Music

Went to Jon's school production last night with my brother, and it was a... uhh... *trying to find the words*... unique experience (ahaha!!)

The bands are not professional, of course.
And the audience consisted mainly of friends and classmates who are usually more forgiving to their clique, and cheer the bands on no matter what.

Under-rehearsed songs, and arrangements that fall flat on your face, pitchy issues, lack of stage presence, and loads of stage spill coming from the monitors because musicians can't hear themselves yet they don't know how to move closer to the monitors (hmm, this point totally boggles my mind), nor do most of the vocalists know how to adjust the mic stand to their height (like HUH!? This is totally mind-blowing) and resort to bending down to the singing into the mic (face palms).

Yet, so many things could be learned from this production.

1) How the tiniest details are so important.
A simple punch requires much rehearsal on the band's part to be able to pull off the impact. If not, it'd fall flat on your face like it did for many of them.
Yet, doing the same punch in the section once too many times, makes it predictable and it loses its edge after 1-2 times as was the case with one of Skillet's songs.

2) a GOOD and TIGHT groove section is essential.
Nao always prided himself on holding the groove tight together with Saga. And yes, without a good drummer who knows what's he doing and playing certainly boosts the band by a lot.
And also, L'Arc~en~Ciel's bassist was totally awesome in their song "Driver's High", holding up the groove and free-ing the guitarists to do solos.

As my brother concluded last night's performances by various NP bands, "some inspire to work hard, others SCARE me to do so" LOL.
Indeed, there is a motivation to work harder whether it was from a good band or a not-so-good one.
I (and neither does my brother) don't want to end up like that, lol.
Nobody does, not if you're looking to be professional.

And it struck me then,
that one can learn even from the people not as good as themselves.
I wouldn't profess to be good,
but I think I've at least improved from where I once was - their current standard.
And much as it sucks to see that kind of standard,
and it's easy to get all critical,
there was a lesson to be learned from it.


My brother and I were listening to songs he put in his phone while we were on the way back.
And I was pointing out some of the arrangements that people hear but never really pay attention to.
We were supposed to be listening out to electric guitar tones but kinda got side-tracked from that, lol.

Still, that lazy bum finally decided to play around with the pedalboard to find tones he liked.
By making me sit at the pedalboard and adjusting the knobs of course lol.
Good training for his ears too, hearing the subtle differences in the tones and deciding for himself which he preferred instead of people choosing it for him.




Also, been totally enthralled by this piano solo played by Kazuki (from SCREW).
Although it's simple (and he's a guitarist in the band too), it has a really nice melody that captured my attention at the start. Trying to play it by ear now =)

Love Will Be Born Again

And here is my keyboard version of Versailles' ballad "Love Will Be Born Again". Decided to use my keyboard instead cos of the strings.

Scarlet Love Song

X JAPAN - Scarlet Love Song