One day has passed, since NBC. Today, I believe that all of you understand the mistakes that were made during NBC and how we can improve as a band after your section debriefs.
In terms of how we performed on stage, many of the seniors have said that the music actually sounded okay from where they are sitting. But can we actually tell ourselves that we played music on stage? Did that music come from the heart? Did that music express the meaning of the song, our effort put in, and our very own dreams? The day before NBC, I felt something. It wasn’t much, but I felt a tinge expression and movement in the songs. However when we went up on stage, everything was gone. All that musicality and expression, all down the drain.
For some of you, this would be your first performance, your first experience. Perhaps this first experience wasn’t what you expected, perhaps it was not as amazing as you thought, perhaps you already tried your best, but learn from this experience. We have to get used to going up on stage and performing for others. Stuff like, “Oh, we didn’t play our best because we were not used to the hall”, or “Oh, we didnt play 100% because we were nervous” are just excuses to delude yourself that you could have done better. We all need to get used to going up on stage, because I hope that whatever mistakes we made at NBC, will not be repeated in the future.
But now is not the time to be emoing over what happened at NBC, neither is it the time to be emoing over what your SL said during the debrief. Fixation on the past is the last thing that we need right now. What we need is the strength to stand up again, and learn from this experience and aim to do better for the upcoming events. It’s time to move on. We cannot change what results we got, we cannot change the past. But we can treasure the present and improve, to change our future. Because the present, is a gift. It’s up to us if we choose to treasure it. But throwing away this gift, is the same as throwing away whatever hard work and effort we had put in. I do not want to see the band’s standard drop after NBC, that should not be the case. Treasure whatever time you have in band now, in order to maintain and standard and raise the bar even higher.
My senior shared a quote with me after NBC, a quote from the poem – Invictus
“”I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
No one else is going to help us do well for SYF next year. We control our fate, our destiny and this band. Us, not anyone else. We have to learn from this experience, and take the initiative to start practicing and aim to do better in the future. The band’s future lies in our hands. No more dwelling on the past, no more obsessing about NBC. We have to be the ones to move on, because no one else is going to help us if we do not help ourselves.
This is also the first time that the current Exco have been in charge of a public performance, and we did make mistakes. But we’ll learn from them. We’ll try harder. We’ll see this through till the end. As we learn from our mistakes, you also have to learn from yours. Together, we’ll learn to be professional musicians, learn to be one band, and see this band through till the end.
Lim Bo Geng
