Spanks's Blog

E-Journal – Absence & Return

Spanks — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:25:03 +0000

Hi E-Journal,

I know I’ve been unkind and have left you alone for the longest time and I’m so sorry. I have yet to inculcate the habit of journaling/blogging!

Well now to catch up on things right where we left off..

A.C.I.D 2011

Before acid was probably the last week of school where we had to get started on our assignments and prioritize our personal time, etc.

But as far as I can remember, the memories of A.C.I.D 2011 are still fresh. It was one of the most rewarding gigs I’ve every played with Victoria Street. Though I was playing the Cajon, an instrument which I still feel that I do not deserve to play at a public performance because of my inadequate experience with it, the entire performance went pretty well. The crowd was receiving at that was the best crowd I’ve ever performed in front of so far.

Our Setlist wasn’t something foreign.

1. Neon Trees- Animal
2. The Zutons- Valerie
3. Nigel Peh- Happy Song
4. Goo Goo Dolls- I’m Still Here
5. Maycey Yam- Shine On Me
6. Spencer Teo- If Only I Could
7. Corinne Bailey Rae- Put Your Records On (encore)

It was an honor that we had the chance to play the encore song because local act Jack & Rai gave us the opportunity to do so. It was also a privilege to have played before them in that very room. Of course we ourselves were blown away by their performance. It really takes years to get to their level of proficiency.

Nevertheless it was a great opportunity to play at this event and it will be an unforgettable one.

TERM-BREAK

Well after A.C.I.D 2011, it was time to hit the books and start doing our assignments.

I also had this opportunity to play a small 30 minute set with my church friends and a appreciation dinner held for the musicians of the church at Broun Cafe. The set was made up of Switchfoot songs, a rearranged Maroon5 song and even John Mayer’s Slow Dancing In A Burning Room.

Never had time for practice as I was away in Phuket on a holiday straight after the appreciation dinner. Relaxing trip, but burdened with the thoughts of the assignments needed to be rushed.

Upon return..

Flow Practice

I attended the 2nd practice for Flow with Sarah, Valerie, Alicia, Dawn and Bryan. They previously had a practice without me to start working on the songs first. So with this practice we manage to work out a decent transition from Sarah’s original song, Joe into Heaven by Bryan Adams. There is still lots of work needed to be done to improve on our tightness and transition and feel. At least one more practice is required.

REMT – Inch Chua & The Metric System XXIII

A bunch of us went to watch Inch Chua & The Metric System play at the Goodman Arts Centre for our REMT assignment. It was really an opportunity to not only learn something for REMT but also for personal reflection on what I’m doing. Dalton Sim is the drummer for The Metric System and his performance was really inspiring. In fact, the entire show was a great encouragement to me to push on to strive and contribute toward the local music scene. Watching them enjoy playing and just deliver their craft almost so effortlessly was indeed an experience. Thank you Inch & The Metric System for your performance that night! (:

Practice for SPaceCARES

Victoria Street came over to my place for practice. We didn’t have a cajon to borrow and so I played the djembe I bought while I was in indonesia. Apparently after I got the hang of it, I liked playing it because it was so comfortable. So we worked up an acoustic set to play for SPaceCARES and we arranged some of the songs accommodate the djembe’s sound. That was pretty interesting too!

The NEW YEAR

We entered 2012! And I believe everyone was rushing assignments. Haha! Well then again we were all squeezed out for time and our schedules were all packed. Gig after gig was coming up.

We rushed a couple of practices for SPaceCARES and SP’s Open House during this week. It went by really really quickly!

SPaceCARES

It was a pretty long day before we eventually played the set at about 6pm. The SPace team had problems with the web stream and therefore the concert was pushed back by an hour. During our performance however Darren was sneezing away and we were all freezing in the room. But eventually we still manage to perform adequately. It was not anything spectacular or amazing but I guess it was okay since it was a chillax-ed acoustic set. Logistics was a bit of a pain though, having to wait and we had to get a amp from studio D so that Darren could be plugged in.

All in all it ended pretty well and the SPace Team was really thankful for us and we appreciated them for the opportunity as well. (: Go SPace!

OPEN HOUSE

Our set was:
Vertigo – U2
We Are One Tonight – Switchfoot
Shine On Me – Maycey
Fix You – Cold Play
If Only I Could + Bad Romance Medley
Hysteria – Muse

Everything went great. Vertigo was just pure fun playing it. We as Victoria Street need to start playing/writing songs like that which we will enjoy playing as much as this. Its been a long time since I’ve felt fun playing a song because all this while its just been “keeping time. keeping time. keeping time… Don’t screw up this roll, etc.” I’ve totally forgotten about simplicity and fun until we played that song. We Are One Tonight was a pretty good song to play along to as well! I had fun too. The rest of the songs were not alien and so itwas pretty okay. We just need to expand our repertoire so we don’t get bored of songs as fast as they get now.

The only downfall of this near “passable” performance was that I accidentally turned off my metronome before building up to the last chorus of Bad Romance. It caused me to panic to forget my parts and eventually screw up the ending attack. This is a serious issue because I feel that following the metronome now is not that much of a difficult thing, but internalizing it and playing without it IN TIME is what comes next.

Apart from this, the encore song was seriously, a total disgrace. We never practiced hysteria in a long time. The last time we practiced this song was probably the first jamming session Victoria Street ever had and we’ve never played it since. We just had to kill it today. I didn’t start off right with Darren as I was totally lost without the metronome already. When we got into the actually song after the bossa arrangement in front, it was a complete mess. I couldn’t catch Darren’s timing and eventually we just went on too fast. Maycey couldn’t catch the solo and it was a complete mess. It was largely my fault. I have a lot more to learn and improve on, timing wise and reliability on the metronome.

THE UP AND COMING BOTB

Battle Of The Bands is just this coming Thursday. Most of us are still rushing with assignments due this week and our schedules are just insane. Its gonna be a crazy week for us as well. I’m not gonna say anything here to keep this thursday night a surprise but Its gonna be fun. Kinda sick of doing emotional songs and so we’re looking into playing fun stuff now! Till the next update!

THINGS TO REFLECT UPON:

- Improve on my tightness with the metronome.

- Eventually play without the aid of the metronome.

- Uphold consistent practice for Bass guitar.

- Time management(!!!)

P.S

I will be trying to cover a piece by Alter Bridge called Isolation on bass guitar for performance. This piece requires me to be precise with each note that I’m playing. I’m aiming to play as clean as I possibly can. I’ve not referred to tabs of any sort and have derived what I’m playing by listening to the song and breaking it down myself on the fretboard.

I know my time management is really bad and stuff so I gotta squeeze out as much time as I can to practice. I guess due to gigs with Victoria Street and for Flow and what not, I have very little time to practice Bass because all my focus has been shifted to drums/percussion.

Now thats a pretty long update.
Spanks.

E-Journal – eSCAPE

Spanks — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:51:28 +0000

Hello! Update again! BOTB was awesome! Well for me at least! heh. I really enjoyed myself. However we ourselves felt that it wasn’t our best and that we couldn’t have done better. I guess its still the nerves and the thought that its a competition. Haha! But it went pretty well nonetheless! We made it through! YAY! Looking forward to the finals! Whwaha!!!! Time to level up some more! (:

We’ve also just finished the performance at *scape! It was supposed to be a promotional gig for A.C.I.D 2011 which we, as well as Matin, will be playing on the 10th of December at the Arts House. Apparently the crowd wasn’t large. Just about 20 people? The sound crew was really nice and effective though. There were monitors for us too! I’m sure Deb and Nigel like that. Haha! We played a half an hour set which most of the songs we are familiar with accept Torn by Natalie Imbruglia and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga where all of us had to learn and arrange together. We had fun even though it wasn’t perfect. The crowd was small but comfortable and chill. We really enjoyed ourselves! It felt good to see the sound guy grooving to the songs we play as he was tweaking the sound too! HAHA! Awesome! We also learnt a very important lesson to credit those who deserve to be credited and not be stuck up performers

Performance class later!
Spanks.

E-Journal – Massive

Spanks — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:24:52 +0000

Sorry I haven’t been updating here! Okay so first up is preparation for the *scape gig this Saturday. Practiced the acoustic set with VS. I haven’t, or rather, never played cajon before (properly). I’m still pretty uncomfortable cause I don’t think I make the cut to play it properly, but here’s where the challenge lies. We came up with a pretty good transition from IOIC to Bad Romance so we’ll see how we can pull it off this Saturday. Sunday I practiced the bass guitar for performance. Went through scales and learnt the forms of Major & Minor Chords (its about time, I know..) and 7th chords for 3 hours straight. Exhausting but worth it. It especially helped me yesterday during performance class. If not for that 3 hours, I would have flopped exercise 02 because before that I had no idea how to play arpeggios for the chords. Divine? Haha! But it was beneficial nonetheless. Then again practice for BOTB on monday night was really good. Not that we played the best and everything but we managed to change some stuff which got us back into the game. For example a pretty important rearrangement in summertime to create more dynamics within the song and also the debrief which allowed each one of us to take back pointers to note and prepare for the auditions TODAY. Well the ultimate goal is to have fun and enjoy playing music, which is the goal we all want to eventually achieve and also deliver what we should to the audience and judges. Well, its time for performance class now!

Till next time,
Spanks.

E-Journal – Let Down

Spanks — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:06:28 +0000

Hi journal. Well VS just had a practice on Friday for BOTB and it didn’t really turn out the way it should. We tried DKNY by WestGrand Boulevard and it failed pretty badly so we had to switch back to songs that we’ve already played and had to settle with Summertime in the end. Well I for me I still think the journey is more important than the results. Whatever the future holds, doesn’t matter. Its the process towards the future that matters. Well I guess we all have to work a whole lot harder. Chiong ah!

Spanks.

E-Journal – Crush Crush Crush!

Spanks — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:44:46 +0000

Hey there!

It was Poly50 today and also Victoria Street’s latest gig! We played alongside Que La Peace today (a.k.a Band 1) as well. The nerves got to us indeed, however on overall I felt that we did better than during practice! I managed to keep time with the metronome alongside and it really helped that I could follow it closely so I can enjoy myself playing the songs. All of the songs were good! Except Jet Lag where I accidentally hit my face with my sticks and it dropped. I was in panic mode even though I had already prepared another pair of sticks in my stick back on the right but I went to pick up the one that I dropped. It was a first time for me that I actually dropped my sticks so I need to practice on recovering fast! So on the overall I really enjoyed myself. The feeling of the entire performance was similar to that when VS had our very first gig at the welcome party, something we’d never forget. Especially during the last song, Crush Crush Crush by Paramore. There was just this natural ‘high’ when I played that song. I literally played my heart out during that last song. The feeling was just awesome! Adrenaline rush! Haha.

Well apart from that, now to the down side. I didn’t bring my bass for performance yesterday so I had to practice on the keyboard. It was really embarrassing that Erica made the entire class repeat because of me playing the wrong thing. I apologize to everyone for that. I am inadequate and therefore was a burden. But anyways, today I brought my bass. It made me realize how much I sucked at the most basic thing too. Scales. I guess this is time for me to start going back to the basics and moving up the progress ladder again. I shall work hard! Rar!!

Spanks.

E-Journal – VS Practice

Spanks — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:53:47 +0000

Hey there! Just had practice with Victoria Street on friday. Surprisingly less tiring than the practice on thursday morning which I almost died. Haha! I guess we haven’t practiced in the longest time that we needed some time to adjust back. Looking forward to tomorrow’s practice! Finally get to use the Boss DB-90 again from my friend. The next shipment comes in in december! \:

Things to work on tomorrow:
1. Consistency in timing. (Hopefully the metronome will be my best friend)
2. Tightness with the band. (Rar!!)
3. Cleaner fills. (Need to get them as clean as possible!)
4. ENJOY!!

Thats all folks’!
Spanks.

E-Journal – Recovery

Spanks — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:17:30 +0000

Hey there! Just managed to watch the video of our performance. The feel was there indeed but I need to really integrate the metronome inside of me. Timing was…. Bad.. Fion needs to refine her voice as well. Couldn’t hear Jia Hui’s guitar at all too. Like what Varian said, the band has to integrate the timing of the song into themselves because the drummer cannot count in all the time. It was a good experience and learning point for all of us I guess.

I also practiced for about an hour and 45mins this morning at studio D for the upcoming Poly50 gig with Victoria Street. Paramore’s Crush Crush Crush is really one energy demanding song. Not to forget Jet Lag by Simple Plan as well. I from todays practice I can identify that I need to practice on the metronome more, I need to practice rudiments and I need to work on stamina and consistency in my notes. I realized that my 16th notes are so inconsistent and therefore I need to work on my methods and practice more. I would really like to have a drum set at home to practice with, but I don’t.. Sigh.

Here’s to dreams!
Spanks.

E-Journal – FEVER

Spanks — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:29:59 +0000

After returning from Jakarta, I got a message from Claudia saying that we’re playing Innocence by Avril Lavine for performance class and the gig was on tuesday! So it was really last minute but we manage to have rehearsal on monday. It took us a few rounds to get through the entire song before we worked on parts and minor arrangements here and there. We manage to slot in another run through on tuesday afternoon before the show. Jia Hui played classical guitar which wasn’t the best suited instrument for the song but I guess we had to make use of it. Fion has a pretty interesting voice which I don’t think many people know or acknowledge and I hope she will continue to develop this talent she has.

As our band was the second last band, I had the opportunity to be stage hand to help the various bands set-up and also watch them play. Some of the performances were really impressive and others were not, but it was a good experience just watching my fellow course mates and their interesting combinations play together.

Our turn! When it was PopCornPizza’s turn, Darren had problem sound checking and therefore he needed a little more time to set up which inevitably was a bad impression to the lecturers. Thats one pointer to learn from. The next was trying to help Claudia get her tempo right, but after feedback from Varian which I agreed with, it was not the most appropriate thing to do when on stage. Also, the drummer should be keeping steady timing and the band should be following him instead of the drummer following the bands timing and this is one point to take note of as well. All-in-all I may not have played the cleanest or the tightest but I’m working towards feeling the song that I’m playing instead of focusing on technicalities. Therefore as of now I have to get my techniques right so that I can ‘focus’ on feeling the song and enjoying it.

I shall post again once I’ve watched the recording!!

Peace!
Spanks.

E-Journal – Jakarta

Spanks — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 03:01:08 +0000

Hi! I’ve just returned from a trip to Jakarta, playing for my church at a international conference called Empowered 21 Asia. It was really an interesting experience because it’s the first time leaving the country with my instrument to play somewhere outside Singapore. Carrying my flight-case at the airport and pushing the trolly together with all my luggage was really a unique feeling. Weird I know but I was really excited! The conference itself has a main team of indonesian musicians who play every night for the worship service. I manage to learn quit a bit by listening to them play, like vocal cues from the worship/band leader, the tightness, the chemistry, the style and the skills. I was really inspired by every musician in that team, just watching and listening to them play makes me wanna work harder towards the standard they are at. Though theres a lot of work to catch up on this week but I appreciate the experience a lot.

Here’s to working harder! Practice practice practice!
Spanks.

E-Journal – Genesis

Spanks — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:17:21 +0000

Hello! I shall turn my wordpress into an E-journal now. Wahahaha!

Okay let me begin by sharing my musical journey in DMAT. I have just picked up the bass for about a year and when I entered DMAT, the people around me saw the potential I had to play the drums, which I haven’t been playing for over 4 years and I wasn’t even good at it, so from then on I was deemed as a drummer in their eyes.

Then after various Jams and what not, came Victoria Street in which I currently play the drums in. As of today I can confidently say I have improved quite a fair bit as compared to 5 years ago which I don’t even want to mention, as well as during my term in Victoria Street so far. There is an infinite amount that I need to improve on and I hope to be able to be a better drum player.

Here’s to the first post of my musical journey!
Spanks.