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