Moving as a group

I'm not so particularly worried about stagnation. I believe that music takes time to develop and the progress sometimes cannot be measured with a definite time scale. I see much improvement in many of the members, which is something really great to me. If there's any stagnation, it may be a growing phase which a musician has to pass through. I'm not talented in music, hence I know how annoying it is to plough through the pieces, studies, practices and not see any fruits until maybe about half a year later.

It always boils down to attitude.

I've always emphasised the importance of "musical input" to my players, be it in shaping a phrase, articulating explicitly and clearly, group cohesion, balance etc. This is something I find in need of more awakening. This mode of playing music requires practice, and the rehearsals are there to give time to such matters; on the assumption that we need not spend time on correcting melodic and rhythmic discrepancies.

The other essence which needs work is the ability to play the part of an instrument work as it was intended. Most of us love haunting melodies and upbeat rhythms, but if everyone's doing that, then who's giving the basic necessities of the music work? I firmly believe that the supporting cast has a much more important role to play in a piece of work, more often that not.

Take for instance, GENUS. Compared to years back, we've come quite a long way and many of the previous pieces we're playing now are of a higher standard, in terms of interpretation and presentation. Much of it is due to the presence of our new conductor and the alumni who have also developed much over the years of playing. Any group that retains a fairly large number of experienced players is going to be more successful in the long run. And we all know that experience is closely related to effort and time.

EXPOSE never started out as a professional body and there's much chance it will never be, given that we don't have any full-time players around. We're just generally better in technique than the main group, more experienced but there's still much to learn for every single one of us. If we start thinking that we are of another league or expecting that we should be high up there on performance standards, I don't think there will be much to progress as a group. Expectations should be used positively to inspire and not to bind.