement quintet were also unable to play. so we jumped on the opportunity to do so. and luckily so, because the class was taken by none other than barry tuckwell. he's awesome!!! go look on wikipedia if you haven't heard of him. he had good things to say to us, to help us out.

i actually played in piano class on monday. it was 3rd and 4th yrs performance class. i decided to get up and do it, because it was one of the least-pressure piano classes that were going to exist for the year. i had just had a lesson that morning, and my teacher had taken it all apart, and put it back together. [for the record, my lesson was really good. i decided that i'm not going to do the shepparton competition, because i can't commit to it. i thought for a very long time, and very hard about this, but decided finally. and i figure that it's the right decision.] anyway, i was terribly nervous. and this was pointed out to me, but in my defence, i did say that i hadn't played in piano class, or concert class, solo, for a very long time. to which i got a 'well, good on you for doing it', along with the best comment i think i could possibly get from the facilitator, that he does say every time i play (phew..!): 'you play well'. three simple words, they mean so much. anyway, he had some good things to say.
but when i compare to how i felt playing solo to how i felt playing in chamber music, i definitely felt more comfortable in a trio. even though i had solo moments, and in front of somebody arguably more distinguishes, it felt comfortable, and exciting that i was playing in a trio. i dunno. maybe that's supposed to suggest something. maybe not. although i kinda already know this.

i've been out way too often. this weekend, i went out on friday, saturday and sunday nights. and i'm going out tonight. this can't be good for a) my health b) my study productivity.

but in recent weeks, i've really enjoyed hanging out with a certain group of people. some are close friends, some aren't that close. but there's just something about it. and i always come away from it with a fairly silly (and large) grin on my face. there's just a quality about it. something that i agree can be homogeneous, but at the same time, you can see why it works. we (and by that i mean, I and the whole group, although there are some people in the group who are closer to others than other people, and that's totally fine. admittedly, the margins are not well-defined, nor exclusive) don't spend large amounts of time together every week. but it works every time. it's beautiful. they're people i'd really like to get to know better. i've just noticed in recent times that the people i am increasingly drawn to and enjoy the company most of are mostly my church friends. admittedly, a few of them are musos or collegians, which makes for a nice overlap. but some aren't. and i think that's the beauty of it.

also (and totally unrelated), i thought about how interesting it would be just to sit back and watch who i consider to be 'my' soloists perform. with other pianists. it feels a little weird at times. but that's ok. because i respect the pianist very much.
and it's nice to take a break sometimes. and get a different perspective. by no means am i bitter about it, i actually quite enjoy it. particularly as some of the repertoire is the same as i've worked on with them. which makes for most interesting listening!

i went to see ION over the weekend. for the record, their original soprano is enjoying motherhood very much, so much that she won't be coming back, and therefore, their replacement soprano is now their permanent soprano. it's been wonderful to see her grow in the year and a bit she's been with them. and she's growing on me a lot. she has a very different sound, and very different strengths and weaknesses. but then again, every singer is different. the gig was great, although there were a few times i felt pitching was a little awkward (which is highly uncharacteristic of them), but it wasn't significant enough to detract from the performance.