I actively participated in 2025 New Year Gala from our school, and here are 2 shows that I joined.
The story begins when I'm in grade 10....
This is me and my classmates.
I came from a class that has many musicians.
I could play the piano and the flute, and my other classmates could play drums, guitar, base, and the traditional Chinese instrument Guzheng.
A Dream of having a band
It starts simple: We want a band.
And there is an opportunity for us: New Year Gala is approaching, and we won't miss that.
Starting to Practice
3 days before submission our video...
And here's our practice looks like.
The guitar cannot keep up with the pace, and someone are not on the main rhyme.
The violin keeps rushing ahead, and sometimes everyone just stops because we don't know where it is.
There are also some place that where different instruments should enter needs coordination.
This is the feedback I wrote for each member
Maybe I'm too critical, but that's what pushed us through each practice.
Some of us were performing in multiple groups, and I bet I'm the one requiring them to practice the most.
First Submission
It's the day to submit our video
There were accidents happening, like we didn't manage to open to mic in this theater, some of us(Like me and the violin) had to share a microphone together, and we are not very sure where to enter.
But we still manage to finish that and submit one video.
But we still had a good time
This is the first official reunion of our band: Escape the Country Tide.
Our name origins from a popular concept that we saw from our delivery package: Traditional tide. So we work on the first version of the name: Country Tide Jacket
But the name is still a bit weird, and in Chinese, "Jacket" has a similar name with "Escape", so finally our name is : Escape the Country Tide, which is a pretty cool name by me.
This is the first time we filmed our video, where we think all will went well and we'll certainly get a space in the New Year Gala. We were even planning ahead of what will happen on that day.
No one expected the results....
First Round of Results
We didn't make it.
By that I mean we didn't make it pass the first round. The first round of the performing playbill came out, and Escape from the Country Tide was not on it.
Disappointment overshook us, but I managed to persuaded the team to try again. We find the responing teacher, and she agreed to gave us another chance.
Cajon
Drum Set
Electric Base
The change of the rhythm instrument
Previously, we were using the cajon as our rhythm instrument. But because the sound of cajon is too light, it does not worked out with this song, Worldly Tavern, which talks about fate and destiny.
So we switched to the second instrument, the drum set. However, the drum set is too loud that it almost covered other parts, so we gave up on using that also.
Finally we choose the base, which has a deeper pitch that satisfy the mood of the song. And because the base need a speaker, we could adjust the volume of the base.
More Practice...
Because a change in instruments and the whole rehersals in school, we spend 3 afternoons practicing, staying until 8-9 pm at school
We had so many good memories together..
This is our guitarist and vocal playing the Chinese Guzheng, they were imitating Six-fingered Lute Demon, a classical character from Chinese Wuxia stories whose main weapon is Guzheng. Everyone laughed.
Final Performance
It's the final performance day!
Which is just 12.26, a day after Christmas. We practiced late at school at Christmas, and yet on 12.26 we are going on stage for our band.
By the way, we are the biggest group with a instrumental performance, and it does not sound chaotic at all.
Many parents compliment us for that ^ ^
And these are our group photos
Fun fact about our clothes: we first tried to organize the style to traditional Chinese clothing, like what me and the Guzheng were wearing. But obviously we failed. So at least we tried to coordinate the overall color, which is black and white, and it looks like it turn out well.
Looking Back...
Our final performance is not perfect either. There were accidents happening that day: we accidently use the wrong Guzheng because there were other groups also performing using Guzheng. Our Guzheng is on C major, but the actual Guzheng we used during our final performance is on D major, so it damage our overall effect. And the sound of Guzheng is light on stage. It's probably a microphone problem.
Moreover, not listening from a stage, I realize the 2 interludes of the song was too thin, since it's the solo of flute and the violin. So from today looking back, at least the piano should have joined in the 2 interludes.
The fun fact of this is I'm definitely sure that our main vocal sang one sentence wrong but at least we finished the act -v-