For those of you who have had the experience of being a part of a uniform group, I am sure you would have fond memories when you sit and recall the good old days. Here, I want to share some of the fond memories I had when I was in the band in Canberra Primary School.
It was the beginning of the school year back in 1976; I just started primary 3 when the band teacher Mr. Krishnan Nair was going from one class to another to recruit students to be in the band. I was initially being called up to the front for the first round of selection. But after learning that I lived in the new development in Woodlands, which is out in the middle of nowhere where there were not many buses, Mr. Krishnan Nair placed me on his rejection list and asked me to return to my seat. A few of my good friends were being chosen to be in the band while I was not. Every week, I would hear about the interesting things that my friends who were in the band get to do when they go for practices on Saturday. They learned how to march. Some learned to play the drum while others get to play the brass or wind instruments. I would get so jealous when I hear about all that and wished I could be part of the group. Finally after 6 months had gone by, I decided to approach the band teacher to get permission to join the band. To my surprise, no questions were raised about where I live and immediately he asked me to show up for practice on the following Saturday. I was overjoyed!
I cannot remember what was it like when I showed up for the first time in the band room. But I do remember that I was being assigned to the cornet/trumpet section and given a cornet. It was in the band that I learned to play my first brass instrument. It was tough. We spent lots of time buzzing into the mouthpiece for warm up before we were taught the different fingerings and notes. Over the years, I took the opportunity to borrow other instruments home and therefore also learned to play the clarinet, flute and saxophone. My favorite instrument is the flute. It is one of the lightest instrument and much easier to carry when we were marching around. Unfortunately, there was no flute section in the band and I can only dream of playing the flute in any outdoor performance.
Since we spent long hours together during practices, the rapport between the members were very good. We would walk to the Chong Pang market after practices for lunch before our classes in the afternoon. Sometimes we would planned to be at practice 1-2 hours earlier so that we can play "one-leg" (tok kar), zero point, chatek, hide-and-seek, police and thief and a host of other fun games involving a rather big group. Other times we would stay behind after practice so that we can play. That was one of the fun times that I remember having being in the band. :)
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Given the privilege to be absent from classes was another fun thing to do when you were in the band. The year was 1977 (P4) when the band teacher decided to enroll us in the nation wide outdoor band competition for bands in the primary school level. Tailor was called in to make measurements for the band uniform and all of us were very excited about the whole event. We were made to practice hard for that. Lots of marching and playing under the hot sun. Memorizing music and the marching formation were difficult for a few of us, but we were given lots of help so that we can have the formation memorized. When the full band rehearsal was in the morning, those in the morning session would have to be absent for 1 hour of class to be in the practice. The same was true to those in the afternoon session when our practice was in the afternoon. On top of that, we also have our regular Saturday practices. The day of the competition finally arrived and we were being bused into Bras Basah stadium (I think it was at Bras Basah) with all of our instruments. The sad part of it was that we were one of the two schools that do not have the band uniform. The tailor was not able to meet the deadline and we have to compete that day with our school uniform. I do not know how well we played but after 2 weeks the results came back that we were placed 10th or 12th out of 20 schools that competed. Not so bad for a kampung school when that was the first time for all of us.
Other than the competition, the band also had opportunities to perform
in the school's annual prize giving day and other events in the local
community. It was definitely great to be in the spotlight. All of us
had fun and I am sure we were glad and honored to be able to represent
the school that way. Thinking back I missed the marching, the learning
of a new piece of music, the sound of the strong bass in the background
and the fun time together with the rest of the band members.