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NCO Pre-Camp

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Wooooooooo...NCO Camp was one hell of a ride. NCO stands for Non-Commision Officer and this pre-camp was for the Band Majors from all the secondary school bands.I learnt a lot of things about percussion and being initiative while being there.

The pieces Mr Lawrence Siao gave, some were easy, some were difficult. S.I.R March was probably the most difficult piece I ever encounter in the NCO pre-camp. The other percussionists knew how to play. I was so clueless. I felt like a recruit and everything I knew seemed so little compared to theirs. Now I know what I have to do.

All I did for these few days is just playing crash cymbals as the mallets places were filled up and they need a person to crash cymbals. I learnt about the double-stroke builder, the start-up for the drum solo and a new way to play drum solo though it was quite simple. Of course, they are other ways to improvise the drum solo but the percussion tutor, Mr Gabriel, didn't had enough time to teach us.

Oh yeah, Mr Gabriel was the percussion tutor who taught us, percussionists, things about percussion. He's a funny guy and great kind nice guy. He's half-french so his name was Jean William Gabriel followed by some chinese name. He is such a cool french guy.

It's probably very true when I say this, Music bonds people, Nokia was so right..The friends I made in the percussion section are really nice fellows. They are Asher, Azam, Hui Ling, Yug Han, Shirley, Nicole and Jerald. Asher is really good drummer and snare drummer. I'm actually really impressed with Azam as he is one of the few Sec2s to ever enter the NCO course. Hui Ling is pretty fast with her stroke-rolling, whatever you call that. Yug Han and Shirly are brilliant malletists as Yug Han is able to figure what the band is playing and play it on the glockenspiels and Shirly's sight-reading is really good. Nicole and Jerald are awesome drummers too.

Seeing them is quite demoralising as I am not a good drummer and a mediocre malletist. But I am willing to learn. I hope I can become a good drummer one day and be able to lead my bandmates in PRSS!