Blog Reflection 1: First Year Creative Project

For the Creative Project this year, I worked first with Alvin and Yi Yang on a “trio challenge”, where we were tasked to come up with small 1 to 2 minute original musical ideas. We wrote a short piece using Circle of 5ths harmony and improvised a melody on top of it. In the next stage, after voting, we narrowed down all the ideas to a few main motifs, and worked on those in larger groups. I was part of the production team together with my friends from AAS and MS/MCP, and we were in charge of designing the storyline of our production and organising the flow of the events. I also introduced our project on behalf of the cohort in front of the whole school. Finally, we performed a 15 minute long piece which best represented our musical identity as a cohort, and was well-received by the audience. 

Before we began, I was excited to embark on this process because I did not know what to expect. It was in fact more fun than I had imagined because I had really good synergy with my trio members, and we were all very enthusiastic about making our own additions to our music in order to make it more interesting. When we won first place during the internal voting, it made us feel very accomplished after putting in our hard work. During the ensemble practices, I felt stressed because our group had a large number of pianists and were lacking players from the woodwind and brass sections. The pianists who were not in charge of playing the piano were tasked with playing percussion instruments instead. Hence, when we presented our section to the class in order to get feedback, the overall sound balance of our group was lacking and did not have as strong an impact compared to the other groups, which left us feeling regretful. 

The Creative Project was my first time performing in a large orchestral setting, and I was surprised at how quickly my cohort mates were able to respond and make musical changes whenever new suggestions were made by the professors. I was impressed by the professionalism displayed by them. Working with my talented cohort mates also made the process of preparing for the performance and making any last minute changes much easier. However, some negative parts of the project include some people who were late to rehearsals or did not come for rehearsals at all, which caused some inconvenience for the rest of us who had put in a lot of effort. From a composer’s perspective, I was also concerned that the flow of our musical events was not completely logical and that it might impact the outcome of our performance.

I believe the reason why the rehearsal and preparation process was mostly smooth-sailing was because everyone was on the same wavelength, thus making communication effective. People were willing to take up new suggestions and try them out immediately, which allowed us to quickly assess whether we were making coherent music decisions. It was great that even though this was a novel experience for many of us, we were able to participate actively and with a positive mindset, which allowed us to be productive during rehearsals. Even when there were disagreements regarding decisions, people were not afraid to voice out their opinions, which opened our eyes to other considerations that we might not have thought about. I believe the environment of mutual care and respect that was developed during orientation made us feel more willing to brainstorm with each other. 

On the contrary, I assume a possible reason for people not turning up for rehearsals may be due to a lack of dedication to the project. They may not have felt the urge to take responsibility for the project since we had only met a few days ago. Due to the large number of people in the orchestra, not everyone had an equal chance to share their thoughts, which may have resulted in others feeling less included and hence less inclined to participate actively in the project. My initial worry regarding the flow of the music stemmed largely from my musical training and compositional background, which had taught me to focus on logical development of material. However, the Creative Project dealt primarily with improvisation and “conversations” through music, which I was not used to.   

I had to learn to put aside my preconceived notions of how music “should” be performed, stop stressing and allow myself to be immersed in what we had created. A lesson from Jerry Saltz’s article I can relate to is “Art is not about understanding. Or mastery. It is about doing and experience.” Without a conductor or a fixed score, I had to learn to be adaptable to the situation and listen very carefully to the musical cues around me in order to play in time or respond to the change in emotions in the music. I realised the importance of “listening” and the Creative Project  reminded me of the simple joys of participating in music-making.

Another lesson I took away is “Tell your own story and you will be interesting.” As a result of the unique ideas which were suggested during rehearsals, we were able to create a musical experience that reflected the different strengths and individualities of our cohort. We had waltzes, guitar riffs, tangos and many more interesting ideas in our music, which one would usually not imagine to be staged together in a single performance. Those who watched our performance told me that we looked like we were enjoying ourselves on stage, thereby allowing them to be entertained by our performance. I strongly believe that was because we were able to tell our musical story authentically through inserting parts of ourselves into our music. 

Finally, “Art is about knowing yourself.” I learnt that I perceive music the way I do because of my background, and I am sure it is the same for others as well. Breaking down and analysing my reactions to the music we were performing allowed me to understand myself better, and will be beneficial to my own musical journey in the future as I compose more works that others in turn will respond to.

If I were given the chance to relive the Creative Project, I would have chosen to come up with a more concrete plan for our ideas. It felt like we were trying very hard to find logical ways to tie our sections together, at times rather forcefully. Having a more defined storyline and structure may help us to understand the music on a deeper level, thus choosing more suitable musical material to allow us to communicate our message to the audience more clearly. I definitely enjoyed the freedom of expression that this experience has given me, but to me, the structure of music is also equally important and I believe we can improve on this aspect more. If I have to take up a leadership position again for similar projects, I will continue to do what I can in my own capacity to ensure that the project goes smoothly. In our case, whether people turned up for rehearsals was out of my control. In the future, all I am able to do is to put in my 100% and spread positive energy to others, hopefully inspiring them to be as passionate about the project as I am. 

The performance on Wednesday was a culmination of almost a week in total of rehearsals and preparation – a celebration of a new beginning. It was an experience of a lifetime and something that I will treasure for years to come. I look forward to seeing how far we will go on our voyage ahead.