Time flies really quick, and today might just be the last post of 2008. What have I been doing the past 12 months, and how has that made me as a person? In general, I’ve gotten a lot stronger internally, and a lot flabbier externally, heheh.

It’s always great to do a summary of my entire year at the year’s end. So, without further ado, I shall start my year in-review for 2008. Today is Sunday, Dec 28, 2008.

JANUARY:

So, A levels finished themselves a long time back from here. The world had just recovered from Mark and Sue’s wedding from 29^th December 07 and school restarted itself for all others who remained students in the new year.

Me?

None of that for me. What was to come was so much…. Weirder and more menacing in a sense. I was to enter NS in about 3 weeks. Within the month of January, I led more worship, this time being more experienced from the breakthrough camp the previous December. I also went back to see my juniors in their auditions and helped out their cca showcase. Wearing the school uniform was strangely familiar.

Anyway, on the 2^nd week, I went for an audition that changed my whole life. Brendan, my good friend from AC choir batch of 07, brought me and some other guy called Jerome Ng for an audition at MDC. As most people already know, I passed the audition and got into the vocal ensemble, and a few others also know that I sang the Korean song on my blogspot blog. That gave me an edge actually, because I was easily remembered, and it helped the people there recognize me when they lost my audition form.

Also at the start of the year was web’s move to the main sanctuary. It was a little overwhelming at first, but we eventually made use of the space and the ministry grew in numbers.

So on the 24^th of January I got enlisted. That day was iconic because I saw my Dad cry for the first time in my 19 year old life. I’d NEVER seen him cry anywhere else. Not even when his own father died.

The first 2 weeks of bmt got wedged in between January and February. My bunk mates were fantastic people and we had a good time in the bunks, at the running route and the jungle, for a day or two. Found out that camo cream is a disgusting substance… And that the weapon we took so much care of is such a disgrace. Outdated, inefficient, hard to clean.

So I survived 12 long days of bmt, and got out on Chinese New Year Eve.

FEBRUARY:

I nearly teared eating the nian gao my mum cooked. She gave it to my Dad, who brought it to Pasir Ris, where he waited at White Sands to pick me up.

And whoa, having a head emptied of hair was scarily refreshing.

CNY was quite ok, and I remember that it was a reeeeeeally long break for us, about 6 days, before we all trudged back into the ferry for Tekong on the following Tuesday.

We learnt about grenades, got (more) used to Tekong, and went outfield. Tekan-ing sessions abound… And more camo cream. Nearly 5 days of camo cream later, we all got out of there safe and sound. I crawled the Battle Innoculation Course to end it off. It’s actually quite a joke because the live rounds fired above your head are too high up to hit you even if you were standing anyway. Then I experienced combat rations and wondered how good the ones in Metal Gear Solid must be to actually heal Snake’s injuries.

Then again, it’s just a game.

And it’s Solid Snake.

MARCH:

By this time, I had thrown a real grenade. The experience was incredible and really unlike what you see in the movies. No fire, just a huge cloud of smoke, a REEEEEEEEEEEALLY huge blast, and the ground shaking. All from that tiny little green thing. I nearly freaked out, holding the grenade in my hand and getting ready to throw it… But thankfully it went well and there weren’t any delays. Every grenade from my platoon was thrown and exploded properly.

This month was the month for A LEVEL RESULT COLLECTION. I remember the entire journey there was so nerve-wrecking, and there were MANY surprises. A lot of people didn’t do as well as expected, and a lot of people also did better than expected. My results were actually not as good as predicted, but the journey I took spiritually to that point had prepared me for anything. In the end, I went to the hall entirely zonked out, having just booked out in the morning, so I couldn’t care less who went on stage and what not. I just wanted to go home as soon as possible, and I did. My results were ok lah. Not gonna cry over spilt milk and I really did everything I could within my means and maturity anyway.

The A level results taught me one thing: God still loves you no matter what the result, and that everything happens for a reason. Your results really don’t define you at all, and will probably bring you to the best places you need to be if you dedicated them to God. You aren’t any better than the guy who got no A’s, and you aren’t any worse than the guy who got 7 A’s. In the end, everyone dies, passes on from this earth, whether or not you’re a genius, a mass murderer or a saint.

What do you live on? Who do you live for? These are the questions that will help you deal with your results, good or bad. Give thanks, no matter what happens. =)

By the 3^rd week of bmt, I had fired my gun for the first and the last time, and we all went off, never to be recruits again.

I got into MDC as my posting, and while I jumped off my chair in excitement, the first day I got there was a bummer. Apparently there was no news that I’d be in and they attempted to re-audition me to try to justify my reason for being there because those bumbling idiots (since I now personally know them anyways, haha) lost my audition form. That didn’t work because I got full marks for my pitching, albeit I still couldn’t sing because of a very bad flu from bmt. In the end the guy who passed me came in (LATE), and approved me, to my huge relief, and I was given the official welcome. How he remembered? The Korean song. See how listening to other kinds of music can help you out? Haha.

APRIL

I started performing about 3 weeks after getting into MDC. I got my office attire and did my first show at AJC!! I had a ton of lyrics to memorise, and Apologise was a real pain in the brain.

We finished recording We Are Singapore for NDP, and we received news that we had to lip-synch on stage. Argh.

Nothing much else really happened… So things went fine.

MAY

Even more and more shows. I can’t remember but I think I had my first dinner show at ECP in May. This was the month where they broke the news to us about NDP rehearsals. My heart was shattered I tell you, because it meant I’d have to skip Saturdays and I wouldn’t be able to sing at worship for a good 3 months. It was painful because I didn’t have much time left as a youth, and in fact I was supposed to be in the RAYs ministry at this age, but because the senior zone was newly formed, the older youth (mostly guys) were to stay behind.

In the end Matthew encouraged me and helped me settle this issue…

The Sichuan earthquake occurred in this month I think.

AND finally at the end of the month was it? Was the ACJC choir’s Europe choral tour. I was praying very hard for them, especially since Grace and Jon Lee were with them. They did very well and they enjoyed themselves a whole lot, and I thought they’d better, because Chenzhong gave me quite some trouble prior to this. Haha.

JUNE

The 2^nd week of June was the start of our first real rehearsals. I still couldn’t grapple with the fact that I had to be there the entire afternoon to evening just to lip synch on stage for less than 5 minutes, but I went with it anyway. Saturdays were a mad rush for me because I had to set out in the early afternoon and I would rush all the way back from the floating platform to make it on time for the end of web service at bukit panjang.

June was the month leading up to the opening of WDL EFC. There was a lot of excitement and prayer over the new building, which we’re all so used to today. The webs were moving and packing the fishbone things up one day and I was helping them in the evening (namely Jingyi, Sarah, Mag-the-lene and Quek-the-man), and that was when I realised how soon it was gonna be. Now, I can’t remember just when we did that, but we did have our fun and reminiscing moments in the grace sanctuary. Old skool lah.

Then they released the photographs of the new building and I was like WAH AWESOME.

JULY

The month leading up to NDP. Shows were piling up and by now I had a whole bunch of solos to do. We had to perform We Are Singapore in public, so we needed to settle those things too.

On the 6^th of July was ACJC choir’s AEWF. I really enjoyed that one, and this time I was part of the audience with some of the webs. Heheh. I loved the water song and the solos! Felt awesomely proud of my juniors.

I remember somewhere in the middle of the year I was struggling with my voice, and I was working so hard to experiment with and to improve my voice, that I’d been damaging my voice AND my body from all the work. Anyway I know now that I wouldn’t know the keys to unlock the secrets till November.

July was the time when MDC suddenly gave me one crapload of work to do. I had a 20 day work week during this month I remember. I think I’ll have another one next year. Or, potentially, another few.

And oh yes, by now, I’d found out that make up is a more disgusting substance than camo cream. Ew, it stinks.

AUGUST

August! The eventful month. First up, my birthday, with all the odd presents, and one huge present from God in the form of a miracle. That’s right, my 19^th birthday is one I will never forget, because it was the birthday in which God gave me a miracle for a present. I had a bad cold on my birthday, and by the next day my voice and body were completely healed.

Right before NDP was the start of the Beijing Olympics 2008! The opening ceremony owned our NDP very badly. From here, we had plenty of Michael Phelps admirers, Usain Bolt parodies, and a whole lot of fuss over a little silver medal that Singapore got in table tennis.

NDP came and went!! PHEW. National Day itself was the webs’ National Day outreach. I remember feeling really irate from rushing down from the floating platform straight after my segment, but feeling ultimately relieved when I reached Clarissa’s house… I had a great time there, and thanks Josh Simon and Ian Tan for praying for me that day. It really blessed my life from there I believe. =)

Yeap, we had fun, and the very next day I had to perform at the Istana. AGAIN. GROAN. And I had to sing Jacintha’s solo again. GARGH.

August was the month I experienced the mixed voice. I did experiments with it and I was very dissatisfied with the outcome, lol. Anyway!

CEFC 30^th Anniversary service!! I was ushering and Pris was singing and I missed it, aww. Gurmit’s speech was awesome, everything was awesome.

The new bv’s came in and I conducted the “audition”. Heheh. You guys are crazy. Actually the only real guy is Duane but he’s so shy. You girls are crazy.

RSAF open house!! That was the period when WEB moved to WDL CEFC!!!! *Dang dang dang dang* And it was also my extremely long work week, with –listen for it!- 8 SHOWS IN A ROW. EIGHT. I was exhausted after that. Anyway the second day of RSAF open house was the first day of web in woodlands!! It was pouring that day. I had just done two shows at Paya Lebar… And when we were done, it was POURING. So bad, till I couldn’t see what was outside. And it was flooded, gosh. I braved the rain somehow and rushed all the way back to church. My jeans were SOAKED, and my feet got real bad peels from being in soggy socks and shoes for the whole evening, and I was EXHAUSTED, but it was worth it singing for web’s inaugural service at woodlands.

So much for being exhausted. I still had to get up early in the morning to go to church, and work. AGAIN. GROAN.

Whatever the gripes were, I came out of it a much stronger person. The singing tips and encouragement I got from my colleagues helped me improve my voice, real slowly, but surely.

SEPTEMBER

I don’t really remember much about September…

My group was working on new songs for the up-and-coming Rocky tour. One of those was End of the Road by Boyz2Men, and I’m very glad we don’t ever have to do that song again.

My vocal growth remained stunted, and my worship leading commitments had to be put aside for the time being because of my heavy schedule.

And some of you got your prelim results back. Was a pretty tough time for everyone.

I finalized and recorded the song Someday I’ll Know in this month, so for some of you who’ve heard it, it’s a really old song, dating back to my secondary school days. I wrote it in 5 minutes and I edited and completed it this year.

Ok, looks like I can’t remember anything else significant that happened in September.

OCTOBER

October was a real busy month for me because Rocky tour was coming up in a matter of weeks. The J2s and O lvl students were mugging like mad, and I was practicing like mad. My voice still hadn’t grown, but I was learning about support and it was veeeeeeeerrry slowly making some sense.

October was the month of the global financial breakdown. I know times were already getting bad, but this was the month it just peaked and crashed down on all of us. My family struggled during this time, and I remember that it was difficult for me to accept as well. Thankfully though, since we never touched stocks, we remained safe from the largest pitfalls.

During this time I started to resolve my deepest problems and I started finding really big answers to some of these things.

NOVEMBER

November began with the Rocky tour. It was really hectic and draining, yet I learnt a whole lot of stuff from it. Throughout the trip I sang with mixed voice and I invented a new warm-up (using something that Kim told me) that allowed me to hit my entire range so far. This warm-up became really popular with the rest of the singers and artistes somehow. However I still had not grasped the mixed voice totally and I realised that by pushing my voice too much, it was tiring out too fast. The last performance I did, I finally stopped using the mixed voice warm-up. It was like some sort addictive vocal steroid that had really short term effects.

Fortunately I also trained in consciously using my diaphragm… So that’s one more takeaway.

Aside from that, we went to several locations, including a very spiffy theatre, to sing, dance and play our instruments. I learnt a lot about showmanship during this time, as well as presentation of self, heheh. I enjoyed the times we had to ourselves… It was wicked fun. The scenery at the beach was great, the temperature was ok, the food was solid, and the shopping was cheap. I don’t mind going back to Australia again, and not for work the next time. I really missed home, but a few days after I got back, I kinda missed Rocky.

The O lvls finished up while I was gone, and the A lvls started when I left. When I came back, most had finished their exams. I love it when exams are over, even when I’m not taking them; it just lightens the whole mood. That’s what you call holidays man, not some period of time in school when you still have to wake up and go for school in slightly smaller waves.

Finally, after ALL that hard work I put into my voice, FINALLY, I improved tremendously. TREMENDOUSLY. My voice warped into something so different I can barely recognize it now. I’m officially a full-fledged tenor. I discovered support, a completely new technique that boosted my range without adding strain, a new belting voice… Everything just came in and I got really stunned by how much it changed.

DECEMBER

DECEMBER! My favourite month of the year, quite obviously, was ridden with several activities. For one, I had many shows to be done with the MDC, and I sang in worship for almost the entire month. Everything climaxed with FACES, and I got quite stressed about everything going on, which probably led to my fever the week before the event. Nevertheless it went well.

Christmas time was an uneventful time. I used Christmas itself to rest up and be myself. Watch youtube, polish my songs, and well. Sleep. As much as I could.

December was the month I made up my mind to try going for an album of my own. I told Joegoh that he’s right about my being inspired by Vocaluptuous’s awesome performance to become a real singer, but I don’t want to go into the acappella genre again. Just… Sing on my own, or in a pop group or something. I wonder if I’ll get there, or if I’ll get stumbled by the people around me who label me first. In any case, I’m a very determined person (or so I’ve been told), so I’ll definitely complete my 11 ballads in the span of next year. I’m done with 2 already, and I’m about to record my third one on mp3 player.

For those of you who don’t know, if I ever break into the mainstream market and get famous or what not, my plan is to spread God’s music from there. A big dream of mine is to have an entirely gospel album out to the masses, at half price, or even given out free in stores, so that people can listen to good music that speaks of God. I’ll use my popularity to my advantage. Well… That’s if I’m called to do that.

NEXT YEAR

What’s in store for next year? Well, a whole lot of things.

My new year resolutions in no particular order of importance:

1. Look less fierce.
2. Become stronger as a person.
3. Improve my voice to international standards.
4. Know more about the Word.
5. Handle worship as best I can.
6. Be a better team player.
7. Be a fantastic speaker.

Let’s see where I go with these.

If there’s anything I left out from this year in-review, I’ll edit it into the entry over time.

Cheers to a happy 2009.

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Created at 6:25 AM
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I'm setting out on this songwriting project. I realise I haven't written songs in ages, and while I've written like around 30 songs, I've hardly ever made them known to people, performed them or even recorded them. So these are my short term goals for now.

I'm going to craft my image as a balladeer, and a balladeer needs ballads. I write really good heartbreakers, so I need more uplifting ballads, and I'll need to learn how to write them.

Goals in order of most to least achievable:

GOAL 1: Write 11 ballads that work before ORD.

GOAL 2: Be able to sing all of the ballads I write.

GOAL 3: Record the best ones, to act as anchoring songs, with instrumentals.

GOAL 4: Learn how to accompany myself with the piano.

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Created at 4:37 PM
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I've no idea how to start off this post at all, but maybe I'll do so by thanking God and giving God all the honour. Yesterday was a blast, and many strangers walked into the building to check out the concert (EPIC WIN), and there was one salvation!! PRAISE THE LORD! Who'd think that God could use a small concert like this to bring people to Him? Unbelievable.

It was good to see so many webs serving, and I'd just like to use this public domain to thank all the webs who were serving, waiting on people, washing the cups and cleaning the place. Please don't think nobody appreciates you all ok. =) Great job guys! So if you think no one saw you do your work, let me remind you that God was smiling and blessing the works of your hands when you were washing and running around!

I'd also like to thank my family for coming yesterday, my bro, Mum and Dad. My Dad actually "chided" me for not acknowledging the family's presence yesterday, haha, then proceeded to give me some tips on public speaking (which he's good at, and which I need). I really wanted to acknowledge my family, but I thought my Mum would be really embarrassed and paiseh and stuff, and I know her very well, that she'd really be happier if I didn't. And Mum told me that I have permission to acknowledge my family only if my Dad was around (lol), but it'll be different next time, I promise. I'll make sure I acknowledge my family, and more importantly, God.

Speaking of my family members being there, that's exactly why I was reeeeeeeally nervous yesterday. I don't even get nervous when I sing for a crowd of one thousand, so yesterday was really different. I really wanted to sing my very best to please my parents and show them how far I've come in the past 3 years... And I'm glad they liked it! I felt really bad though that I got too tired during I Believe I Can Fly. My nerves were wrecking my hands (I had to use two hands to hold my mic) and I was pushing my lungs reeeeal hard to get those notes out, but I had to give in during the key change because my body couldn't take it anymore; I had yet to recover from my flu, not to state an excuse, but just to be real to myself. I think Siang's guitar playing is really good because he managed to play around with me during the instrumental part of I'll Be Home for Christmas, despite being severely under-rehearsed due to my fever earlier this week. Talent lah bro, talent!

And of course, props to the other performers, Pris, Duane and Pleroma! Really good shows there and I'm sure everyone can say the same!! Pleroma played like siao yesterday. Was great singing for you guys! It was great fun working with Pris. Cheers to Robitussin honey lozenges! We'll try finding a place to get more of those ok? =D

I'll be looking forward to next year's events, and I'll be working with Pris very often -if not all the time- from now on. Things're really gonna change for everyone next year. From taking over as a new batch of singers in my company, to following up on worship leading, to mentoring and being mentored.... Wow I get tired, yet reeeally hyped up just thinking about it!

This week, aside from Tuesday, I'm basically on leave the entire week, and I'm really happy about it! Finally a week to relax and enjoy myself. Yay, I hope it can be extended till next Tuesday too to make up for my managers putting a rehearsal on one of my leave days.

Also, I've actually been thinking about auditioning for a record company. You know, like Sony BMG, EMI, that sort of thing. I've been toying with the idea since my artistic director told me I should try something like that out... What would my next steps be, I wonder. Hrm...

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Created at 4:54 AM
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Yes, another post of boring reflections about singing, for sake of archiving online, and for those of you who might just understand it.

As some of you might be aware, I'm still recovering from my disastrous influenza virus infection that occured unbeknownst to me on Saturday... So I'm still resting at home and I'll be taking another long nap later as my medicine kicks in. If I don't take a nap I'll fall asleep at my desk anyway, so this motivates me to keep things short.

So, back to the post. This entire year of singing has benefited me immensely... I've worked really really hard at my voice, tried as best possible to keep fit, albeit getting less fit and more sickly recently due to lack of sleep (warranting a yeesh from me)... =.=

And putting things into perspective, I realise I haven't really been singing for the longest time because I only started seriously singing and performing in sec 4. That would be only about 3 years spent really singing... Which doesn't really give me anything to be proud about with regards to experience or qualifications, but nevertheless, I'll definitely want to keep working on the voice. Let's see how my journey started, right from the beginning.

SUMMARISED TIMELINE OF JOURNEY THUS FAR:

- I first discovered I sounded somewhat nice in sec 2. I had a nice tone and developed ears from being in the band so I could keep pitch. However my range was sorely lacking and I had to replace most notes with falsetto. This discouraged me a lot.

- In sec 3, I had two other friends who are awesome singers. They sang Josh Groban's rendition of You Raise Me Up. This actually got me thinking about singing seriously for the first time in my life. I was really envious, I had to admit, because studying together with me were two other really awesome singers... So I decided to work on my voice a little more, to expand my range.

- In sec 4 I did my first two performances. Kinda embarrassing actually, but having held a microphone or the first time, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Also, band and instrumental music started appealing less and less... And I started thinking the lazy way (you have to set up to do a band performance after all =P)

- In J1 I got into ac choir after I transferred to acjc, post 1st-3-months. I then learnt about real singing for the first time, and how my technique was really screwed up. I also learnt about placement for the first time.

- In J2 I got better and my vocal gymnastics got really good.

- This year, I got into MDC and I learnt about real diaphragm support. I also did various other experiments with my voice, and my range expanded a LOT. By learning more about supporting my notes, I learnt how to belt without strain, or with considerably less strain on my voice.

Techniques I have learnt and applied in my singing, not in order of when I learnt them:

1. The workings of the inner mouth:

Basically: Playing around with the upper palate and the lower jaw, and having an open space in the back of the mouth.

What it does: Changes colour of your tone, and prevents throat from tightening to a certain extent.

2. Breath Support

Basically: Breathing and lung capacity.

What it does: It gives the volume and depth to your notes. One of the more elusive techniques in singing. Forms the basis for belting.

3. Placement

Basically: Putting your sound through your nose.

What it does: Helps one to project the notes, and thus prevents throat from tightening too much. Placing notes also helps to switch to head voice. Probably one of the easier techniques in singing.

4. Vibrato

Basically: Erm, the wavy sound in most singers. Most developed vocal chords have vibrato.

What it does: Adds colour, stability and power to the voice.

5. Vocal Gymnastics

Basically: Vocal runs.

What it does: Helps your voice to be really flexible. This is the technique people know me as a singer for. It's easy to learn but hard to master because it's like developing a muscle.

6. Falsetto

Basically: The gay voice.

What it does: You don't hear me use it in church.... But it adds a new dynamic texture to a guy's solo. You know it when you hear it. Useful for harmony singers; a nice falsetto helps high tenors get away from really high harmony lines.

7. The Growl

Basically: A growl

What it does: Helps you squeeze out your notes, and something a little more aggressive in singing. Again, not something I do in church, and it's also something that if not done correctly, can damage the voice, but when pulled off properly it can help you hit higher notes, and make you sound really cool for a few seconds.

8. The Glottal

Basically: Using throaty sounds, like slight cracks and little slaps in the throat or the back of the mouth

What it does: Helps you get out your higher notes. Again, like the growl, it is potentially damaging and requires some practice before it can be used in repertoire, but when properly used, it can help one hit higher notes. Can make the voice hoarse very easily I find.

9. Placing Notes Lower

Basically: Not a real technique. Rather, it's a manner of singing that expands your higher range. In essence, it's singing your high notes in the lowest possible fashion so your larynx doesn't move up so much, and so that you can draw breath from deeper within your lungs.

What it does: Expands your range like nothing before, and aids in belting, and most importantly, connects your voice to your support. Takes a bit of time to get into your head though. One of the best techniques I learnt this year.

10. The Nasal Sound

Basically: "Squeezing" your notes up into your nose, and sounding boyish as a result.

What it does: For guys, helps you sound more like a tenor. Not easy to describe in words, but it helps you to sing those high notes easier if you make your voice sound a little less manly. Yeah. Useful technique to know if you wish to learn how to serenade.

Techniques I know but have yet to apply, or won't be applying:

1. The Mixed Voice

Basically: Mixing your falsetto and chest voice together. A pure mixed voice sounds like falsetto to the untrained ear.

What it does: Helps you sing reeeeeeeeeeeally high.

Why I'm not applying it to my singing: For one, it's really hard to get, and it's potentially damaging because of the way your chords rub together when you do it incorrectly.

2. The Heavy Metal Scream

Basically: The screamo thing which rockers do. Yes, don't be surprised. I can actually scream in that way.

What it does: Kills your ears.

Why I'm not applying it to my singing: I don't like heavy metal, and it's still really damaging even if done with the correct method.

I can't really remember what else I learnt that I didn't apply... There's got to be a bit more to it, but I guess I can't remember for now.

At the end of the day singing needs more feel than anything else, and it doesn't matter how large your range is if you can't make the song sound good, or if your voice doesn't sound good in the first place, even if vocal range is a very important thing for a singer to have technically. In light of this, I've come up with 3 (personal) golden rules of singing every good singer must have to be good:

1. Pitch: No pitch, no song, no luck, no interested audience.

2. Diction: Poor pronunciation is an immediate turnoff to the general English educated audience. A good diction and vowel and consonant formation enables you to sing in a variety of languages.

3. Tone: Tone is a short form for tonality, meaning the quality of the voice. How I define it is, how different your singing voice is from your speaking voice. A good singer doesn't need to talk with a voice that can put people to sleep. In fact in most cases it's the other way round. In short, once again, your singing voice should sound different from your speaking voice.

General genres of music I've sung and personal notes:

1. The (sappy) ballad

My personal favourite genre. Whether sappy emotional songs, or inspiring love songs, ballads make singing for any guy worthwhile especially if your girlfriend likes to be serenaded to. =P That is, till I get a girlfriend, or get a certain someone I have in mind, whichever comes first, I won't be serenading anyone anytime soon. You can use a lot of things to spice up a (sappy) ballad, and it's applicable to many performance situations.

2. Soft rock/Rock/Pop rock/Rock ballad -Heavy Metal

Every once a while, you'd bump into a soft rock song that you'd have to sing with a band, and every once a while the electrifying feeling is a great feeling to have. Otherwise, I pretty much try to stay away from rock because it's really tiring. =P Aside from that, every good musician needs to know good rock songs, be it from Bon Jovi, U2, Queen, etc etc, simply because these songs are able to connect with people all over the world, and these songs are simply the best in the history of music.

3. Jazz

They say there's a bit of jazz in everyone. Improvisation and syncopation with your accompanying musician is fun.... If you can feel each other in the first place. Aside from that, jazz doesn't need a whole lot of range to pull off, just a whole lot of maturity to sing. Everyone likes the blues whilst enjoying a cuppa, or when you just need to pull away from the rat race and the busy roads.

Swing can be hard to pull off if your sense of rhythm isn't natural. Doing a song in swing without feeling the rhythm is just like playing off-beats in straight counting. Ok that didn't make sense, but in essence, the song wouldn't take off at all. You got to make people feel like swaying (hence the popularity of the song Sway) in some fashion if you're doing swing. That being said, I haven't really done much swing in my life, and whenever I have to do it, I don't really look forward to it. Heheh.

4. Contemporary R&B

It's very rare nowadays to hear old-skool R&B, so every now and then listening to Ray Charles helps refresh the feelings of nostalgia. Not like most of us are old enough to remember the times but well. Modern R&B is difficult to sing because it's normally infused with soul and sometimes even elements of hip hop. The moment I hear soul I freak out because to do soul, you need range. You need a whole lot of high notes to pull off your soulful R&B. I did it once or twice in Rockhampton, and that was Boyz2Men's End of the Road, and gosh, the ad libbing nearly killed me, but it also strengthened my voice a whole lot... After I gave it some rest, that is. Slightly more old-skool R&B songs I've done include Sukiyaki.

Singers I've taken techniques from (and some favourite singers of mine, to add to that):

1. Jaejoong (from dbsk)

Jaejoong is one of the most awesome asian pop tenors I've heard in my life. He is awesomely versatile, has a really massive range, and can dance. I can't dance to save myself but anyways. I've taken a LOT of pointers from this guy, including my tone and my breath support. This man's breath support is just awesome, and is clearly heard in many of his solos. His voice is also VERY open, which allows for projection and volume control, even at his highest range.

2. Brian Mcknight/R Kelly

Any music maniac will know these two for their contributions to the music world: One Last Cry and Back at One by Mcknight, and I Believe I Can Fly by Kelly. What I took from them are their vocal runs. There are many ways you can arrange runs, and while I've personally created many many arrangements of my own, I started out by imitating some of theirs. Perhaps the most infamous series of running notes ever are the ones in R Kelly's I Believe I Can Fly.

3. Jason Mraz

Whilst I like some songs he's written, I'm not actually a true fan of Jason Mraz. The best thing about him are his musical lines, and I've taken some cues from this guy regarding the forming of lines. He's a very musical person, even when working with a band. Of course there are several other famous musicians known for their musicality, it's just that Jason Mraz's songs appeal to me more than others'.

One of my greatest mistakes was to let my voice take its influence from Josh Groban. It hindered my progress in vocal development a lot, and it made me think I was a baritone when I'm actually a tenor. To add to that note, most asians are tenor voices, and asians generally make better tenors than Caucasians, though more so in the pop scene. Asian voices are lighter and thus easier to develop upwards, whereas an European voice, for example, carries a lot of natural depth.

Things I'd like to learn:

1. Going beyond natural range:

My current range goes all the way down to a low D and up to a high G# via belting. I'm capable of hitting Bb on a good day, but I don't have good days that often, heheh. I aim to improve till I can belt a high A comfortably, then progress on to finding a voicing that will take me beyond Bb. It's a pretty insane ambition, but I work by comparing myself to international standards, so my current standard is pretty rubbish to me actually. I consider range to be my greatest weakness.

2. Proper speaking techniques

So I won't damage my voice by talking. So I can talk more then sing afterwards. The problem is I don't want my voice to be overly clear; there's a consequence in that, because you lose the emotion in your tone of voice. Maybe I could start by supporting my talking voice. Heheh.

3. Whistling falsetto

Because Jaejoong can do it. And a lot of other people around me. And I can't. My falsetto sounds good, but my falsetto range isn't dramatic enough.

So next year's goals are mainly to improve my range even further, and also to pick up tips on arrangement and emceeing, the latter being something I will inevitably have to do in the future.

That's what I can remember so far... I'll edit this post if I remember anything else about singing that needs to be added here.

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Created at 12:38 PM
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Yesterday was a challenging day indeed. I woke up with a sore throat that was of mid-level seriousness, which made me panic all morning. For some reason, puffing the inhaler helped ease the phlegm in my throat, which was barely there but still not helping my situation out.

We had rehearsal for FACES yesterday from 1.30pm to 7pm, with a break in the middle to pray for the blitz that happened, and speaking of blitz, I haven't heard a single thing about it and no one mentioned anything about it after we were finished (which was super late, and which also caused us to miss the shuttle bus. The daily dilly-dally was up and running)... If anyone would be nice enough to tell me about it over msn or something I'd be appreciative. Anyway I suddenly burned up during midday and I had chills from who-knows-where. Somehow I managed to sing and belt (even surpassing my normal range) with that sore throat and fever coming on, so I guess all that work in mdc has really made me improve so much. My voice felt normal after that, but I was afraid I'd lose my voice this morning.

And voila, I nearly did. I woke up with a fever and a really painful, swollen throat. Initially I thought I'd lost my voice, but later I realised (and gave due thanks to God) that i didn't lose it because I oversang. Rather, my throat had swollen up via an active illness. Phew. So I can probably get my voice back by Wednesday.

I haven't had a fever in ages, so I've forgotten how it feels like: absolutely terrible. I shivered for no reason and my muscles ached as if I'd just come back from the gym with my brother (yes, coming back from the gym with or without my brother makes a great difference). So it turned out that I could not make it for today's rehearsals and I couldn't even bring my cousin for service (what a pity), even though she wanted to come. Meh, I feel awful.

I have no idea how I'll be able to conduct rehearsal tomorrow for I Believe I Can Fly. I'm really tempted to use the minus one I have in my old CD stash, and it isn't a good one.

I have even less of an idea how I'm going to survive the coming week. I have 3 mdc shows and a potential one on Saturday itself, which I hope never comes up. If it does, bye bye FACES.

One can only pray.

Got to pray.

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Created at 12:09 PM
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Heh. VE: Vocal Evolution. Sounds like a corny band name. If a band took that, they'd better have the chops to pull it off.

What's coming up next? The slew of mdc performances, and the 20th outreach, which is really big, something I consider bigger than my rocky tour... Because it's a very personal project I guess.

Today's the last day of my official leave... Man, that was a good and fulfilling break.

I shall start filling up my repertoire of English love songs. Might need them soon.

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Created at 2:50 PM
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It is cold.

It is very cold.

And so this week I enjoy 3 days away from work. I sure hope the elation lasts long.

Cheers to meaningless posts.

Anyway, I went ahead and bought Chrono Trigger, and while the instruction booklet and poster sorely disappointed me, I enjoy the whole package very much. The game works like a charm and the 16 bit graphics, while really dated and such, don't offend me at all. Chrono Trigger's music and feel works like magic, and despite the deliberately untouched graphic mechanisms, the story brings out a lot of emotion and draws you in, in a good way, and yet, enables you to prevent unhealthy addiction to the game. This is one rpg I'll still be playing after a long time.

Also, December is already here and it looks set to go away fast. I don't mind, for a couple of reasons, which I shall not explain now.

It's time to rack up the spiritual discipline.

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Created at 4:29 PM
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Name: Jerrold Hong
Age: 19 (as of 2008)

I'm an avid music lover. I love singing and (surprise surprise!) I actually sing in tune. Studied in a certain PAP kindergarten before moving on to LPS, then BBSS (which rocks), followed by PJC for PAE (which undoubtedly ALSO rocks) and lastly, ACJC (ROCKS THE MOST). I live in BUKIT PANJANG (not Choa Chu Kang or Bukit Batok), at Senja Grand, the new estate which forever undergoes upgrading (surprisingly without any noise).

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