Musings on guitar performances

On 19th Oct, the Xpose guitar ensemble performed to a full house audience at the Esplanade Recital Studio - a concert titled Re'vel. 

Honestly, I do not remember (nor keep count) of how many concerts Xpose ensemble have had over the years, but given that the Committee just announced next year 2025 would be Xpose's 20th Anniversary, then I suppose we must've had close to that number of concerts?

Anyway, the night went well overall, at least I didn’t think any of the pieces went awry, except for the occasional (and totally expected) pieces/spots where things maybe got slightly messy.  One prime example would be Shingeki no Kyojin.   I think we typically don’t do so wells when it comes to off-beat rhythms, and especially when it is fast tempo.

Another song that I personally was feeling a little nervous about was the Coco Medley (no, not the recently departed singer).  The 6/8 time signature meant there was plenty of uncertainty during rehearsals, accompanied by plenty of chiding from the conductor. Lol

However, on the night it seemed the nerves actually helped - or maybe the extra drilling - and this piece went quite well (or at least based on the feedback I heard from some of the attending audience on the night).

Here are some of the photos taken by our dear guitarist-cum-photographer of the day, Leo:

I am blessed to have my family there in attendance in almost all of my guitar performances, and this concert was no exception.  I hope they enjoyed the music!

One day after performing with Xpose, I was invited (as a music tutor) to Genus’s concert that was held at U-Town Stephen Riady Center.   If I’m not mistaken, they’ve been holding their Term 2 performance here for the past few years, and I have been attending the last few concerts together with Kai.  He has become my regular Genus concert partner , and it is always interesting to hear his views of the various performances/pieces.

This year, the students played a variety of pieces from Japanese classics like One Summers day, 3 Scenes from Japan, to student’s arrangements of the familiar favourites Take Five and from the game Baldur’s Gate (ok, that was for Encore… and the singing/chanting part was quite weird.. hahah), and also the Guitar Concerto that was composed by Mr Alex and Balraj some years ago…

Amongst the small groups, I thought the Hungarian Dance No. 1 did well (although that was kind of expected, given that this group comprised most of the technically abled players in Genus this year ).

Overall, it was an enjoyable outing for father and son, and it is my hope that Kai will gain some inspiration from attending these guitar concerts and will become more motivated to pick up to learn the trade :)