My Musical Identity by

Piano

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:43:01 UTC

My music journey officially started when I had my first-ever piano lesson when I was 7. Later on, I slowly began to discover other instruments, but the piano was an important start for me. It builds my foundation of sight reading, compositions, and even helped me learned other instruments easier than they could be.

Meaningful Pieces: Rhapsody in Blue

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:43:58 UTC

This is one of my all-time favourite Jazz pieces. I first heard this piece in G3 during the pandemic lockdowns. It was posted on our music classroom's page to help students listen to different genres of music. And this song got stuck in my head all the way up to today. loved how this piece got such a rich and layered texture. And when I first heard this piece was also the first time in my memory when I heard the specific colours, lines, and shapes of a piece.

What inspires me as a musician?

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:44:45 UTC

I made a mind-map of 4 main categories that brought me my inspirations: What I see, People around me, Stories, and Random melody/ideas. *More detailed explanations in the picture.

Meaningful Pieces: Fly Me to the Moon

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:45:29 UTC

This is one of my favourite and first jazz pieces. It introduces me to jazz. This piece feels timeless. To me, it's just such a classic that even though it’s an old jazz standard, it still connects with different people across generations. Just like how culture can be passed down across generations. Listening to this piece really brought me into the jazz world and set the foundation of my understanding of Jazz, a chill and swing-y tune like this.

Violin & My Culture

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:46:06 UTC

I started learning the violin in G8, but my connection and love of the violin started when I was in G4. I was at my piano teacher's concert and someone performed the piece "Butterfly Lovers". The violin on the stage immediately caught my attention. Later, I learned that the Chinese name of this song, "Liang Zhu", happened to be the name of my grandparents' hometown, and the story behind it was also a historical tale that I had liked for a long time. Thus, I developed more connections with this song. And that is where my love of the violin begins.

Chopin Waltz Op.64 No.2

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:46:55 UTC

This is the first classical piece I have learned, and it is also what drags me into Chopin. The video attached to this post is one of my favourite covers of this piece (Yujia Wang's cover was also really good). This piece is in C-sharp minor; however, the contrasting sections in D-flat major and C-sharp major attract me the most. I enjoyed the smooth and gentle flow of this piece, and I really enjoyed the "flowing river" like fingerings. While A section has the classic waltz rhythm on the left hand and gentle melody on the right hand, B section comes with a slight contrast of a more playful melody change on the right hand. Then, the C section jumps in, giving a huge contrast to the expressive counterparts and personally, more dramatic harmonic shifts.

Vocal & My Culture - Home Language Day

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:47:34 UTC

I decided to learn how to sing a specific style of Chinese Opera ('xiao sang xi qiang' in Peking Opera tune) for Home Language Day 2025 and performed the piece "GuangLiang (Illuminous)" (光亮). Fortunately, I got 1st place in this competition, and I am really proud to win this competition with my own culture. Learning this piece really helped me connect to my culture. This song also means a lot to me, not because of how I got 1st place with it, but because of the deeper meanings behind the lyrics. This song is about hope, resilience, and the pursuit of light, even when life feels dark or difficult. There is one line saying "Shine and illuminate yourself", which always reminds me that most of the time, I myself can already be strong enough to light up myself. This song also reminds me of being resilient and having hope all the time. Not only does this deeper meaning, but this piece is also a song that transcends thousands of years. The lyrics of the opera part are from a poet called "苏轼 (Su shi)", who wrote the poem around 1082CE. This is a piece that echoes through history.

Musicals!

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:48:11 UTC

I am a huge fan of Musicals. My journey with musicals started when I watched my first live musical, 'Cat'. Then I started to learn and watch more musicals, such as Matilda, Phantom of the Opera, Six, Hamilton, Wicked, Into the Woods, Rent, Dear Evan Hansen, etc. I've participated in Suessicals in my old school and am now looking forward to auditioning for the Musical we are going to do next year :). As someone who really loved Drama too, Musical was a perfect balance I found between Music and Drama.

My Composition Style

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:48:40 UTC

I love using interesting and colourful chords, especially 6th, 7th, and 9th chords

I love writing harmonies (somehow really addicted to thirds and fourths)
I improvise most of the time
Most of the time, I compose the melody before I know the exact lyrics
I love adding hooks, especially with woodwind, brass, or some world instruments.
I really hope I can understand drums better so I can compose more interesting fills and grooves (specifically in funk & prog metal style)

Saxophone

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:49:16 UTC

I always loved Jazz and wanted to learn the sax for a very long time. Fortunately, I finally started this instrument a few months ago. This really helped me understand how woodwinds work, and this is also the first transposing instrument for me to learn.

My Treasure: KAWAI Piano

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:49:45 UTC

I have been practising with this piano since 7, which is 7 years already :). This piano has witnessed my growth, so it means a lot to me.

Loop Station

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:49:55 UTC

After discovering the patterns of pop culture and the concepts of ostinato, composing or recreating pop music with my loop station is one of my favourite things to do.

Stephanie Sun (Sun Yanzi)

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:50:25 UTC

Sun Yanzi (or Stephanie Sun) is one of my favourite Mandarin singers. Her music really impacted me. Especially '天黑黑' (Cloudy Day), ‘我怀念的’ (What I miss), and '绿光' (Greenlight). Her music has the texture of old-fashioned televisions and electric fans from rural Chinese families in the 80s and 90s.

David Tao (Tao zhe)

selinaxuan — 2025-08-20 08:50:59 UTC

Tao zhe (or David Tao) is also one of my favourite Mandarin singers. His compositions are usually homophonic with rich layering, and with classic syncopated and groovy rhythm or melody patterns. He loves adding counter melodies or vocal harmonies in his music, especially a variety of background vocals, which makes his music rich in texture. His R&B really impacted me a lot. My first a cappella piece performed was his "Rain (Zhao zi ji)". His music gives me a sense of a breezy but playful vibe, with a diverse melody and a bunch of melismas, like butterflies flying around.

Music & Languages

selinaxuan — 2025-08-22 12:20:15 UTC

I listen to different music in a variety of languages. My playlist contains songs in English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. English is a global language in pop and rock, and lyrics in English are often very expressive and bold. Chinese, my roots and culture. Lyrics in Chinese often feel more poetic and emotional to me. The texts are more delicate and are often based on tiny stories or things in our lives, using a lot of metaphors and similes. Spanish is full of rhythm and energy. It is also a third language that I am learning. Latin music makes me feel free and alive, and also very expressive. Japanese, as in J-pop, has a different, unique singing tune among different artists. They are usually imaginative but powerful and have vibrant melody and strong drum beats. I don't listen to a specific artist in Korean, but there are a few pieces in Korean that I really like. They usually have a very emotional and memorable melody, and the lyrics tend to focus on tiny details of a person or event.

How I identify myself as a person vs. How I identify myself as a musician

selinaxuan — 2025-08-24 06:27:41 UTC

I made a table on Google Docs to show how I identify myself as a person and how I identify myself as a musician. As a person, I identify myself in 'tags' that are broader than the 'tags' I identify myself with as a musician. This is because when I identify myself as a person, I look at myself at a wider view as who I am as a person. However, when I identify myself as a musician, I view myself only in music, who I am as a musician and what do I do as a musician only.

A Cappella & B-Box

selinaxuan — 2025-08-24 07:01:24 UTC

A cappella also plays a big part in my music life. I did several a cappella pieces and performances. I've been a soprano, mezzo, and B-Box in different a cappella performances. I really loved performing a cappella. Personally, it is one of the purest ways to perform music, using only vocals. It is flexible; you can perform it anywhere you want. It is creative, and it also helps me connect with people. Teamwork in a cappella is a very important skill. To be able to make a good a cappella performance, you must be in great harmony and in tacit agreement with your teammates. Apart from a cappella, I also performed as a B-Boxer, learning how to create the effect of a drum with your mouth was very novel to me.

Music & Art

selinaxuan — 2025-08-24 10:36:05 UTC

When I listen to different music, I see the colours, shapes and lines of each piece. Sometimes I create some abstract paintings, and sometimes I draw some specific objects inspired by a piece. The picture above is a few examples of my artworks based on Music. P1 is an art creation I made when I was in grade 2, inspired by music, but I couldn't remember which piece since it was quite a long time ago. P2 and P3 are both works I created in the G8 Art unit "Seeing Music". P2 is an abstract art project based on the piece "Rhapsody in Blue", and P3 is a figurative art project based on the piece "GuangLiang (Illuminous)".

Music & Friendship

selinaxuan — 2025-08-25 01:47:56 UTC

Music connects people. I am able to connect with a lot of different people through Music. I get to know people better through Music; I get close with my friends through Music; I have made many new friends through Music. Music is always a shared language among my close friends and me. We often play together, and we perform different pieces, and sometimes we simply just improvise together in space. Music is a bridge that connects me with people.

Music Connects People

selinaxuan — 2025-08-25 01:48:33 UTC

I listen to a wide range of genres, from Mandarin R&B to Progressive Metal pieces that are 19 minutes straight.

Memorable Events I've participated in UWC Music

selinaxuan — 2025-08-25 12:10:25 UTC

Jazz Band 23-26

Symphonic 25-26

Arioso 24-25

Singers 25-26

Finale 24 & 25

Opus 26

UWC World Vision Song Contest 24 & 25 🏆

Jazz for Nepal 23 & 24 & 25

UWC Got Talent 23 & 25

Intermezzo 24 & 25

Divertimento 24 & 25 & 26

Ms Soloist Concert 24 & 25 & 26

Each of these performances helped me grow as a musician. Through different activities, I get better at sight reading, improvising, and also develops deeper understandings to different genres of Music.

Jazz Fusion!!!

selinaxuan — 2025-08-25 13:18:51 UTC

Japanese Jazz Fusion had always been one of my top music genres since I discovered it in G7. I love a lot of bands, including the classics: Casiopea, T-square, and other Jazz fusion bands like the Weather Report. My favourite Japanese Jazz Fusion artist is Masayoshi Tankanaka, his pieces like Brazilian Skies, READY TO FLY, BREEZIN', etc., all inspired my composition and keyboard style so much. The link to this post is T-square's Sunnyside Cruise, which includes one of my favourite saxophone solos of all time.

Music & Service

selinaxuan — 2025-08-25 14:39:44 UTC

I always believed that Service is a very meaningful thing, and so is Music. I did two services related to Music in G8: the Anglican Care Centre and MS Rockband support. These services helped me visualise even better how Music can have a great impact on different people. The ACC service was truly a memorable journey, hosting music games, talking to our friends, preparing for final parties...... all these make me feel so fulfilled and happy, and I am truly grateful and happy seeing and helping our friends to discover different instruments and music games. MS Rockband was also a very exciting service chance. Helping people on keyboards and vocals is really interesting. I get allocated to a specific band with MS students, and helping them out on rehearsals and performances was wonderful too.