Satriani vs Coldplay

A lot of interesting things happen in today's music scene, some downright silly and some worthy of taking note. One of those would be the:

Joe Satriani vs Coldplay Lawsuit

It seems that Joe Satriani has sued Coldplay for copyright infringement/plagiarism of his work. Coldplay's grammy nominated song, Viva La Vida allegedly contains "substantial, original portions" of Satriani's 2004 song, If I Could Fly.

I personally have listened to both songs, and it really struck me how the chorus of Satriani's song and the melody of Viva La Vida are VERY ALIKE. Coldplay claims it is coincidence, however Satriani does not seem to think so. Listen to the song mash-up below:

It begs the question, did Coldplay really plagiarise the song? I find it hard to believe that such a bestselling band, which had already written dozens of great songs would resort to copying the work of another artist.

I guess in music there's always a limit to creativity; in the sense that from the time music was first played until now, there will songs which would have similarities. You might think you created something new, but if you look back hard enough or far enough, there will probably be another musician who has written something which sounds the same.

Another example of a similar tune would be Avril Lavigne's song "Hot" and Marion Raven's song "Break You".

That's just my 2 cents. Maybe one day I'll come up with a drum solo which Joey Jordison will sue me for plagiarism. Lol. Will be keeping close tab on the updates of this case.






On a different note, I seem listening to this song a lot of late:

Song recommendation of the day:
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name

The clock never stops ticking.

It has been sometime since my last post, not counting the tag. This semester seems to be passing at lightning fast speed, not giving me any time for a proper breather. Tests, assignments, lab reports. Everything within the month of December. And in January, my finals will begin.

Guess I still prefer short semesters compared to long ones, cos at least it seems to end really fast. However, as this semester ends, I've got to prepare to begin another stage in my life; living on my own in KL. Of course I'll be with friends but it most likely will not be same as the pampered life back in Penang. Somehow or rather, I've been having mixed feelings about leaving. Excitement and dread. Excited about being in a whole new environment and exploring new things, while dreading being away from home, family and dog. Guess I'll still come back a few times a year.

But overall, I've been too occupied to let my mind dwell on what's to come. Right now I've got 2 assignments with back to back datelines and a test tomorrow. Plus the music studio proposal has just been submitted to the SAO (Students' Affairs Officer).

Yes, my friend, Chinway and I are planning to turn the SRC room into a mini music studio. Something to mark our place in the college. And of course where we could come back and jam for free once we've left the college. Hopefully we'll get the thumbs up from the college administrators and we can begin turning that dump of a room into a studio.

Seems I've got so much to do and so little time. But I'm sure as hell everything will be over before i know it.


Gotta get back to work. Till then...


Song Recommendation Of The Day:
Steve Vai - The Audience is Listening

The First Tag

The title says it all.

RULES:

1. People who have been tagged must write their answers on their blogs and replace any question that they dislike with a new question formulated by themselves.

2. Tag 6 people to do this quiz and those who are tagged cannot refuse. These people must state who they were tagged by and cannot tag the person whom they were tagged by continue this game by sending it to other people.

Tagged by: Tung Chinway


1. If your lover betrayed you, what will your reaction be? take revenge?
I'd leave her. Period.

2. If you can have a dream to come true, what would it be?
Lottery, sports cars baybeh..

3. What is the criteria for your dream lover?
A younger version of Angelina Jolie. Girls with tattoos : Yummy

4. Do you think that the importance of excelling in studies is over-rated? Do grades guarantee success? OR is good grades a must in the competitive society that we are currently living in?
Grades do not guarantee success. That is a sure thing. It's how you get through in life and the passion you have for something which makes you strive to do your best.

5. If you have kids (now or in the future) would you say that your kids are an investment or a responsibility or an asset?
Kids are assets. Who's going to take care of you when you're old if not your kids. They will be your legacy you leave behind.


6. Which is more blessed, loving someone or being loved by someone?
Being loved.


7. How long do you intend to wait for someone you really love?
I've waited years before. Will not do that again.


8. If the person you secretly like is already attached, what would you do?
If I really am into her, and her other half isn't a friend of mine then it's time to take some action. Yes I'm selfish. Hey, if she ain't married, she doesn't belong to you yet.


9. Do you think the world would be better off if everyone has the same religion/ethnicity/ etc?
Doesn't matter to me. As long as everyone would stop killing one another in the name of religion. Because no religion promotes killing. Unless you count satanism as a religion.


10. You see a 50 year old man entwine arms with a girl about the age of 20+ and find out they are gf/bf. What are your first thoughts?
DAMN I NEED YOUR SKILLS.

11. How would you see yourself in ten years time?
Rich, hot babe, hot car.

12. What's your fear?
Bugs. Crunchy ones.

13. What's the first thing you do when you wake up?
Curse my alarm.


14. Would you give all in a relationship?
No. Unless I'm very sure that it is something that will work.

15. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
It is not possible to fall in love with two people simultaneously. That is what I think.

16. Would you forgive and forget no matter how horrible a thing the someone has done?
It depends on how horrible the matter is. If you scratched my car, doesn't matter. You hurt my friends, dog or family, I'll kill you. Lol.


17.Do you prefer being single or having a relationship?
Doesn't really matter to me.

18. If you had a terrible past would you still dwell it in and blame the world for what they have done to you or get over it?
I'll do what I usually tell people. Get over it.



I'm gonna tag:
a) Ng Chiew Tsing
b) Ee Yin


Song recommendation of the day:
Kirisute Gomen - Trivium

Back to the daily grind..

College has started again unfortunately. The holidays just flew by and I didn't even notice. But then again, don't we all. Holidays and breaks are never enough. And sure enough, as I predicted, I failed to live up to what I planned to do during the 3 week break.

Things I've done:

1. Get MUET done with.
2. Watch Avenged Sevenfold in Singapore.
3. Watch Tropic Thunder

Wow, only three out of the eleven I listed down quite some time ago. Guess I'm always like this. Gah.. Oh well... Pretty much spent my entire break rotting away at home, in front of the computer most of the time. Seriously not healthy, but I did get a good rest.

And oh, go watch Tropic Thunder, it's hilarious.

Recently, I've been in a weird mood, watching a lot of sob stories and romantic comedies. I mean, Kit Leong was shoving in my face Saw V and this movie about some hot japanese chick running around killing zombies and I wasn't remotely interested to watch them. So far I've watched "What Women Want" and "Must Love Dogs".. What Women Want is a superb movie, though it's an old one. Perfect date movie (hint to all the guys who want to find movies to watch with their girls at home).

Besides that, I got my results for my previous semester, though it's only the grades. Hope to find out the GPA by tomorrow.

Accounting, Economics and Management : A-
Analog and Digital Communication : A-
Circuit and Signals : A-
Microprocessor and Microcontroller Systems: A-
Maths III : A

Electromagnetic theory: C

Besides the last subject mentioned, I pretty much had a good semester.

Hopefully my GPA wil be higher than Chinway's, then it's off to TAO for my treat. Hah!


Song recommendation of the day:
I'm a bitch : Meredith Brooks


p.s: I just can't get enough of mayo.

...and it all ends with a bang.

After 3 weeks of waiting, it's finally over. I've seen them live, seen them rock the stage and now I'm back home. Hard to believe that now I actually can tell people that I've seen one of my favourite bands performing LIVE. And believe me, it was not disappointing. So anyway, a quick recap of everything that happened:

Friday (24th October 2008):

Yes, it was my first time traveling alone. After being dropped off at the airport, took me a while to figure out which counter to check in. Actually stood there for a few minutes, scanning counter by counter to see which one I could go to before I finally found it. The officer wasn't too friendly.

I arrived at Changi Airport at around 2.15pm. Went to meet Kit Leong, Derrick and Ee Yin at Temasek Poly. I had to take a cab to get there, and while trying to get one, whistles were blown at me by the taxi stand operator cos I crossed some dumb yellow line. Geez...





Got to Temasek Poly in no time. The taxi driver was kind enough to share with me his thoughts on Geylang (Singapore's red light district). And no, I didn't start that conversation. Met derrick and Kit Leong at the Temasek Poly bus station but no sight of Ee Yin. Seems that she was busy.


We walked to some coffeeshop for a late lunch. Had char siew rice there. It costs double our char siew rice in Penang due to exchange rate but who cares I was hungry.

If you observe carefully you can see Kit Leong's nose hairs.

A quick bus trip got us to Derrick's apartment. It was around 4 something, and I wanted to be there early for the concert since it was free standing. Kit and I went to 7/11 to get some bread in case we got hungry and hopped on a cab to get to the Singapore Expo for the concert.

Derrick's apartment.

Kit Leong smiling with a pedo look at the little kids in the playground.


Outside the concert hall.

The concert supposed to start at 8pm. Kit Leong and I arrived at 4.30. We thought we were early. We were wrong.

A throng of black clad fans were already there. 90% of them had the words "Avenged Sevenfold" plastered across their chests. I happened to be wearing red and I really felt out of place. I was like, "Damn we need Avenged Sevenfold shirts". So we scouted the entire area for a merchandise store or stand. Walked for 30 mins, but there weren't any. So we went back to the sea of black and took a seat.



There were many doors at the expo. We took a chance and chose one in the middle. Suddenly we could hear a shout, and everyone was getting up rushing to the end of the pavilion. Needless to say, Kit and I followed suit, half running. And soon we were stuck jammed up between people. I was backed up on all four sides by guys. Kit had a better time though, he had this cute girl stuck in front of him.

Barely had space to lift my arms to take pictures.

Then the UBER long wait began. From 5 o'clock, we stood in the mass of people, breathing in cigarette smoke and the smell of sweat. Not pleasant I assure you. Of course there was some entertainment to pass the time. Like people fightning:


One of them actually landed a flying kick on the other. Hilarious. The police came and arrested the one who started the fight. A waste of a good concert ticket.

So time passed really slowly, the tension was mounting among the restless fans. Everyone started shouting in unison "Why are we waiting" from time to time. When we could hear Avenged Sevenfold having their soundcheck inside the hall, everyone started shouting and screaming, pushing and shoving. Then everyone started chanting "Sevenfold, sevenfold, sevenfold". It was amazing to be amongst people who all enjoy and have the same passion for the same music as you. Certain people started singing Avenged Sevenfold songs and everyone actually followed suit, including me. So in the end, actually it wasn't really bad getting stuck outside for 3 hours. It really built up the excitement.

Was supposed to meet Jian Wei, but he arrived late. Therefore, he was obstructed by the human wall which stretched all the way back.

Red faced from all the heat.

When the door FINALLY opened, everyone started pushing as expected. And this was where my small frame was put to good use. I managed to worm myself between people and got in before Kit Leong did.

Getting pass security. Running through the open doors. The cold blast of air conditioning. Dashing in together with the rest of the fans. And we were greeted with the sight of the stage. A magnificent backdrop of a skull with wings, the trademark of Avenged Sevenfold. I could not put it in words, how I felt at that moment. I knew that I would be seeing them on stage. Finally...

Ahhh the beauty.

Soaked in sweat but hyped up for what's to come.

Kit Leong got in like 5 minutes later. Then we tried to make our way nearer to the stage by squeezing. Managed to get in quite a bit, but it got very crowded as we moved towards the stage. Didn't really matter to me.

At 8pm, some red-clad people jumped on stage. I was like "Hey wtf that's no Avenged Sevenfold". Everyone started pushing and we were practically crushed between people. The band started playing some heavy metal music and the crowd went wild. Everyone was pushing jumping around. There was even this guy behind kit and I trying to start a mosh pit. Everyone was falling and tumbling so I quickly kept my camera in the bag.

It took everyone quite some time to realise that it was only a local band on stage. Which was dumb really. Then everyone cooled down, shouting to one another "Don't push, local band only". That was really funny. The band was supposed to be some winner of a band competition called Superbands or something. They weren't that bad actually, but I didn't pay money to see them take up Avenged Sevenfold's play time.

Pardon the shaky and blur pictures, it was hard to take with all the pushing.

The vocalist's growling vocals was quite good.

The fans practically boo-ed them off stage by chanting "Avenged Sevenfold" after every song they played. When they said they had a few more songs, the crowd actually roared with disappointment.

They took up 30 mins of performance. And after that, we had to wait AGAIN. But this time tension was really mounting up, we could see drum technicians replacing the local band's drumset with the Rev's drums. With the Death Bat on both bass drums. (Death Bat is their logo). The technician was tuning the drums, and some people actually thought he was the Rev. As usual, pushing ensued everytime he hit the drums.

Yes it's only the technician.

I was getting really restless, so were the rest of the fans. It was almost 9, and still no sight of the band. I was halfway complaining, and suddenly something happened.

The entire concert hall went pitch black.

.

.

.

Silhouettes of people running on-stage.




.




.




.




And the sound of scales being played on the electric guitar.

The crowd went crazy. Screaming and jumping. Putting their hands into the air, as organ music filled the hall. It was the introduction to the song Critical Acclaim.

And the lights went on, and there they were.













AVENGED SEVENFOLD

Everyone started singing in unison with M. Shadows. It was unbelievable. I could see their faces clearly. Every single one of them. It had to be one of the best moments of my life.

Some white kids started a mosh pit right in front of us. The crowd was insane but now totally focused on the band on stage. No more pushing. Just singing.

M. Shadows was in his peak condition, singing each note, performing each scream.

Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates playing a solo.

Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates playing a solo.

M. Shadows

Zacky Vengeance

Synyster Gates

The Rev (he was too far away for a good picture)

Johnny Christ

They were flawless, each note, each solo and even the backing vocals. They were awesome.

The songs they played (not in order) included:
a) Critical Acclaim
b) Almost Easy
c) Afterlife
d) Gunslinger
e) Beast and the Harlot
f) Unholy Confessions
g) Seize the Day
h) Bat Country
g) Scream
h) A Little Piece of Heaven (encore)

They were all songs that I knew. Kit didn't know the lyrics to some of the older songs though. Plus he was feeling dizzy. I was the one who was jumping, singing each song with the rest of the fans. I can remember M. Shadows addressing the fans, saying that they've out-sold Kanye West in tickets.

The encore song, as expected was A Little Piece of Heaven. I can still remember clearly, when we all chanted in unison:

Must have stabbed her 50 fucking times, I can't believe it, Ripped her heart out right before her eyes, Eyes over easy, Eat it, eat it, eat it.

Kit Leong and I in the crowd.

For me it ended too soon. But then again, I was satisfied. Avenged Sevenfold exited the stage with the sound of applause.


Got my brother his birthday present on the way out. The Diamonds in the Rough DVD-CD set. Met up with Jian Wei for a short while and got his signed drawings which he promised.

Outside the concert hall.

Kit, Jian Wei (the pro artist) and I.

After parting ways with JW, Kit and I took a taxi back to Derrick's place to shower. The taxi we took was a Mercedes. Imagine that. After a quick shower, we had supper and hung out at the reservoir nearby. I really needed to relax and get some fresh air, after standing for over 5 hours breathing in cigarrette smoke. My neck was sore from the headbanging, and so was my feet from all the jumping. It felt good just sitting down doing nothing. I knew that the next day, my neck was going to hurt even worse, but it was worth it, I had a great time.


Saturday (25th October 2008):

We got back to derrick's place around 3. Kit and I slept had on the floor. But all I needed was a pillow and I slept through the night. That's how exhausted I was. Kit couldn't sleep though, had a harder time waking up the next day.

So after packing and stuff, we made our way to Botak Jones for lunch, which Derrick claimed had good western food. And he was goddamn right. It took 20 minutes to walk there, but the food was worth the walk. They had a weird menu, where the owner would describe each of the dishes in his own words. Some were hillarious.

Had a "Botak Burger". Was worried that it would be the Ramli Burger size, but it turns out that the meat patty was uber huge. Luckily, I didn't order the double or triple burger or I would have died.

No idea what Kit is trying to do to Derrick, and I don't wanna know.

Derrick with his fighter face.

The aftermath.

Botak Jones

After lunch, we saw Kit off on the taxi (he still owes me 10 sgd), and made our way to Temasek Poly again to meet Ee Yin. Both Derrick and Ee Yin sent me off to the airport. Ee Yin wanted to go to Terminal 3, so we made our way there.

Changi Airport

Walking around Terminal 3.

Just had to put this picture up LOL.

Took this because Ee Yin said it was nice.

Our reflection in the aerotrain.

We made our way to the immigration gate and said our goodbyes.

Ee Yin and I.

Derrick (fighter face again) and I.

And that was the end of my trip. It was a great experience which was worth the trip there, worth the 3 hour wait in line, and worth the ensuing neckache. Avenged Sevenfold has set the standard for me of how live performances should be. And I'm pretty sure it's going to be pretty hard to beat.

Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. My parents, for sponsoring it and Derrick for the free accommodation; I'll return the favor when you're in Penang.

Will upload the vids I took at the concert in Facebook soon.

Song recommendation of the day:
Avenged Sevenfold - Girl I Know

I'm leaving on a jet plane..

After WEEKS of waiting and anticipating, I'm finally going to leave for Singapore TOMORROW.

I still can't really believe that I'm going to watch Avenged Sevenfold perform live. I know it will be superb; M. Shadows' vocals, Synyster Gates' guitar solos, the Rev's awesome drumming, Zacky Vengeance's outrageous on-stage tuxedos and Johnny Christ on bass.


And oh, I NEED THEIR MERCHANDISE. They better be selling (hopefully not too expensive).


Besides that will be meeting up with some friends, Derrick, Jian Wei, and hopefully Ee Yin (I don't care you better make time for me!). Will be putting up at Derrick's for the night. Should be a good trip..


Will be putting up pictures when I get back. For you jealous people to drool on. Hah!


Song reccomendation of the day:
Sarah Mclachlan - Song for a Winter's Night

...and it's over as soon as it had begun

Today was the last day of the paper. Hooray for me... Didn't really explode with joy as I have actually started relaxing a few days before.. But then again, it's over! Grueling 2 weeks of stress and studying. Can never get used to it. But after it's done, it always feels good. Except dreading that e-mail from Mr. Taiff about who failed and who got borderline for the exams..

*crosses fingers for electromagnetic theory*

Anyway, after-exam celebration consisted of a usual movie with the rest of the class, and this time, bowling! Watched Max Payne which just came out. Played the game a long time ago, so I was pretty excited about it. But it turns out to be rather disappointing, as the plot twisted and turned too fast for most people to understand. Slow motion sequences were cool. So were the valkyries.. But most of the time the plot didn't make much sense.

However, Mila Kunis did star in the movie as Mona Sax (female assasin, wooooooooooooo).. So that pretty much made the movie much better for me.

H-O-T

So okay, enough of that...


The question I have to ask myself now is:

"What am I gonna do now?"

Well, among the current plans I have in mind (some suggested by friends):

1. Get MUET over with.
2. Watch Avenged Sevenfold kick ass in Singapore. (rob Derrick Say)
3. Practice drums at least 2 hours a day.
4. Work out twice a week.
5. Continue drum lessons at the House of Drums.
6. Paintball.
7. Ipoh Trip.
8. Water sports at Jerjak.
9. Hiking and visit Pantai Kerachut (influenced by Chiew Tsing's pictures in his blog)
10. Watch Tropic Thunder, looking forward to it.
11. Do song recordings.
    

Okay so the list is rather long, and I really do hope to stick to it. I have 3 weeks of freedom! I'll cross off the items on the list one by one.

Anyone else got holiday ideas do share them with me!


Song recommendation of the day:
Rage Against the Machine - Microphone Fiend

(Insert words of excitement here)

I don't think I really need to say much...
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HELL YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
lol

Song recommendation of the day:
Go download all Avenged Sevenfold songs

A Reminder

Remind me again why I'm going to pay 95 sgd (RM230) to watch Avenged Sevenfold live in Singapore?



Ahh, now that's why. Because they are ABSOLUTELY AWESOME live!

16 days to go! A7X here I come!


Song recommendation of the day:
This song :D

Exam Fever!

Well exams are here again, starting tomorrow, and as usual, I'M HYPED UP! It's always like this when it comes to exams, because it is over as soon as it begins. It's the days leading up to it I can't stand. The tedious hours studying, worrying if I can finish on time. But somehow or rather (although I've never listened in class) I managed to come through yet again.

I have this mentality when it comes to exam, as long as I've studied, and I know I've done all that i can, it does not matter what results I get. Thus, I can always walk into the examination hall feeling confident, no matter what outcome there will be. I believe this is what has gotten me through these past few years of my degree and foundation, confidence and stability. This is because I have no worries whatsoever. It's not that I'm very sure I'm gonna get straight A's and a 4.0 gpa. It's because I don't care what I get. Of course, we all want to do the best we can. But what's important is doing your best.

A friend once asked me, what does it mean by doing one's best. There isn't a sole definition for "doing your best". Everyone has his or her own meaning to it. To some, doing your best would mean giving up everything, only focusing on studies. No tv, no computer games, manga, anime.. But no, to me, doing your best is when you've finished what you've done with the satisfaction of knowing you actually put effort into something, more effort than you normally do, but in the same time not giving up the things you enjoy in life. I still watch tv, I still go online, I still play my drums. And yet I manage to finish reading up what I have to, do tutorial questions. And build a basic foundation which is needed in the exam. Maybe some might consider me a slacker, but so far my achievements have been good enough for me. And noone can say anything about that.

However, I have to maintain my 3.67 cgpa for a first class degree. It's solely for the purpose of getting a good job, good pay in the future and of course make my parents proud. But my grades are not what really what matters the most to me.

This is my current exam timetable, as you can see this week is the tough part:

7/10 (Tuesday):
Engineering Maths III (2.30 - 4.30 pm)

9/10 (Thursday):
Circuit and Signals (9.00 - 11.00 am)

10/10 (Friday):
Basic Economics, Accounting and Management (9.00-11.00 am)
Electromagnetic Theory (3.00-5.00pm)

14/10 (Tuesday):
Analog and Digital Communication (9.00-11.00am)

16/10 (Thursday)
Microcontroller & Microprocessor Systems (9.00-11.00am)

24/10 (Friday)
Avenged Sevenfold live in Singapore oops that was kind of too big

Can't wait to get everything over with!


And oh, just for the sake of putting extra pressure and making things more fun:



Terms and conditions:

1. The person with lower GPA for that semester has to treat the other to a buffet lunch at Tao Cuisine Japanese Restaurant.
2. If the other person gets a GPA of 2.0 or below, take pity and do not force the person to treat you.

So it begins....



Song recommendation of the day:
Dark Oscillators - Superstar DJ

Past Recordings

These are 2 of my previous recordings that I put up in facebook, decided to put them here too. With a little more explainations. Haven't been recording anything new lately as my exams are getting pretty near. Plus I have been spending more time experimenting with new high-hat/snare fills which I will incorporate into future solos. But in the meantime here are two previous ones. Actually have three, but the first had extremely bad quality.

(Imeem player takes some time to load)

My Second Solo



I used the windows sound recorder to record this, using a cable from the headphone slot directly into the microphone slot of my brother's laptop (mine doesn't have windows sound recorder). Played to the backing of one of the present songs in the Roland TD-9. Couple of mistakes here and there, as I recorded it on the first take plus no prior preparation. Just played according to what I felt. My first solo can be found by accessing my facebook profile.

For those who are interested to know, I used single stroke rolls for all the fills in this song.


An Original Composition




This song was actually supposed to be for the Disted song writing competition. The pianist, Lim Sze Lin wrote the song and I was supposed to add drums and lyrics into it. However, it didn't materialize due to my procrastination. So we missed the dateline. I added the drums much later, only recently to Sze Lin's beta recording. You can hear the music tempo changing from time to time, because the piano part was played without a metronome, therefore has slight errors here and there. But overall it's a good first take. Will do a better recording during the holidays.

I recorded this using Sony's Acid Pro 6.0 on my laptop (25 days trial period left.. damn)


Will come out with much more material after the exams. With extra inspiration after the Avenged Sevenfold concert!


Song recommendation of the day:
Savage Garden-To The Moon & Back

Daily Regime

Current Drum Regime (Excluding 1 hour of random solo-ing):

Hands
Aim: Increase single roll speed, stamina and hand independence.

Exercises:

1. Paradidles (RLRRLRLL) - 90 BPM, 15 mins
2. Johnny Rabb speed exercise (RRRRLLLL-RRRRLLLL-RLRLRLRLRLRLRLRL) - 90 BPM, 15 mins
3. Triplets Flam - 100 BPM, 15 mins

Feet
Aim: Increase single pedal speed, stamina and accuracy.

1. Exercises:
2. Doubles: (RLFFRLFF) - 90 BPM, 15 mins
3. Triplets (together with triplets flam) - 100 BPM, 15 mins

Total time: 1 hour


This is currently what I'm doing during this examination period. Will do more during the holidays.

Current Achievement:

• Continuous triplets at 100 BPM on bass drums.
• 16th note single roll at 180 BPM.

Song recommendation of the day:
Trivium - Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr

Music

Well this my third attempt on starting a blog. Hopefully this time would be a different case.

At least this time, this blog has a purpose : An insight into my life and my thoughts but more on the musical side.

What better way to start it off by my musical history?

As for most people, music plays a heavy role in my life. Signifying different phases of life one has been through, giving inspiration, feeding anger, soothing the soul.. Music pretty much does it all. It's amazing how music can affect our lives.

My musical tastes have varied throughout my years (20 of them to be exact). Below is a short timeline on how it evolved through time:

Pre-school years:

I'm pretty sure most people during their kindy years were exposed mostly to songs such as ABC, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep and the like. Only after many years later I realised that the tune for all those songs were exactly the same. The person who wrote it must think kids do not have the capacity of learning to sing other tunes.. But I clearly remember that I had a thing for the christmas carols at that age. Especially Jingle Bells.. There's this video of me dancing to Jingle Bells during Chinese New Year.. Guess you can imagine..

I started playing the organ around this age. At Technics music school or something..

Primary school years:

This was the boyband/girl band era for me.. Backstreet boys, N'Sync, and Spice Girls? I clearly remember that i disliked Westlife, because they kept doing covers of old songs. And the fact that they couldn't dance.. Was a big fan of N'Sync, even had their album (pirated of course)..

Later on, I found Micheal Learns to Rock, when my dad bought this karaoke disc which had their songs. I used to think that the guitarist was the leader of the band. No idea why.. And oh, I could practically remember the lyrics to almost all of their old songs..

And, I used to hate Eminem...

High School years:

The most notable mention here for my High School years is Slipknot. Joey Jordison's drumming, the killer guitar riffs, growling vocals and angst-filled lyrics.. I was just addicted, since the day I was introduced to them. This era was also the start of my interest in drumming..

College years:

I was pretty much all-metal, all the time in High School. Must have been a pretty angry kid.. But I pretty much toned down after school ended. Diversified my tastes to cover more, relaxing music. Rediscovered Savage Garden;Truly Madly Deeply is still one of my all-time favourites.. Yeah it's unexpected for the typical metalhead me. So now I'm a fan of Sarah Brightman, Sarah Mclachlan, Brooke Fraser, Taylor Swift, Secondhand Serenade. Pretty much got pussified so to speak..

And oh, I almost forgot. I became addicted to techno at one point, which included trance, electronica and even hardstyle. I just love loud, thumping basslines.

My Drumming:

The first time I touched a drumset when I was in form 1, in the PFS band room. One of senior was like "here go ahead and try". I didn't reject. That was the first time I played an 8-beat rhythm. Though it wasn't perfect, I could coordinate myself the first time I played, after being instructed for around 5 mins. Not bad even if I say so myself.

That was when I told myself, this is the instrument i want to play. At that time I was still learning the organ.

After 4 years passed, I finally decided to take formal lessons for my drums. Didn't actually touch another drumset till then. At that time, a relatively new music school was formed in Pekaka, called Groove Music. Their concept of teaching you how to perform, rather than teaching you to pass your music exams got me on the spot. I signed up.

I trained under my first drum teacher, Lily (he's a guy i forgot his real name) for around 5-6 months. He was a good teacher, good at teaching the fundamentals, I picked up really quick. He even got me playing with a metronome at an early stage. Lily heavily influenced hand and feet fills which you can still hear me do today.

After that, Lily left, and I was taught by his ex-student, Meng. Meng was a Jazz drummer who used to play punk and metal. I learnt various types of playing under him, such as bossanova and latin. Though I didn't really get to master them, not much of an interest. But the main thing I vastly improved under him was my bass drum doubles. Playing bossanova and latin helped to improve my feet's versatility. I was under Meng for around 3 months.

And I think by this time, after form 5, I got my first drumset. A low-cost, Alpha Series SX Kit.

I had another change of teacher, this time to Amy (he's a guy). Amy played for the Jeep Jazz Trio, and played drums for recordings of local artists.

It was under him, which I found more passion in drumming. I was under his wing for 6 months, 3 months in groove, 3 months in Hitz Recording studio. But by then, my college work was getting too much to handle, and I stopped drums totally.

There was a long break, around 2 years, before I actually started playing again. And now, I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.


Well that's enough for my musical history I guess. Will post something else pretty soon, most likely on the current equipment I'm using..



Song recommendation of the day:
Vertical Horizon - You're a God