Ode to Joy

7th April marked the day of the biennial SYF Competition of Marching and Display Bands. As with any other first Saturday of April of every even-numbered year, I woke up early and braced myself for a long but fulfilling day ahead.

I met Ian and Chin Kiat for breakfast before heading to TK but I probably should just fast-forward to the performances.

While the bands performance we made comments among ourselves but honestly most of the performances looked pretty much the same to me since everyone was using the DCI marching style which is something foreign to me. The only factors that differentiated the bands from each other were precision, dressing, prop usage, music and entertainment value. Okay that's a lot of factors. Hahaha.

Anyway, TK was the 7th band to perform and like most of the audience there, that was going to be my first time seeing their full performance. I didn't really know how to feel but I remember I was really nervous and the whole time I was grabbing Vanessa's arm, lol. Check out the performance below!

I personally enjoyed the performance although I thought that the pieces used could have been a little more intense, especially the closing piece. But well, one can never go wrong with classical music. There was definitely a marked improvement from 2008 in DCI basics-wise. However for some reason I preferred 2008's display though - apart from the repertoire. Nevertheless, great show put up by TK. I'd expect to see more big balls and lying down on the ground two years down the road.

Of course, the most nerve-wrecking part of the whole event was the announcement of results.

I do not own any of the videos.

Many of the results were unexpected - like Deyi's Silver. Just listen to the commotion when their result was announced.

So results of the subsequent bands were announced and after Bowen's Gold award was announced I already knew TK won - since no Gold With Honours winner was announced yet and there definitely had to be one. No one believed me when I said I heard 'Gold With Honours' being announced. Eesh, everyone just started screaming after the 'Gold' but I swore I heard the other two words. Anyway, when the emcee said, "and the Best Display Band award goes to...", my heart still stopped for a moment and when she finally said, "Tan...", all the emotions that I have been bottling up for the past couple of minutes just started flowing out. Hahaha. It totally brought me back to 2006 - same scenario, except now I was in the audience, and that it was less intense compared to 6 years back but still, the feeling was indescribable.

2006's performance will always have a special place in my heart - not because that performance won us Best Display Band for the 5th consecutive time, but I truly believe that it was TK Band's peak. As I mentioned on Twitter: "Lol no matter how many SYF videos I watch, 2006 will always pwn them. Sleek drills, insane spinning, almost perfect dressing. *_*" Everything has changed now though - uniform, marching styles, etc. And the fact that there were always two competition days - April was to announce what medal each band got. In July, the top three bands would battle it out to see who would emerge the champion. Good times.

/text continues after pictures

French horn juniors :)

Batch of 2008. Or whoever that was left.

Through SYF 2012, I have realised that no matter how much I say I don't really care much about the band now seeing that I hardly go back and all, I still really do. And no matter how much I say I much prefer the old TK Band, because change is needed to progress, it is inevitable, I will just have to accept it. So with this, I wish my band, TK Band, all the best in everything. And to anyone in regard reading this post, never ever let pride get the better of you, because arrogance is a one-way road to failure.

Anoneh Pakuke. I love you, TK Band.