STOMP '11

"This Show was Great!!! I remember seeing them before but I don't remember much of it. I'm glad I went this past week to check them out. They use any and everything to make music. The Fun never stops. Beginning to End..Great SHOW!!" 


Earl, from Hackensack, New Jersey, has voiced each and every one of our sentiments after witnessing the mind-blowing, out-of-this-world performance put on by STOMP. As a treat for all the hard work we'd invested in carrying all our club's activities out successfully, 15 of us were treated to a STOMP concert held in KLCC's Plenary Hall on the 3rd of December. Due to the undeniable fact that KLCC is situated a considerable distance away from our school, a bus was even rented to chauffeur us to our destination. If that wasn't VIP treatment, I don't know what is! 


The show began at 2pm, and I have to say, we made it in the nick of time! Mere minutes after we were seated in our comfortable seats, the show opened with one of its signature pieces, entitled 'Brooms', which captivated the audience for a good 12 minutes. From there, the young, energetic percussionists cum dancers who make up STOMP continued to dazzle audiences by successfully coaxing music out of basketballs, plastic grocery bags, and even lighters! Though the audience was momentarily puzzled by the silent darkness that they were enveloped in before the set featuring lighters began, the avant garde musical piece that was produced by the rhythmic flicking of their lighters, and looked fantastic to boot, left the audience captivated until the very end of their performance.


One particularly interesting piece featured the completely unexpected kitchen sink, which was filled with water and strapped to their bodies. They most successfully proved how even the most common of everyday objects can function perfectly as a versatile instrument, as the mere acts of tapping on the sink with drum sticks, rubbing the sink with their rubber gloved hands, or even by simply releasing the water contained in the sink produced such a vast diversity of sounds that had we not witnessed their performance with our very eyes, we wouldn't have believed that only one 'instrument', the ubiquitous kitchen sink was used.


Yet another note-worthy performance featured rubber tubes of varying lengths being thumped on the floor. When thumped in the right sequence, they produce a melodic progression of notes, reminiscent of the beeping of an old computer. Another piece featured them being strapped into harnesses, and dangled in the air, close to the metal frame where a plethora of crockery, plastic pails, and generally anything that produced a sound were mounted. Armed with their trademark drum sticks, the variety of sounds produced by their rhythmic 'drumming' warranted a most enthusiastic round of applause from the audience.


Humour plays a bigger role in their concert than one would expect it to. Despite the fact that not a single word was uttered on stage, their wordless jokes and perfect comedic timing left had the audience in fits of laughter at various points in the show. At one point, a love triangle was even successfully depicted - without the aid of words! The piece featured two girls rummaging in a box of 'trash' to find a perfect instrument which they could utilise to outshine the other party and capture the heart of the lucky boy they were fighting over. All that drama was successfully depicted using only the power of music and their spot-on facial expressions. Would the wonders never cease?


All too soon, the 100-minute musical journey was over. As we stood up from our seats and reflected upon the stunning performance we had just feasted our eyes on, we came to the conclusion that STOMP offers the best of reminders to us that there's music everywhere, in everything, and we do not need lessons or degrees from fancy musical institutions to find it. Once again, we would like to thank the school for providing us with this fantastic opportunity to witness STOMP's truly inspiring performance, and we hope that the insights we managed to obtain from this concert could be successfully utilised to bring our club to greater heights!

A group photo for the ages!

An lucky snapshot of one of the performers. Isn't she pretty? :)

Farah, Empress, Punietha, and Niraanjana posing with the stage in the background!

When the SA Eco Music Band Practices

Once upon a time, there lived a group of friends. Under the leadership of their ruler and empress, they named themselves the Sri Aman Eco Music Band.

This is the aforementioned ruler and empress. Though she tries to act like an emperor instead of an empress, she's actually a huge softie inside, which is why members of the Sri Aman Eco Music Band wear permanent fond smiles on their faces whenever she is present.

Fond smiles for the empress!

The empress is assisted by two equally amusing people.

They are very amusing, so they, too, get fond smiles.

Highly synchronised fond smiles for the two amusing people!

This is one of the amusing people. In this amusing picture, she appears to be casting a spell to wake a beautiful princess up from her deep slumber. 'Rise and shine, exquisitely beautiful princess! We have to compete in the Eco Music Fest in a few days, so it's time for us to practice,' she said, while waving her magical wand.

The exquisitely beautiful, sleeping princess. ;)

With the task of waking the princess out of the way, the Eco Music Band started practicing.

They then paused for a short break, during which a member of the Eco Music Band decided to show everyone how to tie their hair, in order to enhance their beauty.

At this point, the empress unleashed her dazzling smile, proving that one doesn't need to tie one's hair in order to be stunning.

Some members required glasses after being exposed to her dazzling smile, as the brilliance was too much for them to bear.

While others remained dazed for a long period of time, after the empress's smile was unleashed.

Eventually, the aftereffects of the empress's smile wore off, and everyone was once again, capable of practicing. That was precisely what they did, until the day of the Eco Music Fest.

To this day, the members of the Eco Music Band remain a close-knit bunch. They still play, laugh, sing, and practice together, under the leadership of their beloved empress. 

:)

Eco Music Festival

Good morning, afternoon, evening, night, hey, yo and what's up to all you readers.

Thanks for always checking this blog out, because I assure you solemnly that you probably won't regret it. So on the 28th of September 2011, our club - SMK(P) Sri Aman's Eco Rangers - threw a big event; known as, well... You can see the title up there. Yeah. the Eco Music Festival. It was awesome.

What is the 'Eco Music Festival'? Dude.

The Eco Music Festival is where eco bands from other schools get together to perform songs and such using recycled stuff. There're judges and prizes, which makes it a big event.

Well, let me start from the very beginning, which are the preparations. We were told to stay back on the 21st of September, a Wednesday, to get everything ready. And by everything, I mean the bookmarks, recycled paper, origami, bio enzyme and important stuff that actually matters in this world. A few girls who weren't in the club volunteered to help too, and we managed to get the work done.

While we were busy with the preparations, our Eco music band practised in the school hall. Let me just say one thing, if the  winner of the compettion was based on the number of practices held or how much a band bractised, well, let's just say that I'd vote for our band to win; no questions asked. We stayed back until four on Wednesday and Thursday (the 21st and 22nd) but there were still some unfinished business. For example, decorating the bookmarks, and making more recycled paper. But some of the members touched that up at home, so we were well organised all right.

On the 27th of September on a Tuesday, we received our new Eco Ranger shirts. It was light green in colour, and everyone seemed attracted to it. Which was good thing, but due to their manic attraction, the rate at which their work progressed decreased considerably. Hence, it was time for them to put their new, pretty shirts away (albeit with heavy hearts), and get back to workin' again. This determination to persevere in the face of adversity (pretty shirts) ultimately led to their success in completing their assigned tasks. Hurray!

Then came the day. I'm not sure if other people were excited, but from my own experience; I felt nothing really. Just... emptiness. But that's usually the way I feel, so no surprise there. But everyone was really stressed up on that day. They looked nervous and anxious, but that's normal. People started arriving at 8:30 a.m. and they were brought to the school hall. We were in our positions at the booths. We used four of our mobile classrooms (AKA cabin classes); 4SA, 2F, 2G and 2E. 2G and 2E were used by two other schools for their own booths, while we used 4SA and 2E. The candle-making booth, Bio Enzyme, Compost and Herbs Garden booths were all situated in 4SA. Arts and Crafts and Recycled Paper were located in 2F.

The composting booth. Or rather, an amusing picture.

The origami booth

A lot of people were attracted - and maybe looked a bit infatuated, or is it just me? - to the Arts and Crafts, Recycled paper, along with the candle-making booths.

The other booths gained visits from grown-ups mostly, who were knowledgeable and interested in the wares offered by nature.

The aforementioned booths weren't the only attractions of the Eco Music Fest, however. If one happened to walk past the gallery at the right moment, he or she would be greeted by the astonishing sight of a long line of students, queuing up outside a black, dome-like structure. What, precisely was in that dome-like structure? Well, it was an exhibit by the National Planetarium, which introduces students to the universe via three documentaries which are projected onto the internal walls of the dome-like structure. Students who enter the structure and immediately engulfed by semi-darkness, and once the show began, all that surrounded them was darkness. The structure was also well-ventilated, which made the entire atmosphere reminiscent of a cinema's. The only difference was that we were even allowed to lie on our backs, to get a better view.

The Planetarium also had an flight simulator exhibit in one of our computer labs. Using devices and software typically used by aviation academies to train pilots-to-be how to steer and control a plane virtually, us students were given a brief taste of how it felt like to be a pilot.

While we were all entertaining people at our respective booths; our Eco Music Band were rocking in the competition. We had two bands represented, and our official Eco Rangers Music Band won the competition. It was a very, very close call for us, however. We were up against some pretty tough competition from all of the other bands, so we were taken by surprise at our win. We would also like to congratulate SMK Setapak Indah, who emerged first runner-up, as well as our friends from Kolej Datu Patinggi Abang Haji Abdillah, who willingly crossed the South China Sea to take part in our competition, and emerged second-runner up. Congratulations are also in order for the consolation prize winners! :) 

That's us!

The band from Setapak Indah.

The Eco Music Festival ended with a photo shoot session at 2pm. Our band emerged champions of the competition, and we were proud of that.

That's our empress and her princesses up on stage, receiving our prize on behalf of the band! 

But then came the matter of clearing up. I can tell you first-hand it was tiring. We had cramps and aches all over, but I for one, felt like a real man. A real MACHO kind of man. We carried and piled all the tables properly together, mopped the floors and cleaned everything up. Real men take care of their cleanliness. So we were men.

We finished allt he cleaning up until 4:30 p.m., but someo the more awesome workers stayed back until 5p.m. just to clean up. We owe them a salute. We made quite a high profit, but due to safety reasons such as murder, I have been sworn to secrecy. To the Eco Music Band of SMK(P) Sri Aman; you folks really deserve everything you got. To the other schools; Hey, you guys were awesome too.
So I guess this is it. Until the next post, then.     

SA's Eco Music Band!

Performance at SJK(C) Bukit Beruntung

On the 16th of April, our school's extremely fortunate Eco Music Band once again received an invitation for them to perform in SJK (C) Bukit Beruntung, in conjunction with their Eco Carnival, which was already in full swing by the time they arrived at the school, around seven-thirty in the morning. Upon their arrival, the band members immediately did what they could to assist the students of the school in setting up their exhibition booths at the canteen. The band members then registered themselves at the registration booth, and were each given a t-shirt.

The event began with an opening speech by the school's principal, which was followed by a video presentation, during which the band members rehearsed backstage to ensure that they would be able to perform without a hitch. Thankfully, they did manage to achieve just that, and earned the massive support of their audience.

After their performance, the VIPs who attended the carnival were taken on a tour around the exhibition area. They were very much impressed by the arts and crafts booth in particular, due to the fact that it was entirely made out of reused materials. Our band members, along with the rest of the visitors who attended the carnival, then took their time in visiting every booth available, which were not only informative, but interesting, to boot. Every band member agreed without a doubt that they had managed to learn something from the exhibition, which was great.

To end the day on a high note, our band members were then treated to gastronomic refreshments, before they  finally bid a pleasant farewell to the organisers of the event and headed home, each of them pleased with the fact that even primary schoolchildren were doing their part in spreading awareness on the critical importance of saving the environment from further destruction.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just our Eco Music Band on the front cover of the Star!

Remember our performance for the Earth Hour Youth Fest held at Sunway Giza? That's us, right there!

Earth Hour Youth Fest

In conjunction with Earth Hour, the Earth Hour Youth Fest held at Sunway Giza from 4.30pm to 9.30pm was attended by around 120 youths from various schools in Klang Valley. The brainchild of this event was 15-year old Ravyna Jassani. Our Eco Music Band was invited to put on a performance for this event, and since we would be performing for a noble cause, we readily agreed to do so.

A majority of our members arrived at the venue at around 8.00 pm, and were given custom-made bookmarks to give to members of the public in order to spread awareness about our worthy cause. A flash mob ensued, where every participant of the event was required to freeze in their respective spots for 5 minutes. After the flash mob, the official Earth Hour began, which was kicked off by a performance by our very own Eco Music Band. The enthusiastic crowd clapped, sang, and even danced along, which gave us loads of encouragement.

Despite the fact that it had been a long day for every single one of us, we didn't lament that fact at all, for in a single day, we managed to entertain the attendees of two events which were held for noble causes.

Organic Day 2011

The Organic Day 2011 was held on the 26th of March, in a field situated in SS2. The event began at 8.30 am, and ended at 2 pm, though the many volunteers and booth operators of that event were at the venue bright and early to prepare for the busy day that awaited them. Our members arrived at the venue before the event began in order to help out as volunteers, and were assigned various tasks such as setting up booths and operating game stalls.

There were many booths selling organic foodstuffs at the event, which included organically-grown fruits and vegetables, pastries made out of organic items which were at the same time, sugar free and gluten free, organic health products, organic noodles, organic seaweed... you name it, they have it! Also available at the event was a lucky draw booth, which contained attractive prizes sponsored by various parties, as well as a grand prize worth around RM200. People who wished to take part in the lucky draw were required to pay RM2 per lucky draw ticket. There were also two game booths for the younger crowd, which included a game where each participant was given a card with the names of three vegetables written on it, and was required to connect the names of the vegetables with their pictures. Another game required each participant to take a look at a comic strip, and come up with a story based on the given comic strips. Attractive prizes were awarded to the winners of both games.

Various talks about interesting topics such as weight loss, and organic cooking, was held as well, which attracted large crowds of attentive audiences.

Our Eco Music Band performed twice for the event, and one of our performances, which featured 'Bumi', was recorded by RTM, which was flattering, to say the least. We were all thrilled at the prospect of our band obtaining more media coverage. Despite the fact that the event tired each and every member out, we all had a ball. Most of our members left the event at around 1.30PM to go home and rest themselves in anticipation of yet another performance later on, at the Earth Hour Youth Fest held at Sunway Giza.

Practice (25th of March)

Today, members of the Eco Music Band skipped our recesses once again to attend the short band practice that was held. The sequence in which we will be performing our songs was decided. We then practiced the songs we would be performing in the aforementioned sequence. We managed to rehearse our entire performances twice, before the bell signalling the end of recess rang, marking the end of our band practice.

Practice (24th March)

The practice was held during our recess, and began with Siti Sarah telling every band member which songs we are performing for our Organic Day and Earth Hour Youth Fest performances. We practiced and perfected two of our older drum solos in record time, though our new drum solo, Jungle, took longer to perfect. Before we knew it, our 30-minute recess was over, signalling the end of our band practice, which is a prime example of just how productive we can be whenever we encounter time constraints.

Opening Ceremony of Anugerah Hijau

On the 8th of March, 2011, we, Sri Aman's Eco Music Band finally got a chance to showcase the product of our many practice sessions and our diligence in memorising their drum beats over the course of the weeks leading up to our performance at the Malaysian Productivity Centre, during the opening ceremony of the annual Anugerah Hijau competition. The event was launched by Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Puad Zarkashi and was also attended by many esteemed guests of honour, including the New Straits Times Press group managing editor Datuk Zainul Arifin, Shell Malaysia general manager for corporate affairs Rowina Ghazali and CIMB regional director central 2 Freddie Acho Bian.


In the presence of such a number of big names in their respective fields, be it politics or mass media or perhaps even finance, it was no secret that we were anxious about our performance, though each and every one of us hoped for the best. The event began with everyone singing our national anthem, before we were called on stage to kick the event off with our performance. We sang one of our crowd favourites, Bumi, a parody of Justin Bieber's 'Baby', featured a new song, a parody of Katy Perry's 'Fireworks', gave a soulful rendition of our 'Twinkle, twinkle little star' parody, aptly retitled 'the Green Song', and of course, threw in one of our favourite drum beats, 'Durarara', for good measure.


After our performance, the founder and president of EcoKnights, Miss Yasmin Rasyid, remarked that Anugerah Hijau, a competition that has been held since 2009, has seen a marked growth in the number of participants since its establishment. She also commented on the capability of participants when it comes to pushing the bounds of creativity by going above and beyond the requirements of the competitions, citing last year's competition where participants were required to make robots out of recycled materials as an example. 'They were only told to create robots, robots that didn't necessarily have to move, but most of them came up with moving robots! We were very impressed.'


This year, some changes have been made to the competition guidelines. Instead of only being open to secondary school students, college students are also allowed to participate in this year's competition. There would be two categories, 'Totally Active' (Capture the Green) and 'Wildly Creative' (Trashion in Action), with the former requiring students to come up with a one to two minute video about the environment, while the latter requires students to create fashionable clothing out of everyday recycled items.


10 teams would be shortlisted in each category-five from secondary schools and five from colleges based on their submitted proposals, following which the shortlisted candidates in the 'Totally Active' category would attend a workshop conducted by Lara Ariffin, while the shortlisted candidates in the 'Wildly Creative' category would get the opportunity to attend a workshop conducted by Silas Liew.


The grand prize-winning team in each category would receive RM3000 in cash.  

Practice (15th of February)

On the 15th of February, a public holiday for the entire nation, members of the Toyota Eco Rangers club went to school to attend an Eco Music Band practice for our upcoming performance at MPC on the 8th of March instead of sleeping in at home. The practice began at 8.30 am with us practicing our old drum solos, and was followed by us perfecting the beats to our Katy Perry-Fireworks parody. We then invented a new drum solo, entitled 'Jungle'. After perfecting the beats to 'Jungle', we then rehearsed our entire performance according to the sequence we have determined, and timed it as well. We all agreed that the timing of our performance was fine, but a little more fine-tuning had to be made to our songs, especially for people who were absent from the practice as a lot of changes were made to our performance during the practice. The practice ended at 12pm.

Practice (7th of February)

The meeting started off with members practicing the parody of 'Fireworks' by Katy Perry. Siti Sarah and Niraanjana, the heads of Sri Aman's Eco Music Band, attempted to create beats for every member's instrument. We the continued practicing and attempting to find the right beats for our instruments, following which we practiced every song properly, complete with singing. That was followed by us practicing our old drum solos, which went smoothly as most of us remembered our respective beats. We then learnt up our new song, created by Niraanjana which was entitled 'The Worm Song'. The practice ended at 4.30 pm, with every single one of us hoping that all our hard work would pay off in the form of a spectacular performance during the opening ceremony of Anugerah Hijau.

Eco Music Band Practice (24th of January)

In line with our upcoming performance for the opening ceremony of Anugerah Hijau 2011, we had our first Eco Music band practice of the year. The practice began at 2.30pm with members attempting to sing our parody of 'Fireworks' once again, and just like the last time such an endeavour was attempted, most of our members found pitch of the song too high, which was why we spent a good portion of our practice time to adjust the pitch of the song. When attempts to make the song relatively easier for our members to sing failed, we decided to forget about the song and try to sing our 'Just a Dream' parody instead. The song was relatively easier to sing, though a few adjustments had to be made to the lyrics to synchronize them with the melody of the song.

Members then sat according to the seating order we shall use on the actual day of our performance, we didn't manage to play our instruments at all, though we managed to get the hang of singing the songs. The meeting ended after Farhanah discussed the dates of our next practices with Eishatur, Niraanjana and Siti Sarah.

Eco Music Band- Anugerah Hijau Performance

A Brief Introduction to Sri Aman's Eco Drum Circle

Sri Aman's Eco Drum Circle was conceived on the 20th of October, with the initial purpose of performing during our Eco Carnival. Their performance was a success, and they managed to get offers to perform during other events, such as Anugerah Hijau's closing ceremony. Consisting of 13 members, members of the Eco Drum Circle utilize anything and everything that produces a sound as their instruments and it has worked out perfectly thus far. These things include biscuit tins, washing boards, unwanted bits of wooden sticks, pails, buckets, and even plastic bottles filled with green beans. With the dedication and perseverance of the members, the Eco Drum Circle hopes to achieve greater success in the future

Practice (12th of November)

Today, we practiced fervently for our first public performance tomorrow. We would be performing for the closing ceremony of Anugerah Hijau for 15 minutes, held at the MPC. A vast majority of us decided to carpool because it was the eco-friendly thing to do. We also brought our respective instruments back home.

We were all nervous and excited at the same time, anticipating our first public performance tomorrow.

Practice (2nd of November)

The Eco Drums practice on the 2nd of November was carried out without the slightest hitch, and we ended the practice early as some members had to cut the manila cards needed for the exchange of coupons to house marks, while other members had to help with making the recycled paper which will be used to make notepads serving as souvenirs for the VIPs attending out Eco Carnival.

Another reason the practice ended early was most of the members had to meet the teachers in charge of their respective committees in order to finalize our job scopes. Members were also inspired by the overwhelming support the Eco Drums garnered, and are more determined than ever to make our performance a massive success.

Practice (1st of November)

Today's Eco Drum Circle Practice began with members practicing the songs we will be performing in the exact same order they will be performed in. Before taking our practice any further, the heads of Eco Carnival Committees gave their lists of members involved in their respective committees to Farhanah as she needed had a meeting with a t-shirt printer later in the day and needed the sizes of all our members.

The instruments each member would be using on the day of the performance was also determined once and for all, though some members were asked to sing instead of play instruments. We then finalized which songs we will perform during our performance in the opening ceremony of our Eco Carnival.

Farhanah then left the practice at around 11 AM to attend a meeting with Puan Ngau to discuss the job scope of every committee. Members continued practicing until 2PM, which was when school ended.

Practice (29th October)

Our practice on the 29th of October began with members attempting to hone the songs they will be performing to perfection. Members who failed to attend a few practices were also introduced to the songs we will be performing, and taught how to play their instruments to the songs.

Farhanah then told us about Puan Ngau's new and revamped list of committees, and each head of committee was asked to find the specified amount of members required by Monday, 1st of November.

It was also decided that Siti Sarah, Farah Dinah, Eishatur, Atikah, and Niraanjana would be partaking in the Eco Music competition on the 11th of November. The practice ended officially at 1pm, though quite a number of members had to leave earlier in order to meet the teachers in charge of their respective Eco Carnival committees.

Practice (28th of October)

Members resumed practicing for their Eco Drums performance on the 28th of October, one day after their fascinating trip to the Rimba Ilmu. 

Taking over from where they left off, members once again attempted to 'find' their beats for the parody of Sempurna we will be performing. Siti Sarah, Punietha, Farah, Niraanjana and Atikah demonstrated their rendition of the song, and made the song sound near-perfect, which was why members decided to move on to perfecting our Green Song.

Members then attempted to find the right pitch for singing our 'Bumi' song and 'Sempurna' parody. Since only a few of our members were capable of singing at the high pitches the aforementioned songs require, members decided on having a majority of our members sing at a comfortable pitch, and having those capable of singing at high pitches sing at those pitches, which will ultimately create a harmonising effect. 

The day ended with us attempting to garner inspiration for our drum circle from Youtube.