ritornello ‘26 (chloe’s pov)

hi guys im chloe 😬

im a yapper so this is gon be long (i also have quite a shitty memory so alot of things will be partial and might not even be correct but ill try my best)

take a seat and relive my pov of this years concert experience 😬

some backstory: 

when i heard the alumnis were organising their own concert i was intrigued but lowk scared. i got my braces last yr and for alumni concert in amkss i cld barely play anyt at all 🥲 the braces made it so hard and i was honestly so demoralised every time we went for prac becos i cldnt even play anyt. i loved playing the tpt in my sec sch days and even in alumni band bfr i got my braces so when i discovered the braces stopped me from doing smth i enjoyed i was devastated, heartbroken 💔 and genuinely so sad but thankfully i had sha and my jnr arielle to convince me to go back and also they were gon play such nostalgic songs like FOLLOW ME!!! how to not go bruh!!! ya so i mucked up courage to just fake it till i made it….really sad i cldnt play much but happy i participated in last yrs concert. 

ok lost track abit but that was some backstory on when i lost my ability to play HAAHAHAHA so when they announced this years concert, i was about to remove my braces alr which i did (in dec 2025) so i had to get used to playing w/o braces and w my newly positioned teeth (aka even harder than when my teeth werent adjusted yet) i practically lost my embouchure…only able to hit some mid notes and not even well….

same as bfr i was convinced by sha and this time derek (my batchies) to even go for prac…aft long consideration we decided to join at abt the 2-3 prac? and my goodness i cldnt play for shit 😭 my inability to play + my inability to sight read anyt made it 10x worse i legit felt like crap. i didnt wna be there, i lost alot of confidence over those years and it hurt me sm that i cldnt play anyt still 😞 i think aft that first prac we went i rlly didnt wna perf anym i felt so fake and i didnt like that feeling i was also terrified the snrs will scold LOL so i kept telling sha i didnt wna go anym but she kept begging me to go so we can go tgt…ugh (shes so desperate sial) she managed to convince me to go for a few more practices and the fact that she gimme free ride made it harder to resist 😛 but every time we went for prac the words “lets go home”, “lets leave”, “we can uturn now”, “its time to bounce” came out of my mouth from the moment i stepped into the car to when we entered sch to when we were in bandroom LOL. can tell i rlly rlly rlly didnt wna go….sorry sha HAAHAHA 

eventually i had to make a deal w sha that if i went for prac and perf she wld skip on her fam trip to go our jnrs bday party (such a dumb deal) and since both my batchies were going to prac and perf then i was like fine. ill jus go. so we went for a few more practices, missed 1-2 cos of other plans but we did go for the rest which was shocking…but unlike my fellow batchies and the other snrs, every prac i go i nvr rlly improve LOL.

few reasons ah: 

1. cldnt even play much notes
2. cannot read the score + horrible memory
3. no energy or motivation to read and prac aft work outside of prac (this is 100% my fault) 😓

so end up i still cnt rlly play much and im so sorry becos i rlly jus didnt have the motivation to bother practicing outside of prac, i didnt even listen to the youtube playlist or look at the scores :( (sorry snrs) 

every prac i go i was scared the snrs gon scold me and kick me out lol but sha still managed to drag my lazy ass to prac and maybe also becos deep down i did enjoy gg back 🙃

im naturally awk at the start so w the snrs i wasnt fam w it was very very awk HAHAHAH I WAS SCARED OF EVRYONE (not jus u wendy) 😅 but thankfully my batchy was thr w me so it wasnt as bad….i swear im very noisy and yappy one (as u can see from this long ass story alr) but if im not fam w u im quiet (at the start) zzz. im rlly sorry snrs i didnt take it srsly and prac as hard as i cld :( im just an unmotivated and tired kid 🙏🏼 ill do btr next time (ill try) 

ok so back to it, now comes concert day. 

the night right bfr the concert day literally at like 11pm i was like “shit idw perf anym…i cnt play bruh” then i decided maybe its time i open the youtube playlist and took a listen LOL. which i did. i lay on my bed w the phone beside my ear and jus listened. each song i felt smth light up in me. stupid youtube ads ruined the mood halfway but ya there was like a spark that lit in me. listening to band playing the songs we were abt to perf. i fell asleep right aft the last song. next morn woke up and decided ok lets just go perf 🤣 

i woke up at 6am (EARLIER THAN A NORMAL WORK DAY THATS MAD) and started getting ready. i had to call sharlene 17 times to be exact becos girl was not waking up at it was alr 7:15 (we were suppose to meet at mrt at 7:35) she kept cutting my call thinking it was alarm lol. eventually she woke up and i convinced her to take grab thr HAHAHAHA so i went to her hse and we grabbed to SCH and reached at 8:30 😛 (report time was 8:15?) but isok cos the sch bus w the instrus wasnt thr yet so everyone was jus chilling arnd waiting anyways. 

proof of my many attempts to wake up sharlene

now at SCH:

sha pulled out her laptop to finish last min assignment (mad lady) and we took a section wefie w her and her laptop HAHAHAHAHA 

the the lorry came and we went to unload some instrus and take our tpts, derek (the performative male) kept wanting to go help even tho got so many ppl alr waiting to help so i dragged him away HAHAHHAHA 

fast forward>>> 

we on the stage doing our last sound check and wah the feels to be back on a stage aft 2 years of not. so nostalgic. also the place was where syf was done so it added to the nostalgia even more! thankfully i didnt hv to move much for the concert layout cos i wld def not have rmbed where to go HAAHAHA (thanks doug for making the seating arrangements 🙏🏼😋) the whole time during soundcheck my stomach was hurting cos i was HUNGRYYYYY 🤣 me and sha were counting down to 12:30 (hungry hungry, very very, hungry very, very hungry!) 

heres some soundcheck photos 🙃

also thanku dom for the tpt pins!!!! so cute 😭 reminded me of when i gave my batchy similar pins too! we pinned it on our perf clothes and went to perf w it later on! so damn cute wth HAHAHAHA i hope i dont loose it 😅

(not my hand or pic)

lunch time FINALLYYYY!!!!!

we had bentos which were ok la i mean idk how much it actly was but not bad la not bad la thanks committee for arranging it! 

it was a bento w fried rice (didnt taste like fried rice more like jus normal white rice) with a ?wanton in the center and side dishes of chicken (not bad) egg omelette (nice) cabbage (nice) and sweet n sour fish (not bad). thankfully a good filling meal bfr our perf yay! 

doug and joel came in w a cake and started singing happy bday! my first reaction was “so cute!” HAHAHAHHA so we sang happy bday to the march babies and then proceeded to laugh heavily over the wonky ass looking cake. i cldnt stop laughing like no way grab delivered it like that it was so funny i asked doug to faster take pic and ask for refund which he did and thankfully grab did a full refund 🥳🥳🥳 happy birthday march babies! so cute that they same batch (+ geraldine) and same bday month!!! aft this i spotted xing ni still eating her bento and called her over to join sha so they can be slow eaters tgt 🤣 derek ended up eating some of sha’s bento for her and xing ni managed to eat hers + some cake! 👏👏👏

also managed to catch joel having a whole hair styling done by the one of the ?flute snrs? 🤣🤣

right bfr concert me and my batchy + joshua (bad influence 🤣) snuck out in the very few mins we had to the main foyer to say hi to some ppl then joshua left us and went back first (SO BAD!) so we had to find our way back and thankfully just in time when everyone was making their way up to the hall (phew) halfway walking up the stairs, i looked down and sha was in her bright purple crocs!!! 💀💀💀 lucky i saw and told her to faster go change to her court shoes lol if not shell be perf w her bright purple crocs 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

the bright purple crocs. 

concert time!!!!:

waddled onto stage so unprepared and sat our butts down on our assigned seats for first song! nervous but excited 😬 went round spotting our snrs (thanks ven and pb for coming 😋) and fam/friends :) 

obv we took some stage section wefies (thanks dom for taking good 0.5x 👏) and in a matter of what felt like seconds they started tuning and percussion started playing and BOOM CONCERT STARTTT! 

so many funny things happened like sz the frenchhorn guy not having a baton to conduct and having to use an apple pencil 🤣 and the percussion dropping things midway into yq speech LOL! lucky not syf 🤣 i moved into my seat for queen medley an beside me was wendy. we sat down looked in front of us and saw an empty stand. AN EMPTY STAND. we legit looked at the stand, looked at each other wide eyed and then laughed. dude it was so funny i nvr laugh w wendy bfr that moment (she so scary 😖😖😖) but this moment was genuinely so hilarious i still giggle as i type this HAHAHAHA

anyways the whole concert, ended just like that! 

it felt like a fever dream honestly. happened so fast, played as much as i cld and laughed arnd w my batchy and jus had sm fun! it reminded me of why i love band in the first place! performing w my section on a stage and playing such fun songs. genuinely sends chills down my spine cos it felt so good!!! 

ended the concert w a batchy 0.5x w the audience and we all got off stage 😛

aft packing instru and clearing out of the backstage areas we went to find our fam and friends and snrs! 

so chaotic honestly (so many ppl) but such a norm aft every concert. we took many pics and ofc a generational tpt pic w snrs and jnrs of many many diff generations of amkss trumpets!!!! hope one day we get to know all of them! thank u to those who came to watch the concert! pls come and play for future alumni concerts (if u need convincing, ive been going back the past 3 years and i cant even play so pls join for the shits and giggles if ur free next time!! i promise its worth it) 

special thanks to:

sharlene: for dragging me to every practice and convincing me to even perf when i was so adamant on not gg back. thanks for fetching me to and from prac and reminding me how fun it is to go back as an alumni and how fun it is to be playing the tpt again (tho i barely cld). genuinely so thankful i didnt miss out on this years concert and maybe ill join for the future ones too 🙃 (keep dragging me and we shall see how hehe!)

derek: becos he is my batchy and im alw thankful for my batchy :) im so glad u finally cld join alumni band and we cld finally perf tgt as a batch again!!!! so happy u decided to join too and essentially made it even harder for me to argue w sha that idw to go 🤣 to many more concerts as a batch!!!!! 

the rest of the snrs who came back to perf: 

altho i didnt talk ALOT w particularly anyone of yal (im shy 🙈) but thanku for all coming back to prac and perf tgt! made it that much more special and memorable! thanks to doug for litterally doing sm! organising the order and parts and seating! thanks to xing ni who tried talking to me on that one prac day cos they seperated me and my batchy and i was so scared lol but u made me talk abit more and i felt less stressed! thank u to wendy (yes scary wendy) for telling me to prac my parts (even tho i didnt OOPS! 🫣) but ik it was for my own good 🥲 and thank u to all the other snrs for not kicking me out of this concert becos ik yal knew girlie here was not playing shit (or i was only playing shit) HAHAHAHA but srsly thanks for not calling me out lol 🙏🏼 yal were all very friendly and very nice and made each prac less scary to go for (just a little, i was still very scared) 

lastly thank you to everyone else that were either part of my band journey or not: 

you guys literally shaped our section to be what it is now. bonded, united, and the best section ever. from passing down generational trauma AND generational fun to making sure we all stay connected even tho we are like so many years apart (yes yal dinosaurs 🙃) yal make band so memorable and so fulfilling to be back even aft so many years. i hope it can remain like this until i oso considered dinosaur liao! 

genuinely so so so happy to be part of amkss trumpet section and have snrs and jnrs so quirky and annoyingly funny to the max! i love band and alw have and despite having lost the confidence and motivation to perf, i have only one regret this time and it was not trying harder for ritornello 2026. hopefully one day ill be able to play the way i did back in sec sch (tho not the best but better than now)…

if uve made it this far thanks for reading the whole thing. im a big time yapper and honestly i was lucky i cld even rmb anyt that happened lol! thank you for the experience this year and if ur reading and didnt perf this time…COME BACK NEXT YEAR! AND THE YEARS AFTER THAT! cannot play oso come. (i oso cannot play 🤣) 

ok this took me a good 1.5hrs to type, it was supposed to be for my ig spam post but sha has convinced yet another one of us to post on the blog. it was good to relive the emotions and feelings i had and despite it being so tiring i rlly enjoyed the whole experience (deep deep down). 

thank u trumpets 🤍🎺