Being a diligent student, I went to the second chorus lesson at Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra an hour before the class this evening. I carried a big children book of piano notes I borrowed from Taipei City Library in my bag. Luckily, Pianist Li Yi-hwa was there early, too, she helped me decipher the basic music notes.
With the combination of numbers from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to 7, alphabets from A, B, C, D, E, F, to G, and music notes from Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, to Ti, I gradually felt the keys to wisdom of humanity in my hand. As I was eager to get to know more about the world of music, I looked forward to every singing class with D67 Toastmasters Chorus members in the future.
I confess, I have many secret dreams, one of them is to become a keyboard player of a Rock'n Roll Band. Therefore it's not a surprise I became a voracious early bird this evening. I gobbled as many worms as possible with the guidance of Yi-hwa. Young and petite Yi-hwa was so amazed at my enthusiasm to learn the piano at my golden age that she showed me how to move my fingers on the keyboard and introduced to me the basic music theory. Wow, I must "play" very hard from now on to make my dream come true.
At 7 o'clock sharp, we began our vocal practice with Conductor Chang yu-jing. Again and again we practiced with her how to breathe with our tummy by voicing out //ss// as many times as we could (it looks like, in no time, all members shall have a firm stomach, a splendid fringe-benefit of the chorus class), followed by vocal practice by articulating various vowels. Conductor Yu-jing also taught us how to open our mouth to allow more air in the vocal cavity, imaging placing a boiled egg vertically in our mouth. In addition, Yu-jing insisted we sit with the right posture. I knew this was to me, I sat at the front row this evening, and I kept my legs crossed most of the time. From now on, I shall keep in mind to discipline myself to sit with both feet on the ground.
After the warm-up, we learned a new song, a famous Japanese folk song "Red Dragonfly". I knew the melody and lyrics by heart, so I got a chance to sing the soprano part to cover for Michelle and Linda. Eleven chorus members came to the second choral lesson this evening.
Soprano: Jorie Wu, Kate Hsu
Alto: Marian Hsiao, Gina Fu, Lydia Lin, Maggie Chiu, Sherry Li
Tenor: Ron Chen, Kuo-hwa Yeh
Bass: George Yen, Bill Wan
赤蜻蛉 作詞：三木露風 作曲：山田耕作
夕焼、小焼のあかとんぼ 負われて見たのは いつの日か。
山の畑の桑の実を 小籠に摘んだは まぼろしか。
十五で 姐やは嫁に行き お里のたよりも 絶えはてた。
夕焼、小焼のあかとんぼ とまっているよ 竿の先。
夕陽斜照 紅蜻蜓 在水邊舞飛 引我想起多少年前 難忘的童年
想起當年我的大姐 出嫁離家園
從此一去斷了音息 已隔多少年
Homeways on pre sunset
When was it that I saw them last on Mom's back?
Color deepening red dragonflies!
At age 15 my beloved maid got married
I haven't heard from her since
My first love!
~English translation by Toastmasters Rio Imamura of District 76~
Second half of the class, we reviewed "Fireflies" merrily and added another voice part when we approached the conclusion of the song. Three voice parts competed with one another trying hard not to be dragged away other voice parts. 
From Red Dragonfly to Firefly, D67 Toastmasters Chorus experienced another happy and lovely evening flying high with voices high. When Conductor Chang yu-jing announced that class dismissed, we realized it was nine o'clock already.
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