Selected to Perform in Esplanade

Two weeks ago, I was told that i had been selected to enter the senior performance group to perform at the Esplanade for the Beautiful Sunday Concert on the 12th of July.It was such a great piece of news for me because it happens to be one of my goal to achive at week 13, but now I am able to achieve it two weeks earlier.

This performance sounds interesting because all the songs being played are pop songs for example, pop hits from Chinese artists such as Jacky Cheung, Zhang Hui Mei (Ah Mei), Leo Ku , as well as the theme song from the popular local Mandarin TV series, Little Nonya .

To make this performance perfect I was forced to attend 6 additional combined practices. Although the common test was just around the corner, I was still forced to attend the practice because i knew that a certain standard needed to be achieved in order to perform at Esplanade Concert Hall.

The time that I had been anticipating had arrived. It was the day to perform. When I arrived, i found that the hall was very grand. During the afternoon, the other members and I started the preformance which I believe was the greatest experience that I had ever encountered. Here is some attachment of the performance.

Further Improvement

After the first practice, I had learn how to play the Dizi(basically).Every monday I had to attend the group practice to learn more from my seniors. As I said before, all of them are kind enough to teach me all the skills they know.During the weekends i would practice in my own house because i know that practice makes perfect. In the begining I only played the basic practice pieces to familiarise myself with the Dizi. Here are some examples of the practice pieces,

After four weeks time i started to proceed to some melody pieces.Actually the difference between the practice piece and the melody pieces are, the melody pieces are more complicated in ryhthm and the range of notes that are played are still the same. I started with the level 1 song and kept on practising on it. I had found that the level 1 song was quite simple for me because I had build up a good basic level of competence. Example of level 2 song piece,

Then, I strarted to try on the level 2 song. The level 2 song was more complicated compared to the level 1 song. Now i started to struggle. I started to get some help from my seniors again. As they showed me some new skills to face the difficulties in the level 2 song, I too added some hard work into the equation. In the end i was able to play the level 2 song. Example of level 2 song pieces.

Lastly, I step into level 3. Completing level three is the goal that I wanted to succeed in .In this level, there are many new skills that needed to be learnt. Now i realize that the Dizi is so amazing, a single bamboo made Dizi is able to play in different styles to produce diffrent types of sounds through your mouth and tougue control. I had to increase my period of practice and time of practice to complete the level 3.Example of level 3 song that written in numerical form,

Finally, after i practiced all the song in level three I proceeded to my conductor, Mike Chiang to get some comments from him. He said, basically i can play the level 3 song but there are still some parts that can be improved. Besides that he wants me to count the rhythms more accurately. He had suggested to me to practice more and to listen to more song pieces that are played by some professors .But overall, he said i had qualified in level 3. I was so happy to hear that because not only had one of my goals been achieved, but I was qualified as an average Dizi player. This had prompted me to strive harder. Below is a photo of my conductor, Mike Chiang.

Group practice

After going through the basic theory classes, i went for the group practice. In the practice group, I was taught by a female senior leader. She is a very patient leader. She taught me all i needed to know step by step to enable me to play the Dizi during the first practice. Below are some of the things that she has taught me.

1. About DiMo

One of the things which make the dizi special, is that it can produce various timbres. This is achieved by a special hole on the dizi, called the mokong hole. It may also be refered to as the membrane hole. The two terms are pretty much the same, no difference.
The dimo membrane is used to cover up the mokong hole. Traditionally, the dimo is made of the inside layer of a piece of reed or bamboo. Furthermore, because a dimo easily dries out, you may need to change it every few hours.
Alternatively, a quick-and-easy method is to use a piece of scotch tape to cover up the mokong hole.

2.How to handle DiZi

Finding a correct, relaxed, and natural position is important to help you play the dizi. On the otherhand, if your position is incorrect, then it could make it harder to learn playing the dizi. When you hold the dizi, don't push on the holes too hard. Try to find a natural and relaxed position. Otherwize your fingers might become sore. The fingering of the dizi requires the use of the first three fingers of both the right and left hands. So to hold the dizi, you must be able to use only your thumbs and pinky fingers to support it. This may be difficult at first, but just keep at it and it will get a lot easier. With the palm of your left hand facing you, and the palm of your right hand facing away from you, grab the dizi.

3. Dizi Finger Chat

Dizi have several in size and all so in different keys.But we also can use a single Dizi to play several keys by changing the note that play by each single hole.If you are not sure what the key of your dizi is, you can take a look at the Tunerpage. If you can read music already, you may want to directly start playing and practicing. Or, if you are unfamiliar with music, you may want to take a look at the practice sight readind website. Actually, the fingering is the same for different keys of dizi, just the notes that the fingerings produce is different.

For others key finger chat can refer to:http://www.chinese-flute.com/learn_dizi_finger_chart.php

4.Play

Hold the dizi blow hole to your lips, and blow. You need to try different angles and blowing strengths. Once you get the hang of it, you will quickly remember.

Tips:

Relax - even though you need to figure out the right blowing strength for the right notes, you do not actually need to blow too hard. Blowing too hard could result in a headache.

Make sure finger holes are all all the way covered - if your finger doesn't completely cover a hole, it could cause the flute to not sound correctly, and you won't be able to play the note.

Don't push your lips out too far - the corners of your mouth, and your lips, should be tight. Do not make your lips as though you are going to kiss someone. Try to keep your lips tight and flat, no puckering outwards too much.

Keep playing! - even though most people can get the hang of it quite quickly, to make your music sound really good keep practicing.

What is Music Theory?

As I enter NYP chinise orchestra, I had take up three basic music theory class that conduct by our chinise orchestra conductor.For everyone who want to learn any musical instrument, the most basic criteria is must learn the basic music theory.

First of all we must know the basic grouping of the instrument we want to learn. For me, I am learning Chinise Orchestra wood wind instrument. Basically chinese orchestra are group into four big group which are,wood wind instrument, bowed string instrument, plucked string instrument, and percussion.In each group there have thier own family members.

Let me summaries that out :

Example of wood wind instrument:

Example of Plucked string instrument:

Example of Percussion Instrument:

Eample of Bowed String instrument:

Beside that, I also learned some basic music theory that we often use it.We had learn how to count the simple rhythem ,read the simbol that wirtten in the music score and others music term that written in the score.

Let me show you what are the musical term and what the score looks like:

For those who are interested in those musical term can find out a complete set of the musical term and thier definition from,

www.contracosta.edu/music/terms.html

MY SMART GOAL

My goal is to learn to play one of the wood wind insrument the belong to chinese orchestra. The instrument is Di Zhi. One of the reasons I choose to learn Di Zhi is because I want to learn more Chinise orchestra instrument. At the same time, I had joined the NYP Chinise Orchestra.Last time i had learned before Gu Zheng which is also belong to chinise orchestra instrument. So now I am looking towards Di Zhi. I will explained in detail by the SMART checklist below.

Specific- What I really plan to achieve is to be able to learn all the basic skill of the Di Zhi by the end of week 13.Beside that I also want to join the NYP Chinese Orchestra senior performance group to performance at different places. Besides that, I also want to learn all the level 3 song at the end of week 13.In addition, I will put more colour in my life by learning Di Zhi so that i would not waste my leisure time.

Measurable-The way for me to measure my improvement in Di Zhi is I will attend the practical test .By reffering to the practical result I can know which level I belongs to.Then, I will also conduct comment from my conductor . I will perform some song in front of my conductor then gets some comments from him.Good comment will easily prove that I can play well and bad comment will means that i still far away from my goal which means that more hard works are required.

Achievable- By having enough practice i strongly believe that I can play Di Zhi very well. Although I knew that 13 week is not a very short time, I trust that by the help from my conductor , senior and my own hard works , I can play Di Zhi very well.

Relevant- By learning Di Zhi, I also can learn many musical theory. I can handle the pitch, tempo, volume, chord, and lyrics of the song more perfectly after i had learned all the musical theory.By achieving this goal ,it may also help to have some advantages when I apply for university in the future.The chances to be taken in to the university will be highier compare to others who didnot learn music.In addition, I may be a Di Zhi performer in the future and it also put colour ub my future life. By the way, I also can fill up my leisure time by doing this meaningful activity instead of doing nothing all the time.

About DiZi

The dizi is the most common transverse flute of China. Dizi are made from bamboo and have six finger holes and are characterized by an additional hole covered by a piece of very thin paper-like fibre that buzzes when played. This fibre, known as Di mo and either made from the inner layer of a certain type of bamboo or from a type of river reed, is readily available in Chinese music stores. The do mo is held in place by placing a small amount of natural gum or garlic juice around the hole, and slightly moistening as it is placed into position. The di mo must dry to the proper tension to produce the dizi's characteristic loud sound. Modern dizi can be found with additional keys to aid in playing accidentals, but traditionally players had a set of dizi, one for each desired key, and accidentals and slides were accomplished by very subtle adjustments of the fingers to cover only a quarter or half of a hole. Although a relatively easy instrument at first, the standard for good dizi playing is extremely high, and professional dizi players from China are stunning in their virtuosity, although they often lack the emotional depth that is found in flute playing from other cultures.

To know more about Di Zhi http://www.2measures.com/dizi.html