Today is the tipping point. Chao's right. No more. No point also.

Larry Bird is really inspirational.

It's cute how Shirui can make everything feel exciting, by putting exclaimation marks all over the to do list.

Sucky day, but at least Longi is somewhat done. Just to let Joseph track where i am now.

Stoch final papers tml. 3 of them i think. Whack them hard again.

Goodbye. This time, it's for real.

Sorry tt i disappeared for a few days.

Was busy with my helpsheets.

Was busy with researching on one of my childhood games: Might & Magic 2: Gates to Another World.

Was somewhat busy playing it too, but i gave up cos it's getting tedious.

Was somewhat busy shooting hoops. Added the Ray Allen shooting drills to the session. Following his shooting style as well: Hold low, pull up and release in 1 motion. Smoother and more accurate somewhat. Probably should do the Mikan drill too, though it's kinda cheesy.

Got a minor blister at the same spot again. So it's a blister in a blister. Retarded. I suspect the shoe, but it's weird that it's giving me problems like 1 yr after i bought it.

Exam's on Tues. I'm getting nervous somehow. Cos the holidays are gonna come soon.

This holiday, i'm gonna make it fruitful. At least make it something tt i can look back and be a little proud of.

:)

Did close to nothing today. Like Joseph said, "organidling". It's a disease that's gonna kill you.

Well at least the data mining proj is closed to settled. 1 less thing to worry about.

7 more days to first paper.

Guitar Update: Lesson 26: Playing along 1 string

The last lesson is finally here. I've reached the end of the book. Sad to say the solo today wasn't very fun. First it's hard to transpose along 1 string, cos the solo spans 2 octaves, but i've only got 21 frets. So certain keys is kinda hard to play. 2ndly i'm lazy lar.

Some interesting ideas in the solo though, that almost every note is bendable. Or at least bending makes the "linear" soloing more interesting. It's easy to fall into the trap of playing small intervals too, which makes the solo sound v chinese. Have to really try the big jumps to see the difference.

Again, the scale can be broken up into 2 parts of the same shape, so it makes remembering easier. Probably during the holidays i'll start putting up some "lessons" to illustrate my point.

Breaking up the scale also allows one to play the scale somewhat differently, like the sliding shape style. It's a wider stretch tho, but it's something different la. Different approaches allows different things to be done.

I hate playing along one string, unless there's some interesting licks. Like "Birds and the Beez". Tt's probably the only one string lick i ever had. And of course all the lame tapping shit in other solos. Pfft.

Oh well good night.

Elv (beez's student) showed me a vid on the art of picking up girls. Basically, according to the master, to attract girls, u need to fulfill 3 things:

1) Be the leader of men

2) Be chosen by women

3) Be the protector of loved ones

By these rules, i could clearly see how i totally destroyed Shirui during our courtship days. 1) I was the basketball captain. 2) There were a few girls who were interested in me. 3) I was a nice and caring guy who looks mean enough to prevent anyone from messing around with me.

Maybe the rules work, maybe they dun. I have my own ways to impress pple. Maybe they fall under the same subset of rules, but it doesnt matter. It's quite weird to need someone to teach you how to be confident. You either are, or you are not. It's really about how much u really want it.

Naturally when you have some talent or good at something, you will be confident. Girls just dig confident guys. It's all abt the swagger. So go out and get something done. Work on a hobby. Being able to excel in something is attractive to a female. It shows that you are able to dedicate tt kind of passion onto her as well.

Tt's why i like to work out, work on ball skills, work on guitar skills, work on studies. It breeds success in some form and makes me feel good. Joanna's right, guys thrive on success and achievements. Who doesn't seriously?

Data Mining's good so far. I read thru the notes once. The problem is that the notes is completely messy. Fortunately I have Eliz's notes, and she kinda rearranged the notes somehow. I'm gonna do that tml. At least it makes searching easier for the open book exam.

I think Johnson's post is somewhat directed at me. Chill la. I find it funny for people to worry about me. And i find it funny that pple think they know what im thinking. Words can never fully describe what i think, partly cos my English is not expressive enough? Anyways, dun worry abt me la. I just like to kp alot. Chao knows that.

Went for another session of the 20 min workout at abt 5pm. Same deal, 10 shots per spot, but 20 3 pts this time. Finished in abt 30 mins again which is good i guess. Skipped the same stuff as usual haha. Maybe i shld really work on those step back jumpers. Worked on the form shooting ABC thingy. Played a 2 v 1 match with this 2 pri sch kids. Actually all they wanted was to see me do something cool like a alley oop. Funny kids.

Guitar Update: Lesson 25: Playing the Blues

Surprise! Managed to dig up some free time so might as well. 2nd last lesson of the book. Woo din expect to finish the book, but im reaching soon! Guess the perseverance paid off somewhat.

It's another blues solo, this time using some classic blues licks. Solo's abit faster and more technical. Lotsa position shifts, covers the 5 positions to a certain extent. As usual, it's important to know the root notes, so when you shift you wun be lost. Especially on key changes. I've yet to play the solo and visualise the scale shape on the fretboard, but i think that helps to a certain extent. Though that would take more brain power to process too. It's already kinda taxing to remember the solo and try to keep to the metronome.

It took me 1 hr + just playing this solo over the 12 keys. Is that overkill? And the funny thing is i enjoy playing the same shit over different keys. Keeps my brain working somehow. I can really see how the pro guitarists manage to practice 8 hours a day. Maybe i shall try during the holidays. Seems probable now.

Alright last lesson left. Probably not tml. Then again you never know. Everyday's random ^^.

Night.

To be frank, i love to blog and type bullshit. But of course if during the day i've been blurting out too much bullshit, the content here gets compromised.

There's only so much shit to go around.

It's interesting talking to Beez's student. He's like the 18 yr old kid who's so optimistic because god has infused so much hope into him. He's gonna lose 10 kg, be a master shredder, be a master pickup artist, be a successful investor, and be a successful engineer. He's gonna do it all.

Life is much simpler when you're 18. You can do it all.

Cleared 7 chapters of data mining today. Din really hit my target of 9 cos i was slacking. Oh well 11 more to go. After some careful reading, it doesnt seem that scary anymore. At least for the notes. The tricky thing is the questions. Sometimes i do not get what he wants. And it's the questions that will kill in the exams. Really have to sort it out somehow.

Dunno why, but Johnson tried to play Aunt Agony on me just now. It just din work somehow, partly cos i was listening to some solid tunes while absorbing the data mining shit. Probably if i was panicking over DM then maybe it'll help.

Thanks anyways, appreciate it. But, wrong timing lar.

Went for a fast run just now. I realised running triggers the injury in my left knee somehow. That's tricky. Tried doing 2 sets of 30 situps and was pretty smashed. I remember situps was the easiest station for the ippt station. I could do like close to 60 during my heydays. What happened?

It didn't help that i finished up the lasagne. And i tried to finish the brownie, though it's too gelat.

Lasagne was great, brownie's just weird but still tasty. I still prefer cake-y brownies. Bake more pls ^^.

Havent been doing the hand kiap thing-y. Just plain forgot abt it somehow. Either way, my hands are busy, typing, or playing the guitar these days. Now tt i've stopped guitar for a while, probably can start the kiaping habit. It's good for the grip you know. I feel that i'm stronger with the ball now.

Been following the NBA playoffs. Here's my view on the matches played today:

Cavs vs Wiz: I love Arenas. I love LBJ. Wiz probably cannot handle LBJ cos he's just too good. And Wiz do not have a very strong defensive player to keep LBJ quiet. When you can't shut LBJ down, you're gotta have to outscore. Arenas is not really in top form yet. Interesting series, but Cavs shld win easily.

Hornets vs Mavs: Chris Paul showed he's playoffs quality, but Kidd almost got another triple-double. Hornets is clearly riding much on Chris Paul's ability, and Mavs can take advantage on this by shutting him out. Mavs can probably win this series, though i like the Hornets.

Spurs vs Suns: TD and Manu does it again for the Spurs. Suns looked tired in the 2nd OT, but their bench is really deep. TD probably eats Diaw for lunch, so we shall see how the Suns react the nxt game. Keep Shaq/Amare on TD and he'll definitely foul out. And you lose your potent scorers. Spurs is smart to keep Bowen on Nash. Harass the point guard and you'll have a big advantage. Especially when Nash is not really a pass-first PG. I pick Spurs to win this series just becos they are really more experienced.

Rockets vs Jazz: Jazz is really strong this season. Deep squad, solid first team, solid teamwork and unselfishness. Deron Williams showed that he's still a very good scorer, despite going for more passes towards the end of the regular season. This versatility is key as it makes the Jazz doubly dangerous. Okur and Korver can score from 3 pt, which will stretch the defense. Rockets can only rely on Tmac to carry them, but even so it's too much considering his f-up shoulder. Scola, Battier are only 2nd rate scorers, so i dun see much hope for the Rockets. Too bad they lost Yao Ming. That would have really changed the outlook. I pick Jazz for this series, and i think they have a good shot at the western finals.

Alright tt's all for tonight.

Spent the entire day whacking the stochastic tutorials. Told ya gonna rock them hard.

That took abt 9 hours perhaps? I worked from 4pm till 12+. Shirui turned off my computer. That did me some good. Free myself from distractions.

Coming online to MSN is getting scarier. The last 4 pple i talked to all wanted help. Huiying for her flash project, JJ for his midi project, Song Hui for his 2108, Wen Min for his 4245. Seems like i'm a one-stop cure-all for everybody.

I say again: I can't save everyone. Only Jesus can. But i dun love him sorry.

Think i'd have to stay offline as much as possible. MSN is such a irony for me.

Anyways, guitar updates will be stopped for the duration of the exam. I can't seem to find sufficient time and focus to work on the blues. And the more i play blues, the sadder i become. Isn't it supposed to work this way?

I'm expecting lasagne tml. Hope it's good. Having a girlfriend who has an oven at home is good shit. If you dunno what to buy for your girlfriend's birthday present, buy her an oven and a baking set. You won't regret my advice.

Oh and that would be relationship hot tip #16. I'm still counting ;)

Wtf is man u doing. Draw 1-1 with a team like blackburn?! Pls dun be shitheads like arsenal and the chelsea manager. Somehow i respect the chelsea players for being able to stay competitive even when their manager is a piece of shit. But this goes to show how you can really buy yourself a soccer team. And that's shameless.

Pls wrap up the series shitheads, so that i can bother about 1 less thing in the papers.

Tml's data mining's turn. I'm not feeling good about this. :S

Got hold of some old skool techno/trance/eurobeat or whatever you call it. Remember Eiffel 65, ATB, Ian Van Dhal etc? Got some Safri Duo too, thanks to Joseph who triggered my memory. Techno is nice la. Ah bengs do have some good melodic taste.

Finished up Stochastic's notes today. Went thru pretty fast, cos we just had the test so everything's still pretty fresh. Gonna rock the tutorials hard tml.

Regarding my fucked up assignment, i dunno whether to apologise for screwing up 5 other pple's marks, or feel good about myself for preventing 5 pple from getting a zero for the assignment.

Shirui + JQ + Chao told me to be positive. I shall try to be positive for 3 pple then.

My blisters are healing. Tt's the only good sign amidst all the bad signs so far. Went to shoot some hoops with the same pair of shoes. It's a sock problem i'm sure. Thick socks nxt time chan wen kai. Not thin socks.

Listen to your mother. When she says put yellow lotion, just follow instructions. GG oil is not gonna help, and she's very right.

Guitar Update: Lesson 24: A New Solo

Nothing new. It's just a combination of all the licks learnt in lesson 23 and made in a single solo. Tricky part about the solo is that it spans across all the positions, so it covers quite abit of the fretboard. So when you transpose, some licks have to be played in the higher octave, and some in the lower octave. So the licks switch around in octaves, tt's tricky #1.

Tricky #2 is searching for the root notes. There's probably like 6 licks, so you're kinda like searching 6 times throughout the entire solo. Helps to be really comfortable with notes on all strings. I'm quite good with the B string already. G string (no not tt one) is still quite tricky somehow.

Essentially it's the same licks from lesson 23, so nothing much to rave about. I realise when the calluses grow on your fingertips, sliding licks become smoother to play, no matter how abrasive the strings might be. Speaking of which, my strings are 4 mths old. Woo. I'm really stretching it's limits. DR stringlife is the key ingredient.

I think i'm really running out of song ideas already. Can't seem to pen a song at all anymore. Maybe i'm just not cut out for it?

Perhaps.

It's been a long time since i failed in an assignment. Ugh this feels terrible terrible terrible. What's even worse is that i had the correct thought process for the programming problem, but i chose to follow someone else's train of thought, which ended up totally off. Fortunately i got the analytical proof correct, or else the assignment would probably be a big zero.

I have this problem of thinking that amongst all suspicious looking solutions, those done by others should be more correct than mine. Maybe i should believe in myself alot more instead.

I wonder if 4245 salvageable. Now i've 41% out of 60%. So i estimate my final to be my midterm grade which is 28% more. Does 69% qualify for a B+? Doesn't seem so, considering how well the rest of the class is supposedly doing. I think i'm fucked.

Oh well.

Today is the "oh my fucking blister hurts so bad that i can't walk" Day. Yea, did close to nothing today. No geetar, no exercise, no exam mugging. Struggled to walk to sch today, but have to do it just for that stupid quiz. Oh well, the man above works in mysterious ways. Hits you when and where it hurts the most.

Talking abt god, some retarded pastor from new creation church named James Leong, tried to add me on facebook. Apparently he missed the part on my religious views, which clearly stated: I AM SATANIC. Omg stupid la he. And he has like 1000+ "friends", which i believe to be more followers than friends la. Please retarded pastor, give up on me. I know Jesus loves me. But I love Satan. It's a love triangle.

Was working on JJ's SOM midi. One thing i hate is people who have very bad rhythmic sense. The sample he gave me was quite cmi, cos the entire song is like half a bar slow. So it's quite irritating to shift everything half a bar back. And the composer is a pianist. OMG cmi lar. Pple like Edmund, Johnson, Biao having poorer rhythmic sense is ok, they are not trained. It's not their fault writing stuff that's half a bar short.

But not pianists who are classically trained la~ It's like grade 1 stuff you know. Really cmi. Tt's why i dun like pianists that are churned out by yamaha. Can only play, can't do other shit. There's only so many pianist i know that really impress me. The rest are like, grade 8 so what?

Anyways, shit in shit out. The piece itself is kinda crap, but i managed to salvage it alittle. Still sounds quite off, zero logical chord progressions, or at least i couldn't figure it out totally. Added strings, guitar and drums to give the piece more direction. But still sounds shit to me. Hope he gets his A. This should be enough.

Note to self: Never write stuff like this.

J.Kidd just got his 100th triple-double. In basketball terms, that means getting double figures in any 3 of the 5 categories, but it's usually points scored, rebounds and assists. It's quite hard to get 10 steals or 10 blocks in a game. Kidd is one of the few players i like that's still playing in the NBA. The others are in descending order: Reggie Miller (super clutch), Magic Johnson, Larry Bird. Magic and Bird are 3rd and 4th in all-time career triple-doubles. J Kidd is 2nd, Oscar Robertson is 1st, but he's too old fuck for me. Nv seen his game before.

To me, getting a triple double is everything. 1 rebound means -2 points for the opponent, cos you take away their scoring chance. 1 assist means 2 points for your team. So a minimum of 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists already mean u have "scored" 50 for your team. And it shows that you have a all round game, both offensively and defensively. Tt makes u a basketball player, more than just point guard or any fixed position.

Pple like Magic and Bird can play anywhere. Kidd just probably loses out due to his height. But he eats other PGs for lunch. Players that play above the rim lose out during their later years, cos injuries take away their ability to jump, and they slowly fade away. Like Vince Carter perhaps? Jordan was quite bad in his later years too.

Hope Kidd gets more triple-doubles.

No guitar today. Kinda late now. Kinda lazy. Stupid midi took my mojo too. Pfft.

I'm still waiting for my data mining program to finish running. Yea i think it's gonna be quite kickass cos i've found a better model fit compared to our initial run of results. Let's hope this run churns out something more promising as well.

Anyways, i'm introducing this program called Process Tamer to all your programming pple. We all know how much the com slows down whenever we run a big program, or do some rendering work, or rip/convert mp3s. What your computer does is actually just allocating all it's resources to the resource hungry program, thereby slowing all the other stuff that u might wanna do.

Process Tamer essentially redistributes the computer resources evenly, so u can carry on surfing net and watch a movie while your 100 page long code runs in the background. So there's no need to run programs in the Stats Lab anymore, you can always do it on your own com without compromising your other activities.

Think you guys are smart enough to google for the program yourself eh? It's free btw.

I cut a slit across both my blisters today. Just so that the green grass oil can get inside the blister. Sadistic i know, but they hurt so bad today that drastic times call for drastic measures. Green Grass Oil = GG Oil. It's really quite GG when i dropped 1 drop onto the blister. But of course it's tolerable, just stings quite bad. I guess when you grow older u can tolerate more stuff.

I guess i'm gonna be out of action for 1 week ba. Can't really walk properly now, so dun think i can go shoot either. I wonder how am i gonna go school tml. Hmm. But i have to, cos tml got ES quiz. Hope it's easy, or at least i can tikam correctly.

I feel quite productive today, cos while running my code, i devoured my entire ES textbook, though not really reading very carefully. But at least i did accomplish something and i'm happy abt that.

Was listening to my interview with Johnson, he was kinda asking me abt the order of importance of my time usage, which i listed: Shirui, Studies, Friends and Personal time. But lately, it seems like personal time has overtaken friends. Good in a way i guess, i feel i have more control nowadays.

Guitar Update: Lesson 21-23: Learning the Notes/New Notes, New Keys/Moving Between Forms.

The first 2 lessons were kinda redundant, cos it's stuff i'm continually doing throughout this "course". So i skipped those, and moved to the last one. The lesson is, like it said, all on moving between forms. But it's still mostly on the sliding scales, cos it's the tool used to help us move between forms. Yeap so it's another sliding scale studying concealed to look like something else.

Some pretty nice licks in this lesson i must say. More examples using slide instead of bend to accentuate the notes. There's a lick on double stops, which is quite tasty, and another one that involves quite a number of string skips. It's probably the trickest lick in the entire book so far.

Again the entire lesson of 6 licks took up the designated hour and a little more. No time for review once again. Maybe it's becos i'm really putting in the effort to play the licks as properly as possible, though i feel that 1 lesson a day is abit too rush. Should give it more time let the licks settle in. Now it's like a learn, play, perfect, forget cycle.

(at this point in time Google fails on me, and the rest of the post gets eaten away)

Anyways check this band. It's crazy. I'm so in love with it. Avant-garde metal?

Good night.

Today i learnt something very valuable: When your shoe gives u a bad blister on day 1, dun wear the same shoe to play basketball on day 2. Cos the blister will get worse by like.. 100 times?

Ya it hurts bad now. Think it's the shoe, or probably the socks. Either ways, it's painful. Tried some green grass oil on the blister. But it isnt a open wound, so it din sting as bad as it should. Hope the blister dries up fast, so i can get more ball time. Yea, Chao's having exams, so i guess i shouldn't drag him to run with me for now.

Stupid shoe. Pfft. Or issit becos i dun wear it often (which also means i dun ball often, which explains my shitty skills). Either ways, met up with Chuan just now. Still the same old, after commando basketball training he's way much better now, tho he was already v good during JC times. My vice-capt cum star player leh. Dun pray pray.

I like his shooting form. Looks nice and well balanced, and it's really like using 1 hand to shoot, with the other hand just for support. I dun really shoot like that i guess. Actually i also dun really know how i shoot. It's just a feeling, and it's probably quite ugly looking.

Anyways, i think shooting form can be trained. Was playing 1 handed ABC with Chuan, and i realised that it's a very good exercise to train the shooting form. Hold up the ball with 2 hands in your ideal shooting posture, let go the supporting hand and shoot. Can either go for a push-from-below kinda shot, or a flick-the-wrist kinda shot. I think either ways works fine, as long as u put the ball high above your head, look at the rim all the time while u shoot, and continue looking at the rim after u release. Yes the last step is key, cos it makes your shot higher, and keeps your aim better. At least LCS and i stick by it. And it's working for both of us.

Exams are coming in 2 weeks. Stochastic's first up. I got what i expected, and fortunately the class did not perform as well as the previous test. But that's the thing i hate most, to rely on the shortcomings of others. It's not that i'm good, it's just that other people are not. So which is better? Being the best among the worst? Or being the worst among the best? I can't decide. Both have their pros and cons. I think it's up to the individual's personality as well.

And on to exams, i have to be really positive and work through Data Mining. Stoch's probably the only module which i have a clue about. Longi comes a close second, but i havent touch the book much, so it's kinda worrying in some sense. Finance is probably slightly better than DM, but you nv know what LTW is gonna chut for the final paper. His questions are probably the most out-of-world. At least DM is open book, though not much help if i am totally clueless.

Seems like everyone is very into ball lately. Johnson & Joel asked me to "coach" them? Kinda weird, cos they live so far away. Not really sure how it's gonna work, but oh well we'll see. I dun mind coaching, but as i've said many times, if u wanna teach people, u have to have some standard yourself la, be it ball or music or studies. I dun think i'm that good lar, but by all means :)

Guitar Update: Lesson 20: Sliding Scales 2

This lesson deals with the 2nd form of the sliding pentatonic scale. Slightly different from what beez showed me, but essentially still the same. Again, slide with the ring finger instead of the index. I got used to it already, and i figured why i used to slide with the index. It's due to the blues scale... u realise u can't slide with the ring if u play the blues scale. The b5 has to be played.

Some really nice sliding licks here, stuff that nv occured to me before. Sliding instead of bending is also a good way to accentuate the note. Bending is probably more soulful, whereas sliding is more "fun". I dun really use this scale much, but after this lesson, it opened a few more ideas for me.

This few days din really review much of the previous stuff learnt due to the sheer amount of licks learnt. Just dun have the time to play them all at once. Probably when the holidays come i can like dedicate more time to guitar playing, and therefore more time to review the previous licks.

Note searching has improved some what, and it's fun to note searching while playing the extended scale as you can keep yourself in key whenever u get lost halfway thru the lick. Especially when i change key, i can remember only the form of the lick but not the location of the notes. So it helps to have some roots to act as a anchor point or smthing. Whatever u wanna call it lar.

-----------

Anyways Shirui asked me why am i suddenly so into all the activities lately. Like what for? I thought abt it for a while, and i guess it's becos i'm already 24, and i dun think i will have much time to engage in these activities next time. I've already wasted 2.5 years in uni doing practically nothing except studying. At least lemme kickstart my hobbies once again i guess. Though it's really at a bad timing, since exams are right round the corner.

But it's really ok, i dun feel burnt out at all. And usually during the past exams, I'll be heavily involved in playing games, as a form of destress (Daniel quit D2 lar!!!). I think it's a Chinese High thing. This sem i'm putting the time to do something probably more constructive and more healthy, so i guess it's not too bad after all.

I'm fine dun worry. I think i can cope. But most importantly, i think i dun want to waste my time anymore.

A purposeful life perhaps.

Nothing much exciting today. Cut my hair, ate LJS (again) with Shirui, ogled at some cute pets at Pets Station. Played with Fluffy, Shirui's hyperactive rabbit.

Oh yea, and i did the 20 min workout again. If you are wondering what the hell it is, here goes:

I cleared it in 30 mins though, skipping the step back jumpers, forgetting the hesitation jumpers, skipping the "screen" jumpers. 10 made basket at each shot type, 15 for 3s. Not too bad i guess, considering the heat, and some disturbance from kids playing football. Not to mention i was hitting alot of silents and there's no net for the rim, so i kinda had to pick the ball quite frequently.

I think it's quite a complete ball workout. Basically works on all your offensive skills, your fundamental moves, your dribbling, your stamina, your match accuracy. Best of all, it's really fun, though the "runners" and hook shot are considered kinda ugly for the Singaporean game. We seldom see such shots being made, cos most players arent very tall.

Guitar Update: Lesson 19: Sliding Scales

Essentially this lesson is on the extended minor pentatonic scale, and we are looking at the first type of such extended form which starts from 1 note behind the root note. You can also look at the scale as a combination of the 3 forms: G, E (Root) and D.

The reason they call it sliding scales is because, they use the slide technique to shift the fingers to the next form. And from the lesson i learnt that the way they slide and the way i slide is totally different.

In the book, they always slide with the ring finger. Meaning the sliding occurs where the ring finger is fretting the note. For me, i always slide with my index finger, which is 1 note before. So in A minor pentatonic, it will be something like this:

Book: C - D slide to E

Chang: C slide to D - E

To me, it's a whole world of difference. The book's way to approaching the scale makes playing it much smoother. But, i have to use my method to play some of my licks, like the chromatic-pentatonic scale run at the end of "You Wanna Be A Star".

As such, i spent alot of time working on this sliding scale. It's fun to me, like i've never played something like that before. I never approached it this way before either. It just din feel natural to me, but after working on it for a while, i actually feel that it's just as natual as my method.

So now i have 2 ways to articulate.

The rest of the lesson was just some licks to illustrate the usage of the sliding scale. Lotsa sliding, no bending. Sliding gives this slippery shuffle feel, like a Frank Gambale sweep. Tasty.

Ok my eyes are closing. I think im blabbering too. Bye.

Picked up some knocks during the basketball game today. Wasn't in a good form to begin with. Got rejected twice by some random shitty players. Goes to show how sluggish my actions were. Thankfully regained some of my pride by making some good shots, and played good defense. But overall i still think i'm a joke today. Ugh.

Offensively, i don't count on much. I mean i can score if i really want to. But the team has to play for me. Usually that doesn't happen. So usually i set screens for my teammates instead, since that will allow them to score better. I like to do more on the defensive end, by at least shutting down my man. I shut down 2 guys today. I really made sure they did not touch the ball as much as they liked. And i contested every single shot they made. And that's because they tot i was a joke. Then i made a few threes over them. Because they tot i was a joke. Basket.

Note to self: Shut down the man. Box him out. Deny him. Strip his ball. Hustle hard. Contest his shot. Fight the screens. Make him worry.

The thing about basketball is, unless u play regularly, u tend to get rusty. Certain things that used to be very natural to me, now i have to think twice. Like how to get pass my marker etc. And i can only do 1 thing a day. Run or ball. I like running alot, but i can always do the steve nash drill to compensate the running part. Oh well, maybe i shall alternate or something.

Anyways, i bruised my toe nail as well. So it's a nice blackish blue colour now, tho it's not as black as the time i painted my nails black. Cool, but painful.

Guitar Update: Lesson 16- 18

Basically the 3 lessons touches on moving the same lick from 1 form to another, creating variations of a single lick, and some introduction to the commonly used scales. Not many useful examples here to be excited about tho.

The moving licks section basically mean, for the same lick, u find different ways to play it. It's kinda like a "master your fretboard" exercise. Imagine u have a solo in root position, and u move it and play it using the D form. So that's 2 ways to play the same solo. It helps in figuring out certain more convenient ways to express a lick. Frank Gambale is one who is so versed in the fretboard that he almost modifies all the conventional licks so that he could sweep them. Yea he more or less sweeps everything. Check out his book for his killer sweep ideas.

Creating variations, well like i said before, is to be able to modify your existing like ideas slightly. A given lick can be modified by 1) playing faster/slower, 2) changing the rhythm completely while keeping the notes same, 3) adding or subtracting some notes, 4) changing some of the notes to bends/legato, 5) pushed up or down 1 octave, 6) accenting certain notes, and so on.

Many ways to change 1 lick. I've tried my best and listed 6 ways. How many ways can u think of?

I spent the entire practice session to just work on the solos of the 5 forms. Today's better, everything is more precise. Note searching is faster, but i still get lost sometimes. Can be improved further. Finger strength is improving. Bending near the nut is getting easier.

I then spent the rest of the rest working on one of the sequences from my song "You Wanna Be A Star". It's the run at the back of the solo, ending with a vibrato-ed bend. I just like that lick alot, cos it's really easy to play and sounds good. Basically it's just a chromatic + pentatonic scale idea, so nothing too tricky for the fingers there. What's more tricky is to ensure the even-ness between the notes.

After ball, i spent another 2 hours working on the lick with the metronome. I havent played a single lick for so long ever. Anyways, what i found out abt this 2nd session is that, to shred, your picking hand needs to be very disciplined, and it needs to pick very evenly. I just realised that my problem with shred is on my picking hand. It has the tendency to rush. At low bpms it can be smoked thru by slowing down later, but at high bpms, once i rush, it goes out of the metronome, and it becomes extremely hard to sync back. I hit a brick at 126 bpm. No matter how hard i tried i couldnt nail it everytime. It was hit and miss. Probably i was tired. I shall try again tml.

Remember, pick evenly. It helps to make shredding easier i realised.

Oh and Nick posted a really kickass webbie for all you guitarists. It's more E-books galore!

http://guitarebooksforall.blogspot.com/

Enjoy ^^

Google's down, so i'm blogging on notepad first.

It's funny how my world just crashes when google dies on me. No blogging, no rss reader, no calendar, no search.

Today is an amazing day, i genius-ed 2 times. Once by saving my computer from dying early in the morning, the other by finally being able to solve the options pricing question convincingly.

I wonder how would anyone pass the exam, if it takes 2 weeks for me to solve the assignment question. And i'm already a genius.

I've yet solved the programming question. It's a bitch, cos it's so simple, yet so hard. That's the shitty thing about stats programs, the difficulty lies in manipulating dataset, not the program itself. If you get a shit dataset, everything goes downhill.

Been watching some guitar vids on youtube made by some locals. It's amazing how well these guys can shred. Seriously, i do not doubt their hours put into practice. They definitely practiced hard. I once practiced hard too. The key thing tt separates pple like them and pple like me is that, what do they actually practice?

I've been searching for this answer for very very long. I really have no clue. I have this book by troy stetina on speed mechanics. I havent gotten into it yet. But biao was went thru it, and i dun see him shredding. Maybe i will be different.

Bottomline, i'm jealous of their abilities. Face it. Playing guitar is all about the speed. Everyone judges by speed. If you can't shred, you suck.

I can't shred :(

Took a break from the blues today, cos i spent most of my free time doing the assignment. Yea i was thinking about it till now. But tml's sunday, and i'm not seeing shirui, so i have alotta time to myself. I can blues for 2 lessons i suppose. And i'm supposed to play really precise this time.

I'm so sleepy now. Good night.

Alright let's try to make this quick. My eyes are closing.

Felt pretty pissed this afternoon cos i was unable to do one question for my stochastic quiz. Yea i've reached the demonic point where anything less than a perfect score is a cardinal sin. Oh well, now let's just pray everyone else bombed somehow or another. But judging from how simple the paper was, i'm not too hopeful. Really should have whacked the tutorial questions harder. Pfft.

Went Hyatt for food tasting for Kai's wedding. Must say the food is really great. The service is really great. And the captain is really really nice. It's cool how privileged they make u feel. But at 1.2k a table, they oughta treat us like gods seriously. But i like the fact they go the extra mile for you. I'm such a sucker for service.

I have a feeling that someone needs my expertise in midi-making for Science of Music again. But too bad sucker(s), you've come too late. Not to mention that i only do it for friends. Pple like u, not my friend at all. You're just an acquaintance. And you're not a pretty girl either. So tt pretty much eliminates much hope for you. Good luck suckers.

Guitar Update: Lesson 15: The Whole Picture

Basically this lesson just talks about all the 5 forms combined together, and explores some various keys we can play the pentatonic in, cos throughout the book they've been playing only in A. As beez's student, i played in every key i could for every example. So there's not much to learn here.

Something to point out is that the location of the roots. It's important to know the location of the root notes in your scale. So that everytime u need to switch scales, it's faster to locate the scale position. Here's a recap of the minor pentatonic scale form's roots.

Note: I only list the most useful root to remember.

E Form (Root position): 6th string

D Form (2nd Mode): 4th string

C Form (3rd Mode): 2nd string

A Form (4th Mode): 5th string

G Form (5th Mode): 3rd string

Played pretty sloppily today, cos the tempo was abit too high @ 112bpm. Anyways i made a backing drum track for myself so that i wouldnt have to suffer with the click. It also helps to get into the shuffle groove easier. A positive thing that came out of today's practice is that my vibrato is slightly more pronounced, the bends are getting more manageable, meaning my hand strength has improved. Most importantly, note searching is alot faster. I was changing keys easily, tho it was not instantaneously. Halfway through the current solo my mind will veer off and think about the nxt coming key and locate the note instead. So it kinda explains the sloppiness as i wasn't really focused on playing either.

The saying perfect practice makes perfect. So i guess the sloppy playing has to stop. Tml, the bpm will go down, and i'll aim to hit my notes more precisely, with more feel, and more added stuff like vibrato and rakes. Have been forgetting the rakes lately. It just comes once in a while. It will be good to be able to control when i want it exactly.

Anyways, for those who read until here, here's a really kickass page i found. Being a pirate has never been so good:

http://bassko.blogspot.com/

All the E books you ever need. I think there's a wide variety to satisfy everyone.

Night!

I think i did pretty decently for my presentation today. Nerves wasnt there, and the audience seem pretty receptive to what i had to say. Zari was very encouraging after the presentation, but sad to say he's not the one reviewing me. Oh well, at least i felt i was the best presenter in the room. That should be safe enough for a B+ i guess?

To be frank, i do not really like to talk in front of alot of strangers. I'm only comfortable with people i know. Thus it's very easy for me to give team talks during my basketball days, and not giving presentations to a bunch of disinterested people. But at least i practiced quite abit with my "script", so luckily i din bomb just now. Probably this is a glimpse into the honours presentations nxt year.

And luckily, i did not have a bad hair day. Yea my hair is getting longer and shaggier, by my standards. It's hard to style when u have an ugly mop. And i mentioned before, the longer the hair, the more weight on the head, the more stress/heat i feel. When can i cut my hairrrrrrr? Gah.

Dettol Cool Shower Gel is solid. So cool it gives you the chills. Get it my friends. Be cool.
Tml's stochastic test. This module is kinda tricky, cos it's entirely closed book with no helpsheet. A simple formula sheet is provided for u in case you forget the key results. This module also can't be considered hard, cos he tends to set relatively simple questions, at least for the 1st test. So do you overstudy or understudy?

Overstudy sucks in the sense that u cram so much stuff in your head and when u really need a result u mix it up with something else. That sucks, cos the paper is supposed to be easy. But understudy does not give me a sense of security. Zzz.

Anyways, Prof Nott is a nice guy, he'll make sure everyone survives somehow. I'm beginning to realise that Auzzie profs are nice. Like Prof Brown. And now Nott. And they say Auzzies are not nice people. Weird. Chadd is nice too. Probably the layman Auzzie.

I'm developing this slight sore throat, which reminds me of the time where i had a throat ulcer. I think it's not gonna be another throat ulcer, or i would have to lose 5kg again. I'm kinda having this phobia right. Must drink more water.

Guitar Update: Lesson 14: The G Form

The 5th and final mode of the minor pentatonic is the G form. The root note is at the 6th string, shared with the root position of the scale. Thus searching for this scale is quite easy. This form is useful to link up with the root position. We will see this more clearly the next time when we visit something called sliding scales.

The solo this time has this slipperly feel to it, cos there's quite a few parts where u have to play a sequence in triplets. Triplets always give this slipperly feel when played to a 4/4 beat, cos we are not robots, so it will sound just abit off beat at the 2nd note of the triplet, after which u rush back in beat with the 3rd note.

Fun solo, bendable notes are at the 3rd string, and the 5th strings. The solo focuses on repeating a simple motif as a form of emphasis. It also involves some pretty large string skips, sequences and some staccato notes. Staccato is quite blues as well, and works on your accenting and control quite a bit.

So this ends our scale form study. I think next up will be more on licks, and combining the 5 forms together.

Improvisation tip: To maximise the use of the 5 forms in your solo, here's something you can definitely try: In a typical 12 Bar blues, there are 12 bars (duh). So what you can do is to break it up into 6 bars of 2, so in the first 5 bars of 2 u play a lick from each form, and then u end off the last 2 bars with anything u like. U might want to research on turnarounds and use them to finish off your last 2 bars too. Probably can write something on turnarounds next time.

So now you have 5 licks, 1 in each form, and there's like 5!(120) permutations you can arrange these licks to give you 120 seemingly different solos. Of course it would be quite impossible to remember all these permutations, but at least you know are able access all these combinations somehow or another.

The key thing now is to actually to create a lick that is 2 bars long in each form. Anything works, seriously, as long as you do not stray from the notes in the minor pentatonic scale. So just go ahead, and be creative. It can be simple like a 1 note drone, or it can be shreddy if you are up to it.

Now with your 2 bar lick in let's say, the root position. Play this lick repeatedly over a blues backing track. This amounts to playing the lick 6 times. The idea is to get used to how the lick sounds when it's played at different places in the chord progression. The more u listen to the lick over the backing track, the more you will understand where this lick sounds better, and where it doesn't really shine that much. And the more familiar you are with it, the more variations of it you can come up.

So repeat the process 5 times for each position, and u'll have your 120 solos. If for every lick you are able to vary it in 5 subtle different ways, you would realise there's so many ways you can play the blues.

Of course, my method, is a very naive one. But i think it will help to kickstart anyone who's struggling with improvisation. There are of course many advance improvisational tips, which i will probably touch on them when i have the time.

That's all for tonight. Time for STOCHASTIC PROCESSES!

Guitar Update: Lesson 13: The A Form

The A form is the 4th mode of the minor pentatonic scale. The fingers are somewhat similar to the root position, so it's very easy to remember. Also the root of this scale is located at the 5th string, so it's quite easy to transit from root position to the A form as long as you know your notes on the last 2 strings. (i know i do, which is why the A form is the my 2nd favourite playing shape)

You can also look at the A form as the root pentatonic shape, shifted 1 string "down". So essentially all the playing patterns that you are comfortable with while playing in the root shape can be easily translated into the A form. The possible bends at the 3rd and 2th strings in the root shape, when translated to the A form, becomes bends at the 2nd and first strings. It's that simple.

Like the book said, the A form is a great position for playing some of the classic Blues sounds. The examples listed in the book focuses mainly on repeating bending double stops licks, which are mainly used to build some sort of a tension in a solo. So if u can't really shred, use double stops to cheat ^^. Like me ^^ x2

The solo for the lesson is a slower, more soulful one. Plenty of tricky bends, which really worked my fingers hard. The solo starts at the root on the 3rd string, so i decided to search the notes there instead. Kinda hard, but at least now i know C is at the 5th fret of the 3rd string. Another reference note there. It takes awhile to search, but i think with more practice it will come more naturally.

For me i prefer to use the A form's 1st 3 strings only, cos it's like the higher octave of the scale. Thus it's more practical for me to search at the 3rd string. But if you want to use the entire shape then probably you shld search from the 5th string instead.

Sidenote: I couldn't really review the previous examples, cos the lesson today is kinda long. Took me 1 hr to just finish the lesson. Yea, i guess probably i shall just finish learning the final form, the G Form by tml, then do a big review of everything the following day.

Not to mention my fingers are still damn sore. Ugh.

Sidenote 2: I lowered my pickups. My guitar sounds abit more balanced now. But the strings sound a tad bit brittle. I wonder if it's the stubby pick or if it's my 4 mths old strings. Of maybe it's just the way i attack the strings. Oh well. Should probably restring soon to see what happens.

Stay tuned for more.

It just occured to me that to achieve success in any aspect of life, all it takes is just pure discipline. Discipline to do what is required to be done as correctly as possible, and the discipline to do whatever is required as regularly as possible.

Discipline leads to effort. As the famous guitar saying goes: "Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect." All my life, i've known many disciplined people achieving success in their respective fields. To me, success is just a simple form of recognition. You are
successful when someone just say, "Yea he's good".

I shall try to be as disciplined as possible. I think i'm doing fine right now, but it can be better when it comes to the simple nagging bad habits like supper and sleeping late.

I find it very disturbing when people do illogical things. Like my group mate refusing to make the powerpoint presentation more fancy, and refusing to wear a tie during the presentation. Doesn't he know that we are graded on appearance and format? It's a professional communication course, but what he's doing is not very professional. He doesn't have the "take the bullet for the team mentality", so now i have to jeopardize my own grade because of him.

I've been taking the bullet far too many times. Sometimes i wonder why. I'm not Jesus.

Rosli Mansor's manager tried to add me on Facebook, but i think i'll ignore her this time. I have far too many acquaintances who I don't really know shit about. So i guess it's time to stop adding random people and try to focus on those who are more helpful. And i think i can do without advertisements on Rosli's wonderful guitar events. I'm just not into the scene at all, so gimme a break local music.

Today's the 2nd ippt workout in 3 days. Kai and I have a pact to do 1 Ippt every alternate day. I hope we have the discipline to pull this thru. I know Chao doesn't really have it, but his SBJ is quite cmi, so i guess he's abit worried too. Hope he can join us, so we can all motivate each other somehow.

My shuttle run today was quite good. The technique is there. Brake early and reach out to save 1 step. It's just tt i couldnt grab the 2nd thingy properly so it slipped off. But at least the technique is there, i'm quite happy with that. Kai mentioned that in OCS they have a different grading for IPPT. So a 100%er is one who can do 20 chin ups, 60 situps, 9.+ shuttle run, 260 SBJ and i believe a 9.14min 2.4km timing. Sounds like something to aim for. I'm sure if anyone can do all that he's definitely a very fit person. Chuan comes to mind.

There are many financial agents out there who are mainly interested in getting their clients to buy investment-linked products, cos that's the most profitable product for the FA. I always feel that when you become a FA, you will definitely lose your conscience, cos ultimately, you need to
feed yourself and your family. So you will try to rationalise that IL products are somewhat useful and good for the client, when it is actually not.

Term insurance is always the way to go. It's out in the papers. Only the ill-informed can be fooled into buy IL products. I hope my friends reading this can be enlightened slightly. FA friends will have alot to say about this, but my stand is very clear: IL products are a definite
waste of time and money. Stay away from them dear random stalker reading my blog.

Guitar Update: Lesson 12: The C Form

The C form is the 3rd "mode" of the minor pentatonic scale. A pretty easy shape to remember. The lesson actually revealed quite abit about this scale shape, that there are actually many bendable notes hiding inside. Which makes for alot more interesting phrasing ideas compared to the D form.

I dun really use the C form at all, but after today, hopefully it will unlock some mysteries. There are 2 licks that are actually quite playable, and they sound very blues to me. One explores bending on the 4th string, and the other explores half tone bending. Half tone bending is quite hard to master cos i'm already too used to bending a full tone. But it adds a nice tension to the the target note itself, and even if it's abit off it can be passed off as a quarter note bend or a transition note kinda thing. Interesting.

The solo presented in this lesson is quite similar in structure to the previous few solos i guess. Basically it plays on a few motifs, and expands it alittle in each bar. I usually write my solos this way also, but sometimes pple find it repetitive. But motifs are definitely a way to start off a good solo, especially if it's a catchy motif.

Been playing abit over 1 hour and a half today, cos every lesson i will go thru the previously learnt licks at least once (by once i mean in all 12 keys). So that takes quite a bit of time, and i actually yearned to have more time to play just now. Guess the hunger to play is coming back, which is good in a way.

Probably should learn the lesson first, then revise everything from the most recent to the least recent. Anyways they are ordered in decreasing difficulty, so i guess it's more practical in a way.

Also, today i realised some inadequacies in my note searching. Essentially, having a good fretboard knowledge is important. Cos i always change keys when i practise, it's important to locate the position of the next upcoming key. For the root position of the pentatonic scale it's easy, cos the root is at the 6th string, so i can shift easily as i've memorized that string. But when it comes to the D and C form, it's abit trickier, as the root is at the 4th and 2th string respectively. And i admit i do not have mastery over those strings yet.

One way i work around the searching is to have some reference note. Like the 2nd string 12th fret is B, and 5th fret is E. So it aids searching notes like D# and G# if you know how many frets these notes are away. For the 4th string it's alittle bit different, in the sense that i search by octaves, referenced from the 6th string. so like D# is 11th fret on 6th string, which the octave is 13th fret on 4th string. Something like that.

I believe my note searching technique probably takes more mental "calculation" compared to pure memorisation, but i feel my brain has more crazy stuff to memorise like the steps to perform a Multiple Adaptive Regression on a time series.

Oh well it's late. Time to crash.

It doesnt feel so bad when you know that there's others way worse than your situation.

The funniest thing just happened when i typed www.myspace.com . Everything came out in latin. Latino baby! Do i have Miguel or Sanchez look?

Koyuki's techno tracks sound very polished and professional. I guess it's all about the samples used. Check it out here: http://www.myspace.com/snowsanctuary

Kai's probably right, that if u are able to get IPPT gold, u are definitely fit. There's no need to go out doing all the random bullshit like gym and weights and static exercises. Just focus on the chin ups, SBJ, sit up, shuttle run, and of course the 2.4km run, and u are done.

Sorry to say this, but i feel abit empty now, cos i can't decide what to do regarding my work. 4245 assignment? 4240 proj? or 4238 test? I worked so hard yday that i feel so blank now. Pfft. Maybe a supper will wake up my mind.

And wassup with my site.. why is it loading so slowly again. Can never understand the true mechanics behind the computer stuff. I tot it's supposed to be logical? If it works today, it will work tomorrow with probability 1.

Another funny shit just happened: I searched for Angra on youtorrent. Came out Bhangra Knights. Wtf man. What's wrong with the internet today.

Guitar Update: Lesson 11: The D Form

Essentially the D form is the pentatonic scale played in it's 2nd position. Meaning u start with the 2nd note of the scale instead of the first. Kinda like a mode of the pentatonic if u really wanna look at it that way. Well it's some form of a mode, cos if u use the A minor pentatonic, the D form of the minor pentatonic gives u the C major pentatonic.

I dun really like the D form myself, cos the shape is kinda awkward, and there are not many notes to bend. Can't really extract the blues feel outta this position myself. To me it's more like something for transition between scales, can't solo entirely in this position.

There's only 1 solo for this lesson, and surprisingly, it's a very groovy one, even though the intervals used are very normal. Rhythm & groove is the essence in this entire solo, less on notes, more on rhythmic play, and room for breathing. I added my own touch of individuality throughout the solo to give it more feel, in the form of vibratos and slides.

Moral of the story: Rhythm and groove is important in a solo, as much as a phlethora of notes.

Anyways, i worked on the E form solo again, and again it's a bitch to bend on the first string. So pain la~ Now my fingers are quite sore from all tt bending. Let's hope they recover tml for more punishment :D

Alright tt's abt it. Good night.

I choose sleep over guitar today. So no updates.

Gotta take a rest la. Today is total madness.

Weekend more shiong than weekdays? Woo.

Good night losers.

Guitar Update: Lesson 10: The E form

I've reached so called section 2 of the book, so there's no more technique study, and more study on the scale positions of the minor pentatonic. Today it's the root position, or as they call it the E form. I dun really see the scale this way, and i also dun remember it this way because it's already so ingrained in me. Maybe the other shapes will be alittle more informative.

It's another solo fixed in root position. Plenty of tricky 1st string full bends. I really hate those and they sound v brittle to me. One thing is due to the setup of my pickups. I think i shld realign the pickups somehow. The 3rd string's too loud and the 1st string is too soft. Not balanced at all.

And again, it gets harder as i play towards the nut. Probably tml i'll skip 1 lesson and just totally focus on honing in the bending vibrato technique near the nut. Learning 1 solo a day is also quite taxing i guess. We'll see how eh. I've got a test coming up nxt week too. Hmm.

The licks are fairly uncommon, but they play very smoothly. No incidents where the fingers block or hinder each other (you get that fairly often in neo-classical licks). It has a nice little funky blues groove to it as well, which makes it pretty fun to jam to.

K tt's abt it for today. I'm really tired. Couldn't focus well just now either. Shall take another shot at the solo tml.

Lotsa things happened today:

Took bus, but forgot that my farecard was out. So i dropped a dollar coin and i was through. My usual fare is $1.18 per trip to sch. So if i keep doing this, i save 18 cts everytime. Tt's a free trip every 3 days, counting to and fro. Hmm.

A 50+ lady boarded the bus, came up the stairs, and then started to ask people for 2 dollars. Just because she wants enough money to buy some smokes. And she's pretty rude when going about doing her "begging". Heck she wasn't even begging. She's more like "you have 2 dollars? No? Ok sorry next." Tt's damn wtf. I feel like slapping her if she walked to me. But i had to alight before she had a chance.

I felt super bloated today. For the whole damn bloody day. It's not like i skipped meals, or i had a super bad diarrhea. It's just gas in me. Like fuck, what happened to you my dear stomach/intestine? It's still bloated now. Think i shall sleep with a balloon in me. Ugh.

Went Timbre for the very first time. I din even know it's just nearby Mr Raffles. Oh well, i really need to get out more often i guess. Goodfellas were playing today i think. Quite a solid band, very polished sound, very experienced, and a pretty nice repertoire. Speaking of which, most of the songs they played, i've actually jammed them before. Maybe i can sub their guitarist if they need one.

It's interesting to note that they choose to play all covers instead of their own originals. Why? Cos frankly speaking, no one in Singapore gives a shit. Covers pays the bills. Originals add on to the bills. I believe i'm like the only badass rocker amongst the working class customers. I highly doubt anyone there appreciates the high skill level of the drummer, the creativity of the bassist, the vocal harmonies of the 2 singers and the technicality of the lead guitarist. Or even the overall rearrangement of the songs.

Every girl there is just to look sexy and get picked up. Every guy there is just to be really smart and charm the pants off the girls. I'm there cos Shirui somewhat dragged me there. Luckily the pizza and the band is good. And u look damn pretty today, so eye candy for me ^^.

Saw Key and Gabriel on the day i went out. What coincidence. Apparently Gab chiongs so much that it's becoming an issue. And apparently Key's hair is really short. But still longer than mine i guess. Oh well. Nice to see they are still alive and well. (Johnny Winter)

Got myself an Erdinger just now. Havent drank beer for a v long time. I'm not much of a drinker, cos firstly i dun really dig the taste, and secondly i'm cheapskate, and thirdly the people around me dun drink at all. And i really dislike to order anything fancy, cos i dunno what they are, and it will look very gay if my fancy drink comes in a small slim martini glass. Beer is safe. I know what i'm getting, and i wun look like a retard.

Sad to say i missed the Erdinger black on the menu. Or else i would have ordered that instead of a white. Erdinger black is really smooth for a draught/stout. And it adds on to that "rock" factor. And apparently blacks gives u that oomph when you have to workout at night. No wonder all the ah peks love drinking stouts. They need some help when it comes to the ladies of the night eh?

Guitar Update: Lesson 9: Trail Offs

Trail off is another technique that i like to use. Basically u play a note and u slide it until it fades out, in a quick fashion. Tricky part is that u tend to accentuate the trail off instead of letting it die off, so it's important to realise the difference. I usually just slide downwards towards the neck, cos it sounds more normal. Sliding up the neck sounds abit funny, but there's quite a bit of examples in the book tt slides upwards. Hmm.

Anyways, the entire lesson today is actually 1 giant solo for a 12 bar blues, which is broken down into several short segments to make learning the entire solo easier. I practised abit on the individual segments (like 2 times per key) and then went straight into learning the entire solo in it's entirety.

There's some parts which are typical blues licks, and there's some unconventional ones as transitions to the IV or V chords. Everything's in root position, so it's quite simple to play, tho bending at the first string is a bitch at times. Nothing much to say i suppose, guess the hardest part is to actually play it slow enough to keep to 72 bpm. Yes it's quite tricky to play really slow, especially connecting licks that do not start on the accents. Takes alot of control, and also focus, cos u have to play, keep in time, add emotion, figure out the nxt key, and sink in on the weaker parts. Today i was semi-shag, so probably couldn't focus v well and messed up quite alot of times.

Been changing my picking technique from the anchoring with the pinky, to the "clenched" fist floating style. I personally believe any picking technique is fine as long as you are comfortable with it, but the floating style transitions to the hybrid picking style more easily. So i'm sorta prepping my style first, to embrace hybrid picking next. I really feel it's gonna be the next big thing in shred.

Oh and check out Sonny Landreth on Youtube. He's bloody amazing for a slide guitarist. Derek Trucks comes a close 2nd though.

Alright peace out.

Ok so i failed the boyfriend test again. Stone me please?

I was really thinking that you could handle this yourself this time. I mean i did handle myself when it happened on me last year. Oh well i guess it's not the same.

Part of you wants me to not overprotect you, but part of you forces me to hawk over your every movement. So what's the deal this time?

It's tricky every single time. We learn abit each time dun we?

I still love u silly :)

On stalking, i dropped by alvin's blog just now by chance. See, i din wanna stalk him, but i just somewhat linked to him from another poor bugger getting stalked by me. Oh well. Can't help it la seriously. I wonder if he's reading mine. Tricky.

Yiwei sent me a seriously killer comic. It's so fucking funny. Kai and I havent laughed so much in a while. I'm lazy to put it up here tho, cos it's also kinda big. And it's in chinese. Probably not then. *shrug*

Next week is quite killer. I have 1 presentation, 1 test, 2 assignments and 1 project. Wholesome curriculum in NUS they say. Yea it probably covers the entire grading spectrum. Hmm. Like Ronald says: I'm loving it. Ya right.

Guitar Update: Lesson 8: Vibrato

Beez once said that a guitarist is as good as his vibrato. Which to me makes quite alot of sense, cos it's probably the best way u can express your emotion on the guitar. I judge most musicians by their vibrato as well. It's really about how you use it and how well u can control it.

When you hear professional recordings, it's quite clear that every recording artiste has a solid vibrato, be it singer or guitarist. To me, it shows how expressive they really are.

As far as im concerned, my vibrato doesnt sound very pronounced in my recordings. Or at least they dun really hit my standard. One thing is due to recording stress, and one thing is lack of practice. But in regular playing, i feel that i have a pretty decent vibrato to brag about. I really worked on it during this vibrato-phase in my life. Everyday was just "vibrating".

Anyways, the lesson today was pretty challenging. Vibrato with normal notes is simple enough for me, but vibrato with bent notes is remarkably taxing. Especially when each lick is played 48 consecutive times, 4 times each through each key. My hand strength has always been weak, and probably my bending technique is not solid enough. So add in the vibrato, it just becomes quite taxing.

So much so that i have to stop and stretch for quite a while before continuing the licks. F key is especially hard to play at the root position, cos it's just so near the nut. But i shall focus more everytime i reach F. Must overcome F. >.<

The licks today are standard blues licks, stuff that u will hear in almost every blues record. Stuff u'll hear in my solos. And standard stuff is stuff tt kills your fingers if continuously played. But i feel improvement in my bending and vibrato already. Just have to practise more until the technique sinks in solidly.

Little additional stuff i'm trying:

Been trying to do the "rake + bend" trick, to get more intensity out of the bend. Sounds really solid if done well, sounds super crappy if it's just abit off. The brushing technique has to be very precise and well muted to sound solid. Oh yea and more quarter bends into my playing. Getting more bluesy with each quarter note bend.

Overall Thoughts:

Today i totally figured out the whole shebang about classical music. Classical composers dun really play their own pieces. It's just not possible for them to play every single instrument themselves. They also dun have any means of recording, so it's not possible to find any "Beethoven's Greatest Hits".

So what Kai said is correct. Every orchestra tries to play the score as closely as possible to approximate the composer's musical vision. So it really doesn't matter which orchestra plays the piece, cos presumably almost every reknowned orchestra is solid enough to deliver the pieces. So every piece of classical music heard today is actually just approximated by some famous orchestra. Beethoven din play anything. He just wrote the piece.

In other words, it really doesn't matter what you download. It will more or less sound the same.

The other way i saw this dude holding a little score book on some Strauss piece. And he's just reading and swaying to the music. It's like listening to the piece by sight reading. And i believe tt's just the score for one of the instruments.

Imagine what Beethoven is hearing when he's writing his symphonies. No wonder he went deaf. If i'm hearing an orchestra whenever i go, i'll definitely go deaf too. And go crazy as well.

Now i know why musicians are so angsty. Cos they keep hearing stuff. Some hear more than the rest, so they are more angsty.

Do artists go blind if following the same argument?

A friend of mine shifted and locked up her blog due to harassment by some strangers. Apparently when u get too popular/notorious, things happen. Makes me wonder how much i changed myself to cater to the opinions of other people.

I've always been proud of the fact that i'm fiercely individualistic, but apparently it doesn't quite work in this world isn't it? Sometimes society dictates that you are not supposed to say certain things (like how i flush my toilet). Sometimes society dictates that you are not supposed to act a certain way (like wearing a T + berms to Orchard).

Oh well. Good luck girl, hope u find peace in your new blog hideout.

I shall just leave this blog as it is. I blog for myself only, it's just that there are many stalkers around. Like Joseph perhaps? ;)

Speaking of digital stalking, i seriously think it's nothing wrong. Everyone does it at some point in their lives. It's just to satisfy the voyeuristic instinct in all of us. And it's also a 2 way street, cos you can easily make your profile private. But of course u also never know when ur friend is stalking u either.

Anyways, i dun really care la. Everyone is free to read my blog. Stalkers, and non-stalkers alike.

Oh and here's another review on my daily 1 hr blues lesson, with myself :D

Lesson 7: Release Bends

Ah... release bends. I believe i hardly use this technique at all in my playing. One thing i find really tricky is when the release bend is in the middle of a mish mash of notes. It's kinda hard to prebend the string first then play the release bend, while keeping intempo with the song, especially when the song is a fast one.

A way to overcome this issue is to play a preceeding bend note first, hold it, then play a release bend. But it makes it kinda predictable somewhat isnt it?

The lick presented in this lesson was somewhat funky. Something that i would play also, due to the small intervals. I tend to prefer smaller note skips and simpler finger positions, so that's something that has to be worked on more too.

There's also a "rolling" example, which frankly speaking, im not a big fan of the rolling technique. Which is also why i can't really sweep chord shapes cleanly. I cheat abit by doing something else and fortunately for this particular example the rolling is probably not so important. Oh well, rolling too much gives my fingers cramps you know.

Overall thoughts:

I played at 72 bpm today, cos 60 is too sleep-inducing. 72 gives a little swing to the licks too, so it's more enjoyable today. Not to fast, and not to slow. I practised every lick starting from the key of A, and using the circle of fifths, worked through every key till i get back to A. Keeps my mind thinking about the next fifth, and works abit on my fretboard knowledge as well.

A little discovery: Consider the root minor pentatonic shape in key of A. The fifth, which is E, gives the location of my 2nd favourite pentatonic shape. Brilliant, there's no need to trial and error anymore for the elusive 2nd shape.

Another way to look at it is the A Aeolian scale. The fifth will give u the Phrygian scale, but usually i look at it like a Mixolydian shape, or a Dorian shape.

Oh well k tt's enough "theory" for the night.

I've set out on a personal mission to complete learning this book "Progressive Blues Lead Guitar Method", borrowed from Michelle. It's good to see that the book's nicely subdivided into small lessons, so i can really just practice lesson by lesson. Not that the stuff inside is anything new to me, but it's just a good way to get some playing done, and learn some simple bluesy licks.

So everyday, i'll set aside roughly 1 hour of my time to learn/practice 2 lessons, or maybe 1 if it's really challenging. I'll probably "review" the previous lesson as well, as a refresher, so that i dun forget the licks. And then most importantly, i'll blog about it everyday, just to be accountable to everyone, and also serves as a way to track my progress/thoughts on the lesson.

I started with lesson 5 anyways, cos the previous lessons touched on quite mundane stuff.

Lesson 5: Slide Technique

There's a subtle difference between a valued slide and a grace note slide. I use a mixture of both in my regular playing (check out "Eden Love Melody"), but i dun really take note of the 2 when playing. To me, they are just slides. However, i think i am able to control when to use a valued slide and when to use a grace note.

The slide lick example wasn't something that's very conventional. First time playing and hearing something like that actually. I liked the way the lick was closed. Very simple, very elegant, very blues. All blues licks should be like that, short simple sweet.

Lesson 6: Bending Notes

Focused on something called quarter note bends, using the index finger to bend the string. Very bluesy sound, especially when applied onto the minor 3rd note. I dun really use this technique in my playing previously, but now i've kinda become a convert. Every minor 3rd u do a quarter bend u get something tt's totally blues, so why not.

My finger strength is quite weak, so they kinda suffered during the intense bending session. And my bending technique seems somewhat flawed, so that has to be worked on tml. If i'm able to anchor my thumb abit better, maybe it will be easier to bend the strings and hold it longer.

The 2 example licks are pretty cool and bluesy, tho it's all in minor pentatonic and doesn't involve the blue note at all. Again, they are not very conventional, or at least i dun play my minor pentatonic in any way like they do. So it's quite an eye opener to see how certain notes can be played, without really messing up ur fingers.

Overall thoughts:

I really enjoyed the session just now. Just me myself and my guitar. No MSN, no disturbance from my family (cos i locked my room), and thankfully no phone calls. I was also playing to the metronome at 60bpm, so the slow ticking is kinda soothing in a weird way.

60 bpm is slow enough to let me play everything cleanly. Sometimes it's abit too slow, so it takes quite alot of control to not rush and keep in sync. Anyways it's not a speed technique regime, so it doesnt make sense to practice at higher bpm either. And blues is probably more enjoyable when it's nice and slow and chill. More feel.

Towards the end of the session i was in improvisation mode, so i basically used the 3 new licks learnt and just made little modifications to them. Had a so called jam with myself for abt 10 mins i guess, with just 3 licks and slight alterations to each of them. Beez calls this lead development. There's alot of things u can do to just alter a lick, like slowing some of the notes down, change a note, add a note, shift an octave and so on. Controlled improvising is very fun for me, as i can explore many ways to alter a lick into a new one. More licks = more hot solos.

Alright. That's about it for today. Quite abit huh?

Saw Chuan yday and today during my daily jogs. Still looks the same, still feels the same. Chuan's my NJ bball vice capt btw. He's probably the best player in the team then. Too bad i was nowhere good back then to compliment his talent. When the ball controller sucks, the team fails somewhat. Oh well, what to do. It was my first year playing team basketball. *shrug*

Ok i have to go sleep now. Or else Shirui will eat me. Good night cookie monster.