Practice and More Practice...Service Opportunity?

Recently, there weren't any new service opportunities for the band to attend to. So all we did is basically practice the old songs until there was a service opportunity. Unfortunately, there wasn't so I told Richard to change the music as it was getting a little boring. I gave him some suggestions about the new music that we should play but he told me it was a little too advanced for us to play anyways so we only picked a new music for the band to play during the upcoming Easter service opportunity such as "Mission Impossible Theme Song" and "What a Wonderful World". All the Christmas songs were also scratched out because that season was basically over. Even though we haven't really attended any service lately, we've been practicing quite a lot lately so we can perform a great job at the Easter service.

December 21, 2012 - Tai Wai Mentally Handicapped Center

Before the start of our Christmas Break, we've decided to play our Christmas songs one last time to a mentally handicapped center in Tai Wan. Because I was a bit exhausted after exams, I didn't really have much energy to perform the music with emotion and confidence. Some people even came but forgot to bring their instrument so they ended up singing along and telling the handicapped people to clap. After we arrive, the band was once again very welcomed by the the people there and their smiles made us all laugh with them. At first, the first few songs such as "The Little Light of Mine" and "Noel" were very good but as we played more, we started to lose focus and the music also started to go off beat and the tone quality wasn't that good. However, we started to get back on task when the mentally handicapped people started to clap their hands and waved at us. They gave me and the whole band a signal that they were really enjoying it and as a result, we played more songs and they enjoyed it even more than we did! We were not glad that we messed up some of the parts but in the end we were all satisfied with how much joy and happiness we gave them. In the end, the whole band gave them scarfs as Christmas gifts and even though it was such a small gift, they were all very satisfied with our hard work. 

November 21, 2012 - Fu Hong Society Performance

On November 21st 2012, the whole community service band went to visit the Fu Hong society. When we got there, the people happily greeted us with heart warming smiles. As soon as I walked in, I could tell they were very excited to see us come and perform for them. To provide some background information, the people who live in that place are weak-minded meaning they live and behave a little different than that of normal people.

Since it was my second time there, I wasn't really shy and actually recognized some familiar faces (of course they won't remember me unless I see them everyday). However, this was the first time I actually performed music for mental diseased people and never experienced what this performance was going to be like.

After setting up our instruments, we introduced them the Christmas songs we were going to play (Silent Night, Joy to the World). Even though some of them didn't realized the names of the songs, the band began to play. As I played my instrument, I looked up to see what their reactions were like. I realized that they were peacefully enjoying our music and they also were very engaged as well!

Once we were done with our pieces, we played two games with them: Guess the Action (which a person must act out a certain object or action and the others will guess) and Traffic Lights (which people must stop when lights were red). Since I was in charge of the games, I explained to them the rules and played alongside with them as well. They had a really fun time during the games but unfortunately it was time for us to leave, but before leaving we played them the last three random songs (If You Are Happy, and two other chinese songs that we made up). The people were so engaged, they stood up and danced with each other! The band knew that they were successful in making them extremely satisfied.

Once we started packing up our instruments, some of them said, "Farewell! Hope to see you again!" On the way back to school, I realized that this performance made a change in a part of these people's lives. The people during that period was able to experience something they hardly ever do and I hope that they had fun with us!