Just fixed up some soundproofing for church drums

Feels really really good.
Will take pictures on Sunday.

Now i wanna get those soundproofing shit also haha
$$$$

Time to make a wishlist!
Of things that just come to my head that i wanna buy

Wishlist:
-Soundproofing ($60 per panel) ($199 for vocal booth)
-Wireless system for instrument (cheap, $360) (expensive, $800 siao)
-Mics
-Midi controller
-New table

that's all for now.
i'm sure i can buy almost everything i think of haha

Tone!
Tone tone tone tone.

I like what I hear.
But i don't like what i hear directly.

I say that because when the amp's speaker is not aimed at my ears.
They sound really really good.
I really like my sound.

But recently, i found out why i've been getting terrible sounds in recording my guitar.

I just got my new Fender Blues Junior amplifier.
Really happy.
But I aimed the speaker at me at what i heard wasn't very satisfying.
However, upon standing up or sitting away i really liked what i was hearing.
I could achieve this by placing different mics differently to record.

But what about my tone?
It's very sharp when aimed at me.
Sometimes live it just fits in well.
But I find it too shrill a little.

Is it my fingers? Definitely.
Can it be solved?
Not sure, everywhere i go, the school's amplifier make me sound the way I sound.
Sharp and piercing.

Maybe that could apply to the way i talk also haha.

Aiya how.
Need to solve this problem.
It could be my picking hand that's causing a lot of extra sparkle in my playing.
It's reaaalllly bright sometimes i cannot take it.
Need to curb it.

Might get a eq pedal, i don't know.
But i want to make sure it's not my fingers that causes this.
Who knows this could be unique to me?
Like that sharp but harmonically rich guitar tone belongs to zai'en!
woohooo
yea hmmm

I can work that way too.

Sight-reading for perp class today.
Didn't manage to read.
Think brain was just plain lazy.

6 flats.
C#.
annoying lah. =(
IT'S NOT THAT I CAN'T READ!!!!!

anyway stressu liao
Gen Ed Crap makeup 10am-12noon Monday
REMT assignment
Songwriting assignment due by 23rd Nov
SYNC assignment due by god knows when

So they kicked us out and let us in.
My ego is still high. I'm quite confident we don't suck

Secret:
I can play barred F major and minor chords.
But I can't get the D string on the F7 to ring out properly

damnit

Having heard myself play recently.
I'm quite satisfied with tone.

Of course there's always this urge to want to buy new stuff and try.
But i'm really satisfied with my tone hahaha.
Just wanna try new stuff... ma.

Anyway,
not sure of how's my playing
definitely improved picking and speed wise.
But ideas?
A little.
Still quite cramped up there in my head.
Can play the things i'm hearing
but not the complex ones that i can airkeyboard and tap out.

Prac yes?

As usual,
I had great deal of fun performing at The Star Vista on monday and wednesday.
Today was my last set and it was very much enjoyable as the monday's set.

Monday's set...
I felt like i was nervous.
My solos and runs were rushed and the ideas were congested.
I was moving around a lot hahaha i like that.
Like crazy liddat.

Today's set
I felt like  I was nervous.
But I relaxed during my solos and managed to do one on the spot that I really liked!
Can't wait to watch the video.

I just got comments that my tone was good on monday (although i felt that my solo and technique was lacking). Thanks for the encouragement!
Really happy to hear that people like my tone. =3

Okay, I love the chemistry in this band.
We gotta work on stamina, i felt really tired towards the end.
It's only 8 songs.

Good job nonetheless!
Videos on youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhtVJ-IxHqE

Hope we can get more gigs and get this band out.

Serene improving in her english songs, yessssssssssssssssssss

So there was once I was told my solos sound too like me.

Repetitive? 

Saw it as a bad thing initially and tried to work it out.

And it turns out now that i see a little good in it.
I try expanding my vocabulary.
and i come back to the point,
i still sound like myself.

so is it a good thing?
probably.
it's my sound.

Just take my heart

Was learning Mr Big's Just take my heart.

Just the solo because the starting seemed so impossible.
Plucking urghh.

Then i was about to break for lunch when i realised i should watch how other people did it.
And then i realised i was playing the later half in the wrong octave.
And i don't have enough frets...
I only have 22, which is good enough.
But the song demands 24 haha.

Oh Paul Gilbert.

I can still try to do this solo
but it'll sound a lil horrible.

It's been getting annoying that people are rejecting gigs that are not paying.
I mean of course i would love to get paid.

They say that they had better gigs that paid.
Please tell me how often you get paid gigs?
I would be happy to play a gig somewhere.

A token of appreciation will do.

While it's another good thing that musicians demand to be paid for gigs.
I can't see why i shouldn't play if they're not paying.

Unless it's my job to play.

Gig over!

Kind of enjoyed playing with them and myself.
Although Serene and Tsao emceeing it was awkward.
Yes I like this band, we do have the chemistry.

How can you not love two keyboardists

Ya i enjoyed myself although it was a very buang gig.
But i hope none of the band members thought of it at the start as a buang gig because of all the stuff that has happened.

1- We're not paid
2- We have to carry our own audio equipment and our instruments
3- We have to set up everything and pack up everything on our own.

I'm not quite satisfied with 3.
They said i was the most hyper while performing
I thought i looked stupid, or would look stupid.
I really wasted all my energy that i'm so tired so i got a drink and sat down in the circle.

Then we got shouted at for slacking i suppose.

I mean ya la should help out.
But i tired leh, not a valid reason.
But i diva leh, not a valid reason.
What to do, suck thumb then just go help la.

I don't like all the negativity that happened while packing up.
What the hell man why the rage.
Relax la.

Then i was left alone to jaga some things...
Nevermind la.

I don't want to be angry at all this small things
I wanna be happy that i had fun at the gig,
laughing at all the screw ups.
I always thought that laughing would look so candid on video/pictures.

I think maybe it does help.

But i was really enjoying myself.

And what saved the day was probably that point 3 was half done and the musicians could go home straight from sentosa instead of returning to SP to pack. (sorry poor first batch boys)

am having nice supper now and looking forward to next gig!

Please don't rain!
I want to play my gig tmr =D
Yay so many gigs coming up.
Excited.

I think i'm going to audition for this local pub band.
Already got a list of 70 songs to prepare for audition.
Abit half half cause i want to make it with my own band members but yet I feel like trying.

Just try.

One of my favourite bands.
I will continue to be inspired by them and their music that evokes much emotion.
This is one the videos where the singer Van Tomiko actually pitched better live.
Her other live shows are quite terrible in my opinion, but that doesn't stop the music from being so powerful.

Recently,
I bought my studio monitors Yamaha HS80s from a fellow local musician.
He looked so familiar i thought he was from DMAT.
Turned out he knew many of my seniors.

Then after getting into his room i realised he was the winner of the eco music challenge 2011, Lee FengHeng.
And he got into Berklee too!

Poor guy auditioned twice and got in both times but without scholarship.
Like Bob said, not easy to get it.

Makes me wonder how good I must be to get it?
4 years later ya.

Time to start practicing every night like Billy.

I saw his band Afterhours online.
It's like after playing To The Max gig right, I suddenly see so many connections.

So many local musicians.

Well his band is playing at bars so often.
I wonder when am I going to get that chance with my fellow bandmates.

And which band to begin with?
i'm okay with both,
but i'm anal about the lineup.

Sigh I want to go out and play.

Want to play game.
Want to practice.
Want to do homework.

How ah how.
It's about the balance.

Well I really need to be more humble

Need to jam some more.
Urgh.

Everything sounded so nice in the rehearsal room.
Just felt so constricted at the auditions,
maybe it's the earplugs but i didn't feel the intensity of the music.

But it's too damn loud if i don't wear lolol.

Darn tired.
I want to practice.

Oh my, to think i was so full of myself that it was a A#dim7.
It's actually Fdim hahahah

Ah balancing work and school and life.
BLEAH.

Just finished charting i'm yours.
Quite fun actually, though it's 4 chord song.
Enjoyed doing it without a guitar until the funky chord came out.
Cannot, must take out already.

Initially i had in mind some diminished 7th chord thing.
Then i thought it was a F#dim7 or F#dim.
Then hearing carefully to the top note of the chord, it was a C#.
Then i just randomedly whacked a A#m7b5 and it sounded fine.

Then I listened carefully again at the end and realised it's a A#dim7.
Sigh that one note difference.
Need more ear training on that.

No time no time.
Hahaha excuses

While listening to great music,
it inspires me to start practicing.
Because i hear those awesome guitar tones,
and i want to hear my own tone shine
BECAUSE I LIKE MY HEARING MY TONE

I realised while tracking guitars I'm always ahead of the beat. It's kinda nicer when I lay back abit.

It's different for acoustic strumming though. Still very hard to do

I just wanted to take a break from music tonight.
But i have nowhere to go.
Raped by boredom.

Just finished tracking guitars yesterday. Glad to say I improved at timing issues. I'm surprised that I do hits fairly well but other normal playing
Not very well. I also took note of how long I should hold my notes

Should slap myself cause I didn't know a min7b5 is actually a halfdim

Annoyed at myself.
I got a few recording projects.
I just tried one that isn't school related and I already hear myself sounding like shit.

Simple pop song leh.
Maybe it's because I'm lacking ideas so my timing is very very irregular.
Cannot la. I want to be tight.

I realised if I know the song pretty well I shouldn't have problems with timing much. But what if I have to improvise haha...

So I got bored and I decided to do a cover to see where am I.
That wasn't very good! But I had fun. It mattered.
Usually I would have been a perfectionist but I let it slip this time so I can analyse it.

Annotations in the video!
I actually did the exact same song one year ago and it's on my other youtube channel which has a lot of copyright issues for doing covers -bummer-.

I'm not tight enough.
I'm also camera shy actually. It's kinda scary to video myself because it's when all the silly mistakes pop up. SIGH.
I should do more videos, then I can see how I improve and how much tighter I can get.
Tired la. A lot of things to do. 

this shit is awesome.

Who says playing with overdrive/distortion can't make you sound clean.
I want to prove somebody wrong.
I practice with overdrive/distortion sometimes.
Why?
Because I think i've come to the stage where I can hear the uncleanness of playing even with distortion.

it may sound easy to smoke through but i think i can tell now.
So i will continue practicing with my drive/dist cause i know when i sound unclean.
After all, i'll be lying to myself if i think i can play that passage nicely.
No point lying. No learning.

This holidays
-learn more chords (7 9 11 13)

Honestly i think i suck at all the fancy chords.
I don't know how to play a diminished triad in all 12 keys!
I know a diminished 7th, but i only know one voicing for it.
What is a Ab9.
I DON'T KNOW I NEED TO THINK.

How, cannot la like that.
How to be a good musician like that.
Cannot la.

This holidays,
try to work hard, despite having SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY THINGS TO DO.

Thanks for reading.
^^

I just finished playing and recording my sync piece.
Kinda satisfied with my guitar tone cause it's simulated...
and my lead playing isn't very on time ah, i should record more shit to hear myself out of time.
But it's getting late and i'm really tired because of work.

Work school school work work school.
Sigh.
So I attempted to rescue myself.
It should be a sin for a musician, really.

Am listening to Dream Theater's Outcry from their new album. Songs like this grow on me over a period of time rather than immediately. I wonder why and what would happen if I don't take the time to try to appreciate

Maybe they call it groove.
I wanna have it too.

Sometimes I wonder if playing really really in time sounds nice.

A little off somehow gels things together. Not very off. But it's hard to describe

Rhythm

I didn't play lead guitar today.
Kinda unusual cause so far in bands i've played with in dmat i've been the only guitarist.
So i played rhythm,
why,
cause i don't know the song very well, lead guitarist knows it better.
and of course, i like supporting him.

maybe sometimes i like to be in the background, quietly supporting the band.
rhythm guitarists are important too, if they can't keep time, the band would sound rather off.
we had some conflicts in the practice room when darren wanted me to play somemore and up my volume. But I said nah, and I only ended up playing the same parts for the outro.

woots.
Well I believe in creating space for everyone,
less is moar, so i shouldn't overplay. Mmm
Back it up.

PERP PERF1

Yeaaaaa it's over.
It was really draining,
came at 8.20am to roll things down the hill.
Roadie and did saikang.
Saikang is fun.
Everyone should do saikang so they learn.

It may seem crazy to be shouted at and whatever but yeah,
that's live sound.
Mic not working, what too loud, what too soft, engineer shouts at me, i have to get the job done.
Everything else comes after that.
Remember, no quite hard feelings especially since it's ryan i know <3<3

GAHAHA.

Being the first band must have been hard for Beth.
I have yet to experience playing the opening and feeling really good about my band.
Somehow things are just very different from being the closing band.

And yes,
what could have went wrong went wrong.
But i'm glad we fixed them (quickly hopefully).
Gigging live is fun and tiring, depending on what you're doing la.
I mean it can be draining even if you're only performing, enjoying yourself.
Well i had to do saikang and perform ahhaha. Challenging myself.

ONCE AGAIN, IT WAS TIRING AND FUN.
 Can't wait to see the videos!

Well for my own band, the last time we practiced was on friday.
And today is tuesday, it's been 3 days plus since we last played together.
Not sure if ryan soundchecked his bass, but after the guitar solo intro
his bass just dipped down, kinda lost some impact... but i turned it up yay.
Most of us were probably nervous.
I was excited to see what we can pull off after not playing for 3 days.
Turned out fine, form and everything.
Abit scary though, to just go up and bam.
Didn't have much warmup.
Honestly, my fingers were really foreign to my guitar when i was backstage.
Somehow.
It felt bad because i couldn't lock in. (nervous prolly)
But well, yay, good enough!

I think tsao has a lot to say about him losing volume in his guitar solo.

Haha well all the best to all of you in this learning journey.

oh and joan said i was cute performing like how i played, weetweet. =3

Tomorrow's the day!
If you've practiced enough with your band,
any additional practice may not be good.

Just relax they say, it will be easy they say.
Hahaha.

Everyone's gonna panic when things go wrong.
I hope nothing goes wrong but usually it's the case, thanks murphy...

Just enjoy making music with your band.
MAKE MUSIC.
Enjoy the performance.

Just had guitar lesson.
Inspired to move out of the 'comfort zone'

but it won't look or sound good if i move out of comfort zone while not keeping time...
then if i manage to achieve something,
isn't that my new comfort zone?
=O

why does anthony not sound tight to me when he is demo-ing. is there something wrong with me?

omg what is this awesum music that Varian just played in theory class the other day omgggggggg
why wasn't I brought up with these kinda stuff.
Soooo nice.

Don't flame me la, i don't listen to many awesome bands other than know they're awesome.

IMBA SAX SOLO

Just had performance...
12 to 2.30...
and it passed so quickly.

it must have been enjoyable hahaha.
Maybe they should put 4 hours for performance muahahha

So i did a cover of a song I used to do.
And the same thing happened,
copyright issues.
sigh youtube..

Went out with some boys to penin today..

and i realised,
that,
i spent 1.6k + on my pedalboard.

WHY SO MUCH you may say.
No i'm not those tone cocksuckers.
I buy only what i need,
i don't buy every single pedal in the universe...

Don't get me wrong, it's not wrong to buy gear,
but i think it's wrong when people start to say how an expensive pedal makes them sound nicer, like how this rings out more and stuff.

Well it's quite ironic because that's my reason for getting gear.
Dunno la, very hard to explain this.

Well just trust your ears.
Well whatever la, if you got the money i got nothing to say also.
I saved my money for my gear.

And with all these gear but without the fingers, it's still kinda useless ah.

So far.. nobody has disagreed with me on how my gear doesn't sound good =3
it's like i tell them i bought it because ________ and really it's because it's _________.
Yay

Today's musicianship...

Wah today's musicianship.
Brought the gear but never got to use it.
Guess full suit on friday then..

Ya that band practice exercise is really good.
Makes me feel like i have so much more to work towards,
which is always true for everyone..

How, work harder lo.

Long overdue but..

Was supposed to post this last wed after my first ever rock concert
DREAM THEATERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Yes it was awesome.
and it was really loud too,
In a bad way.
I thought i could convince my ears to adapt to the loudness but apparently not.
And the mix suddenly became so nice when i had my earplugs on.

A few years ago, being brought up not knowing any rock/metal bands, I was introduced to DT by my friends. And it sounded really 'evil', 'loud', 'noisy' initially.
But many years have passed and I have since been able to appreciate that kind of music and their musicianship.
I love them now!
I'm already addicted to the odd time feels and fast passages.

They encountered a technical problem on stage last wednesday, when their IEM system broke down completely. They played a song before going into a short break to fix the problem. And they were good considering how difficult their songs are.

"that's why, you must practice practice practice" says John Petrucci.

James LaBrie is really good live, despite the all-time funny comments about DT's singer. He kinda died a little in the 3rd or 4th song, well not sure if i can blame him but it's hard for him to sustain at that level of performance.

Somehow, I wasn't very impressed by the band.
Maybe it was the mix,
there wasn't any flashy stuff I heard from them. Like, oh that fast riffing and shredding, it's normal now.

Their new drummer, Mike Mangini, IS AWESOME. HE IS DARN SOLID.
His drum solo was just mind-blowing and nuff said.
But i'm sure musicians could pick out some parts where he was a little little little sloppy or wasn't being focused, which was still good enough.. i think.

I was totally rocking out to On The Back of Angels and Breaking All Illusions.
Really, the feel is really really good.

I brought szemin to DT too.
She said she wanted to experience my first rock concert with me hahaha.
But well, she found it to be noisy and scary.
Aiya...

Well here's 2 pics from my phone.

Well yeah.. the cheapest seats with loud sound.
Did i mention,
ANDY MCKEE OPENED.
AND DAMNNN HE'S SO GOOD TOO.

But but but,
people weren't observing concert etiquette, like they wanna see dream theater and they kind of showed disrespect when he kept playing more songs.
I would agree that his songs are hard to sustain the crowd because they kinda sound the same,
his songs lose the charm and wow factor easily i would say...

the stupid thing was,
after andy's last song, he played a motif of DT's song.
Then he stopped.
And the lights in the hall turned on for a short intermission.

SERIOUSLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?
we were like getting into the mood already.
Sigh.

Then the cloth came up to reveal the drums during the break.
It was massive massive.
I have no pictures because i sit so far away and my phone lousy la =(
Hung and Ryan took some pictures yeahhhhhhhhhhh

yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa DT.
Concert inspired me to start working on my guitar..

which i did this morning,
recorded the video for PERP.
But but,
it's very meh.
Like i'm camera shy or something.
I recorded myself playing to a click,
spider chromatic scale and string skipping arpeggios.
I wasn't on the beat, but I didn't stray away too.
Sigh my note picking was very uneven, even with my compressor pedal on (compression ratio not high).
DOESN'T MATTER,
speaks a lot about my playing in front of a camera and in front of a crowd.
Think i'll perform better with a crowd, heh.
Well no excuses,
work harder.

Just finished doing charts for MUST2.
I'm not doing it because i have to do it. (okay partly so it motivates me to work my butt off)
But acshully, i'm really enjoying doing such things.
Which is plainly why I call music the love of my life.
Well I happen to share this love with certain people.
And it's written and composed into a very long sheet known as the score of my life.


Picking up my guitar is really addictive.
I don't call it practice really, it's like noodling, but yet i'm conscious of what i'm playing and how I should stop playing this way or that way, or how i should improve.
And this results in an unexpected 2-3 hour practice usually.
Now, i call this real practice for myself. Why?
because i'm not pulling myself to pick up the guitar and practice scales for 4 hours straight.
Scales are essential for fingerwork and dexterity.
But really? 4 hours?
I wouldn't do that.
I'm trying to practise this active practicing now.
Self-analytical prac.

Heh i really love my guitar.
I mean everytime i pick it up, it feels so good that i keep playing.
It's really important to bond with one's instrument. So I love my guitar, my guitar loves me, and it results in great tone too.
Yes i try not to spend so much money on gear, but really, i'm diggin' my tone in most places i go to. With unexpected amps and stuff.
My fingers do the magic but the gear really is a stepping stone to my seeming consistency in tone.
I realised I don't play very well on tsao's guitar.
Or most people's guitar.
Man, i'm really bonded with my tele <3.

Anyway, here's the score that I did.
My all time favourite band Do as Infinity. Chanced upon them. Loving their style of music.
It's starting to come out of my playing and composing.

There, the chords are pretty simple. But the modulation tools used are really woah.
Explaining would be more difficult, but hearing it is a really nice.
I had a hard time finding the C7sus4. I knew it was C majorish thing, but i didn't know what it was.
I had to google a piano cover of it.
Ended up on youtube watching this account that advertise their paid online piano scores.
The player played and I listened, and the notes came out with the help of Logic, I got C7sus4.
You won't see that chord in everyday use. I don't want to see it in everyday use too, wanna preserve some magic it has.

While waiting for an exciting Man U vs Man City match.
I shall do some work for the love of my life - music.

Helloooo (think esta)

Neh.
My mac's HDD crashed. Sigh.
Currently stealing people's laptops to do work.

And so this shall be the inception of my online music diary for PERP and MUST2
Herpderpperp.