Christmas Concert

We had our big Christmas Concert last Saturday, which I am not going to lie, we did a pretty good job on. The choir didn't do too well since at one part the other group that was singing hit the wrong notes and we didn't really harmonize very well. But here is the story in full.
We had to get to the school at 6:30, but I don't know why since we didn't really take that much time getting ready. During that time though I had time to tune up my Saxophone to the piano, which the vice principle told me I had to do. When I had finished that, our choir director told us to meet backstage where we could practice a little bit and warm up. After that, we just had to wait until the second performance and then we would get onstage. Most of us were girls and we were really giggly, and everyone was cracking jocks because they were so nervous. Meanwhile, I was trying to suck on my reed to get it wet without laughing. But I couldn't hold it in any longer, so I laughed. Bad idea. My reed flew out of my mouth and flew across the room, which made everyone laugh harder. When it was finally time to get onstage, we were all very very nervous. When we started singing our first song, the Boat Song, that was when we started going off pitch. After that song was over, we sang Jubilatedaoh, or something like that, which was ok, except we forgot to come in at the right spot. Then Donanobispachem, which was ok until we split. Then we lost pitch again. Finally we sang one song that went ok, Raise Up Shepard and Follow, which I had a solo in, and after the solo I sort of messed up on the lyrics, but when I got back on track we all did good. Then we sang the song we were more used to, Peaceful. That one was finally perfect. After that I had exactly one performance to get my Saxophone assembled. I then had time to stand on stage and worry. But when we started playing, me on Saxophone and my friend on piano, we actually did pretty good, except she got a couple wrong notes, and my Saxophone stopped playing for while, but it wasn't really that noticeable. After that I was able to sit in the audience and watch. The songs were great, and no one else messed up so it turned out pretty good. At the end everyone who performed had to go back onstage to get a group shot, and then it was finally time to go home. All in all, it was a pretty good performance.
Pictures

Intercontinental Hotel

Last Thursday our school choir went to a very fancy 5 star hotel to perform at their Lighting of the Christmas Tree ceremony. We were planning on singing five songs, but then they only gave us time to sing three. "Rock and roll snow man", "Winter Fantasy", and "Peaceful", basically repeating some of the songs we sang at the Christmas Bazaar. We left school at 5:30 to get to the Intercontinental Hotel because it was a ways away. When we got there we got red scarfs and Santa hats to wear, which none of the older kids were very thrilled about. After we had briefly warmed up, we went into the restaurant to eat pizza, but we didn't get very much since the little kids ate almost all of it. Right after that we had a quickly wash our hands so we could go on stage to perform. Then we went on stage to perform our three songs, which I think went pretty well. The thing that surprised me was that there was a lot of people from our class there and some of our teachers, which made us all sort of nervous. After that, we went backstage to get ready to leave, but we didn't leave for a while because the little kids wanted to stay a while to watch the other performances. There was a magician, two singers, and dancers. Then we left and got cookies from the hotel people, which were coated in sugar and tasted really good. Overall, it was a pretty good evening.

I will have pictures up by the 3rd of December.

Saxophone Duet

Here is the website for you to hear me and my saxophone teacher playing a duet at the Christmas Bazaar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKX8Yi7rddA
Enjoy!

The Christmas Bazaar

Yesterday we had the long awaited Christmas Bazaar! There was lots of games for the little kids, a whole bunch of booths selling stuff, and lots and lots of food. And of course performances. In total I had 5 performances in 5 hours! So I was running around all day. The only thing I bought was food, which was awesome! And a new pair of earrings, they are really pretty. So my first performance was playing the Alto Saxophone by myself, which it seemed a lot of people liked. I played three traditional Christmas carols. Right after that the school choir performed, which was fun, and I liked all the songs, but one was really cheesy. We sang "Night of Wonders", "Winter Fantasy", "Rock and Roll Snowman", as you can probably tell, that was the cheesy one, and "Peaceful", a really good song, similar to the song we song last year at this time, "Song of Peace". Then after that I had free time until 1, which is when I bought my first pair of earrings. At 1 my saxophone teacher and I played a couple duets for Christmas carols, and when I had put my sax away, my friend came and told me that we were supposed to do a trio! So then I had to quickly put is back together and do the trio, with piano, violin, and saxophone. It sounded really good. Then after a while at around 2ish, our whole family performed a song, "Merry Christmas with Love". My and my sister had solos, and my mom and dad just sang along on the chorus. It was really funny though after cause there was this group of girls that were listening, these were the popular girls that I don't even talk to and they are older than me. So when we finished singing, and they were the ones cheering the loudest, I was really surprised, but it was nice of them. After that I was free until 3 when it was over. Me and some of my friends rushed around to get ride of all of our food tickets, and to buy some more stuff, but all I ended up getting was this really good coffee, chocolate, and butter square thing, it was really good and got me hyper. So it was a very fun day, and I have more performances! Next on is this coming Thursday.

Pictures

New Blog

My sister's blog got deleted my Blogger for some reason, so if you would like to go there are check it out, here is the link:
kateandlightingsally.blogspot.com

Performances

It is almost that time of year. You got it. CHRISTMAS! And this Christmas is going to be very busy for me and some of my friends. As the title indicates, I am going to be performing! Well, three times to be exact. Once next Saturday at the Christmas Bazaar, a Christmas shopping/performing day, it is really fun, as you can read in my last year's blog. During that time I will play a couple Christmas Carols on my Saxophone and sing a song with my whole family called "Merry Christmas with Love". After that, we are performing, as a choir, at a very famous hotel in Chengdu, the Intercontinental Hotel. We will be singing a few songs, but the only one that I know of right now is a song called "Peaceful" by Teresa Jennings. Then, the last performance is on December the 3rd, where one of my friends and I will be playing a duet of Saxophone and Piano, "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls".
After that, I get to relax and watch other performances such as our English's teacher's version of Snow White which the people in our school are acting out. Last year he did a new version of Cinderella, which was really funny so I am looking forward to this year's performance.
So, going to be very busy practicing until December 3rd, so I hope we don't have as much homework as we have been having over the past few days!

Fall Festival

The fall festival was a couple weeks ago, and I was wrong, it wasn't that much fun. Well, I guess it was for little kids, but still.
I really liked my costume, and a lot of my class mates and the parents and teachers knew who I was. I have the picture of my costume on my Picasa website.