Friday, July 27, 2012

Theme Song Recording For Upcoming Ch8 Kids Drama

I'm back to the studio (after 3 years) to do a recording for an upcoming Ch8 Kids Drama which is going to be telecast in Sep'2012 (I heard) ; my 2nd song recording with this company.


I was alone during my first and took 7 hours to complete 2 verses and a chorus. Imagine yourself singing half of ONE song repeatedly for 7 hours in a KTV room. You should've seen the look of the sound engineers and the music producer. From story-telling, relating personal experience to heart-to-heart sharing and drawing on pieces of paper... They looked brain-dead after 7 hours of repeated listening while trying their best to coax me into putting feelings when singing the song with 101 ways. 


Prior to that, I was at Nave's place recording a demo and he had also shared how I could improve on singing the song. Apparently, I was too nervous to remember any tips he graciously offered.

After 7 long recording hours, the legitimate song for Cheerful Drumbeat titled Hello Friends was finally completed. Here's how it turned out, from 6:11 onwards:




I only have the production crew to thank for making Hello Friends sound not as bad as I thought it'll be. However, I felt disheartened for a period of time and almost gave up my singing passion. Many a times I feel this same way-- I want to give up, I cannot sing. 


But close friends, my mentors & my elders would encourage me to press on, urge me to keep improving and help to look out for more opportunities for me to explore my talents: jamming sessions, performances, singing contests etc. 


After 3 years, I'm back to the same studio.
This time round, I'm determined to deliver better quality in terms of my voice and feeling in the song.

I was told that the song would be sung with a group of children and I would play the role of their teacher in the song.

The bubbliness of these 5 kids blew my mind away!
They made the recording looked so easy, so enjoyable, so fun!

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There was so much laughter, laughter which made me laughed along with them too; for no reason. It felt warm and sunny when the recording studio is really crampy and cold with this air-con blasting right at you.

On the other hand, the adults looking all solemn and anxious on the outside. When you gather a group of happy & chattering kids together, you'll need to be able to calm them down.

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Their singing coach giving the cue. Look how focus the kids are. They are supposed to say "HUR!" at the count of 3.

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Meanwhile the happy mothers are busy snapping photos of their children. I'm guessing how proud they feel that their child's singing is going to be telecast on TV soon! I feel proud for them too because they are SOOO GOOD!

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My determination and hard work paid of, with the help of all my mentors, my friends and elders for the past 3 years. My recording took only 50minutes this time. It was a one-take recording where I sang the song 3 times. First the entire song, then the song together with the children & finally just the teacher's lines in the song. 


The producer was pleased. The crew was happy. 
We can all go home in the shortest time possible!

I DID IT!
Can't wait to listen to the final product in September 2012.

Unfortunately, I'm not able to get the full song.
People have been asking for Hello Friends mp3 previously and I truly have to apologise that I do not have the song. Nevertheless, we can always enjoy the show and listen to the song at the same time!

The song title and the drama title shall be disclose later due to privacy issues.
But rest assure that I will tell you in September.

Here's a cheers! to the kids, their parents, the teachers and the recording crew!
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IT'S A WRAP!!!

Friday, July 20, 2012

Happy 22nd Birthday BFF, Hpility

I'm thankful for meeting a group of blogger friends in life who unselfishly shared and invited me to their exclusive events, who love me unconditionally for who I am, who bring so much joy & laughter into my life, who show their full support towards my passion for singing.  As compared to those who started out in the kind of dog-eat-dog blogosphere, still stuck in between keyboard wars and name-callings of all sorts, I am truly blessed.

I called them my BFFs: Blogger-Friends Forever.
They are friends whom I met at Blog Events and we have been hanging out together ever since.

The group just gets bigger.

Hong Peng aka H.P. who blogs at http://hpility.sg, is one of my first BFFs, in fact the very first together with William and Yongwei.

He celebrated his 22nd birthday at Fish & Co last weekend and I was invited!

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I'm dressed up for this special occasion with my apparel sponsor from www.ezovclothestore.com:

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photo credits: OnlyWilliam

I like how the big collar which slightly overlaps at the front, flatters my shoulders such that they look straight, making my arms look smaller. I'm wearing a black tube together with the dress so that the cut at the front is not too revealing. The material of the dress soft and thin; really comfortable to wear in hot climates like Singapore.

I AM LATE for the birthday party.
The rest have already made their orders!

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I'll always take the Seafood Platter for 2 but this time round, I had swiss baked fish & chips. couldn't finished even half of it because I ate all of William's fries while waiting for my order!

The other guests prepared a surprise birthday Challenge for H.P.
He had to choose a number between 1 - 10. Each number comes with a different task for H.P to accomplish. After picking THE number, he has to scan a QR code prepared by Terence which led him to the list of tasks prepared for him to do.  Check out the list on Terence's blog post here.

I think he chose... no 7? or was it no 9?

His task was to get everyone in Fish & Co to sing him a birthday song, EVERY SINGLE ONE!


Our birthday boy looking around for help:
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In the end, he managed to get the Fish & Co staff to set up a mic for him on stage where he told everyone that it's his birthday and that he'd like to invite everyone to sing him a birthday song together on the count of 3.

1....

2....

3!!!!

Everyone played a good sport and sang. It goes like this:

Happy Birthday to you... Happy Birthday to you...
Happy birthday to (whoever you are),
Happy birthday to you!

*claps claps*

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photo credits: OnlyWilliam

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photo credits: OnlyWilliam

The gang of mischievous for the day:
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photo credits: OnlyWilliam

Bottom row(left to right): Me, ShuQingWilliam, H.P , Yuhao
Back Row(Left to right): Jessie, Terence Yeo, Yongwei and Hongwei

After Fish & Co, we walked over to Alley Bar to have a drink and shared jokes with one another. We even played 2 games of story-telling where all of us have to take turns and improvise the next sentence of the story until it's completed.

Our story was so random it's about a group of 20 friends who went into a drinking bar which turns out to be a restaurant that serves elephant meat to their customers. One of the friends got murdered, the chef resigned from his job, and came back as a pole dancer....

I forgot how the story ends but it's definitely a happily-ever-after.

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photo credits: OnlyWilliam


HAPPY 22 TO HONG PENG. 

May your blog viewership prosper and increase even more. I know it's hitting 1 million soon!


Friends For Life. :)


Sunday, July 15, 2012

[Happy 40th Birthday, Sentosa!] Sentosa BBQ By The Beach

Planning to have a BBQ this week?

You may strike this idea off your check list now.

1.Book a BBQ pit at (whatever) Park/ At Condo.
2. BBQ food shopping at Supermarket.
3. Order food from XXX online BBQ food order website.

Include this:

1. Head down to Sentosa BBQ by the beach!

Your friends and you can:

  • enjoy constant sea breeze (It's VERY windy out there)
  • watch the sunset
  • cheers to glasses of wine/yum seng to beer
  • watch FULL VIEW fireworks not once but TWICE
  • listen to Latin, Jazz, Blue & accoustic music
  • savour extraordinary BBQ food dishes like 'cod's tongue', Crispy baby Squid, Seafood Platter, Lemon sole and more!


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Sentosa is celebrating its 40th Birthday with BBQ by the beach along Siloso Beach. Other than the normal BBQ grill, there's also the vertical grill & a Hawaiian Underground oven known as 'IMU'.

The IMU is an eye-opener, I'll show you in awhile.

The BBQ happens only THIS WEEK.

When?
13 - 22 July 2012, 6pm to 12mn


Where?
Siloso Beach (Between COASTES and Azzura Beach Club)


How Much?
S$29.90 ++
(includes S$30 worth of vouchers redeemable for food & drinks) 

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Use the S$30 vouchers to exchange for drinks and food.
Jio 4 friends to go together and you'll get a table FULL of different dishes!

The dishes cost an average price of S$10/plate. Each serving is enough for 2.

There are about 10 booths to choose from.

The baby-squids dish is my personal favourite.
I ordered a plate, went to take more food and came back to see everything wiped out!
Everyone at the table was munching away-- great appetiser.

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The beef & pork sausages sizzling at the charcoal grill look so inviting that I had to take over the grill!

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So I asked the handsome chef if I could try grilling the sausages and he said YES!

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Here's a glimpse of the vertical grill:

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Here's how the IMU (Hawaiian Underground Oven) at Sentosa looked like:

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The IMU is actually a pit dug into the earth. The size of the oven have to be precise to match the amount of food being cooked. According to the chef, the heat in the pit can reach up to 500 degree celcius; the food can be cooked in about 2 minutes!

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Everything may look easy here but I believe a lot of work has been done to set up this station-- You'll realise it when you notice the look of satisfaction as the chef serve the food cooked by the IMU to you. 

Traditionally, grass and leaves are used to cover the IMU. In our case, tiles and charcoal were used. The chef revealed that the depth of the wire mash has to be accurate.

Too close to the heat = burnt food.
Too high up = food not cooked.

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My fish is now in there!
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Waiting for 2 minutes...

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My fish is ready, Ta-dah!
I think it's the fish meat is from a Red Grouper. The skin is red.

The meat is juicy, soft and melts in your mouth.
I'll say that the sambal does not taste anything like the sambal chilli from BBQ Sambal Stingray.

Spicy-fish-lovers, you HAVE TO try this for S$10.

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To go for a lighter meal, try their salads for $5:

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Here's where you'll be seated:
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Brother Leong was there early and managed to get a table which is second from the end of the jetty. Like I mentioned earlier, the further out you are, the more windy it gets; NO FANS required. It became a little too dark as night fell but steps are already taken to brighten up the area.

BEST TABLE SEATS.
A table sits 4 and keeping my fingers crossed, I hoped I can share a table with Bro Leong and his girlfriend.

He said YES!

What's a BBQ without music?!
The singers blew my day of stress away with their chripy personalities.





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My Guest: Sister Jennifer.

Thank you for coming!
You always grow stronger from the last time we met, always.

Thank you being a part of my life of the past decade.

More fun moments when you have the fun-loving Yuhao & William around. With 2 additional members, we asked if we could join tables with Dawn and Wilson sitting next to us.

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Here's a big Thank-you to our friendly Dawn who blogs at www.365days2play.com. Thank you Dawn! 


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A video of the Fireworks at 8.10pm. There was another one at about 9.15pm. I thought that the explosions made by the fireworks would be loud since we were sitting so near, it turned out just nice, like watching it from a TV show.



Ending the day with a group photo!
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Happy 40th Birthday, Sentosa.
Thank you OMY & Sentosa for the invitation!

For more info, visit: http://www.sentosa.com.sg/en/whats-on/events/current-events/#item4152

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Listening to songs when you're happy & sad


I chance upon this poster on Facebook and thought of sharing it with you.

Somehow the songs I wrote were only completed when I'm sad. 
I know why now. 

I'm not the best songwriter; 
All I ever hope is to be able to convey my messages through my originals..

Happy Weekend to you~





Friday, July 13, 2012

COMPASS 17th Music Presentation 2012

I was at the 17th COMPASS Music Presentation 2012 held at MBS Grands Ballroom last Sunday with Zir as her guest. It's the first one I have ever attended; I got so inspired to write more songs after this!

The music presentation includes a dinner, music performances and an award ceremony with awards presented to musicians & songwriters for their outstanding musical achievements.

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Off to scan Zir's invitation card & to get our table number!

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The programme sheet at our table -- Table 17.

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I was anticipating Olivia Ong, Tanya Chua and JJ Lin's performance, never heard them LIVE before. I want to learn to sing like them, voice steady and pitch perfect on stage. I enjoyed ALL the performances; unlike some events where only some were interesting. At the Music Presentation, every single performance came as a pleasant surprise; the difference with Passionate performing.

Everyone seated was singing along!

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Olivia Ong singing 'You & Me'.

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JJ Lin giving his thank you speech.

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Tanya Chua giving her Thank you Speech.

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Derrick Tham's thank you speech inspired me so much. He recounted how 8 years ago, he was sitting down as one of the guests looking at award winners giving their thank you speech. He aspired to be one of them and made it! He continued to encourage the rest of us that it's possible we all can achieve and be on stage one day.

Derrick, thank you for your encouagement.
It means alot to me. :)

The food was delicious and this is my favourite:
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Check out my BIG spoon!

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We met new friends, Stephen & Charles. We sat at the same table.
I got a signature on Charles' namecard and got to know that he is a songwriter and singer.

Charles is residing in Australia and came here to do some recordings.

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left: Stephen, Me, Zir, Charles.

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I met a few familiar faces:

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Left to right: Me, Silver, Tay Kewei.

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At the beginning I was thinking how familiar this person's backview is. She looked like Regine Han but there's a change of hair colour so I decided to drop her a message and YES, it is Regine! Her singing performances are always so entertaining!



More coincidentally, Miao Ru was sitting directly behind me!

We're counting down to 10 days before she heads to Taiwan for the most anticipated Cpop singing battle contest--- 超级星光大道 (Chao Ji Xing Guang Da Dao)! She's one of the finalists chosen to represent Singapore to compete against the finalists in Taiwan.


Go Miaoru go!

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As I was outing the ballroom making a phonecall, I met Ben and Derrick from Channel U's Duet Singing Contest:

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Found one of their performance online, singing to David Tao's song. From 3 minutes onwards:



There was a lucky draw towards the end of the presentation and one of the S$100 cash winners has such an extraordinary name: SO HENG! (Which means 'very lucky' in Singlish)

Real luck for a lucky name!
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After the music presentation, Zir and I found ourselves having supper at ToastBox. I was confiding in her about wanting to improve my facial expressions and the next moment, we were making faces together!

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It's my turn to do it myself. An angry expression:

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#expressionFAIL

I started laughing so hard I couldn't make anymore faces but the photo-snapping continued.

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Then I was introduced to a new app called 'Bump'.

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Bump works like whatsapp only that you have to 'bump' your hand with the other party's in order to be connected. The phones have to be in the hands which you bump. Using Bump, you can send photos in bulks rather than one by one.


EZOVclothestore

Have you noticed my floral top yet?
It's from www.ezovclothestore.com.


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There are two layers to this one-piece dress: the outer layer is made of lace and the inner layer is a blue polyester dress, soft and comfortable. For the back, you may choose to leave the top part open up into a V-shape or have it button up. 

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Designs vary from casual, to smart casual & office wear.
Visit EZOVclothestore.com  for more designs!

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I'm looking forward to the next COMPASS Music Presentation!