Day +152

I am fine today.

The classical guitar concert that I attended yesterday was organized by KL Guitar Ensemble II (KLGE II) led by Simon Cheong. He also leads the Classical Guitar Society of Malaysia. A copy of the poster for this concert is as follow:

A ticket costs RM48. There are about 300 audience turned up for the event. The performers did quite well in their performance. Of course, if compared to Ana Vidovic’s performance which is close to perfection, lots of improvements are still needed. However, if compared to my lousy skill (半桶水), they are top performers.

Attending concert like this regularly enables a guitar player to appreciate better the correct tone and colour (not referring to the painting on the guitar, but the varieties of sounds that the classical guitar can produce) of classical guitar. Nowadays, everyone wish to be thin and slim. However, guitar players always try to produce rich, fat, full, deep and round tone, which can only be achieved through correct shape of right hand’s finger nail together with the correct way of plucking the guitar string. Unfortunately, due to ignorance and lack of guidance, I always produce thin, shallow, empty and sharp tone. That means my right hand technique is wrong. My friend, who learned classical guitar under Simon Cheong and passed his grade 8 classical guitar exam is now teaching me (FOC) the correct right hand technique. With this, I have to 'throw away' my old habit (乖乖ly), and start to learn from ‘kindergarten’ level again :-(

With my shaky right hand (already improved now) and wrong right hand technique, I got last position in my classical guitar competition organized by a online classical guitar forum in China :-( If I were not mistaken, there are 7 participants. Forum members voted for the pieces that participants had submitted, the one who got the most vote win. I got 3 votes, 3 other participants got 4 votes, the champion got 10 votes, 1st runner up got 7 votes, and the 2nd runner up got 6 votes.

I am not discouraged at all with the position. In fact I am very happy because "I have a life to get last position" :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +151

I am fine today. I attended Sunday worship this morning and then went to do some shopping on the way back. Joseph is having fever and headache, and Adriel and Aaron started to have running nose. So only Daniel and I went to the church.

Now continue from yesterday...

The audience has to wear formal attire and has to behave very gently in the classical music concert. If we attend a concert like this, we also need to know when we can clap our hands. A piece of music might be divided into many movements, and there is always a pause between movements. People will laugh at us if we clap our hands between movements. So if we don’t know the music well, clap hands only when everybody claps their hands (有样学样，不懂装懂) :-)

After the performance, she held an autograph session. Everybody asked her to sign on the program note as follow: (Click on the picture to have a larger view)

In fact, I missed two free classical guitar concerts by a Brazilian classical guitarist at KLPAC on 27 and 28 November, two consecutive days just before Ana Vidovic concert. My friends and I saw the poster at the KLPAC while attending Ana Vidovic convert. Nobody informed us about thsi concert. We joined The Classical Guitar Community during this concert, and we hope that the community will inform us all future classical guitar events, so that we don't miss any good concert especially those with free admission :-)

This is the best classical guitar concert I ever attend. Anyway, I only attended two classical guitar concerts including this one :-( I attended first classical guitar performance not long before I went for bone marrow transplant. It was performed by a young guitarist who is still studying a music course in US. We believe he still has a long journey to go before becoming a fine guitarist.

I will be attending another classical guitar concert tonight by a group of local classical guitarists called KL Classical Guitar Ensemble II :-)

I was admitted to Kuching General Hospital on 28 November last year due to Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, and I managed to enjoy a high standard classical guitar on 29 November this year. I praise God for his mercy and grace that sustain my life to enjoy many things in this world :-)

See you next post and may God bless you :-)

Day +150

I am fine today.

On Wednesday (29 November), I attend a classical guitar concert at Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC). The performer was called Ana Vidovic, a 27 years old Croatian. She has given over 1000 public performance since first taking stage in 1998. As we can see from her web site at http://www.anavidovic.com/, her upcoming performances already planned until March 2008.

There were more than 400 audience turned up in this concert. A ticket costs RM68. The performer played 8 famous classical guitar pieces as follow, arranged in the form (composer: piece name, followed by musical movements if any) :

1. Fernando Sor: Introduction, Theme & Variations on a Theme of Mozart Op. 9 (莫扎特魔笛变奏曲)
2. F. Monero Torroba: Suite Catellana
· Fandanguillo (1st Movement)
· Arada (2nd movement)
· Danza (3rd movement)
3. F. Monero Torroba: Sonatina
· Allegretto
· Adante
· Allegro
4. Isaac Albeniz: Austuria(Leyenda) (传说)
5. Manuel Ponce: Sontina Meridional
· Campo
· Copla
· Fiesta
6. St Jepan Sulek: The Troubadour’s Three
· Melancholy
· Sonnet
· Celebration
7. A. Barrios Mangore: La Catedral (大教堂)
· Preludio Saudade
· Andante Religioso
· Allegro Solemne
8. F. Tarrega: Recuerdos de la Alhambra (阿尔汗布拉宫的回忆)

Except The Troubadour’s Three which was composed by a Croatian called St Jepan Sulek, I am quite familiar with other pieces. I also have CD and scores for these pieces. The last piece is a wonderful piece composed by a Spanish composer called Francisco Tarrega (1852-1909) in remembrance of Alhambra. He is regarded as one of the most influential guitarists the world has ever known. He is also considered the father of the modern classical guitar.

Alhambra is an ancient mosque, palace and fortress complex of the Moorish monarchs of Granada, in southern Spain. It is now perserved as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. A picture of Alhambra is shown below (Courtesy of Wikipedia). Click on the picture to get a larger view.

If you never listen to the piece before, you can dowload it here and let me know if you like it. If you need other pieces, either in the form of audio file or score, I can share them with you.

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +126

I am fine today.

I am very happy to receive an email from American guitarist Tony Morris, who is regularly invited to perform at White House in Washington, D.C. He hosted a weekly Classical Guitar Alive! radio program that is broadcasted over 200 radio stations across US. On March this year, I realized that the weekly program was made available for download on the Guitar Alive web site. Since then, I downloaded and keep all the programs. If you want to listen to the program, you can click here to download them. If you need the earlier programs which are no longer available for download on the web site, I am more than willing to share them with you :-)

I wrote to Tony yesterday telling him that I am from Malaysia and like to listen to his program. The message that I received from him is as follow.

Hello David,

Wow! Thanks for your kind note! I am very happy to hear that you are listening to Classical Guitar Alive! in Malaysia. Coincidentally, this week's program features an interview with a very fine Malaysian guitarist, Philip Hii. He is also a good friend of mine, and a wonderful virtuoso.

Thanks again for writing, and best wishes to you, your family, and friends,

Tony

Classical Guitar Alive!
http://www.guitaralive.org

I replied to Tony that Philip Hii is a FooChow that comes from my home town Sibu (My exact home town is Bintangor, but it is too small to be known by many people, so sometime I also say that I comes from Sibu, Sarawak; a town which is about half an hour drive from my house). Philips develops his career in US and becomes a “very fine Malaysian guitarist and wonderful virtuoso” as what Tony said. As a classical guitar enthusiast, a FooChow, Sibu-ian, Sarawakian and Malaysian, I am really proud of him :-)

See you next post :-)

Day +49

I am fine today.

I am very busy recording, editing and submitting the classical guitar pieces for competition. Just completed everything.

Now is 12:30am, have to wake up at 6:15am later to go to hospital for followup.

I recorded a piece called Maria Luisa composed by Sagreras. You can download it here if you would like to listen to the piece.

See you:-)

Day +47

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (RBC) = 104(Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 136(Normal 150-150)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 2.9(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 1.566 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)
Potassium = 3.9(Normal 3.5 - 5.2)
Magnesium = 0.48(Normal 0.65 - 1.05)

I am well today. Generally the blood result is normal, except the magnesium level, which is still too low. The nurse gave me another magnesium infusion. The white blood count dropped from 8.6 to 2.9, but the ANC is still within the normal range, though it is on the lower end.

I am going to participate in a classical guitar competition in China. The scope is any one of the 25 Carcassi Etudes. The question is I have to be isolated or avoid crowd and I have to attend the competition in China. How am I going to achieve this? Very easy, record the classical guitar piece and upload it to the web site which organizes this competition. Everything can be done in this isolated room:-)

I am now busy practicing the competition piece and also learn to record the piece using computer. Even though I choose a very simple piece to play, but it is still extremely difficult for me to play it well. The reason is that the medicine, Cyclosporin, that prevents GVHD makes my hand trembles very much. Now my right hand is just like a tame horse gone wild, jumping up and down, ignoring all my command. I wanted to pluck the first string, the finger plucks the 2nd string. I wanted to pluck the 2nd string, the finger plucks the "air", miss to pluck any string completely:-(

You see I am not as fortunate as our prime minister, Pak Lah. When he was criticized, all his subordinates supported him unconditionally because he is “head”. But now my hands don't listen to my head because the Cyclosporin "critizes" me, and someone might thus takes advantages of me:-(

See you next post:-)