Greetings, Yen Mei

Hihi geng yi will be asking why Yen Mei's come first before his.

Anyway, here's to our brave young (but older than me muahaha) Yen Mei who played for last Sunday's morning worship and yesterday's (Saturday) youth! Hip hip hooray!

Ahem. Look at what the kids have done to me. Cough cough.

Let's be serious.

I know you made some mistakes when you played, and your transition from end of song to the chorus wasn't exactly perfect, and that sometimes you just panicked and played an unsing-along-able kind of playing, but I just want to tell you that those are the kind of things that actually make a pianist.

Not those super-pro, non-human kind of pianists la. For normal, totally human pianists like us only.

Sis used to ask me to teach some other people piano also, and Lin used to bug me to teach her some stuff on the piano. But I always gave up half-way or taught so horribly that they gave up. The only thing that drives me to not give up on both you and Celine is the fact that both of you remind me so much of how my own experience.

Celine is like a mirror of me when I started out at 9.
You lei, is like when I was in Form 2 (yay you look young!)

I think I told you before, but I'll tell you again.

There was once Shin (zheng's sis) and I played together for sunday worship. It was horrible la. We were doing all sorts of stuff that we shouldn't be doing oso lor. I wouldn't elaborate on that. But after that Auntie Lay Hong came up to us and told us off. I know she didn't mean to hurt us in any way, but what she said hurt me anyway. She told me that because of what we did, she and another auntie couldn't worship at all that day. After that I didn't have the face to go to church anymore. I even considered attending Lin's church (super near my house, 3 minutes walk only) with the excuse of playing for their church. Thank God lots of people were concerned, especially our precious geng yi!!!! He called me and encouraged me to come back (that time I was still quite young eh). After that Auntie Lay Hong and I made up la. About how we did it, all I'll let out is the phrase "London Royal Circus" heheh.

After that incident, I really started to take playing for the church seriously. I learned a lot in the process - about how to conduct myself when I'm up there, what to do when there's a new song with 6 sharps / flats, how to know the speed of a song, how to still worship even though things can get awful out there, and other such things.
Through playing with the band, I learned many other things also. I acquired new playing styles (mainly pencurian of sin yee's and daniel's drum beats, sis' and zheng's bass tabs, and aaron's strumming styles), how to play without looking at the keys, how to shift from chorus to chorus, from key to key, and how to take note of the congregation's reaction to the playing while still focusing at the same time.

Skill is not something you get overnight. It took me 3 years, I think, to actually play a song without making it sound cacat, and until now, I'm still making mistakes. Less serious / major ones, no doubt, but they're still mistakes. You saw for yourself how I suddenly ter-changed key from A to Bb right ^^;

Don't be afraid of those mistakes. I mean, of course you don't go around being proud of the mistakes la. But just take note of those mistakes and, keeping in mind that you can get rid of them or at least decrease their number, try to do better the next time. Ask around, and curi around, it's ok wan. I do that all the time. Especially during DMSJ, when I steal bits and pieces of SAGC's David's styles =P (Mr SAGC Jun Yi, I know you're here... seng mok la hor)

Listen to more Christian music. I find that secular music don't really have good quality piano playing lor. It's like anybody oso can play wan. Scout around for good Christian music and learn from them. It's ok to spend time by the radio (or your mp3... the world's not the same anymore...) and playing and replaying the song till you get it right. Get involved in major church events. Although the experience WILL be very painful and tiring, in the end you'll find that your skill has advanced to a much higher level. It's something like naruto and dragonball la haha. I think those comic writers ciplak the idea from us wan la.

Curi my styles if you want, I don't mind. I curi most of mine from Auntie Angelina neway. I just change a little bit so it sounds like my own. Cis terbocor.

When I go off next year, you'll be the one to master the keys hor. Don't think that you'll never make it, or compare your playing to mine. When I first started out at 9, I never dreamed that I would be the one sitting up front playing from 9am to 10am every Sunday.

I hope you'll continue to play for the youth, and for church. It was (and is) through my struggles and falls in playing that I got (and still get) closer to God. For a pianist, this is the way we have to take la hor. Always make mistakes your best friend! Turn red in the face when you make them, if you must, but after that, pick yourself up and hit the keys again!