Yes, why not? After all when we wake up every morning we have a choice: we can either say it’s going to be a good day or it’s going to be a bad day. Guess which one I always focus on…anyways, some small but happy nuggets were tossed my way recently, probably by my guardian angel.

First off I had a talk last week with the administrator of the music school I teach in. Turns out that there was this parent who was adamant that his son learn under me. The administrator said that the parents didn’t want any other teacher, ever since they saw me judging at the recent Piano Idol. And um…I was very flattered, and touched. No I wasn’t turning peacockish, but sometimes when you give your all to your music students and don’t find any gratitude returning, it can be pretty disconcerting. This was a nice change. Anyway, the parents pleaded with me for the whole of last month to please, please find a slot to fit their son in, and I eventually relented…I just couldn’t turn them down. So now I’m teaching their 9 year-old son, who is already preparing for his ABRSM Grade 6 practical exam next year. One happy pair of parents, and one happy teacher.

Another thing that made me smile recently was reconnecting with my MO (male offspring). Last week we went for a very nice lunch at one of the shopping malls here, and then we both hit the bookstore. It was nice, bearing in mind that teenagers normally don’t want to talk with their folks. I guess it’s sort of tuning in to each other’s wavebands or frequencies—just finding that sweet spot. So that was nice for me. And I hope it was nice for him too.

On top of that, I had another surprise coming from him. A few days ago he unplugged his Linksys wireless USB adapter and told me to keep it, since his final exams for the year were just around the corner and he wanted to focus on studying instead of browsing the web. I felt like the dad in Zits (the comic strip), my mouth was wide open and I was totally speechless–all I can say is, this MO does possess some responsibility after all (smiles).

Right now I’m typing this in Starbucks—muahaha!! My Dell Studio 15 is great, but be warned—the thing is heavy (around 5.5 lbs or 2.5 kg). Using a backpack (recommended!) instead of a shoulder bag makes it better, but still it did cause my shoulders to ache, or is that a sign of old age, LOL. Then again, it’s super to get out of the confines of home and blog elsewhere…just have to filter the other customers out. And mein gott, the coffee isn’t what I’d call cheap; no I won’t be doing this too often. However, I gotta admit, it is enjoyable.

The only drawback is that I believe my desktop is shedding tears. A friend said that I’d definitely be abandoning my desktop for this girl…and it looks like she’s right. But don’t worry, my dear desktop—I won’t leave you, hee hee!

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September was a glorious month for me. Here are the highlights:

• Bought my birthday present (the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS) way ahead of schedule. Yes, I was naughty, so what?
• The Piano Idol finals at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel—it was the second time I was asked to judge, and I was very pleased with the overall standards. Will there be a third time for me? Dunno.
• The BBQ gathering at the Pau’s residence was awesome. Lots of food and drink and nice company.
• My 49th birthday of course, on September 26. And the crème de la crème was spending a night at the E & O Hotel, coupled with an unforgettable buffet breakfast the next morning. What a blast! Er…Mike, if you’re reading this–can I do it again, soon?

Now here comes October (or what’s left of it, almost halfway through) and—blech, nada, nothing much happening. There are peaks and there are valleys, I suppose. Here are some “exciting” things (yes, I’m being sarcastic here, hee hee) that I’ve been doing to keep myself preoccupied:

• Relearning some classical pieces from the past. See this post.
• I’m still contemplating about giving my website a total makeover. It’s beginning to fill with cyber cobwebs and someone said it’s high time I gave it a good spring-cleaning.
• I’m trying to get my blog-writing juices running again. Hopefully this post is a sign of more stuff to come.
• Bought Avira’s Antivir Premium antivirus locally. Pretty decent price ($13 USD) for a 13-month license. I’ve also downloaded and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) which is a neat antispyware program. It’s free and except for a strange quirk (which I’ll explain in a later post) I like it.
• Christmas rehearsals for the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the hotel are due to start this Friday October 16th. Time flies.
• Catching up with some of the current movies. I prefer to watch them on DVD because I despise the censorship in the cinema halls. Some movies I’ve watched and enjoyed include: State of Play, Obsessed, 12 Rounds, The Taking of Pelham 123, Terminator Salvation, and Star Trek. The last one is simply amazing—I’ve been a Trekkie all my life and J.J. Abrams did an excellent job with the retelling. Looking forward to the sequels!

So there you have it. Aside from eating my oats, doing my laundry, having leftovers for lunch, paying the monthly bills (ugh), teaching students, I lead a pretty exciting life huh. Until the next post, this is Philip, signing off.

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Being a piano teacher of classical music and a cocktail pianist allows me to have one foot in each camp. I’ve been teaching piano for over 25 years now, but one of my philosophies has always been this:

If you want a student to do something, you have to be able to do it yourself.

Nowhere is this more true than in the realm of practicing the piano. It’s easy to dish out orders to your students when you’re “in command”—things like “Play with more feeling please,””Could you bring out the right-hand melody?””You ought to practice more carefully” etc., etc.

I teach mainly the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, UK) Piano syllabus, so students do the usual scales, exam pieces, aural, and sight-reading. Modesty aside, I have prided myself on being able to do what I ask my students to do. So when it comes to choosing exam pieces, we pick them and then agree on both of us learning them. Then I do some practice on the pieces myself, so that I can show the student what I want. I’ve always tried to be hands-on, Lord knows how many times I’ve asked students to get up from the piano bench and plunked myself down on it.

OK, that’s the usual stuff, but lately I’ve been digging up some past repertoire and asking myself “Hey, when was the last time I tried out this piece?” Over the years I’ve been playing so much jazz and standards that regrettably, I’ve left the classical stuff behind. I haven’t abandoned it totally—nope. And I still have a humongous collection of classical CDs that gets played in my car. It was only after this year’s Piano Idol that I decided it was high time I revisited this old friend.

So I dug out some old repertoire. I’ve started with my regimen of scales and Hanon exercises, followed with repertoire like:

• J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue No. 5 from the Well-Tempered Clavier, volume 1
• W.A. Mozart: Sonata in G major, K283
• Chopin: Fantaisie Impromptu
• Ravel: Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperin
• George Gershwin: 1st Prelude

And guess what? I’m having a whale of a time! I haven’t touched these five pieces for years and years but when I started on them, it was like, “Wow! Good to see you again!” Unlike Jazz and popular music, everything on the page has to be strictly followed, which is why I sometimes think playing classical music is like living in a military camp. Be that as it may, I’ve got to try to play out the composer through the music, doing the proper technique and all the stuff that I’ve been telling and imploring my students to do over the past decades.

My Yamaha Clavinova digital piano has been my faithful ally, since it has the touch of a grand piano, never goes out of tune, and most importantly allows me to record my performances on the spot. This is great because I can play it back immediately and spot my mistakes (I have to be able to criticize myself too). So there you have it. Now excuse me while I go back to play the piano. Ciao for now!

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I received an invitation to a barbecue recently, from Sue and Mrs. Pau (proud parents of the Piano Idol winners). It was held yesterday at the Pau’s residence, so I thumbed a lift from fellow teacher Ricky, with two bottles of red wine and my Canon in hand. We arrived at the venue, the weather was lovely, and oh my gosh, I’d never seen so much food in my life! These two wonderful ladies (pictured below) were certainly going to ensure that everyone was going to have a good time that evening.

And what about the food? How do I start…well we had pork ribs, chicken, Thai salads, Belacan Rice, Spaghetti, desserts, and not forgetting to mention the copious amounts of soft drinks, beer, and wine (thank you, Mr. Pau) I must have had at least three glasses of wine but I was stone-cold sober—and I wasn’t driving anyway, lol. The chicken was gone in a matter of minutes!

But the surprise of the evening were the cakes (courtesy of Ricky). Not one, but two—and they were delicious (from Ritz Pastry again) Word got round that my birthday was just around the corner so they “cornered” me and sang the birthday song for me at full force—it was fabulous! Thank you so much!

We didn’t disperse until after 11 pm or so, and Mr. and Mrs. Pau insisted that I take some leftover food home—spaghetti (thanks to the Kuans), pork ribs, some mangos and dessert. I didn’t wake up with a hangover today, but I sure had a good workout—morning walk and 30 laps in the pool. And then lunch consisting of spaghetti and pork ribs, what a life!

I am very touched by the gracious warmth and hospitality of the Pau family, Sue and her family, and Mr. and Mrs. Kuan. The whole residence looked like a mini Las Vegas, except that it was all laptops and gaming consoles all over the place, the kids were living it up after the school exams, and everyone was having a good time. The kindness that these people have shown me will remain in my memory for a long, long time.

More pictures and writeups from Sue (my friend and fellow blogger) at her blog here.

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I’ve just returned from judging the Piano Idol Grand Finals at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel here. This was again something I looked forward to, seeing that last year’s PI generated an enthusiastic response from parents and students alike. This year there were four judges: Helen, Razif, Mr. Teoh (from Kuala Lumpur), and myself. The event started around 3 pm. There were five Junior section contestants, three for the Senior section and five groups for the Freestyle section. This year all the contestants in the Junior and Senior sections opted for classical repertoire, which is fine in my book.

The winner of the Junior section was Adriana Chiew who gave a mesmerizing performance of Brahms’ Ballade in G minor, op. 118. For a petite 10-year old like her to be playing Brahms with such power—I’m totally bowled over. Benjamin Pau scooped up the Senior section and Audience Vote section with his confident rendition of Chopin’s Fantaisie Impromptu. This guy is equally adapt at the organ. The Freestyle section was won by The Pop Kids, who gave a cheerful rendition of Ben E. King’s Stand by Me with vocals, and had the audience and judges clapping along.

Thanks again to Mr. and Mrs. Fong who put in a lot of hard work and expense in hosting this event for the second time. Uh, hopefully my comments were taken as constructive by both the contestants and parents. I trust there will be a Season 3 next year? 

P/S Read more about the Piano Idol Finals here. Sue writes an excellent post from a parent’s perspective.

Adriana Chiew (Junior section winner) with me.

From L-R: Vincent (last year’s Piano Idol Junior section winner), Jason (1st runner-up Junior section), Benjamin (Senior section winner), Adriana (Junior section winner), and Goh You (2nd runner-up Junior section).

The Pop Kids. Check out the attire. Yup, in a word–attitude. Congrats, guys and girls!

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…will be held this coming Sunday September 13, 2009 at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel here in Penang. I’ll be judging it again this time together with my fellow judges Helen, Razif, and another judge from Kuala Lumpur. The star instrument this year will be the Yamaha GB1 4’11” Grand Piano. I’ve tried it already, and it’s a very well-made instrument.

As always I’m looking to seeing and hearing what the contestants come up with this time round. Hopefully they will choose their pieces wisely to make us judges sit up and marvel. I’ll be bringing my Canon PowerShot along to snap some pictures for posterity, and yes yes, I will be posting some of them here after the competition.

I’m certainly looking forward to this year’s event. See you there!

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Ah, a little bird tells me some parents thought that the judges were “harsh” and “brutal” in their comments. Since I’m one of the judges, I thought I’d let parents and contestants air their views here in my blog. If you’d like to remain anonymous, just let me know when you comment and I’ll make it so.

So please start typing and let me know your views—thank you.

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