About Me

Something rather sad happened this week. Reminded me of some of the musical stuff that I was doing for close to 8 years, in the years before I started to do my pounding on the tarmac.

Was trying hard to explain to my colleagues the exact nature of the instrument that I played in the orchestra. Thought I'll blog a little about it, complete with illustrations. As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. There you have it, to your left. The instrument that I played - the Chinese mouth organ. Not very glam and rather unladylike I guess ;p


The one to the extreme left is the 中音笙 (zhong yin sheng). This is the instrument that I played in the orchestra. It's usually located right at the very back of the orchestra. This picture shows the side of the instrument that faces the audience. I would be seated right behind it. If you know me well enough, I guess it's not hard to imagine me behind the instrument. Yes. Once I have my music scores propped on the instrument, to be honest, you can hardly see me from the audience. But, I can be heard if you recognise the sound of the instrument well enough hehz. And yes. I don't deny that given my not too large and not too long frame, I do have to sit on double chairs to reach my instrument ;p And I'm very often reliant on the goodwill of my fellow orchestra mates to carry my instrument for me from one venue to another ;p To play this instrument, as the name describes it, I'll need to blow into a pipe and press the buttons on the panel of the instrument that relate to the relevant notes ;)


The other instrument to the right is also a sheng. It's the more traditional kind. It's also used when people perform solo. I mastered my basics on this version of the instrument. To me, I find it harder to play this instrument as it's not that light, and I'll really need to support the instrument with both hands, prop it up to blow it and at the same time figure out which notes to play. Over time, the weight of the instrument can get to me and when tired, it gets harder to blow. Not to mention when there are all the other techniques that we need to use to create different kind of effects and the complexity mounts when we tend to play chords as well ;p


'nuff said about my instrument ;p Come to think of it, it's probably been about 6 to 7 years since I last performed in the orchestra. Oh well, those were the days I guess. Making music in those days was fun and I'm sure it will always be fun if I get back to doing it. Many thanks to my family and friends who have turned up at the concerts to watch me perform over the years. Yeah. I guess it's tough being my friend, cos you'll be expected to turn up for my concerts ;p Especially miss the bouquet of flowers that my friends will generously shower on me at every public performance ;p