I feel a need to type out some feelings, both positive and negative.
Positive
1. I’m really glad you’re back
2. Finally, you are where I saw you would be. I’m happy you’ve reached this destination.
3. Study for your damn O levels.
4. Glad to have known you this year, even though you don’t read this blog.
5. I’m insiprired by your efforts to help us improve and I respect you.
6. We don’t talk as much now, but this avenue is always open.
7. I admire the cheerful and light hearted disposition you bring to us.
8. I think you are very sweet.
Negative
1. I believe some level of repect comes automatically, but I also believe much more has to be earned.
2. Sometimes, I think you are abit too obvious about how you feel towards me.
3. Maybe I was wrong about you.
4. That applies to you too, and perhaps we are not on the same frequency anymore (or were we?)
5. I feel very awkward around you, and you always seem to sagregate people according to their social/intellegence status
Still in badly need of a set up and while I was testing it just now the bridge pickup suddently died… Need to get it fixed but other than that its a cool guitar.
July 1, 2008 at 11:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The guy on the bass is Planetshaker’s bassist Mark Peric and if you are wondering, yes the guy doing nothing on the swivel chair is Planetshaker’s iconic lead singer and worship leader Henry Seeley.
I was pretty impressed by this guy’s playing when I chanced upon this video when a thought, or rather an observation hit me. Most of us do know the kind of music that Planetshakers generate; youth appealing, new age, loud and in short – rocky. Many a times do we associate a musician’s “skill” with the kind of music they usually play and in even more instances do we go “Huh that guy plays metal are you sure he knows a thing about jazz?”
True, it is sad that many musicans do not fully make use of their entire technique/skill library into the songs they produce, some merely playing to please while others are too afraid to deviate but we should never look down on other musicians because their music seems “more inferior” than ours.
Even in many cases, musicians tend to overdo things. We levites, songwriters, arrangers etc always look for means and ways to make our music different from the guy next door, we put in every effort to ensure that our music stands out while sometimes, more really is less. Doug mentioned to us 2 weeks ago, “the hardest thing for a musician to play is silence.” I will not digress further into what he said because I simply can’t. You have to interpret that line in your own way.
I’ve been listening to many of Hillsong’s old albums recently, By Your Side, Blessed, You are My World, For This Cause etc and each time I listen to those songs, I am amazed at how the songs are written, how the musicians never fail to deliver the songs to their best potential and how the worship leaders bring about the anoiting and the holy spirit into the congregation. Songs from that era are really one league apart from today’s songs.
Remember the song “Sing of Your Great Love”? I think that song has the simplest and the ‘least amount of words used’ chorus in the history of gospel (and maybe secular) music.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord… Holy, holy, holy is the Lord…
4 simple, common and widely used words in our Christian environment but yet those 4 words make such a huge difference in that song. Whenever I listen to it on the bus, I’m really mesmerised by the music occationally I just feel like singing those words out. As Greg said, long bus rides and ministering music make good time to reflect.
For those who have not listened to that song, please do. For those who don’t have it, ask me.
Musicians, work hard. Pianists practice your chords, guitarist work on your scales and licks, bassists get your slaps and foundations right, drummers play tighty and put in appropriate fill-ins because ultimately even if we do not use these skills in every of our song, it is still a form of worship unto God. And as we get better, as we strive to play better and more, our music will get better.
And only when our music gets better, will we seek to play less, because less is more.
I bought my first electric guitar roughly 2 years ago, on the 14th of June if I remember correctly. I still can recall that day, when I took 36 from VS with Jian Han to City Music where I bought that sunburst Les Paul for $280; and I remember that I paid $20 in $1 and 50cent coins which I kept in a film container. I remember going back to VS, where I straight away went to the auditorium control room to plug the guitar in and play.
Well that guitar was definitely not the best guitar in the world, but I loved it so much that I couldn’t put it down for one moment. I’d come home from school everyday and play that guitar as soon as I was in my room. I did discover alot with that guitar, my first time jamming in a studio, first time serving in a service and my first performance was with that guitar.
Sold it to some malay guy last year for a good price, I wonder where is that guitar now…
I’ve not been on track with my studies for this whole month. Everytime I sit down to do work, I feel like I’m facing a mountain. Formula’s don’t go into my head, past year’s work can’t be recalled and my thoughts are always blocked. I’m really losing my motivation in this whole MOE 12 year education scheme thing.
Just want to get this mid years over and done with, and this A levels cleared for good. What happens after that, I can’t be bothered to think about it.
