Charismatic

Growing to know my own voice After recording a lot of vocals this year, I am happy to say that I have grown in this area. I am starting to learn how to write melodies that I can actually sing and suit my vocal range. Previously, I wrote songs based on how 'good' they sounded, without even custom-tailoring the melody or range to myself. After repeated 'constructive criticism'  sessions with my mentor, I've started limiting my note ranges when I write melodies. I've also started changing the keys of my old songs. I've started exploring different tonal textures and ways of singing. Tiring but exciting. The scary thing called "putting myself out there" During my reflective moments, I realized that I've shied away from performing my own songs in public for a long time. Since uni days. I've shied away from being a singer-songwriter, prefering to hide behind the more respectable and reserved 'keyboardist', 'music director...

A few things I wanted to blog about. Part 1 being: The reality of 'likes', 'dislikes', and comments As one's exposure grows, there are more people who 'like' and 'dislike' you. I've never taken rejection well. One of the least favorite jobs was telemarketing. 100 phone calls and maybe one gets 2 positive responses among all the rude 'no's. But if I want to keep growing, I have to keep improving despite the stings of 'dislikes' or 'unlikes'. Once in a couple of weeks, I flinch a little when people 'unlike' the fan page, or 'dislike' the videos. But I cheer myself up with the fact that it's only the videos that have received the most hits and 'likes' that are also getting 'disliked'. They are finally reaching a broader audience, which might like or dislike my music, but that's all part and parcel of this line of work. God help me. My value and worth is in You and You alone. I...

"You Don't Know Me" When I watched Michael Grimm sing this for his audition on America's Got Talent, I melted. That was a year or 2 ago. Finally, it is done! Have a listen and a look! I worked with Jesse  again this time (the guy who filmed Phoebe and I singing 青花瓷, which is doing well in terms of views and likes among the youtube vids I've uploaded). This time he brought Albert along to help, and Theo came along to shoot photos (I thought it would be a waste of make up and dressing up otherwise. I was really happy with the photos that ensued) I did the vocals at home now that I have a mini set-up though I'm constantly plagued with noise (dogs barking etc). Guitars were tracked by my friend Jacob Liang, who's a jazz guitar grad from Berklee as well. It has been fun working with different people on these projects, and thinking of ways to upgrade the videos. I have something a little bigger planned for next time, so fingers crossed we'...