As always, I like to document these memories with the kids—moments of striving and growth—so that my future self can look back and smile.
YunLin Competition
This year, the students delivered a relatively steady performance on stage (the usual chaos and rushing during rehearsals thankfully didn’t show up too much). That said, their growth wasn’t quite as fast as I’d hoped, and we still had to spend time ironing out rhythm and note issues right before the event. But I’m proud of the elementary school students—brave and fearless, boldly playing their notes even when they were wrong or off-beat. And to me, at that age, courage matters more than perfection. I stuck to encouragement over criticism, and I hope they’ll keep working hard in the year ahead.
The junior high group was stable as always, but since we wanted every student to participate and enjoy the experience, some precision and musical finesse had to be sacrificed. That’s the kind of trade-off you sometimes make, and I believe it was the right call for the students at this point in their journey. I also added some horn harmonica section to enrich the sound. But in hindsight, the arrangement and key weren’t exactly ideal for that particular instrument. The students, who usually play chromatic harmonicas, only had a few weeks to try something new instrument—so missed notes and lack of detail were expected. Still, it gave them a fresh experience, and that’s valuable too.
For the senior high students, I’m just thankful they were willing to join the competition voluntarily. Balancing intense academic pressure with harmonica rehearsals is no easy feat. My wish for them is to have 48 hours in a day—so they can study and make great music. We ended this round with a photo inspired by 廖貫棋.
Huge thanks to the admin team for running around and keeping everything in order, and to our generous supporter who captured all these beautiful photos. See you again in March 2025. :)
Nantou Competition
With the Nantou music competition, all the preliminary rounds for the schools I coach this year have officially wrapped. Compared to a few years ago when I was coaching more teams, this round felt much lighter and smoother in terms of workload and progress. But of course, what happens on stage—the performance quality and stability—is another story.
This time the competition was at Caotun Vocational High. The moment I arrived, I felt an odd wave of familiarity. It hit me later: this was the same venue where I led Erlun Junior High to the central regional finals a decade ago. We weren’t very strong back then—it was more like showing up for a healthy experience than aiming for any titles.
I’m glad I rode my ADV350 from Yunlin to Nantou this time. The route passed through quiet mountain towns, and for a moment I felt like I was cruising through the East Rift Valley. It brought a rare moment of peace amidst all the pressure I’ve been under lately. I hope I can keep doing this—riding between competitions, turning work into little getaways.
This time, I also brought along my dad’s Nikon FG-20 and paired it with an old 85mm f/1.8D lens I just picked up. I finally finished off that roll of ISO 400 film, capturing memories of the students on this stage full of nostalgia and meaning.
Big thanks to Hong-Ming and the school heads for organising everything for the kids, and to Yung Hui for her warm and gentle co-teaching—so I could play the “strict coach” when needed. And of course, thank you to the judges for their recognition and thoughtful feedback. We’ll do our best to shine in the finals!
