Tuning and Piano Maintenance

I own a number of keyboard instruments, one of these is a beloved old, locally made upright piano left to my care by my mom. She bought it for my sister around 1987 and it has been in a state of deterioration until 2012 when I had decided to have the piano reconditioned. After having it reconditioned, it became our keyboard practice instrument. From October to April, the piano’s tuning drifted to a about 50 cents lower than what it should be. My good friend, Kuya Cesar Wycoco, recommended that I call and hire master piano technician, Leonardo Wayan a.k.a. Kuya Nards, to get it into shape.

In contrast to the somewhat reserved and sophisticated Kuya Cesar, Kuya Nards had an air of flamboyance and an astounding level of confidence surrounding him. This is because he really knew his stuff well. He was loud but very entertaining while he worked. He had warned me that given the quality of the upright piano I have (which is somewhat mediocre given its built and post-flooded state), that it would be a challenge getting it to equal temperament at A = 440 Hz. However, he had managed to get it to that tuning, and so the piano sounded wonderful afterwards.

The good thing about hiring Mr. Wayan was that he really knew pianos. He did not mince his words when he said that he was surprised that the piano was already reconditioned when he first saw it. Believe me, it was far worse before he had touched the piano. At the very least, the money I spent last 2012 for piano repairs had at least turned the piano into something workable. Mr. Wayan, being seasoned piano technician for many hotels around the metro, claimed he could have done a much better job at reconditioning the piano than the people I had previously hired.

I got more than a bang for my buck by hiring Kuya Nards. He was a thousand pesos cheaper than the guys who worked on my piano before, he offered me amazing piano tips, was very honest in his dealings, and he even went on to provide a tuning wrench for free.

As part of a self-maintenance plan, he left me a 6-mm square socket wrench and some “Shoes Glue” so that I can perform tuning myself. This morning, I found myself tuning the piano because the upper register had drifted to a few cents lower. My suspicions were confirmed when I measured the tuning of A4 against a chromatic tuner and it registered around 432 Hz. I decided then to tune the piano to A = 442 Hz to solve the problem.

I used the socket wrench that Kuya Nards gave me to do most of the work. Because I didn’t have any rubber mutes, I used a thumb pick fixed to my right index finger to pluck each individual string as I tuned. I started out with A4 and then tuned A5 based on my 442-Hz A4, and then tuned an octave’s worth of keys based on the sound of 4ths and 5ths. Afterwards I tuned the rest of the keys.

I am quite happy with what I was able to accomplish. Maybe in a few more weeks of hammering away at the keys, it’s gonna drift lower again, so I expect to tune the piano again myself about two weeks from now. Maybe I might ask Kuya Nards to take me in as an apprentice. Hmm, now that’s a thought worth considering. Maybe afterwards I might offer a piano tuning service. But perhaps not at this time. If I gain more experience tuning pianos, then I might consider doing that professionally. Kuya Nards said that typically hotels would commission guys like him to get a piano tuned every week, so I’m not at all surprised that I had to tune the piano myself today.

If you’d like to get in touch with Kuya Nards to get your piano back into shape, leave a message in the comments section, and I’ll send you a private message regarding his contact details.

 

Dealing with the Six-String Bass Guitar

The electric bass guitar certainly has a very interesting history. If it were a person, you would know that one of its ancestors was the orchestral double bass and from the other side is the electric guitar. Most people would know a bass guitar to be a four-stringed instrument, but as bass players wanted to extend the range of their instruments, instruments with more than four strings have been developed, the five-stringed version with the low B being very popular. However, I have chosen to go one string further with a six-string bass.

I started playing a four-string bass when I was a teen and then I went up to five, and then more recently the six-string bass. While there are those who hate the six-string bass by being too much to handle, I personally love the instruments flexibility and range. I’m assuming people didn’t realize that the six-string bass was supposed to make people’s lives easier. If you’re surprised that I’m saying that, try playing a two-octave arpeggio over a four string. I’m quite sure that it’s a stretch. On a six-string bass, you can play the same arpeggio over just a span of six frets. If I use the four-string technique on the six-string, I could cover three octaves.

The way I chose my tuning is a matter of convenience. For a while I was playing my six-string bass in the standard fashion: all fourths from B to C. It was wonderful at first. But being a guitarist as well, the C at the 1st string can sometimes be off putting. I could manage with that C well, but I wanted my guitar technique to translate into my bass playing. This is why I decided to tune my bass like a baritone guitar (an octave lower of course) and so the tuning is (from 6th to 1st string) is B, E, A, D, F#, B. It’s a step higher than the Guitarron Mexicano. The great thing about this tuning is that I could use my guitar techniques, one of the most important is the CAGED system. I could also use certain techniques I’ve learned from fingerstyle guitar i.e. classical/flamenco-style tremolo, barre chords, etc. Rather than putting energy into learning techniques specific to the standard six-string bass tuning, I’d like to concentrate more on writing and making music and so the baritone guitar tuning helps a lot by saving up my neurons for something else. It’s just more efficient for me that way.

Given the size of the neck, the six-string bass guitar can be unwieldy. Thus I am not surprised why John Myung wants his six-string bass guitar to have a neck width comparable to just a five-string. At this point, I really can’t have a choice on that matter. It’s rather difficult to find a six-string bass guitar in the Philippines unless you have one crafted for yourself, so I’m very fortunate to have found one at a budget price. All in all, the six-string bass guitar has been of great help for my music.

Steve Stine’s “CAGED Made Simple” Now Available

Every serious guitarist wants mastery over the instrument wherein one would just look at the fretboard and find every note required to make a solo sound great instantly. Of course such a feat requires practice, but the new GuitarZoom course called “CAGED Made Simple” by Steve Stine helps achieve just that and more.

“CAGED Made Simple” teaches you how to take advantage of the five basic chord shapes to visualize the fretboard better, leading you to do a number of things such as learning songs faster, playing chords differently, and even soloing better. The best part of the course is that it’s taught by Steve Stine, professor of modern guitar at North Dakota State University. Sure thing you can find a number of guitar virtuosos teach CAGED at YouTube, but Steve explains things complex musical concepts in such a way that even little children would have no trouble learning it.

And so, if you want to give your guitar playing an upgrade, just click on the logo below:

 

P.S. Here’s a  little bit of shameless self-promotion this time. If you think Steve’s awesome in this course, trying checking out…ahem…the sheet music (transcribed by none other than yours truly). It contains note-for-note transcriptions of Steve’s improvisations. Just saying….

How to Prepare a Project and Record Audio in a DAW

Hello dear readers. It’s Mark A. Galang again in another installment of audio production tutorials. This tutorial was written in compliance to the peer review assignment requirement of the Berklee Course “Introduction to Music Production” being hosted by Coursera. I do hope that you all find this tutorial to be informative.

This tutorial features the way how I prepare a project in my DAW for recording. It also gives some insight into how I compose and record music. I use Cakewalk Sonar X1 as my DAW software. Let’s get started.

1. Sequencing the Drums

Before I actually create a project in Sonar, I usually write drum parts, orchestral parts, etc. using Sibelius 6. In this case, I just wrote the drum part for this project.

2. Exporting to MIDI

After writing the drum part in Sibelius, I would then save my work and then export it as a MIDI file to the folder of my choosing.

3. Creating a New Project

After opening Sonar X1, I make use of an atypical method of creating a project. I close the project creation wizard and then just drag the MIDI file I created into Sonar. Sonar will automatically open the MIDI file as a project.

4. Creating an Instrument Track

Once the MIDI file has opened, I would then create an instrument track that would play back the MIDI data in the project. In this case, I’m using a VST instrument called EZDrummer. An instrument track is a combination of a MIDI and Audio track. The data displayed is MIDI but the playback comes from an audio source, usually a software instrument.

5. Transferring MIDI data to Instrument Track

Instead of assigning EZDrummer as the output for my MIDI track, I just simply drag the MIDI data into the instrument track and then delete the resulting empty MIDI track. The instrument track can read MIDI data anyway so I have no further use for the empty MIDI track.

6. Creating an Audio Track

I would then create an audio track next by right clicking on the empty space where the channels are supposed to be in Track View and then selecting the “Insert Audio Track” command.

7. Labeling Audio Track and Setting Up for Recording

After creating the audio track, I would then label the audio track. In this instance, I’m recording a bass guitar track so I simply label it “Bass”. Afterwards, I select the appropriate input source for my audio track. In this case, my bass is connected to the left instrument input of my audio interface and so I select the left one in my DAW. If I select it this way, I will be able to record my bass part in mono.

8. Saving as a Project File

Because Sonar opened my project as a MIDI file, it cannot save audio data yet. I would then save the project as a “Normal” CWP (Cakewalk Project) file with the “Copy All Audio With Project” option ticked so that I can assign the project and audio data folders for easier file management.

9. Arming the Audio Track for Recording

Before I begin recording, I then click on the red button in my audio track so that it would be “armed” for recording. Once the audio track is armed, I check my instrument’s recording levels on my audio interface and on the DAW. I am now ready to record my bass parts.

10. Setting up Metronome/Click and Countoff

Before I start recording, I check my metronome/click and then see if I have the correct settings. I prefer using an audio click rather than MIDI and I set up the record count in to just “1”. Since the time signature in my project is 7/8 with a tempo of 100 bpm (in quarter notes), I expect to hear seven fast clicks before the DAW starts recording my audio.

11. Recording an Audio Track

Once the levels are set and the audio track is armed, I start recording by pressing “R” on my computer keyboard. I count along to the count-in clicks (one, two, three, four, five, six, sev) and then start playing my bass parts. Once I’m done recording, I press the space bar to stop.

12. Cloning an Audio Track for a Second Take

Because I need to have a couple of recorded options, I record a number of takes. To do this, I just clone the audio channel where my bass is recorded. To do this, I just right-click on my audio track and select the option “Clone Track”. Sonar will then duplicate the audio track in its entirety.

13. Setting up Cloned Audio Track for a Second Take

The cloned audio track contains all of the data from the previous audio track, including recorded audio. Therefore, I would delete the recorded audio from the cloned track in order to empty it so I can begin recording a second take. To lessen distractions, I would then mute the original audio track before I record my second take.

14. Recording a Second Take

Once my cloned audio track is ready, I would then record a second take following the steps mentioned a while ago.

After completing all of these steps, I think the entire effort went well. I was able to set up a project and record an audio track. Upon reviewing the project, I think that I should have saved the project immediately as a normal DAW project before setting up the audio track so that I wouldn’t run into a problem later should the application crash. Some of the steps I took to create the DAW project are atypical. However, this fits my usual workflow which involves composing and notating music first before recording audio.

For those who are interested, here’s the track I recorded for this particular tutorial:

I hope that you all have enjoyed reading and learning about recording audio in a DAW through this post. Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you. If you have any feedback, comments, or constructive criticism, please feel free to let me know as I would love to learn new things as well.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Cesar Wycoco

This man right here is one of the most fascinating people I’ve met:

Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. Cesar Wycoco, a real renaissance man or “Ilustrado”. He speaks around six different languages, educated for diplomatic service (he earned his M.A. in Political Science from the University of Hawaii and has a graduate degree in French from the University of Nice), and has a good deal of experience working in the U.S. Navy. What probably is much more significant is the fact that he is a self-taught piano virtuoso and composer that has spent time playing gigs in cruise ships and in various places. I am very fortunate to have been given an opportunity to work with this man whose talent and wisdom I have been trying a lot to learn from.

Mark Galang (left) and Cesar Wycoco (right)

I started working with him in the last quarter of 2011 as a music transcriber for his album entitled “Cesar plays Wycoco”. I was introduced to him through Mariza Esteban, the owner of MSE Musical Services (the establishment where my son is currently studying violin). After that project, I continue to provide engraving and transcription work for his newer compositions.

People like Mr. Wycoco defy convention. You would expect that most pianists of his caliber to have a conservatory-level education. The fact is that he doesn’t. I can’t help but find that common thing between him and me, and that is a passion for music. He probably broke people’s expectations when he became a musician rather than a diplomat; I broke expectations when I got involved into music rather than healthcare. Sometimes I can’t help but think that if you have been called into music, you really can’t help but go do it no matter what.

If you look into Kuya Cesar’s history as a musician, I could see some parallels between him and Frederic Chopin. Both men are essentially self-taught pianists and composers. Both have had experience playing in France and elsewhere. Kuya Cesar even has a Chopinesque style in both his playing and composing. You can’t really help but be amazed every time you hear him play. He just can’t help but let music ooze out of his soul.

If you’d like to know more about Kuya Cesar and his musical activities, read more about him at http://www.himig.com.ph/people/438-cesar-wycoco?composer=true. Better yet, drop by the Makati Shangri-La Hotel every Monday to Friday just right about lunch time to hear him play. For the meantime, here’s a video of Kuya Cesar playing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the Les Miserables musical:

Acoustic Blues Guitar by Steven Dahlberg to be Launched January 30

Steven Dahlberg is one amazing blues guy. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him on the latest GuitarZoom course entitled “Acoustic Blues Guitar”. If you want to go beyond the very ubiquitous Mississippi Delta Blues style, you got to check out this course.

“Acoustic Blues Guitar” is a fingerpicking style course that intends to teach aspiring guitarists performing acoustic blues in a solo fashion. This is the sort of blues that you would hear prior to World War II. Steven teaches a variety of styles as used by blues legends like Mississippi John Hurt, Mance Lipscomb and others.

This is a four DVD and sheet music package covered by GuitarZoom’s “Learn in 90 days or get your money back” guarantee. As usual sheet music transcriptions have been worked on by yours truly.

All I can say is expand your guitar playing horizons and get into the blues with Steven Dahlberg’s “Acoustic Blues Guitar”

Dealing with Negative Feedback

This week started well but was suddenly book ended with some negative feedback from a client who was a bit difficult to work with. The problem all started when this person, about a month or two ago, all of the sudden hired me on oDesk to sing on a couple of songs. This was surprising for me because I never thought of myself as a great singer nor have I ever advertised myself to be one on oDesk. However, I once worked with him as a composer to write some big band music. He was happy with that one and was rather pleased with the demo vocals in that piece; it must have been the reason why he hired me again. After toiling over songs that were very difficult to sing and trying my best to deliver what he wanted, he decided to trash my feedback score.

It would be fair for him to give me a 1 out of 5 score based on the quality of the actual vocals. Again, I’ve never seen myself as a great singer, and this contract was initiated by the client. I did not actively apply for this job. I even went out of my way to sing harmonies and even fake female vocals to give him a good idea of how his song/s would go. After doing all of this work, this is where things began spiraling down.

The songs were awful and his instructions were equally difficult as well. He asked me to sing without vibrato. It felt very unnatural! When I delivered the rest of my recordings to him, he went ballistic as to how they were so unusable. He also went on to complain about how fake the female vocals were. First off, the contract didn’t specify that I hire a separate female singer, and the fake female vocals I used were intended to just give him ideas. He could have cut them out in the mix if he wanted to. If he wanted a really good female singer, he should have asked me in the first place and gave me a more reasonable budget to work with. Once we had cleared the air about it, I even offered to make the necessary revisions and ramped up my offer by stating that I would even hire singers for him if he were so unhappy with the recordings. But he said that he was pressed for time and he’ll just use the crappy mockup recordings I sent him.

I will not dispute his quality concerns. What I would dispute, however, is my score with regard to communicating and cooperating with him. I tried my hardest to please him and to try and get what he wanted. I even made offers to make any number of revisions if needed. I also have qualms about my rating for deadlines: I was able to submit recordings on time! I sent him a message that I’m disputing the score he gave me; I do not expect a change given how much of an asshole that person is.

So, what have I learned from this experience? A lot of things. Flattering as it may that I never applied for any of his jobs on oDesk and that he actively sought me out, I will never accept any singing jobs from him again. If he still wants to do so, I’ll just hire a bunch of singers to do the grunt work. It was a humbling experience as well. I’m very happy that a majority of the people I worked with gave me glowing reviews. This client even gave me top scores for writing a big band tune. This job was, unfortunately, the exception, a stain on my oDesk record. I suppose I should just stick to composing, being an instrumentalist and performing music transcription. Maybe it’s high time to forget about singing except perhaps for personal and educational purposes. This is further reinforcing the fact that I should seek out a dedicated lead singer for my band (that is if the band would come to life this 2013).

Life has its ups and downs, and this is one of those down moments. The important thing is that I have enough strength to take the lessons learned and become a better person as a result of them.

The Year That Was 2012

How would I sum up the year 2012? I would say that it was blessed and fulfilling. A lot of things have happened this year, and I could go on to say that this was one of the most musically fulfilling years I have experienced in my life. More than that, I would go further in saying that I really am happy that this year will come to a close with a bang.

The year 2012 started to be a very challenging time for my small family of three. My wife was unemployed and freelance projects for me were slim. We were feeling somewhat desperate as it seemed like it would be a financially difficult year for us. However, I’m very happy and thankful that despite all that difficulty, God still provided adequately. We had no debts and we still were able to manage living a rather comfortable lifestyle albeit rather slim pickings. It was also this year that I decided to go work in music full time, and I’m happy that somehow my decision is paying off.

Blessings came in gradually this year. This started off with getting some funding to upgrade my home studio. Around the middle of this year, my wife also finally landed the job of her dreams: a stint as an operations manager in Accenture. I was able to play once more with the band of my youth (the formerly named Jacob’s Ladder) and got involved in some more music projects as well like a string of guitar tab transcription projects for GuitarZoom as well as some music composition and sound design projects on the side.

This year had its bittersweet moments as well. I was experiencing what I believe to be bouts of depression during this last quarter of 2012, October to be particular. My beloved cat Scheherazade gave birth to three healthy babies in June but then passed away 3 months later. Although it was a great learning experience, writing music for a7records turned out to be a bad financial decision. such things caused me to feel a lot of self-doubt and I questioned my competence as a parent, as a husband, as a musician along with everything else. God never left me though and gave me the strength to carry on.

I do think that the Lord had reserved the best for last in 2012. I was suddenly tapped to be the pianist for UCCP-MCD’s New Year’s Eve worship service! I was so surprised when I got a call from my dear friends, Pastors Chaz and Xiaui Romero, when they had indicated that they were in dire need of a pianist since their regular accompanist was unavailable. My pastor friends were telling me that the sudden unavailability of their regular pianist was no accident; it did seem like God wanted me to be there to play some music for the congregation. Over the past few days, I was not feeling confident about being up to the task but I did prepare to be at my very best. To cut the long story short, I was able to play through the entire 2-hour service. I would go to claim that it was not out of my own power and ability that I was playing. I feel certain that it was God that was utilizing my personal playing style to deliver music so that the worship service would be a success, the same way He did guide my band through last October’s fundraising concert. According to Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” By my own power, I will not be capable of anything, but it is He alone who has saved me from sin and gave me strength this day to share my faith through music.

In conclusion, I’m very thankful to The Lord for the year 2012. It was indeed a very good and prosperous year. I look forward to see what God has in store for me, my family, my band, and with all the other people in my life this 2013.

Happy New Year dear readers and I hope that next year would be a blessed one for you as well.

Being Filipino: An Honor or Something to be Ashamed About?

I just found these definitions of “Filipino” at the Urban Dictionary:

http://filipino.urbanup.com/2315108
http://filipino.urbanup.com/1397824

I find these definitions to be hilarious. These also got me into thinking again of what really is a Filipino. Is it a state of being that I have to be proud about like many Pinoys would be? In a lot of ways I would not be. The damaged retrogressive culture that permeates into mind and soul of the typical Juan is something that I do not desire for myself.

Having vicariously (I say vicariously as I have never traveled outside of the Philippines) seen and experienced other Asian cultures, I would have to agree that Filipinos have little to do with being Asian. F. Sionil Jose even goes to proclaiming that the Filipino is not Asian. Culturally speaking, Filipinos have so much more in common with Latin Americans and the Spanish than with the Japanese, Koreans or even Thais. The sad fact is that Filipinos seem to have inherited everything negative about Spanish culture that keeps Filipino society from moving towards progress. Things like Mañana habit (procrastination), ningas cogon (the inability to finish what was enthusiastically started), advancement through connections rather than skill (Padrino system); the “pwede na yan” (that’ll do) mentality of mediocrity; the abuse of amor propio, delicadeza,and utang na loob (indebtedness); and the grip of Roman Catholicism all get in the way of progress of the Filipino society. Such culture has given way into the chaotic state that the Philippines is. Seems like the Pinoy is a creature and lover of chaos that is easily entertained and driven by emotion rather than the intellect.

If you go study the history of the Philippine Islands closely, you might arrive at the conclusion that the concept of being a Filipino originated from Creoles i.e. people of Spanish descent who were born in the Philippines. There are claims that these Creoles co-mingled with the dominant Tagalog tribe (and perhaps with some wealthy businessmen of Chinese descent), established their own government in defiance of Spain (getting inspiration from the French and American Revolutions), and placed their seat of power in Manila. Other tribes of the island could care less. There is one site in particular that goes to a great depth about this topic called “The Nation of Don Rafael Ibarra” if you’d like to read more about it.

It really appears that three centuries of Spanish rule have made Filipinos dumb to the point that there are claims of the Philippines having a collective IQ of only 87. It doesn’t really surprise me given the fact that during the last presidential elections, the Philippines elected a president based on sentiment rather than competence.

The lack of collective achievement as a people is bothersome. Apparently, this is due to having too much freedom with too little discipline, something that former Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew had said before. Having too little discipline is readily observable in the Philippines; just try driving at EDSA and the streets of Manila and you’ll know what I mean.

One aspect of Filipinos that continues to drive me crazy in this information age is the fact while Filipinos have admirable work ethic as a hardworking people, they do not appear to be smart about it. I am a freelance worker who’s registered at oDesk, and it appears to me that the trend amongst Filipinos is to drive prices down. It is what I call “nagtratrabaho ng palugi” (working at a loss). Granted that labor is supposed to be cheaper in the Philippines, should that mean that the Filipino’s way of competing with the rest of the world is just through low prices rather than competence? I believe that despite our flaws as a society, the Filipino in this global society are worth much more.

Allow me to give an example. I currently work freelance taking on music and audio jobs. Whenever I apply for a job, I occasionally look into profiles of other contractors. I have noticed that some of these other Filipino contractors price themselves at miserably low rates. I see Filipino freelance musicians at oDesk charging as low as $1.00 an hour for composing music or writing a jingle. This is lower than Philippine minimum wage! (around $1.50/hour) A service like writing music should cost much more than that given how taxing and mentally challenging the process is in the first place (plus the potential value of a jingle as intellectual property). How I thought that Filipinos are very proud of the fact that they are musically inclined! Shouldn’t they ask for more given the fact that they’ve got musical and audio production skills that can compete at the international level? Although it’s virtually unavoidable to take cheap jobs in order to gain higher feedback ratings (and higher rates eventually), why should such workers remain at such a miserable hourly rate? I’d assume that they don’t families to support and they’re still living off their parents. If you look into the salary trends in the medical/general transcription sector in oDesk, the rates are even more miserable.

Going back to those Urban Dictionary definitions, I would have to agree with one post that says “A hard working, industrious, and very strong family oriented people, but notoriously useless at organizing anything beyond chaos as a nation of people.” It hits the point right at home. As an example of that, take a look into Filipino fiestas. Many Filipinos would rather incur enormous debt just to host a party and look good in the community during feast days for pagan gods and goddesses, all of which have been draped with a “Christian” veneer as Santo this and that by the Roman Catholic Church. They’d rather keep on having sex and have as many as 10 children just right after hitting middle age despite lacking the financial resources to properly raise such offspring. No wonder that the Philippines has a collective IQ of 87. Is acting stupid a thing to be proud of? Apparently, many proponents of “Filipino pride” think so.

It’s very sad that Filipinos always think of themselves as small, the underdog so to speak that’s incapable of dreaming big. Despite all the negative things about the Filipino culture, I still would like to believe that Filipinos as a people should be capable of achieving greatness. Examples of these are the many Filipinos who have great individual achievements inside and outside of the country, all of which are mostly earned through a disciplined and frugal approach of living. My parents are a good example. Starting from virtually nothing, they worked their way to acquire assets that currently serve as financial security for themselves. I also happen to have an aunt who works two blue collar jobs in Australia, enabling her to invest some of that money into property and enjoy in the Philippines whatever is left over. Former waiter and security guard turned restauranteur Larry Cortez is another. My wife grew up from a below poverty state and is now making great strides up the corporate ladder at the moment. Why is it that such Filipinos are exceptions to the norm rather than the standard?

I would go to say that Juan has to change his way of thinking in order to succeed, to give value to competence and logical thought rather than emotion and mediocrity. I also do hope that some day this statement would true within the Philippines itself rather than just abroad:

“Most Filipinos are upper middle class. Day know how to budget der money and make lots ob sacripices like staying in da Naby por 20 years so day can get a retirement.” (source : http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Filipino&defid=2315108)

It’s unfortunate that this kind of Filipino is more readily observable in the United States, Australia and anywhere else that has become locations for the Filipino Diaspora. Outside of the gated community where I reside, I usually see Filipinos who are living below the poverty line, incapable of budgeting given the fact that many are in debt, unable to make sacrifices because of the addiction to parties and entertainment, and would eventually retire with a huge debt and a mentality of mendicancy. The Philippines is really home to a fractured culture of people who claim to be Asian yet Hispanic in thinking and afflicted by still existing tribal divisions and a plutocracy that doesn’t care at all.

In a lot of ways I would be ashamed to be a Filipino. I often feel that I lack affinity with what a typical Filipino would want. I’m not a fan of Filipino cuisine, and I have no taste whatsoever for the mainstream OPM scene. I hate Pinoy telenovelas and noontime TV shows simply because they promote stupidity, mediocrity and mendicancy. I don’t watch local TV channels. Call it colonial mentality or whatever but if something is excellent, I have great appreciation for it, and for the most part a lot of things found overseas are leagues away from what is found locally in the Philippines.

However, whenever I see and hear about exemplary individuals such as my wife, my parents, composers Angel Matias Peña and Jose Maceda, restauranteur Larry Cortez and others, I appreciate the fact that Filipinos can be capable of breaking away from the typical Filipino slacker mentality.

“Archery” by Pixel Delight Studios, LLC Now Available

About a month ago, I was hired by Pixel Delight Studios, LLC as a sound designer for their latest game available for Android devices. This game is called “Archery – Shoot the Apple”. If you have dreams of shooting arrows towards a hapless individual with an apple on his head, this would fulfill such a wish.

The rules of Archery is simple: shoot an arrow towards an apple placed upon the head of a young man, and do your best to avoid hurting (or killing) said young man. As you advance in level, the distance between the archer and the apple increases.

To download this delightful game (and enjoy some sounds I had created for it), go to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/archery-pixel-delight-studios-llc/1113938850?ean=2940043936332. It costs only $0.99 to download and be like William Tell.