WDA Music Career Program: Writing A Jingle, the final product! Part 2/2

This is a continued post about a given music assignment for our WDA Music Career Programme.

The given task was to create and produce a jingle for the song writing/music arranging course we are going through.

I only slept for about 2 - 3 hours everyday since Wednesday.
*My very serious eye bags*

=== Recap ===
My previous post was about project brainstorming, meeting my awesome team members up - Stephen and Kiah Gek, and giving you a brief idea of what a Jingle is.

By the way if you haven't been reading my blog OR missed the part I introduced our group name, we call ourselves YuMiPhen Productions which literally means 'Fish Bee Hoon'.

LMAORFLOL!!!

Read PART 1 HERE.

Let's move on to doing this video ad.

For this jingle + video assignment, YuMiPhen Productions decided to do a Stop Motion video advertisement.

A stop motion video is where you take many many (and I mean really many many many) photographs, then put and link them together into ONE video.

SATURDAY

Kiah Gek and I did a FIRST version at Stephen's place, right after we complete writing the song together with the help of MinuteManSg.

Stephen immediately proceed to work on the music arrangement for the song.

Due to all the house lightings and reflective surfaces, we couldn't find a suitable place to do our filming and the best we found was under Stephen's dining table. Kiah Gek and I stayed that way for at least 2.5 hours while MinuteManSG took the photographs for us as we moved and drew objects on the blackboard.


Photo Credit: Kiah Gek

Our reference, a book with written song lyrics and solfege:




These numbers are the Do-re-mi-fa-so used in a Solfege script.
Take the first line "4 3 4 3 4 5", we interpret it as "Fa Mi Fa Mi Fa So".

Just so we'd remember how to sing our song later.






Props purchased from Daiso:


Photo Credit: Kiah Gek


Photo Credit: Kiah Gek

This mini microphone was a birthday present from my bestie, Kyel, 2 years ago:

Photo Credit: Kiah Gek

The Tripod was too small and the camera was too heavy that we had to tape it to a Pipa Gao Bottle *budget Film-making*



The 'mystery man' who was there the whole day, working things out, helping out with the project and even chipping in ideas!

Thank you so much, MinutemanSG:

Photo Credit: Kiah Gek

Take a look at some of the photographs we took for the stop motion video.
I like the colours:










Even after 2.5hours of photo-taking, we only managed to film only one part of the song.
There are a total of THREE parts: 2 verses and a chorus.

It was already 9.30pm by then and we took a quick dinner before we proceed to the vocal recording.

10.30PM: Stephen called us in to do the vocal recording after he's got the basic song arrangement ready.

Kiah Gek blogs at http://thlastwish.blogspot.com


Photo Credit: Kiah Gek

By 12.15AM, we called it a day and went back home respectively.

SUNDAY

( T __ T ) 

I realised we made a MAJOR mistake the previous night!

We didn't calculate the timing and estimated the number of photographs we needed for each transition.
There was no storyboard (storyline) planned. We ended up with lack of photographs and story for the video. Also, Stephen included an intro and interlude which we didn't take into consideration, causing the whole video to stray out of the music timing.



This means we had to redo everything!

I spent my whole Sunday drawing a storyboard, plan out the shots while minutemanSG helped with the scene set up, hoping to stabilise the camera unlike the previous night while the shots kept shifting towards the left. Zzz….



See how MinuteManSG secured the camera by tying the tripod with sewing threads.
I used my Leopard print mini skirt as background fabric, own right?



Took about 400 photographs and short listed 200+ of them.
Our 58sec video ad is ready by 5AM~

Can't wait to see the final product, can you?

Take note of my microphone (birthday present from Kyel), my macbook from my Babyboy and my white ukelele, another birthday pressie from Fenny Hwang, Angie Chew and Conan Seow!


Here you go:
The end music was revised at least 4 times by Stephen himself.

Song Title: Will You Live Your Dream?

Produced by: YMP Productions

Song Composers/Lyricists:
Stephen Tong
Phan Kiah Gek
Colin Chang
Mint Leong

Vocalists:
Phan Kiah Gek
Mint Leong

Music Arrangement and mix:
Stephen Tong

Video:
Phan Kiah Gek
Colin Chang
Mint Leong

Video Editing and Mix:
Mint Leong

Song Lyrics:

One (want), to make good music
Two, but we had no clue
Three hundred vibrant hours
Four (for) dreams to come true

One (want) to make a difference
Two, For love and passion
Three, that's who we want to be

Can you feel the colours, motifs make melody
Can you feel the music, enjoy the lyrics
Can you feel the story, as crazy as it seems
Will you Live your dream?

And here's Kiah Gek sharing this experience with you.
Read: http://thlastwish.blogspot.sg/2013/08/wda-music-career-program-will-you-live.html


WILL YOU LIVE YOUR DREAM?

Termination Of Ocean Butterflies Vocal Ambassadorship 2013

Termination Of Ocean Butterflies Vocal Ambassador Program Course 2013


NooooooooooooooOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Why So Sudden?!
I'm writing this post with a heartache.

Fenny and Hanrey were in midst of the vocal class when they texted the rest of the classmates via our whatsapp group chat that Zhi Wen Laoshi said it was going to be THE LAST LESSON for us.

At first I thought Fenny and Hanrey was joking and rushed down to the school. They are telling the truth after all.

BUT I JUST CAME BACK FROM SYDNEY.
And I've bought gifts for everyone!
NoooooooOooOOOoOOOOOOoooOoooooooooo~

The Ocean Butterflies Vocal Ambassador Contract was supposed to be a 1-year contract until 31st December 2013 however that very night after our 'last lesson', I received an early termination letter from the music school on 24 June 2013 that this ambassadorship will be terminated as of July 2013; a double confirmation.


*sobs sobs*





Need I say more?

Mondays just got more 'blues' because of the cancellation of my vocal classes.

I'm already missing Zhi Wen Lao Shi and his fatherly character. The termination also means I have so much lesser chances to see my chirpy classmates, Jacqualine, Rachell, Fenny, Abby, Silver, Yitian and Hanrey and singing with them.

I miss all the laughter and fun.
I REALLY MISS YOU ALL, Classmateys!!!
There wasn't any proper goodbye and see-you-again hugs.

A lot of regrets that I didn't attend the 'last lesson' because I just came back from overseas.






About the OB Vocal Ambasador Program Course

My vocal ambassador contract with Ocean Butterflies Music Forest was that I will receive 18 COMPLIMENTARY vocal lessons, one and a half hour each time conducted by Vocal Instructor, Liu Zhi Wen.

The vocal lessons were supposed to be held ONCE a week but was later changed to once every TWO weeks. Nevertheless, Zhiwen Laoshi is an extremely dedicated vocal teacher who will make sure he evaluates and give feedback for improvement to ALL his students before releasing us from his class.  The classes commenced in April'2013.

Nothing More.

Since I'm already talking about Ocean Butterflies, there are a few issues which I'd like to address and clarify about my life in Ocean Butterflies Music Forest to many of my friends who are confused about my identity in Ocean Butterflies.


An Ordinary Student of Ocean Butterfly Music Forest

I am only an ORDINARY STUDENT studying at Ocean Butterflies Music Forest.
So far.

Please don't be mistaken, friends.
The contract I signed with them is NOT:
- an artiste contract
- an album-cutting contract
- an artiste-grooming contract

I am NOT an artiste being groomed under Ocean Butterflies.
I am NOT receiving FREE lessons of any other sort from Ocean Butterflies except for the 18 vocal classes of which, is already terminated and I've not attended even half of them.

To learn music, I invested and paid for all my other lessons:
Intensive Keyboard Course (Mar- Apr 2013) : S$480
V-Singer Course (Nov-Dec 2012): S$2000
WDA Song Writing Course (Apr - coming Sept 2013) : S$9000 (90% WDA subsidised)
All music-related equipments required for the WDA music course: S$4000+++

I'm sharing my experiences of my music journey on my blog as memories of my growth because to me, learning music is a significant milestone in my life and Music is something I've always wanted to do since young. It just happened that all the classes I'm taking right now is organised by the music school and in my honest opinion, they are really fun so I want to share them with you, sincerely.

The teachers are dedicated.
My classmates are passionate and helpful.
The Staff are friendly.

So friends, please don't be mistaken that I'm contracted under Ocean Butterflies as their artiste that's why I've been given so many opportunities in singing/hosting/filming and media-related chances. I got these opportunities mostly by word of mouth (thanks to helpful kind souls who knows I need the income), email enquiries sent in via my blog and also me contacting the producers/organisers myself for auditions when I see the ads.

Having recently joined A Dam Funky Talents, I'm also blessed to be given more hosting opportunities and guidance from ADFT.

So PRs and marketing departments out there who are looking for music bloggers to do engagements for them, you know who to look for now. I know some of you are unsure whether I can or not.

OF COURSE I CAN!
:D


Hosting For Ocean Butterflies Music Forest V-Singer

I hosted TWO of their events for them, the V-singer Showcase at Rhythms By The Bay and V-singer Finale at Bugis+.

I was PURELY HELPING OUT for both occasions as I was once a V-singer participant too. None of them were paid-hosting-gig-engagements and again, I blogged about them because I'm proud of my classmates and hope to garner more support for their performances!


Photo credit: Charmaine of Ocean Butterflies Music Forest


Photo credit: Charmaine of Ocean Butterflies Music Forest

Bottom: This was the actual group finale photo which was sent to the press but my face was cropped out in every single shot. Boo-hoo


Photo credit: Charmaine of Ocean Butterflies Music Forest


Photo credit: Charmaine of Ocean Butterflies Music Forest

Elton, congratulations for being the most Outstanding V-singer student!
Jiayou Jiayou and make us proud!

The S$9000 WDA Songwriting Program

For this course, students have to pay the course fee upfront before WDA will do a 'reimbersement', depending on the percentage of the subsidy between 70% to 90%.

Fortunately, I got the 90% subsidy wohooo!

Still, I have to pay S$9000 up front and will only get the full subsidy AFTER completion of the course, excluding all my music equipment. The past few months I've been feeding on grass technically speaking.

300 hours of intensive song writing training consisting:
Music Theory
Audio Engineering
Principles Of Melody and Lyrics
Song Analysis
Fundamental Vocal Training
Career Development
Logic Pro Techniques
Music History
and more to come.

Over the past 4 months, I've been trying to catch up with the standard of the class.
I still am.

The lessons are going too fast and my other classmates are too good.
Besides paying attention to class, we require a lot of practice.

So we are given plenty of assignments.
And they are a hell load of nightmares.
Just these 2 weeks alone, I have to write at least 3 new songs, record a vocal track, do a lead sheet translation and do up a karaoke track that sounds as similar to the original sound track as possible.

IT IS THAT HARDCORE.

But everyone in class is pushing themselves to the limits.

Burn the midnight oil, skip meals, skip work, skip school, whatever you can skip.
Neglect girlfriend, neglect boyfriend, neglect friends, papa, mama, your pet hamster, whatever you can neglect.

Our passionate teachers are placed in the same spot as we are right now but because they treat us like their own children, watching us grow and took all their time and effort in guiding us along.

Among the students, we initiate whatsapp group chats, meet ups, tutorials, Facebook group to help one another.  The more pro-students are generously sharing their online tutorials and also help to guide the weaker students(like me) with their skills. Musicians in class volunteered to help record the instrumentt tracks they play despite having their own assignments to complete.

We work together like ONE big family.
For Passion.
For Love.

And these are values which are PRICELESS,
values you cannot find in most places and work now.

S$9000 is worthy; I'd say.
I got to meet so many awesome and heart-warming friends, people with love and passion.
People like bloggers, my music teachers and music classmates.

If there's another song writing course like this,
don't hesitate, JOIN!

Daniel Chai giving theory lesson:






Jack is my Logic Pro Instructor:


Rollin Koh, ur vocal instructor:


George Leong, our audio engineer instructor:







My friendly classmates and Hua Chang Teacher behind this camera taking this class photo for us!
If there's any teacher more passionate, this person has to be Lee Hua Chang.
Read about Hua Chang here.



Everyone here is my inspiration and motivation.

So yup, milestones of my growth.
Opportunities come and go.
Seize every chance we have and make the best out of it.

My vocal ambassador contract with Ocean Butterflies has been terminated but I can still continue to learn and grow in music.

2 more months to completing the WDA Song Writing Course before I move on to the next phase in life.

GO GO FIGHTING!!!

Going to end this post with the last song I learnt from my Vocal Ambassador class on Harmonising. It's a song by Hebe titled "Hua Hua Shi Jie".
Super fail harmonising.
Have a good laugh.

PS: remember to plug in your earphones to hear better.

[OBMFSG] Ocean Butterflies Music Forest Vocal Ambassador Programme Update: 大气歌曲

#Random
Madly in love with this song covered by Abby: Xu Zhe Pei - Feng Zi.
She got me hooked on this song because she sang it so well!



It's one of the most difficult mando-songs in the world!
Crazily hard to sing I'd say.

We moved on to our next song genre: Power-pack Songs
Ocean Butterflies Vocal Ambassador Lesson 5: 大氣歌曲

Song Title: 張惠妹- 知道
Zhi Dao, by Zhang Hui Mei A-mei

This song was chosen by Liu Zhi Wen vocal instructor for us to go back and learn in the next 2 weeks.
Thereafter, he will give individual feedback as to where we can improve while tackling the song. Usually in class, the individual will sing the song once more, taking in the feedbacks and thus, following his guide.

I am never a power-packed singer so when Zhi Wen Lao Shi first told us to go back and learn A-mei's song, I felt so stressed. Nevertheless I gave my best shot and pluck up courage to tackle it. It felt good after that although it wasn't well done. Most importantly I overcame the mental barrier and took up this challenge. At the end of the day, I learnt something new!

It's a happy thing taking up vocal classes because your confidence will be gradually built up and that at least we know now which genre of songs are more suitable for ourselves; easier to choose songs for future singing competitions.

I've done my 2 takes. Here they are:




Zhi Wen Lao Shi comments during my first take to improve on these:
1. I should try to smoothen and round my high pitches so that they don't sound so sharp.
2. Release and sing out my feelings because I'm not bringing my vocals out and forward, hence it doesn't sound that 'power-pack'.
3. Words in the bridge can be emphasized to have more 'punch' on the song.

After that I was asked to tackle the song again.



Zhi Wen Lao Shi in the background giving me tips & everyone else practising on the song.

Sharp enough to spot any improvement in my 2nd try?
Heh-heh.

Practice makes perfect and I'll keep practising.
加油！

Thank you Zhiwen Lao Shi for your guidance.



With Love from the classmates:


Fenny


Yitian holding to a box of cookies baked by Rachell!


The beautiful Rachell, Pxdkitty who baked yummy cookies for us!


Abby, our goddess who sings beautifully.


Ending this post with the original MV songs we've just covered.
Enjoy!






Call Ocean Butterflies to take up your vocal classes now!

海蝶森林 Music Forest Pte Ltd
*SCAPE
2 Orchard Link, #03-08
Singapore 237978

Telephone: +65 6223 1311

Fax: +65 6223 8588

Email: musicforest@ob-i.net

LIKE Ocean Butterflies on Facebook here for updates on their LATEST activities.

Ocean Butterfly Music Forest Vocal Class, Lesson 4 go!

I've been taking vocal classes at Ocean Butterflies Music Forest since my first exposure with the school during the V Singer 2012 singing contest.  That was November last year

Coming to think of it, I've been taking proper vocal classes for 6 months already!

In March, It was to my delight when I was invited to sit in one of Ocean Butterflies' vocal class with their grooming artistes, Irwin, HuiXian and Vee!

The guy in a black tee is none other than our vocal instructor, Liu Zhi Wen.
Zhi Wen Lao Shi has composed songs for international singer-celebrities like Na Ying, Sun Yan Zi, Rong Zu-er & Jolin Tsai.



Listen to two of the songs which he has composed for Mandarin Pop-singers, Na Ying and Jolin Tsai. Na Ying's mandarin song, Yi Xiao Er Guo, is still a hit popularly sang at KTVs by mandopop lovers.






Alright back to vocal class!

Diligent students should prepare these when you attend classes.
Hui Xian has set a role example..

#1 PLAIN water.

Not sweetened water but PLAIN room temperature water.
I don't know about you but honey water, herbal tea etc actually makes my throat even more hoarse due to its sweetened content.  I don't mind having it to soothe my throat once in a while but during my singing classes and performances, I'll strictly stick to drinking plain room temperature water to avoid my throat from 'getting stuck'.



#2 Voice recorder.

Yes, all phones have this function, the voice recorder.
Be it record your own voice, teacher's voice, your classmate's voice...
Record and play back the clips to remind yourself what u've learnt during class.

In my opinion, I think recording YOUR voice and then later evaluate it, you'll be able to to gauge how your vocal fare and where to improve. You may not know how to correct a mistake but at least by listening, you'll know instinctively whether you're singing your chosen song with the right vibes and feel or whether the song is suitable for you.

Some of my friends are afraid to listen to their own vocals but you have to!
It's a good way of improving and feel more confident of your singing.



We kickstart the class with some vocal warm up exercises(videos below!) and then move on to learning how to read a song sheet like this:


*Instructor Zhi Wen has handwritten this song sheet himself.

I was always telling Zhi Wen Lao Shi how his '不' character looks like the digit '5' and his 7 looks like an arrow pointing to the right ->.



Warm up exercises : Lip Drill & Pitching warm up.





This is the first time I've heard of the song titled "Cheng Ren" but Instructor Zhi Wen's song sheet definitely makes the learning much easier. Hanrey helped recorded my 2nd try on the song. More importantly, you should take note of Zhi Wen Lao Shi's SINGING in the next video!

He's damn good can;
singing the song in a female's original key yet still able to interpret the song so well by putting the right emotions & techniques into the song.

有唱到点.



I really hope to be able to sing well on stage in future and I am extremely thankful to Zhi Wen Lao Shi for his guidance to correct more of my bad vocal habits.

I'm impressed at how even though there were 5 students in class, Zhi Wen Lao Shi can immediately spot & correct each individual's singing habits. I like how encouraging he is towards his students and how he can make us feel more confident of our vocals.

I'm seriously not bootlicking him.
I REALLY LIKE HIM as my vocal instructor.
REALLY REALLY LIKE HIM.

That was the only one time I sat in for the Artistes-grooming vocal class.

Right now I'm going through my 4th fortnightly-vocal lesson with the Vocal Ambassadors and this is even cooler because all my classmates come from different woks of life yet everyone is learning how to sing in the same class because we possess the same passion in music. :):


Left to right: Yitian, Abby, Me, Silver, Hanrey, Jacqualine, Fenny & Rachel.

Hanrey, being the only male ambassador in class, has to sing all the female songs but he's handling it really well!

The class is much bigger now as compare to 5 in the other class. The warm up practices remains similar to those done at the artiste-grooming classes but this time round, the lessons are more focus. They are broken down into sessions where we learnt how to handle different genres of songs from slow ballads to rock songs.

Zhiwen laoshi, being the best as he always has been, is STILL able to point out & correct our mistakes despite us all singing at the same time!




During our 2nd lesson, we had to perform and sing a song of our choice so that Zhi Wen Lao Shi can understand our vocals a little better at the same time, know what kind of songs we usually like to sing.

This was Hanrey's choice of song that day and I must say that I was so impressed with him! As compared to the auditions and videos he did during V Singer 2012, he has become a PRO~



Shots taken during our warm up:




Hanrey's signature rooster call practice during warm up sessions never fail to make the girls laugh like madness:


I'll be back with more youtube videos & updates on our vocal classes, it's so much FUN I tell you!
So much laughter and passion filled up the classroom, taking away all my Monday Blues.

I'm so excited going to class EVERYTIME.

Please be patient and most importantly, be here to grow up with me as I make baby steps in music.
I'm really new to all these even though I'm already 27. I've always dreamt to be taking vocal classes, to be able to sing and perform for people, to write songs, to meet like-minded friends who are supportive.

I can't believe I'm living in this dream right now.

Life's never been so fulfilling: The vocal classes, keyboard lesson, song writing course...
I'm so happy to be learning music, learning how to sing and make music.

Music, I'm so in love with you.

Call Ocean Butterflies to take up your vocal classes now!

海蝶森林 Music Forest Pte Ltd
*SCAPE
2 Orchard Link, #03-08
Singapore 237978

Telephone: +65 6223 1311

Fax: +65 6223 8588

Email: musicforest@ob-i.net

LIKE Ocean Butterflies on Facebook here for updates on their LATEST activities.

Off to my 4th Vocal class now!
We're learning how to sing slow ballads songs & this is the song I have to prepare for the upcoming lesson:





Sing and be happy everybodeh~