My Wish

Classical music field is competitive. It is very hard to get a job in this field. A music student has to be good enough to enter to the professional world.

I had a bad lesson yesterday. I did not perform well. My teacher always ask me to play a single line of rhythm accurately and repeat it for 3 times. If I can play it perfectly in a row for 3 times, I can move forward to another line of rhythm. This is to nurture my consistency of playing the same rhythm over and over. Since percussion is the inner engine and heart beat of an orchestra, the scoring for percussion section is always repetitive. I need to upgrade my consistency of playing to play well in an orchestra. Honestly, I really follow his way to practice. But, according to him, I am being too good to myself. I let myself go on to practice another line without achieving perfection in the previous line of rhythm. Althought I repeated the same rhythm for 3 times without a rhythm mistake, I did not focus on the dynamics markings. In that 3 times, I did 3 different levels of dynamics instead of playing them all same.

I found out that I am not good in doing something repetitive since very young. As I'm quite an emotional person, I always act according to my emotion. From today onwards, I want myself to be more aware on my own playing especially when I am practicing. I know that my concentration is good. I will use full concentration in my practice to achieve CONSISTENCY! The battle between Consistency and Emotional has started!

Musical Movie Review - The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher, is based upon the novel “Le Fantome De L’Opera” by Gaston Leroux. It was originally produced for the stage by Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The Phantom of the Opera basically talks about a complicated love relationship between the Opera Ghost (Gerard Butler), Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum) and Raoul Chagny (Patrick Wilson). The setting of the movie takes place at the Paris Opera House during the late nineteenth century.

The mesmerising music by Andrew Lloyd Webber has enhanced this movie. Moreover, the superb singing skills by the three lead actors and actress really brought life to it. Every songs in this movie is impressive. The Phantom of the Opera was nominated for the 77th Annual Academy Awards and the 62nd Annual Golden Globe Awards. It is regarded as one of the best movies in 2004.



My favourite song and scene of the movie ^.^ (All I Ask of You)

PractiCe and PractiSe (just for fun ^.^)

I always see “practiSe” in YSTCM. On the other hand, my timpani teacher in Malaysia, a native British, always send me sms using “practiCe”. As a result, I always think that “practiSe” is American English and “practiCe” is British English.

I just found out that they should be another way around!

PractiSe = British
PractiCe = American

How amazing??!

p/s: I was having a great time in Malaysia with Paul and my family during this short term break ^.^

Comment on Qi Zhang's playing

Wow! It is such a cool organ concerto! Musically and technically demanding! I like Qi Zhang’s playing very much.

Without doubt, her organ playing techniques are very virtuosic. She can play every sound of the orchestra with only 2 hands and 2 feet. This is truly amazing! I enjoy her instant change of mood with the music very much. For example, at 1’20”from the clip, her transition from a fast flowing string tune to the playful, Mozart-like woodwind tune is very clear and significant. Besides that, her musicality is strong as well. She did not treat this music as notes on the page only. She tried to express them musically through her playing. She put in many appropriate nuances and dynamics to make the music sound different! Her body movements change accordingly to the music as well! For me, it shows that she enjoyed what she was playing. As a live performance, what she did visually is essential. Audiences enjoy seeing performer move with the music more than just sit or stand straight in front of the instruments and play.

There are only 2 little things I don’t like about this video. They are not about her playing. Firstly, I do not like the electrical music instrument sound. Moreover, this organ did not react naturally in music sense! For instant, at 1’12” of the video clip, the sound of clarinet just chopped off. It would sound better if the clarinet sound can sustain slightly longer while the string sound came in. Besides that, I was wondering why the camera man never shoots anything of her feet. Both feet play an important role in organ playing!

What does music mean to me?

Hmmm … this is a very good question….

Music means everything to me!

Music is my interest. It is my soul mate. It is also my career!

I really like to listen to music because it evokes different emotions in me. I feel sad when I listen to a solemn and grave music. On the other hand, I feel delight when I listen to happy music such as Mozart’s music. When I feel stress, a light and easy Richard Clayderman music will ease my tension.

For me, music is a gift from god. I always believe that music can purify a soul. I am not a Christian, but I appreciate Christian sacred music very much. This genre of music, normally sang by human voices, is like a natural medicine for me. It makes me feel pure and fresh. All my negative ways of thinking will disappear after listened to this kind of music. I love the music sang by Libera, a famous boys choir. Do watch the videos below and listen to them! They are young, great, fantastic, excellent singers! They sound like angels!





Music is the greatest treasure in this world. I can’t imagine this world without music…

Heh! 1st post!

Hello everyone. This is the first time I blog using PROPER English. Why? Why not Singlish or Manglish? The reason is very simple. This blog is part of my assignments of the English course in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Everything here is graded. Otherwise, I would wish to blog in mandarine…

First of all, let me introduce myself. "Ahem!" I'm Yap Siu Yan, Malaysian, currently pursuing a Bachelor Degree of Music in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Singapore. My major instrument is percussion. I love cats. I used to have 3 cats, 1 white, 1 grey and 1 black. Both white and grey cats have passed away quite a long time ago. I love my grey cat more than any other pets. He is very intelligent. He only obeyed my instructions but ignored the others. Besides that, I like to swim, and thankfully, there is an Olympic-size swimming pool near the conservatory! I just had my 5^th swim here!

Next, I would like to share my music influences with you all. I started to learn music formally by 6 years old. My mum enrolled me in the Yamaha JMC (Junior Music Course). After a year of playing and having fun in music, my JMC teacher recommended me to take private piano lessons. At the age of 13, I joined the school band of my secondary school, the Chong Hwa High School Band. There, I started to learn percussion. 3 years ago, I was lucky enough to join the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO). Under the tutelage of Paul Philbert, the principal timpanist of Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), I was given a chance to get into this competitive and famous conservatory.

Paul is the best teacher I ever met. His professionalism of being a musician has inspired me to follow his path. Moreover, he is caring and hilarious. All his students love him very much, including me!!!

For the next 4 years, I will do my best to improve myself as much as I can!

(Paul and the MPYO percussionists)