Listen, feel and play to the rhythms of music

A minute left to save you..

2009-01-06T23:59:00.003+08:00

Got a minute left to write anything on my blog b4 turning in because of work gonna start again in about 8 hours' time. (what the f...)

I finally got my very first pay cheque, not much though...(fun to spend hours making sandwiches)

And luckily, I found out that the pretty girl I met at Starbucks coffee next door while I was applying for a job there (yes, unsuccessful application) is still working. Maybe spending $6.50 on vanilla black tea latte in order to see her everyday could be a worthwhile choice after all..ahahaha... (of course 2 hours of work will be down the drain..crap)

Hmm..what I should do with my first paycheck...

Save about a quarter to get a delay pedal to try replicate the glossy sound of the edge!
Get a music album or two.
Buy earphones and headphones.
Save again..i suppose.

Hope the money spent does not exceed about 175 - 200 bucks...

I do not think I should play more songs now. I shall perfect the songs I have learnt so far...

End of a boring (you people probably think it is..) post...bye bye...save you all again on the next post....

One million of yes, make it another million of yes, and you become YESMAN!

2009-01-04T19:59:00.004+08:00

To start off this post, I shall say a great year ahead to all. [sounds a little late though]

Oh by the way, if there is a hanging question over my resignation from dome, the reason behind it is that I do not find the job suitable for me. I found the job at subway more fulfilling.

Going into this new year, my new year resolutions are pretty simple and common. Nothing unique though. I am just wanna live life to the fullest, play more music and try new stuff. On top of these resolutions, it is optimal and awesome to view 2009 in a very positive light. 2009 may hold many uncertainties for me, but no point fretting over them because I have been through uncertainties before. A little more mental strength would be fine.

And the title of today's post makes a lot of sense now. Yesman is probably one of the most meaningful shows Jim Carey has acted so far in his distinguished acting career. [Most of his movies are really humorous junk. Haha] What I learnt from the movie is that beside balancing realism and optimism, we have to say yes to the opportunities that come our way. We make the most of them while seeking God's blessings along the way.

Moving to the musical side, there are so many styles and genres for me to follow after immersing myself into them.
Here are some burning questions I face:

Be a rock guitarist like Slash or Richie Sambora?
Follow the blues path crafted by Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa or John Mayer?
Play as fast as Paul Gilbert?
Get into the funk rhythm with Nuno Bettencourt etc.?
Or reinvent the guitar like how Jimi Hendrix did it 40 - 50 years ago?
How about joining the league of fine virtuosos, ruled by guitar god Joe Satriani?
Or just play mainstream stuff with Hinder, Simple Plan, etc.

So far, I feel that it would be good to follow and mix the genres of funk, blues and rock because I like these genres. Oh yea, by the way, I tried a couple of songs this week because of time constraints[time constraints will not happen, always]

Save You By Simple Plan
Layla by Eric Clapton
Who Did You Think I Was by John Mayer

Other than the first song, the other 2 songs are pretty difficult... I guess I will leave Layla out now and play other songs before reattempting thst dong again.

Maybe for now, I would want just keep music as a hobby that I enjoy before my bid to turn professional.

Hohoho...Tis the season to be.....

2008-12-24T17:01:00.002+08:00

Ah...it is christmas again and 7 days later, 2008 will come to a close.

And I am working in Subway after quitting dome. Lower pay, but I am not complaining.

How time flies and yet I have not really organised my many thoughts. Ok, at least I decided to be a professional musician (Slash, Nuno Bettencourt, etc.) while pursuing a Bizad degree... [but I am more interested in making music]

Erm ok this week I have tried some songs.

Love Will Keep us Alive by Eagles
Carrie by Europe
Waiting for the World to Change by John Mayer

These songs are pretty okay. At least a breather from Bon Jovi [wanted to try Living on a Prayer, but i guess i need to make sure my pinch harmonics are there]

Other than that, Ishall end my post. Smell ya!

Tell me Baby

2008-12-14T20:46:00.003+08:00

Weekends have always been an eventful part of my life and I hope it stays this way.

If you want to know why, here are the reasons (or u can use any other word)
1. Every guitar lesson seems so different. There is always something new to learn.
2. Weekends are great escapes from school-laden weekdays or horrifyingly and shockingly boring holidays
3. Get to see friends

It seems that point 3 strikes a chord in me. My friend was asking me a question after a drinking session with him.

"Eh sean, the past 2 years of your life, your friends never go out drinking?" he asked while we were in the taxi.

"Not really. Basketball, soccer and ordinary outings were the standard kind of stuff we do, i suppose..."

"hmmm, i see."

Seriously, would I want clubbing or drinking to rule my life? Or play more sports and more guitar and do more volunteering?
Most of my heart cries out for the latter.

Gift of wisdom, pls ignite!

May I use the gift of wisdom God has given me to decide

Walk On

2008-12-12T01:14:00.002+08:00

Oh i am back again.

Applied for 4 more jobs today. That will round it off to about 7 jobs applied and 0 responses. (Never knew Singapore is suffering from poor HR quality syndrome)

Attempted to play a few songs this week:

Get the Funk Out by extreme
Tell me Baby by RHCP
Walk On by U2
The Reason by Hoobastank
Only One by Yellowcard

I would say Get the Funk Out is not within my reach at the moment. (shows how replicating Nuno Bettencourt isn't that easy after all) The rest are fairly easy just that I need to train my ears more often to increase the ease of playing good covers. And I finally experienced some break through in doing pinch harmonics and incorporating them into licks! Phew!

Other than that, I am decaying at home and need to get back to my running. Argh.

Listen to walk on by U2. It is quite a relaxing yet inspirational song. The riff and Bono's voice are still ringing in my head.

I need a job fast too. Crap.

Manchester United drew. Never mind. At least we get to play the away tie on the 1st leg. The downside is we gonna meet big guns like Real and Inter. BUT the advantage is that United, as champions of europe, will have the pleasure of bashing the daylights out of them. (haha hubert, I will pity real in the coming March)

Long time no blog man

2008-12-07T00:10:00.002+08:00

This blog is almost dead, thanks to my ignorance of this blog. Simply amazing.

Now I'm gonna revive it.

Today is really one of the days that i really spent my life to the fullest, eg catching up with frens and trying out new stuff. And that will continue tomorrow..my poor wallet is gonna get another hole.

I better get a job fast. Going out with ur frens really consume your money faster than you earn it. This may be a cliche, but people seems to forget about this simple fact of life. And yeah...SAVE.

And hopefully make further inroads into my guitar playing. I promise that you guys will catch this potential legendary rocker real soon!

P.S. Reason why my blog is now receiving life from me: reading my fren's blog really compelled me to open up for once.

Anyway, to my friend poon: Look forward and leave your troubles behind. I am sure great things will come your way, regardless of anything.

Hammer ons and pull offs are fun!

2008-07-12T20:54:00.002+08:00

Playing hammer ons and pull offs are quite fun despite the fact that I still experiencing problems pulling off coherently and ensure all my hammer ons and pull offs are very smooth when played. And...good thing I had my godmother to teach me on some ear listening stuff and some basic music theory. Gonna implement them on my training soon. Now I can be learn to be more sensitive to the music around me.

Going to academic side, I think everyone deteriorated. (I am included too!!!) Furthermore, the curse of " being nearly there " has struck me again. I got like 69.4444444444444 for chemistry and 54.44444444444 for my physics. Arrgh, just 0.1 mark and I would be like getting ABC rather than BBD. Crap. Oh yea, I went to School of thought today and confirmed my subscription of Broader Perspectives with them. It will be the first time for me to read those articles in those magazines and refer to the dictionary simultaneously because heck it, those articles contain lots of words that I have rarely come across before.

And one more thing. I have still yet to give a message to that girl my tuition friend introduce to me. It is not a normal situation especially she comes from the same school as you. To compound my misery, I am gonna meet my friend tomorrow and he wants nothing less than a substantial update. Crap la, should I just skip chemistry tuition tomorrow?

I also do not know how to introduce myself to her. I cannot share my guitar passion or my video game passion. But I think we may share some sort of other hobbies...I do not know anyway...from here, I shall end my post.

Looks like my electric baby is calling me right now to spend some quality time with him. Smell ya.

End of another school week

2008-07-05T00:18:00.003+08:00

Before I start this post, I need to make a sincere apology to all my friends who were previously part of SJI UGOs that I am unable to attend this year's Annual Parade. I am very sorry about that. Maybe I join you guys for dinner?

Ok then. I shall start spouting rubbish again. Today's college day was surprisingly packed. I remembered that last year's event was like a goner because almost all the j1s skipped college day. Got back some results. I was gutted that I did not improve in my Physics despite receiving 2 papers bad. Maths was not that bad..but I need to improve. I feel so lazy doing homework, so maybe I will start working from tomorrow onwards.

To compound my misery, I found myself being reduced to a noob in guitar. I kept mispicking, have difficulty increasing my finger speed for hammer ons and pull offs....arrgh..I want to play a song from Avenged Sevenfold or Eric Clapton. I need to master them 1st... I will pull it through...definitely.

By the way, I think neoclassical metal music sounds nice. I gonna listen to Paul Gilbert showing his super guitar skills now!

Last Day of a very screwed BT2

2008-06-30T22:34:00.005+08:00

I realised that my Maths have dropped from being godly to almost average. Got stuck inside 2 vectors questions, forgot the conditions for approximation....blah blah...only chemistry is like my only hope of an A.

I dunno whether this is bad news or not. I got PES A. I heard from others that you will get shit from the army because you are combat fit for maximum amount of saikang. To prevent too much saikang, I think I will be less enthusiastic about NS and not suck up to the sergents. I rather spend more time on guitar and other stuff.

But for now, while I am spending my last 4 months in a school uniform, I think I need to do this:

Get 3 As and A for GP ( More hours of studying required, let's give it my all!)
Play at least an Eric Clapton song (Layla or Change the World)
Be godly in my guitar skills and get a live performance (maybe tag along with my guitar teacher)
Curb procrastination and do more multi - tasking
Get a companion ( I am not joking, but where do I start? Should I have high expectations?)
Learn some music theory from my friend who is in grade 8 in piano as well as my godmother
Be closer to God

Deviating away, I do not know why guitarists must shred. This is because I cannot feel anything whenever a guitarist shreds (besides adrenaline rush). Can someone tell me? Why can't we follow Eric Clapton or Pink Floyd? Simple, yet effective. Why do we need to show others that we can move around the fretboard at 800bpm?

Oh yea, for those who want to study or relax while listening to music, I suggest listening to Life in Technicolor by Coldplay. It is a quite relaxing song that calms your nerves.

Erm....and my shaver is spoilt..... crap

And I have not decided whether I should go for AP.

It is high time to sing "It's not my time"

2008-06-21T23:40:00.003+08:00

Yes and yes ppl, time to sing it's not my time cos BT2s Draws near and I have not not done much. Notes in a big pile of mess. Good thing I managed to segregate my pile of mess into 4 distinct piles (yes, piles again). Rejoice..I start to get my life organised and managed to complete last year BT2 papers and ionic equilibrium revision. Gotta bang in 1.5 hrs of math...then another 1.5 hr of physics, then we shall see the Netherlands play Russia on the Internet. (Read Chem notes while watching haha)

Oh no..looks like a life of hard mugging just started. Tomorrow I have to bang some quick fire revision of J1 topics and another 50 qns of organic chem (if I can) before I broze through my notes a few times b4 paper 3 on Monday afternoon. Then I shall bang and bang and bang (sounds like AP and GP, huh?)

Then after BT2, enjoy my life for a while, then we shall start doing those prelim papers and more consultation with my physics teacher.....

When can I find time with my guitar? I wonder

Cannot think of this title again.....

2008-06-20T21:53:00.006+08:00

Today was like the last friday of the June holidays, which signals that June Holidays are ending.

The end of this year's June Holidays means a lot of things to me. Not only A levels are approaching, but this holiday is probably the last ever time I would have so much free time on my hands. I regretted not spending my previous June Holidays well as I wasted them on completing those highly addictive Final Fantasy games. But there is no point regretting now.....

Anyway I wrote my 1st ever song today. I hope I can seek the help of my experienced guitar friends to find the right key and chord progressions for this song. This song I write is a Lifehouse - inspired song...yea...so you may find shades and sounds of Lifehouse in this song. I hope I can improve my songwriting and guitar skills from here. This song is about the many thoughts that flow in my mind and I want to capture and collate them into a song so that people can relate to my song as well as for me to remember the ups and downs of my growing up years

I will not be writing any more songs now because I still need to mug for Chemistry (aah, finally my favourite subject.) Pray hard that I can complete my revision in time for Chemistry Paper 3 on Monday.

I want to buy Coldplay's new album, Viva La Vida. Their music is very unique and unlike most bands, they do not emphasize on the theme of love and relationship. Gotta listen to the album once I get my hands on it.

Anyway congrats to Germany for beating Portugal. I like their team as they embrace their idea of total football. Every player of the team contributed to the win, unlike Portugal, who likes to depend too much on Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco for the win.

Cannot be bothered to think of a title for this post

2008-06-20T00:42:00.003+08:00

3rd post....okay here we go

Oh my god june holidays are like mug, mug, mug,mug............. I cannot even play my guitar with a clear and peaceful mind during my breaks at all. Exams are important, but they are preventing me from spending quality time with my guitar. I mean exams are important right now, but I do not want to tell people that I mugged my ass for almost close to 2 decades of my life on this ever volatile planet.

Sometimes I do not understand people when they say " Leave your guitar hobby when you have money to buy guitars and stuff lah!!" I think these people have no sense of logic and reasoning at all. Chasing a hobby during your working life? No thanks man. Working life takes a hell a lot of time out of your life. You take months and months to get basics right because you probably can afford to practice like 30 minutes a week while earning sufficient amount of income to ensure that your butt has some proper place to rest in is like 99.99% of your time. I rather develop my passion for guitar now, rather than go on and off later in my life.

Ah, speaking about music..... I feel that Lifehouse plays great songs that appeal to me at various aspects. I recommend that you should listen to them during your distressing periods. Keep rocking on and write songs, Wade (vocalist of lifehouse)

Why is life so quirky?

2008-06-18T22:55:00.000+08:00

Can you believe this:

You are born in the year that ensures that all major football tournaments fall on the years of national exams.

You are born in the year when the Persian War is happening.

You are born in the year when all the great all time rock bands were at their peaks.

You are born in the year when all incurable diseases start to take their toll on the human race?

You are born in the year with a person who tries to sway people to rap songs, rather than band music.

You are born in the year with another unknown acquaintance of yours who is on his way to becoming a sports star.

You are born in the year when the environment starts its own gradual decadance.

You are born in the year with another possible counterpart of yours who is on his reckless path to become a wanted criminal.

You are born in the year when people of inspiration have started to make their mark subtly in this world

Oh my god, shall I remember my noble duty and ultimate dreams

2008-06-18T22:14:00.000+08:00

So yea, I have wiped out my previous blog because it sounded so fake and lame

Okay yea here's the 1st post

Looking back at the beginning of this
And how life was
Just you and me and love and all of our friends
Living life like an ocean
Now the currents slowly pulling me down
It's getting harder to breath
It won't be too long and I'll be going under
Can you save me from this

('Cause) It's not my time,
I'm not going
There's a fear in me
It's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Oh, I won't go

I look ahead to all the plans that we made
And the dreams that we had
I'm in a world that tries to take them away
Oh, but I'm taking them back
All this time I've just been to blind to understand
What should matter to me
My friend, this life we live
Is not what we have, it's what we believe

(And) It's not my time
I'm not going
There's a fear in me
It's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
But, It's not my time
I'm not going
There's a fear in me
Now I know that
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
Oh, I won't go
I won't go

(solo)

There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see
But, It's not my time
I'm not going
There's a fear in me
It's not showing
This could be the end of me
And everything I know
But, It's not my time
I'm not going
There's a will in me
Now it's gonna show
This could be the end of me
And everything I know, oh
There might be more than you believe
(There might be more than you believe)
There might be more than you can see
And I won't go
No I won't go down (yeahh)

It's not my time by 3 doors down. A song that keeps me going all along my whole journey of life.
Great band here. Hope to replicate this song on my electrified 6 string instrument and my mouth.

Man...I have been put down by those stupid immature thoughts again. My right brain was like singing this incredible, improvised tune EVER SINCE LAST WEEK:

Stop and Stare (accent please)
I think I'm moving but I go nowhere
Yea girl, dun get so scared...
cos' You're my eye candy baby...
oooooh....
Stop and Stare!!!!
I start to wonder why I am here, not there!
Sitting right beside her is so fair,
but she may not like me
oh...can she/I see what I see?

I gonna shut my right brain now. This part of my brain is 25% a gift.... 75% a weapon of mental destruction.
Ubiquitously bad for my health. Bad for my studying. Only useful when I feel bored. How I hope my right brain can help me in my music.

I think I better start writing about myself more. If not, my right brain becomes hyperactive again and I spent 4 hrs on an ionic equilibra question. How wastefel tsk. tsk.

Pray hard for me okay that I shall win the battle against my shadows, okay?