Friday, May 28, 2004

Intense Gaming

Well...doing some serious gaming for the pass 2 days.....next week some serious woodshedding than back to Sg and than....hmmm....well.... who cares!?!?!?!?!?

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Finally It has ended

I think I'm gonna rest for the rest of this week, enjoy playing D2 and c whats gonna happen...

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Blaming Me?

WTF man, I messed up on this one tune and I'm not denying that I messsed up, I even said sorry to my band members. But this one F***er actually blamed me?!?!?!I think that if he did indeed came to practice and took the time to practice, he would actually knew when he should be playing and what he should be playing.

At the very start of the song, I acutally slowed down thus cuzing the whole band to slow down, guess I was kinda nervous but the problem is that's only at the starting I actually have to repeat the whole song twice b4 taht fella is suppose to come in and I only mess up the first couple of bars and he actually went and said that if I did not mess up on the first couple of bars, he would have knew when he is suppose to come in....

My q is if he actually practice, he would know where the hell we are cuz he's the only person who was lost.... do bear in mind that I only messed up the first couple of bars and the rest of the song especially the 2nd time when I repeat I was doing fine,he actually had the guts to blame me, btw did I mentioned that he did not came to practice for almost 2 months????

What's the damn world coming too?

Monday, May 24, 2004

Soon

Couple of hours more till I let loose....probably won't happen cuz my teachers say I'm always too uptight when performing....guess that's y Eric Johnson's my idol, he look really uptight as opposed to someone like say Vai.


Wish me luck, Yo

Exams 2morrow

Well what more can I say....practice.....

C-ya'll real soon

Sunday, May 23, 2004

IBX in SG

First up kudos to the bands that played. 2nd of all I checked out some of the clips from from SOFT

2nd part, guess I'm gonna be a music police....this is straightly from a musician's point of view, no hatred or trying to put down anybody here.

First of all, I believe that if there's gonna be a vocalist, than the vocalist is of vital importance because s/he will be holding the melody and the rest of the band will only be backing up the vocalist, therefore if the damn vocalist can't keep pitch(unless if its like a nu-metal when the vocalist is rapping and not doing much singing or the band is like a black metal band) no matter how strong or tight the band is, it will still sound like crap. Apparently some of the vocalist can't keep pitch, especially when going up higher or lower, they seem to not be able to hit the note correctly, it is also important to choose a key that the vocalist is comfortable singing in. Btw juz for your info, if ya listen to screamers like Slayer, Sepultura although unbeliveable they do scream in pitch.....

Next up, I notice on some of the videos when ya'll are doing solos, its a bit hard to hear, what might help is to use some sort of pedal to boost your volume, so when you are taking a solo boost it, that way the audience will be able to hear you, on stage you might think its loud but off the stage its totally different. Or the other way, which I dun prefer to do cuz its not the best way is to use your volume knob, set up so that your guitar volume is say around 5 or 6 and when taking a solo turn up to 9 - 10.

Last part, I will talk about is the drums and bass, they are the back bone of the band, if they dun play well, the whole band will fail. Drums and bass muz be really tight, not some thingI can see(or rather hear). And defintely keep time, the drums muz be rock solid like a drum machine, ok I know we are humans and probably will make mistake but try to be as solid as possible

Over and out
Long ranting sorry bout that

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Custom Quote for Guitar

You know lots of my friends at my college are buying custom made guitars from the states or some sort of historic model or special edition model and stuff like that, cost? At least 5000USD and above, most probably around the price of 7500USD, I couldn't help it but try getting a custom quote(although I won't be buying it), 5500USD.

Well at least it makes me a little happy I guess....

Friday, May 21, 2004

Spam?

You guys know, its so damn annoying that I keeping getting spam on my Yahoo account, ah...the spam filter on Yahoo is pretty good, up till know somehow the spammers have gotten around it, hopefully they will be able to resolve this problem soon

Thursday, May 20, 2004

BlackOut

There was a blackout last night, no electricity for bout 2 hrs in the whole area. I live pretty high up and when I looked out of my window, I could c quite clearly the candles and torchlight being shone in the apartments. This kinda reminded me of my military days, when we were doing "war games" in the jungle, there will be a no light, no noise rule, basically we are like ghosts.

Since I live in the city, its actually quite bright and I could see the lights so clearly, if it was in the jungle it will be even clearer and probably this people would have been dead.

Did I mention that its my birthday on the 18th?

Monday, May 17, 2004

Musician's Favorite Class

Ear Training....Man I'm telling you this has gotta be the musician's most FEARED class. Thank GOD, I'm doing the last level of this class next term(There are 4 levels, Ear Training 1, 2, 3, 4)

Although I really dislike this class, I muz admit that my ET has improved alot. I can actually hear progressions and stuff although not all the time, I can really feel(hear) the difference.

I realize that I'm actually able to analyze the songs I'm hearing like what form, when the modulation is, what kind of technique(not as in picking or legato kind) but like hey, there's a sequence going on, or there's a pedal tone going on or whatever.

I guess going to a music college is really making a difference.

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Is There Love In Space?

Yap that's right Satch's new ablum....finally I got it like one month after it's been release.

Well somehow it feels slightly different I dun know its seems to me that theres a strong rhythmn guitar presence and the bass is not as obvious(????) I mean when Stu Hamm was playing bass, there's always a very strong bass groove going on, almost like if the bass is holding the whole rhythmn and groove where else on this ablum the bass is not standing out as much and there's a lot of stronger, hard rocking guitar grooves. Usually Satch would have a synth type of sound in the rhythmn section as well.

Overall I dun dig this ablum as much usually on most Satch ablum there will be like one or two songs sometimes even more that catches my ear but this ablum, I've yet to find one song that I really dig, I do like Souls of Distortion, I like the Rain(Reminds me of the Wild Wild West....dun know y picture I get is a cowboy.)The tone is Searching is really unique, very futuristic.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

Have I found the answer to my problem?

You know what I talked about yesterday...well I might have found an answer to my problem...juz picked up a copy of the newest Guitar World today (July 04 issue) The article is real long!!! So I won't type out everything anyway here we go:

Guitar World by Jimmy Brown, Music Editor
Findin the Path of Least Resistance
I used to do things teh hard way. When I was a young man studying jazz guitar in college, I went through a period of several years during which I was obssesed with alternate (down-up) picking and being able to "muscle through" the most diffcult picking patterns......Much of these precious hours spent in the prime years of my life turned out to be a profound waste of time and energy.


Well basically the article is talkin bout being smart in choosing how you would play a lick or whatever in a more comfortable way for you fretting and picking hand.

A very enlightening article...I'm indeed going the wrong way...its good that by being in college, I dun have as much time to carry on with this insanity of down-up down-up madness.

Anyway there are lots of good pratice tips in this issue of GW by professors from establish music schools, like Berklee, GIT and advice from guitarists like Zakk Wylde, Satch and Petrucci

Great Issue

Over and Out

Friday, May 14, 2004

Tone?

Will I ever find my holy grail?

After comparing my tone to the likes of Jeff Beck...Eric Johnson....Coltrane....I feel so ashamed. Their tones are so smooth, and fat and relax....marks of a professional...Something I can't get and sometimes its so frustrating...I sound so thin and I dun know how to even describe other than shitty....

Missing Classes

You know I try not to miss classes/practices but there are juz those people who juz would not come. There's this one kid who was informed by 2 of us that there's practice, he did not show up and yet when we saw him couple of days later and confronted him, he actually said what there's practice....man what the fuck....it is so damn hard to come for practice?

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Vai Live In Singapore

Steve Vai is gonna be performing in Singapore and hopefully it won't be cancelled like the Satch and Dream Theater Concert couple of months back....

This has to be the best news this year if it doesn't get cancelled its soon damn fucking common to have rock concerts gettting cancelled all the time now a days to add to the list Limp Bizkit cancelled too (not a fan)

Makes me feel like I gotta woodshed....lol

what a idiot

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

William Hung

He has gotta be the hottest topic right now....Nothing against him....juz that he aint the best singer or dancer in the world and I can't do any of the above as well yet and I defintely won't have the guts to audition for American Idol.

But from a musician's point of view and juz like what he said on National TV...I dun have any professional training and I'm pretty sure he is gonna be able to make more money(and gain lots of fame) than alot of other REAL musician who might have spend the past ten, twenty years perfecting their craft.

I'm not dissing William Hung but I guess this is the Cold Hard Truth.

Hell....how many of ya'll out there knows who Shawn Lane is? He's a great fusion jazz rock guitarist yet not many people know him but someone like Hung is so damn big....

Can't blame anyone though....its juz the way the business work.

New Site for my Blog

You know the other blog that I've is not really that great...no names though....so I'm gonna move here

Finally

Finally I know which songs I'm gonna be playing...we get 5 songs to learn but we won't know which songs we are gonna be graded on till like 1 week b4 the exam....

Time to make some noise :-)