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I’ve been meaning to make this post for some time already, but I have never been able to finally voice myself properly without seeming as if I’m insulting some group or other out of bitterness, which I definitely am not. For example, I am myself an Ongaku! Project listener and used to be one of SHINY! Project’s biggest fans. For those who don’t know, I myself run one of the biggest Internet-based singing groups out there, Sekai no Melody (endearingly abbreviated “SnM” by the members; yes, we do often share inside jokes about the similarity to the common abbreviation “S&M”).

One of the things that makes SnM different from groups like O!P and SHINY is my belief and inherent policy that everyone should be given equal chance to participate. As such, I am not so much a fan of the audition process (PureAmbition is an exception since it was specifically made to perform at a higher level) and I am defintiely not much of a fan of being excessively critical of others’ skills. For example, one of our latest releases was ValeriA’s 8th, titled “Calypso” after the nymph who imprisoned Odysseus on an island for seven years. The songs on the mini-album focused on seduction, and one of the tracks was Amuro Namie’s HIDE & SEEK. It actually received quite a bit of critique from the general public (many being members of SnM itself, sadly) after it was released, and from the feel of the remarks I almost felt as if the others didn’t enjoy the track as much as I did. If possible, I request that you the reader give it a listen and then compare it to the original. In my opinion, I feel as if ValeriA’s rendition was just as good if not even better than Namie’s version, and thus I was slightly miffed that others didn’t seem to appreciate our work.

I went back and looked at most of the songs in our repertoire that I most admire, and I’ve found a constant trend in the songs that I like best - they feature large groups of singers! Perhaps that’s why I’ve always felt drawn to singing in a choir over singing solo, or playing in an orchestra over playing solo - I’ve just always appreciated the beauty of a union of voices (be they human or instrumental). For example, my favourite songs on the 2007 Xmas album contained 40+ singers each. Even though the singing isn’t the best, and the mixing is slightly messed up at particular times, I love the idea that through the Internet and through our love for music, we from all over the world have been able to come together and join our voices to sing the same song. I’m not sure most others are as emotionally attached to this idea of unity as I am; it doesn’t seem to be so, unfortunately.

Because of this, I always feel a bit squeamish when members suggest that we should split into subgroups, that we should focus on being more “professional” or “elite” sounding. The original intent was not to be famous for our amazing singing talent (although that would be wonderful if it happen), but for our principles of unity. That is, the idea that we will not allow our differing skill levels (nor the way our voices sound, nor where we come from, nor what language we speak) to inhibit the fact that we can still get along and sing together, united by a common interest. Perhaps I’m putting a little too much pathos into my analysis here, and I do admit that we still need to operate with efficiency and responsibility, but I just wanted to let out a peep of lament for the fading of my original intent. After all, it was that original intent that brought us together in the first place, and I don’t ever want to lose that to overambition and a “professional” front.

So last night I visited the WMBR, MIT’s radio station, which is located in the basment of the Walker Memorial Building (now do you get why we’re “WMBR” and not something like “MITR”? ;D) They showed us around and we all signed membership forms to become official members of the station!

There’s a large room (that used to be a two-lane bowling alley) in the station that’s called the “record library”. As the name hints, it’s full of nothing but vinyl records and CDs of every kind of music imaginable. They have quite a large collection of world music (which I will be thoroughly invading to find new songs to sing for SnM and potentially MITsonix if that ever gets off the ground). I was a little disappointed at their lack of electronica, though.

To remedy this, I decided I’d sign up to DJ for a show. Naturally, I would be blasting electronica music (and by that I mean anything in the dance, trance, techno, psychedelic, ambient, breakbeat, synth, etc. genres) in addition to some various world music tracks (yes, Asian pop -will- appear from time to time ;D). I’m also looking forward to being able to blast world Christmas music; I recently relistened to Andromaeda’s composition MERRY CHRISTMAS ~ a World of Melody (which SnM will be singing this holiday season) and felt compelled to share the awesomeness with everyone, so maybe I’ll broadcast that on my station! If I feel sly enough, maybe I’ll even toss in some SnM music, but I’d have to be discrete about that one. I guess I could use it to advertise for MITsonix too? Maybe? I’ll have to check to see if that’s against studio policy though.

In SnM news, we were able to put out three releases in three days, and work on the Xmas album is slowly picking up, so I’ll definitely be plenty busy this coming year. I suppose I should start poring over my textbooks a bit more, but as today is a vacation, I figured I’d spend it making devilled eggs, reading some books, and working on some SnM business (things that I won’t be able to easily do once school starts…)

This time, unlike the previous installment, I’m not giving a long complicated lecture about how one should manage their time wisely to prevent wasting their precious years of high school on retarded things like taking Cornell notes in math classes. Rather, this time I’m going to muse about my own time management skills and what it means for my main hobby as the new school year approaches.

Of course, the “main hobby” that I refer to would be Sekai no Melody. As I was walking along the Activities Midway yesterday, I spotted quite a few singing groups (some of which I will be auditioning for quite soon), including one called Syncopasia, which focuses on singing Asian pop songs. I was immediately hooked, but as I thought about my own singing group I was again filled with that disgusting pit-of-your-stomach, queasy feeling that makes you really wonder if you can stand all the stuff that is coming up.

I love SnM a lot - I really do. It’s my brainchild and my joy in life. I could never imagine giving it up, but I also know that I’ll have to be cutting back on a lot of my involvement with the project if I’m going to pass college successfully. Thus, what I plan to do is to drop singing altogether and instead just stand as a director and producer, instructing the mixers/singers/etc. on what to do and passing files back and forth between parties to make sure everything gets released when it’s supposed to be and such. Hopefully with a more modular form of organization everything will run just as smoothly without too much work on my part.. x_x

In truth, what I’d love to do is move Sekai no Melody into the real world by creating an MIT-branch of it. Essentially, I’d be making another subgroup that is purely real-life and would release under the Sekai no Melody “label”. It would have to have an amazing name, though. Like Misonix. (Well, it -does- sound like “MIT-sonics”…) I really don’t know how to go about doing that, though, and I for some reason am doubting that people will actually join… but it’s well worth a try, right? I’ll just market it as an international singing organization, just like Sekai no Melody, but I would try to push for more diverse song selection since it’s such a diverse student population =) Perhaps once I’m settled in and I get some people who are interested in joining such a group, I can apply for it to be an official ASA (Association of Student Activities) group so it gets more publicity =D

And of course that means revamping the website so that it also appeals to the MIT branch, includes them in the mix, and makes everything a lot more formal and professional. Hmm. We’ll see how much interest I can generate.

As I type this entry, I look back at the one I just published earlier today and shake my head at the number of groups that I’m hoping to join. Surely I need to cut down on the extracurricular or else I’m not going to have time to do all those p-sets! Without further ado, the groups that I am hoping to join:

1. WMBR (MIT’s radio station)
I’m really hoping I can host my own show on WMBR. I’d probably just play a lot of electronica music because from what I see on the sample program guide from spring 2008, I can’t see any programs that focus specifically on dance, trance, techno, ambient, psychedelic, etc. I have quite the stash and can always get more too, so I’m  totally up for it if they will let me; they seemed pretty enthusiastic during the Midway when I told them I was interested in hosting, so we’ll see how open house goes…

2. Syncopasian (Asian a cappella group)
Does this even need any more explanation? It’s an a cappella group, it sings Asian songs (Jap/Kor/Chin), and the talent level isn’t impossible to reach. The only bad thing is that I can’t seem to find any website or anything related to it, so I can’t get any additional information =/

3. MITSO (symphony orchestra)
I’m not even confident that I will be able to make the auditions, but there’s no harm in trying, and if I get in I would practice so often it won’t even be funny, haha. But yeah; I’ve always been playing solo my entire life and haven’t really enjoyed it - there aren’t many orchestras around my hometown for beginner players (unless you learned in school, but my district didn’t offer orchestra as a class), so even though I was really enthusiastic about joining one, I could never do so due to the experience and skill level of the general group(s)… which is why I’m a bit on edge about auditioning for MITSO because these are pretty much the best of the best, and I don’t quite belong, but hopefully my perseverance and optimism strikes the right chord with the directors…?

4. Concert Choir OR an a cappella group
If I’m accepted to more than one, I think I’ll just decline joining others, though I kind of doubt that. My Muses audition went terribly since I speed-pedaled all the way there and didn’t have any time to catch my breath or warm up before singing, and my sightreading skills suck like whoa. Hopefully my Chorallaries aud goes better, but I’m kind of doubting that. I’m crossing my fingers that I’m assigned a second soprano or alto part for the Concert Choir auditions because I can do some good harmonies if they’re in my range =P

5. DanceTroupe OR Movements in Time
Mmm, dance. I needed some sort of dance to fill the empty hole that leaving Chinese folk dance put into my soul, but there are so many dance teams on campus it’s kind of hard to pick one. I narrowed it down to DanceTroupe and Movements in Time (which I just noticed today is a reverse acronym for “MIT”), but not sure which I would prefer working with. I’ll just go explore both before choosing, I guess.