Stalker!!!

Hey there Teresa. Just found out that you stalk me on my blog you naughty stalker. So there, you're not anonymous anymore. Hahaha.

Oh and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE OUT THERE!! =D

S2 Sci Farewell Party day

TODAY WAS A BLAST!!

I had a really wonderful day today. =) I just got back from our S2 Sci Farewell Party, Starry starry night or For The Last Time or whatever. Haha. I am totally pooped out man. I feel wasted. xD Well not really. Wait let me just thank all the people who were there tonight!

A GREAT BIG THANKS AND WELL DONE TO...

Elaine Lim and Lalitha Monisha Ramesh Kumar (xD) for organizing this party. It was awesome!

Alex Lim for making that very touching slideshow. I almost cried man! =)

Annabelle and Siung for MC-ing tonight. You guys were really good!

JR and Ah Chong or whatever your names were - The PA system guys! Very friendly people and honestly, good job guys. I have no complaints about your audio. =P

Alex Chong, Michelle Lim, Raymond Chua and Lalitha for the great music performances. Working with you guys have been fun. =) Kudos to Raymond for singing acapella =_=" Alex and Lalitha, you guys were great! =D Michelle too, very full of the 'feeeeeel' oh. xD

To the people who danced with me. xD Sorry I'm such a terrible dancer.

Janice Ong, for lending me the guitar. P.S. Get new strings. Seriously my fingers are about to bleed. =P

To everyone there for making this a great experience! =)

Man I wanna blog about my whole day oh! XD

8a.m. - I woke up earlier than I wanted to this morning. And then yeah a very short morning, had to pack up A LOT of stuff for the day.

12p.m - Left for Alex Chong's house. Got there ON TIME unlike Alex who's always late. Practiced a little bit just to get my fingers going. My fingers felt like they were about to bleed man! Once again, Janice, go get new strings! xD

1.30p.m - Reminded Alex to get ready and pack to be on time for sound check at 2p.m. Started loading my stuff into the car.

1.50p.m - Finished loading 15 minutes ago, was sitting in the car listening to music on my phone. Waiting for Alex to pack his stuff and FINALLY got ready to leave.

2p.m - Got to the hotel after getting some very quick lunch on the go. Waited for Elaine and Lalitha to arrive. They didn't. =_=" Went to the function room after about 20 minutes singing and listening to music at the lobby. Met the PA guys, tried out the mics, got all the settings done, went over the songs and jsut sat around.

3p.m - Lalitha arrived 1 hour late with Siung and Annabelle. =_=" Which was very Alex-like. Elaine arrived soon after. Went over the songs with Lalitha, made sure everything was all set.

4++p.m - Left for Karamunsing after helping with some stuff at the hotel. Met Yong TY and Jeat for a haircut. Alex and I were late so.... yeah. Sorry Yong. xD

6p.m - Finally finished getting our hair cut....All of us.... Holy cow we were so late. The party was supposed to start at 6!! And we haven't had our showers. So yeah we rushed back to the hotel just in time to see some people arrive ON TIME looking very good and all. We were in boardshorts and t-shirts so yeah we weren't exactly "Strictly Formal". xD

And then yeah we got ready and got to the function room just in time to see people start to fill up the place. So after getting everyone in, Annabelle and Siung did their thing and then Alex and I played and sang "Ain't No Sunshine" as an opening act.

Then after that we all go makan, then Raymond went up to sing acapella just 'cause the smart fellow changed his mind about his song choice and didn't bring any CDs. Very smart move Raymond. Kudos. And then we had games and lucky draw and best dressed and stuff.

Woooo okay and then Michelle went up to sing this Chinese song. Girl I didn't understand a thing you sang but I sure felt it. Haha. And yeah everyone started to slow dance. Then Alex and I went up to play and sing "Bless The Broken Road". Oh did I mention I gave a little speech? Lol that felt good. =) And yeah we played and sang our hearts out man woots! And they asked us to keep playing 'cause they all wanted to dance so..yeah.

I'm getting tired. This might sound boring, but it was actually very very interesting and fun and..err... stuff.

Okay so after that Lalitha joined us and we performed "Big Girls Don't Cry" for them to dance even more. And I even got to dance after that when the PA dudes played slow songs. Thanks Lokie! =D Seriously I thought I would totally miss out on the slow dancing.

And then what happened? Errrr.... Dang my brain's shutting down.

Oh okay. After that we watched this very emo slideshow of the photos we took this year. There were some very funny ones. It was like all the great moments of our years at Tshung Tsin flashing back one by one. Kudos to Alex Lim who couldn't come 'cause he's at Singapore. But good job man, really well done.

Right after that Alex, Lalitha and I did "I'll be there" while Elaine brought out a big cake. Then everyone gathered around the cake as Lalitha said some very touching stuff and made us all have 5 seconds of silence and very amazingly ended it with.. "Okay now everybody blow the candles the cake's gonna burn" And this is why we love Lalitha. =D Spoil oh! Hahaha.

Oh by the way... I SAW IRENE CRY WHEN SHE HEARD US PLAY I'LL BE THERE!! XD Hahaha I knew you were gonna cry oh. It's like one of your favs and all. =)

And then we danced the night away babeh! And yeah really really had fun and stuff. I think I made it sound boring but yeah no time people. Gotta go sleep. =P

Once again, all the best wishes to everyone and take care ya'll. May God bless the broken road nyehehehe that was punny. =D Bye now.

Little Jon

Hey thanks guys for all the birthday wishes! =D I'm finally 17. Woots?

This may or may not be related but... Guess what I found??

Jonathan Wong Ketshin 15 years ago.

This was me when I was 2 years old. If I remember right, this was taken in Sandakan, at a relative's house. Haha Beethoven in the making? Pfft.. No I'm no pro at the piano. =) For show only bah that kid in the picture. Couldn't even play Mary Had A Little Lamb.

And at 17 years old..... Still can't play Mary Had A Little Lamb... HAH! Just kidding. =D

I Can See the Light At The End

SPM's almost over guys. For some, there might still be subjects like Geography and for others, the holidays start on the 9th. But well there's only 4 subjects left for me. And I'm kinda anticipating life in IS next year. Meeting new people, a whole new school life..I've even sorta imagined what stuff I'd wanna do.

I'll be kickin' my wedding performances to high gear 'cause I really need that new guitar I've been wanting. And I'm thinking of taking dance lessons from Jack or something. =P In exchange for guitar lessons that is, I think it's a pretty fair trade.

And if you guys don't know yet, I'm planning to go for Audio Engineering after I've completed my A-levels. So yeah I think I'll start to REALLY look into the field of work and stuff. There's Kevin and everyone at D' Notes and I think I can learn a lot from them.

But hey that's next year. Closer in the future would be right after SPM when I'll have reunions to go to, farewell parties to attend and time to spend with my friends who are leaving KK next year. =) Just thinking about it makes me kinda....you know...well it got me thinking. Next year's just gonna be.. Different. Way different.

And as we draw closer to the present.. I still have my Biology paper next Monday, Physics on my birthday (What a way to celebrate) and Chemistry 4 days after that. And then SPM will be OVER!!.......

Oh oops there's Chinese on the 14th of December. But honestly, we have 5 days. And there's not much you can study for Chinese really. I mean I'm not gonna read all the Chinese peribahasa stuff. That's like hundreds of idioms and phrases for just what? 6 marks? I'm sorry but you guys be my guests. I'll be jamming or enjoying a nice cup of coffee somewhere if you need me. =D

OKAY so how bout tomorrow? Well... I'll be going for Futsal in the morning. And then I'll come home for a shower and maybe a short nap. =D Then I'm off for my first driving lesson! Woots! And then I'ma come home for another shower and maybe another nap. xD Then it's Biology all night long babeh! Oh the fun..and the joy....and the fun...

So yeah. I realized I haven't blogged much lately so yeah just to keep my blog updated. =)

Oh and did I mention that I've been hooked onto all kinds of new music like John Mayer's new album, Tyler Hilton (Thanks neighbour! =D) and well ALL KINDS of stuff. I've also been searching for the underrated songs that deserve to be heard more. And I'm gonna make covers of them, nyehehehehe.. Oh my gosh that was so Lalitha right there. Nyehehehe.. There it is again!

Okay to all the SPMers out there, all the best and stay focused guys. =D And to all you people out there enjoying your school holidays, have fun! Goodnight, time for me to sleep.

P.S. The drummer needs to shave.

P.P.S. I take that back 'cause that drummer's the one picking me up to Futsal.

Best Photo of the Year

Hey guys! I forgot to show everyone this photo! This was taken by Radiance Fong. She said that this is her favourite photo and I told her I'd show it to the world so... TADAA!! =D

She does great portraits too by the way. =)

Go listen to Daughters... *******... - John Mayer

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet. =D



Oh Alex Chong..?? =D

Cherry Blossom in the Rain?

Okay guys. Here's smth really 'chin chai' to test the recording capabilities of my new phone.

I was playing my guitar outside just listening to the rain and enjoying the cool breeze. And then yeah I thought why not try recording smth? So yeah here it is, an old tune "Cherry Blossom Time" well part of it.

So a review of the recording function of my phone? The video looks okay. But the sound's not that good. The bass is pretty uneven. So yeah I'll stick to my microphone. But yeah here's a little something for my blog to keep it alive. =D

I'll try to record a proper clip of the song to post one day. Like, after SPM? xD

Just the Two of Us

To the people out there. I seriously think that KK people need to learn how to be more sporting and you know.. Like this crowd. They're sooooooo cool!! They respond to the performers oh. It makes the whole show more fun for everyone. Otherwise it'll be like playing to dead people for the performers. I would LOVE playing for a crowd like this.

I really like that part when the guy goes... Wait a second I have to tune. xD That was so funny.

The best cover artiste ever?

Yo check this dude out. You gotta see this for yourself. xD No way I'm posting this on my blog but here's the link. =P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=239VAfgl2x8

To: Yong TY

Here you go Yong T Y. THIS is the picture Loke Hsin and I were talking about on Facebook. =P This was taken last year when she came over to my house for some jamming. Kelvin Lu and Jeff were there too. Having lunch at Pizza Hut. Goooooooood times. xD

"WHAT THE FRUIT?!!!"

Note: Jeff's blurry image and my 'shocked' expression were NOT planned. It was just a coincidence. That's what makes this picture even cooler! xD

Tam Tam

THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS GUY!! I mean.. It's sorta like a... I love him 'cause he's bloody good. And I hate him 'cause I'm not. xD It's a love hate sorta thing? Hahaha. But he's a great performer, a great man and just... if only I could meet this guy.. Man.. And have a cup of coffee and just talk. There's just so much to learn!!!

By the way, if ya'll having parties and wanna have this sorta thing at your party.. Contact me. =P But lemme know a month in advance so I can give a good show. xD

I'm studying driving law crap.

I'm studying driving law crap. Yeah. It's crappy. Hahaha. Although the law talk was pretty funny. Funny only now that it's over and I don't have to sit in that room. I went with Heng, Jeremiah and Addy and errr Yoong. Yeah. Our instructor dude, or driving "twitter" as the speakers pronounce it- they mean "Tutor" really- is a really cool and funny dude. Leong I think. Yeah that's what we call him.

Anyway, our first speaker.... She's this little lady with short hair and glasses. And Heng couldn't tell if he/she was a guy or a girl. He called her a GuyGirl. Which kinda sounds like Geiger from Geiger Muller tube, from Physics. You know.. That thing that detects radioactive particles. =="

So we called her Geiger or GM tube. And our second speaker... Man this guy has issues. We called him Issues Man. He's always making his own sound effects. Here's a few of his most memorable ones... NAH!!! Geegeegeegeegeegeegeegeegeegeegeegeegee!!! BOOM!! BANG!! Yeah stuff like that.

I just can't wait to get this all over with and start the driving lessons. I'm having my law exams this Friday morning. So yeah. Studying law crap now. =D

Currently listening to "Love Song" by Shun Komatsubara. The guitar instrumental that Loke Hsin intro-ed me. She said I can play this to a girl and "charm" her. Haha. Go youtube it.

An old video

Whoa look what I found! xD It's like this freakin' old video of me playing the guitar. I totally forgot about this song man! I wrote this little song one day when it was raining outside and I was sitting at the window staring outside at the rain being all emo like someone, not telling who... xP

Well I didn't have a name for this song, still don't. But well maybe I'll continue the song and finish it. And of course make it sound better with more feeling. This is just a SUPER simple draft of what I came up with that day. But yeah. Here it is. The untitled song.

Man that put myself to sleep. xD

I'll record some new cool stuff when I get my new mic.. Stay tuned.... =_="

Me needs a new guitarzz-ah

And me need an amp too. Will any kind soul out there buy me this cool little amp?

This... is a Roland Micro Cube. Never judge something by it's size. I mean, Brandon's tall but his brain size ain't proportional to his height. =P If you know what I mean.. >=)

For RM400++ a punch, this little thing comes with features that got this Jon interested.

• Ultra-compact DSP guitar amp with 5-inch/2-watt low magnetic leakage speaker
• Runs on battery or AC power (adapter supplied) and includes carry strap
• 7 COSM guitar amp models including JC-120 and a special mic preamp model
• 6 DSP effects: chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo and separate Delay/Reverb
• New Digital Tuning Fork with support for flat tunings up to 2 semitones
• Recording/Headphones output and stereo Auxiliary input for CD players, etc.

And for its size, reviews say it's pretty loud. And Roland's a good brand. A few good gigs can get me enough money, but with my new guitar budget at rm2000+- I'm gonna need more than that. =/

Anyone wanna help me with a lemonade stand?

ADELE IS AMAZING!

I was just surfing around youtube when I came across THIS.



Adele is amazing. I love her voice! It sounds goooooooooood... =D Credits to Tanya, my genius rockstar neighbour for telling me about Josh Kelley's version of the song which led me to this. Josh's version is really really good too. =)



Anyone reading this interested in doing a cover with me? =D I need a pianist. I'll do guitar and vocals. =P Adele's version, a bit slower. =) Or maybe both... That's it! I'm getting that new mic tomorrow!! xD

Windy and Warm

Ba dum bap de dum, bwiao dap de dao dup ah dum bap de da uhh bam~

Windy and Warm.

This tune has been stuck in my head ever since last night when I actually gave it a good listen. I mean, listen closely to ALL those sounds man. And the bent notes are just SWEET! =D It adds to the feel of it. There's no complete video on youtube but here it is played by my favourite guitarist and performer in the world. =) Tommy Emmanuel. My inspiration and my idol, in a way. =D

Oh and it's only Windy and Warm in the first 4 minutes or less, after that he goes on playing Classical Gas and other stuff. =D



I don't know what it is about this song. It's not exactly upbeat or makes you wanna dance or anything, but it sure makes you wanna MOVE. Working on this song on my own now. In the midst of SPM Mock and all but yeah. No bloody exam is gonna stop me from playing. >=D Only thing is, I have NO IDEA where I can perform this. =_=" Party? Nah. Wedding? Nah. Jamming session? Nah. But hey, it's a fun song to play. =D

Time for bed. More studying tomorrow. Sejarah is kinda crappy when put together with Moral. Can I hear a Heck Yeah! for that? =_=" Night ya'll.

9th of October and 40 days to go till SPM

I had my Chinese SPM Mock papers today. They were tough, to say the least. =D

.....

Okay I totally sucked. Soi Kiau Kiau would be a good way to describe it.

I know I've been saying this over and over again but I am SOOO looking forward to the holidays after SPM. There's just so much to look forward to. A "Cornetto trip 2" which is a reunion trip, our S2 Science Farewell Party, looking forward to that 'cause I might get to play for my friends with some friends. Ahh.. Friends.. I can already feel that farewell party atmosphere. Lalitha and Elaine, if you're reading this, thanks for organizing the event for us all. =) You rock!

Oh and I can't wait to get my driving license, continue my guitar lessons, gonna do LOADS of covers and videos! Steffi got me motivated to do covers. =) And I might even try to sing. =P Which means I need to buy a new microphone.

And I'm planning to get a new guitar, (hopefully I won't have to pay for it.. =P Yeah mom?) I am SICK of having to use a mic for my guitar, it restricts movement on the stage, I can't jump or dance around while playing, it sucks. My current guitar doesn't have a pickup and preamp and stuff so....

Here's an example of a situation when there is no mic stand for the mic I have to use, SICK OF IT, and no music stand for the music sheet (that's 'cause this particular performance was super last minute and I only had an hour to practice this with Alex Chong.)

This has to be the most terrible stage setup I have ever been part of! xD At least Brandon and Jon Lee were there with me. =P

I'm currently looking at Maton and Ibanez. =) Here are some of the Ibanez guitars I'm looking at right now.

Ibanez guitars aren't too bad really. Plus they're affordable. =D I like the transparent black finish. I'd prefer a low gloss finish though.

This one's pretty simple. But I love this body shape for a guitar. This one's very nice in my opinion. Nice blend of simplicity and beauty. =)

I really like the violin finish on this one. =D Ibanez is looking good to me for now. I'll decide after hearing some feedbacks from current Ibanez guitar users. =)

Okay gotta get back to studying now. Next week is going to be a heck of a week. Crazy lineup man! Have a nice day people. =)

JONATHAN All Waves Series xD

Alex has done it again. He made my shoes some kinda product, man. As though anyone would wanna buy my shoes. xD It's not like I'm Obama or something. But hey! You gotta give this guy credit, man. Nice editing. xD

For the record, my shoes were dirty, but they weren't THAT dirty. Alex was exaggerating a bit there. =_="

Just applied for IS today with Heng. Honestly, I'm kinda worried. My results aren't that good, plus the food for thought that Mr. Lim wrote on my report card? That doesn't help at all, man! He wrote something like, it's the bla bla attitude that takes us bla bla and doing the right thing is as important to doing things at the right time.

Now Mr. Lim himself told me that it's not directed at me. It's just some food for thought. I guess he was feeling pretty smart or something that day. Bah. But the thing is, will the IS people think that those words are directed at me, and that I've got some attitude problem in school? If Mr. Lim's little food for thought thingy spoils my application.... Oh I'm gonna...... I'd go all Kanye West on him. =_="

These few days have been stressful, man. Lots of homework to finish, revisions, tests.. SPM Mock exams start next Wednesday. I need help with Chem. =( Lots to revise! Sejarah! Chem! Bio! AND MAN, I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GONNA DO FOR CHINESE!! SERIOUSLY!

Here's some good news, there's PE tomorrow so I can play some football and relax a little. And I'm stopping guitar lessons temporarily. Thursday's my last lesson. =( Then I'd have to wait till after SPM. Just when I thought I'm learning so much!

And seriously, I need to get back to performing. I just feel that I can do so much better than I have done previously and that I've got so much more to bring onto the stage. =) I wanna improve myself, become a good performer, and ENJOY MY MUSIC AND SHARE IT, ABOVE ALL.

After SPM then. =( Fellow SPM-ers, we all have our very long lists of "Things to do after SPM". And mine's just as long as anybody's. xD At this rate, we'd be even busier after SPM than we are now.

Peace out. Gotta go sleep. It's been a tiring day.

My Baby Just Cares For Me

Oh the Jazzzzzzzz! =D The walking bass line is soooo simple yet so sweet man!

Oh and the piano instrumental part! Gah! Loke Hsin, if you're reading this. Could you learn it and teach me, PLEASE?? =P I've always wished I could play improvisations on the piano, man! It's just so.... SWEET. =D

So here's Nina Simone with "My Baby Just Cares For Me"

On a contrasting note, All American Rejects are playing at 1 Utama on the 10th of October! =( In the middle of my SPM Mock exams. Sad.. They rock. =) Their acoustic covers rock too. Nina Simone? She jazzes. =P

The Radiance Detector! xD

I just added a live traffic thingy 'cause I just found out the other day that Radiance actually reads my blog but never leaves any comments. So to track you whenever you read my blog, Radiance, you sneaky little thing, I've added the Radiance Detector! xD

P.S. Radiance = PURITY!! =P

Recording day!!

Today, I have witnessed the coolness of being a recording engineer or producer or whatever you wanna call it. Haha. Man, the equipment, working with good musicians, it's all good. =D

I had my first recording today at RAM Damai. Roger Wang's studio. The place was totally awesome, with a main recording room so awesome... I felt honored just being able to record there. The microphones were so sensitive man! The sound came out so clear!

I kinda messed up my song though. =S I was kinda nervous. But not as nervous as I was in Federick's car. But thank God I made it home safe even with Fed's driving. xD

Anyway, to my surprise, Alex and Steffi showed up at RAM to buy picks when I was in the recording room. Fed was outside waiting for me, I was getting ready to record, Alex and Steffi came in, and then surprised looks started coming on. Haha. And Alex managed to take 2 pics of me in the studio.

Check out the cool equipment. There's this really antique-looking piano which was so cool! And the microphones were all good stuff man.

Shorts and slippers.. Hmm.. Gotta remember that if I get to have an album cover in the future. xD

Gah! It's been a long day. I'm out.. See ya'll.

Recording day!

This is it! Tomorrow's the day. I have a feeling I shouldn't have been so hyped up about it 'cause it's gonna be pretty casual. But hey! I've never done a recording like that before so the experience is still pretty awesome. =D

Oh and I think that I might only get to record 1 song. Since We Met would be that song. I've practiced that song too much to NOT record it! xD

Seriously, I've never put in so much time to practice a single song ever man. All thanks to the great Tommy Emmanuel's advice.. "When you're learning a new song, play that song and that song only every time you pick up your guitar! Play it till you can play it while watching tv!"

And I think that's really true. 'Cause he said that's when you can focus on putting emotion into the song instead of focusing on playing the right notes. =D I think I said this in a previous post ==

Anyway, I'm gonna try my very best tomorrow. Alex Lim said he wants to convert it to mp3 format and WHO KNOWS WHAT THAT GUY IS GONNA DO WITH MY SONG?! I sense a youtube video.. ==

Oh by the way, now I'm once again indecisive as to which guitar I wanna get next. =S Ask Brandon. I've been saying "I want a Maton, I want a Maton"? Now "I want a Fender Telecaster, I want a Telecaster!" Sigh... I'll just keep saving dulu lah =D

Oh and check out this awesome video editted by Alex Lim, starring Thomas a.k.a Ah Xian. xD

THE UKELELE PROJECT

I just realized that The Ukelele Project can also be called TUP... =D okay.......................

The Ukelele Project is basically me modifying that horribly....what's that word? Well it's just ugly. That ugly red colored ukelele. Red's fine, don't get me wrong, it's just that the paint on this thing is just messed up. =S

So anyway, I'm gonna do a few things to modify the ukelele. I'll go into detail in my next post with pictures. =D

1. Sand the fugly, yes fugly, color off and add a new special wooden coat/piece/thing on the body and then repaint it so that there'll be the natural wood swirly whirly pattern! =D

2. Change the tuning heads and the pegs and all of that. Yeah 'cause the tuning heads are totally screwed up. The strings can't stay in tune for even 15 seconds.

3. Add finishing touches. (Namely, carefully hand painting the frets, repainting or maybe add some designs to the fretboard, design the body art around the reverberation hole, paint on cream colored linings on the body.) You just gotta love those cream colored lines! xD

Phase 1 will be handed over to my mom and her office dudes to do the wood work stuff. =P And Phase 2 will be installed by yours truly. I wanna install them myself. I'm a do-it-yourself kinda freak sometimes. =P And Phase 3 will be done myself as well with some help from mom perhaps.

I'll be posting some photos throughout the process of the modifications so yeah. =D Don't think anyone will be reading it but, it's all good. =)

Practicing for my recording

Just less than 2 more weeks to go until my first ever recording. I finally found out the confirmed date for the recording. 18 & 19 September 2009. =D

And here I am going through the whole song a few times. Like what Tommy Emmanuel said, I gotta play this song again and again until I can play it without focusing on my fingers. Like playing while watching tv. That's when I can focus on putting emotion into the song instead. Wise words, Tommy..... =P

Here are my "Since We Met" tab sheets spread all over the table. =P Going through the entire song again and again now. Love the ending bit! =D

Okay, gotta get back to practicing now. =)

When I got the good news

Last night, my guitar instructor just gave me my first recording session!! =D So that means that next month, I'll be recording two songs at Roger Wang's studio! How awesome is that, man? Woots!

So I've chosen the two songs already. One will be an old song, one I've been playing for a long time now. Cherry Blossom Time by Kotaro Oshio..



And my second song will be a real toughie. It's a fingerstyle guitar song called Since We Met by Tommy Emmanuel. Considering that I've only moved into fingerstyle a week or two ago, this is gonna take some hard work. But I'll definitely do my best, it would really be a joy to record this song.

Since We Met is a really beautiful song. I started out as a classical guitarist because I thought classical music is full of feeling and expression. But then when I found fingerstyle earlier this year by watching Roger Wang, Malaysian guitar maestro, I was determined to move towards becoming a finger picker like him. =D Since We Met, to me, is a song I can really feel, and that's really important in playing music in my opinion. If you don't feel your music, you're just plucking strings or whamming on the piano really.

So here's Since We Met, played by the master himself, Tommy Emmanuel. =)



Anyway, I'm both excited and nervous about the recording session. I've been waiting for this. And I'm gonna try my very best for it. Besides, I don't want my first professionally recorded songs to be crappy. =D By professional I meant the nice people who will be recording for me, not me. xD Just making it clear. Haha.

YUCKA MILK Advertisement

Okay, Heng and I had another idea a few weeks back before the exams and so we took the opportunity of us hanging out at Heng's house to film this and yeah here's what we made. Credits to Heng for the cool editting. Good job mate. =D

Yucka Milk
So good you'd wanna share it with your friends!

Teacher's Day 2009 Opening Show?

I want to thank Loke Hsin for taking this video of me WITHOUT ME KNOWING UNTIL THE END OF IT. =_=" Oh and that's Steffi's ukelele by the way.

This was right before our performance at this year's teachers' day at school. We were the opening act. This video was taken when the students and teachers were moving into the hall. We were all just calming each other's nerves and having fun. You could see everyone practicing and getting ready. =D If you watch carefully, you can see the dancers practicing at the back, and I think I can hear Claudia going "One Two Three Four!" xD

Okay, in this video: Practically everyone involved in our musical thing. Haha. Anyway, this is supposed to be somewhere over the rainbow. But I kinda messed it up though =P

Just thought I'd share this, brings back lots of nice memories and good times. Learned a lot through that experience. Plus I learnt how to play the F chord on a uke that day. xD

Goooooooooooood times............ =D

My little MJ tribute?

Just a little tribute. Haha. A bigger better fuller tribute might be recorded with some friends =)

MIGHT

Okay I finally got to record my own lousy solo version of "I'll be there" by Michael Jackson. It's sorta like a tribute? I made up my own arrangements after I heard the song. Very simple chord based arrangement. Very easy playing. Just keeping it simple people! xD It's beautiful and I kinda spoiled it I know but yeah. =P

The sound quality's kinda bad but at least it's audible. Can't hear the nice echoing sounds though. And I'd like to thank my camera girl. This video is taken by a professional camera girl, my little sister, Sheela "Unshakable Hands" Wong. =)

"I'll be there" by Michael Jackson

Rest in peace dude.

Fingerstyle Master

Now that I'm moving towards finger-style guitar, this has just gotta be one of the songs I really gotta learn man. It's "Man in the mirror" and it's been played by lots of really good guitarists out there. And our local guitar maestro and someone I really look up to, Roger Wang has this song in his repertoire too. And MAN DOES IT SOUND GOOD!! =D

One day, I'm gonna play this man. I'll get there soon. =) Watch me!



This is Tuck Andress. He's really old now. With a head full of long white hair. Haha. But he still rocks the Archtop guitar. And I think this dude does this song best. His style is amazing! =D

Wanted

Does anyone out there know the title of this song?

I seriously need to learn this man. It's sweet. =)

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

Look, I don't even have to say how amazing these two guys are together. Fellow guitarists out there, don't you just wish you could still have that much fun jamming even at Tony's age? =) And to those who thought the ukelele was just for Hawaiians at loo outs... In your face! =D



Wow...

Teachers' Day Rehearsal Day 1

Today's rehearsal..... was definitely not a day to remember. =/ It's a very long story and series of unfortunate happenings but yeah our performance could have been a lot better.

It's amazing how small mistakes can add up to a huge malfunction =/

Two of our band members, Steffi and Loke Hsin were busy with their violin and piano exams. So they couldn't make it. And so Ronald was gonna sub Steffi at bass for our opening song while I play lead. But then we discovered that Ronald's cable wasn't there so his bass guitar was out of the picture =S Alex and I were shocked but hey, it could have happened to anyone. We made a very important decision not to play that song live. The vocalist couldn't make it today either. It was HORRIBLE! =/ So we used the audio file from the laptop.

And then even more blunders.. =/ There were some miscommunications and lots of mistakes. The script got changed in a short notice to fit the 10 minute duration given. All in all, it was a very bad performance =/ The bad music and PA left the dancers and actors very disorientated on stage. Everyone was blur. I even missed my dancing part because I was too busy setting up my keyboard for the next song, I had to sub Loke Hsin at the keyboard. X(

There were some technical problems with the PA too. The staff in charge didn't even show up. So the prefects in charge of the programs were having some trouble with the mics. We had to go on with our performance without mics. Seriously I could write a "A Day I Would Like To Forget" essay man.. But I hope we don't get cancelled. We all worked so hard for this and if we were to be cancelled, everyone would be devastated.

Oh and p.s. I cut my right hand nails really short so now I can't play finger style properly. =( I need a thumb pick. =_=" Like NOW!!! Or tomorrow when I go to Damai =P

8/6/09 Wedding performance =)

Looking back at Federick's pictures of our 8/6/09 wedding gig photos at Sutera reminded me of the awesome experience. =) Check out some of the photos at Fed's blog.

http://www.federickgnrs.blogspot.com/

And I kinda agree with Fed about the wedding deco chair spoiling my "stage look" XD Check this out.

Now imagine if I was sitting on a nice wooden stool.... That'd be so much better. Haha. Check out my weird facial expression. =P I think I was playing the really fast parts so hence, the face. =_="

I wasn't happy with my performance that night. I missed some important notes and I didn't get to add in my own guitar tapping part because I don't think it was a good idea. =S Seriously, that was the toughest crowd I've ever performed in front of. They were all old fashioned Chinese music fans. They were mostly really good karaoke singers from Tawau actually. =) And there I was with the acoustic guitar. I didn't fit! xD You can't expect me to go: "Let's make some noise!" Can you?

The other pics are still with Shanice, I'll post em after I get em. And here are some others I have =D

Note the serious face... =_=" I look stupid man..

This was taken during sound checking. I couldn't hear myself, it was bad. =( And the PA system dude arrived late! We all only got to do sound checking when some of the guests have already arrived. =( That was sucky. But at least we got to test the sound. =)

Federick's got the other pics. Check them out on his blog. =) I want to thank Ronald again for his sweet Ibanez guitar and Shanice, Susan, Kingston, Federick, Jason and everyone at the wedding for the awesome experience =)

Asturias!!! =D

Whoa.. Okay I promised I'd blog more but then in comes a barrage of activities and priorities and POOF!! There goes that free blogging time. =) But hey, here I am, finally free and in a mood for blogging. I had a nice day today =D

School was okay, good news: We made the cut for the Teachers' Day performance next Saturday morning!! Bad news: Choir finals are on the same date at night and my class isn't ready yet. There's not much cooperation going on man. =/

And oh yeah, we had our first volleyball competition match today. And I was supposed to play as a substitute due to my knee injury and I'm not a good volleyball player. =) But to my h,orror, pleasure and surprise, Captain Larson had tuition so he couldn't make it, and the rest of the subs were nowhere to be seen! Except Keith, I heard he was sick at home. Get well soon Keith! =)

So I ended up as the only sub for the team today. Oh and I beat Alex at 3 straight games of snooker today! xD (Random but yeah, you had better days Alex.) (He's a good player, better than me. =D) And then... More surprise! They wouldn't let Max, Welton and Siung on the first team at the same time, so I had to stand in for Max, with an injured knee.

But hallelujah man, we won the match in straight sets. But the opponents, S1 Ai played well. And when I shook their hands at the end of the game and said "Good Game", I meant it. =D Good job S2 Ren. Or RENdezvous! =P Our slack keeps us on track yeah?

I went to math tuition straight after that in my volleyball jersey, (Jordan's actually, mine was in the wrong size, too big for me. =P) Got home, showered, and then had dinner. And now here I am, blogging and holding my guitar on my lap. I'm taking a break from practicing this really intense classical spanish piece called..... Asturias (Leyenda) by Isaac Albeniz. Here's John Williams playing like it was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. =P



I'm still trying to get the sound just right. =) Some of the people out there might say that this song's kinda out of my league, and I agree, it's gonna take some time for the whole song. But there's something in the song that's got me so into it. That respect for the dude who wrote it 123 years ago, the beautiful story that plays in my head when I listen to it. I can't put it in words man, I just HAD to give it a go. =) And I think I'm making good progress.

And I think that's it for tonight. I'll try to blog again soon. =)

Coca Cola Advertisement =D

Hey check this out. I went to Zhi-Heng's house and made this video we've been talking about ever since the first term final exams. =D It's really stupid, we only had ONE can of Cola so I kinda screwed up 'cause we shook it too much and it sprayed on my mouth. Plus Heng got stuck during the turning bit but yeah it's cool =)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=86112226449&ref=share

By the way, the gay dancing part at the end was Heng's idea. =)

Starting a new blog =D

Hey I just created this other blog 'cause my old ones full of crap =P Plus it's so antique and old that I just feel like starting another one. Now I'm gonna start posting sometime soon, but it's getting late so I ain't gonna post much now. But I do have lots to post about about recent stuff =P

Peace out people. =)