Going Cold Turkey on Facebook

I have deactivated my Facebook account about two times in the past and last weekend was the third time. I probably am deactivating my account for good. Maybe I’d go as far as deleting in completely.

As Facebook went on to become the biggest social network, I have been constantly bombarded by ads that I could not get rid off to the point of major annoyance. Ads ranging from a variety of spurious products to things as despicable as softcore pornography coupled with all sorts of useless information have invaded my account. My privacy and my data are at risk over Facebook. It opens up the to door to so much temptation. This is one good reason to quit.

Out of the few 200+ Facebook friends I have, how many of those are really my friends? I would bet that only a tiny percentage. It is a meaningless demographic.

Facebook has also become a big distraction that it takes away precious hours that I could have used for other more purposeful activities. It is like the gossip column of your local daily newspaper, only bigger!

The last time I used Facebook, I was exposed to so much negativity that I decided to quit. Isn’t Facebook supposed to be a place where people share each others thoughts, ideas, and experiences? Apparently, this is a double-edged sword. It has become a space that is toxic with hateful and judgmental speech. I couldn’t stand it anymore because it has become such a depressing place. I feel like I’m devolving rather than improving when I’m on Facebook just because of so much hatred.

Because of Facebook, every person on the planet feels entitled to spew out random thoughts, some of them useful, some of them downright hurtful.  Tactlessness has become the norm, and because of this what little ties people have with one another become severed. One instance of this is that my wife and two of my friends whom I have grown up with now hate each other. Rather than connecting people together, Facebook has become a medium for people to sever ties with one another.  I could no longer stand how both of them exchanged such hurtful words.

James 3:3-10  reads:

“3When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

Facebook has indeed provided many with too much freedom to say what they want and express what they want. People have gone wild over that social network with their words that it does not in any way reinforce thoughtful conversation. Rather, it has become an avenue to slander each other. This I believe is my biggest reason why I have gone cold turkey with regard to Facebook.

“Fair Use” Policy is Unfair

Let’s say you’re at your favorite pizza joint and you order a pepperoni pizza. The restaurant owner says that there is no more pepperoni pizza available. The proper thing that the restaurant owner would say is that, “I’m sorry, sir. We don’t have any pepperoni pizza available today. Would you be interested in any of  our other menu items?” The decent restaurant owner will not ask you to pay full price for that unavailable pizza and then take a slice or two from somebody else who has also paid full price. The basic concept of fairness (and justice) shows that you exactly get what you pay for.

Apparently, Philippine telecoms like Globe and Smart/PLDT don’t understand the concept of fairness. If you happen to be a subscriber of these companies like me or one of my friends (who provided the screen shot above), you probably have heard about this so-called “fair use” policy. To keep it simple, the “fair use” policy dictates that you are only limited to a certain amount of bandwidth per day (in this example 1 GB). Once you have exhausted that limit, they set your account to a snail-pace-slow connection as to give way for others to experience a faster internet speed. They call this fair. I call this crap! Why do I call this crap? Simple. I signed a contract that guarantees me that for a fixed monthly fee, I get unlimited use at a certain speed (like 1 to 2 Mbps, still sluggish compared to international standards). And all of the sudden, companies like Globe come up with this “fair use” crap that indicates you can only enjoy a sort-of-fast connection up until you consume 1 GB or something like that. Hey! I paid for unlimited use and not for this kind of crap.

Now, this reminds me of my restaurant scene analogy. “Fairness” according to these sneaky Telecom companies is like this: I order a pepperoni pizza for full price and they give me one. Sure, that’s what I expect. Halfway through eating my pizza, they decide to forcibly take my remaining slices and then give it to the next customer, who apparently has also paid for a whole pizza. Is this fairness? This is similar to how communism works: everybody gets the same amount of money whether or not I work harder than the next guy or do nothing at all and receive compensation while the next guy does double duty. It’s the same way how the Philippine government operates: The employed middle-class sweats it out for a certain wage, get taxed at least 30% by the BIR, BIR then decides to pocket some of that money for whims of the politicians (starting from the President downwards) and then hands out a little bit of that money as dole-outs to the lazy majority (armed with a bloated sense of entitlement and limited intelligence).

I work long and hard hours. One reason why I do so is for the benefit of getting a good and reliable internet connection, something that is necessary in the kind of work that I perform. I expect that the money I shell out would guarantee that I get the kind of service I paid for. The “fair use” policy is an injustice to honest, hardworking people who pay money for proper internet services. If Globe, Smart/PLDT, etc. were serious about being fair, they would expand their capacity in a faster rate than they acquire subscribers. It’s not like they are losing any of their profits if they would do such a thing. It’s only proper. With the way that the “fair use” policy goes, it seems to me like Globe and Smart/PLDT do not know any sense of propriety at all.

To reiterate my point, here’s what I think the “fair use” policy is all about:

I urge you all of you to go to this link at Change.Org and sign the petition. Thanks!

The Never-Ending Quest for Tone

Every musician wants to sound excellent, hence we find the never-ending quest for tone. You see it everywhere: at the NAMM and Musik Messe shows, musician’s forums, and music stores. At the dawn of the internet age, everybody can call himself or herself an expert, even without qualification, and thus we see conflicting information about how to achieve great tone as a musician. What is it that can really lead us to achieve that perfect tone? As far as musical instruments are concerned, I have come to the conclusion that there are two general things that lead to great tone: musicianship and craftsmanship.

I once learned from a short video tutorial by guitar giant Steve Vai that great tone starts at your fingertips. I do believe that to be true. My piano teacher, Prof. Richelle Rivera, had always stressed that proper hand positioning, correct wrist motion, and exploiting gravity produce the desired full tone over the piano. This is the reason why seemingly thin-framed pianists like Franz Liszt as well as my teacher (a rather petite woman) could achieve a sound like thunder over the piano even though they are not muscular like John Petrucci. This is one reason why my piano teacher wanted me to practice those wrist motions as I play through pieces over and over again against a constant metronome beat, something that would result in impressive tone and robot-like precision. Guitars and violins also follow the same principle that training results in the best possible tone. Although I can find whatever note I want over a fretless violin fingerboard, I could never bow a violin properly unlike my son who years of training developing his bowing hand. It was only after a number of years of practice on the guitar that I could achieve the kind of tone I wanted on that instrument. This is why they say that every great musician will be able to play great music even on the crappiest of instruments.

Craftsmanship is the second ingredient towards a great tone. You cannot really justify that tone comes out of tonewoods. Even if you give a mediocre luthier excellent materials like hard and flamed maple, ebony, Brazilian rosewood, and cedar, all of those expensive materials will still yield an instrument that sounds like crap. Hand over plywood to an excellent luthier and he will produce a cheap $75 guitar that sounds like $3,000 one. I have a Greg Bennett CD3 that can rival the tone of an expensive Gibson Les Paul. I also have a Korean-made Axtech Stratocaster copy that sounds like a Fender Strat and have tested a Chinese-made Jay Turser guitar modeled after the Fender Thinline Telecaster that can give the original a run for its money. The point is that excellent craftsmanship will always yield an excellent tone.

We can all sum up my ramblings as follows: To acquire excellent tone, practice on your instrument regularly and listen to yourself. Afterwards, when you are about to buy your next guitar, inspect for craftmanship and test it to see whether or not it can provide the best tone you can possibly have.

Early Evening at Cycfi Research, Inc.

Last Saturday, I got invited by the man behind the Cycfi Alpha, Mr. Joel de Guzman, to visit his facility somewhere in Quezon City to discuss ideas and possibilities regarding music as well as the innovative projects he undertakes. Realizing that this was one of those opportunities that I should not miss, I gave Joel my schedule and when I would be able to go visit. Fast forward to around 5:45 p.m. yesterday, I was with my son at the gates of what appeared to be a 21st-century-state-of-the-art residence, complete with tight security, a laboratory, and a properly built and well equipped studio. The first impression I got was he pushed the concept of SoHo to the extreme. The gate was opened and Joel welcomed us into his home office and conference room.

(Mr. Joel de Guzman)

Joel de Guzman is one of those rare, forward-thinking individuals. He is an IT consultant, software developer, musician, instrument maker, and open-source advocate. It’s not off target to say that he’s the local Bob Moog. He strongly believes in give-and-you-shall-receive philosophy so much that he posts his designs and concepts freely on the web which include his hexaphonic pickup design and the carbon-fiber/glass truss rod. He is a living testimony of a person who has been blessed so much because of his belief in giving. One could easily see that the gates and storehouses of heaven have opened up for him because of his unselfish attitude in life.

We talked about a lot of things, mostly exciting and forward-looking ideas for making music. Right there and then, I realized that I was in a presence of a genius. The things we were talking about were mindblowing to say the least. Joel was particular about how he could use waveshaping to explore new timbres and techniques when using the full-range hexaphonic pickup that he has been developing. The math of it all was mind-boggling to me (being a person who has struggled with math) but I guess I had enough knowhow to understand how I could use it. The idea of synthesis using the guitar’s strings and pickups as an oscillator has been expored by a number of other institutions. Companies like EHX have played with the idea by developing the POG and HOG pedals and Moog Music even has its own guitar for that purpose, but Joel made me realize that you could do more than that with his full-range pickup, a parametric EQ, and a waveshaper. He also had the idea of hiring me as his child’s music theory tutor. Sadly, I could not accommodate his request, given the distance I would have to travel to go there and give lessons.

After discussing ideas about how we could work together, Joel gave us a tour of his facility. The Alpha prototype was in the process of a paint job so he was not able to demonstrate how it sounded like. We went into his recording studio and he showed me a Fender Stratocaster with the prototype hex pickup installed. The pickup sounded rich on a Marshall combo that the guitar was plugged into. More than that, the hexaphonic output of his pickup was also connected to his Logic Pro based DAW. How it sounded like was something I have never heard on any other guitar. It was phenomenal! Imagine having individual control over each string having its own excusive output routed to a dedicated channel. Andres Segovia once said that the guitar is an orchestra unto itself. Joel’s hexaphonic pickup pushes that to a whole new level. I was very fortunate enough to have tried it for myself.

(The author smiling like an idiot with Joel’s Fender Strat and the Cycfi Hexaphonic Pickup)

It sounded crazy good with each string having a different position in the sound field starting with the low E string panned hard right and the high E string panned hard left. Since the pickup had a flat frequency response of 20 to 20,000 Hz, you could do all kinds of things with it and a parametric EQ. One of Joel’s intentions in developing this pickup is to disprove the idea that a full-range pickup is brittle sounding. Upon strumming my first chord on his guitar, I realized that he was right. Noodling with Joel’s Strat for a bit made me see all sorts of things that you can do with it. Some of the more basic things I thought I can do with it is faking an acoustic guitar with a solid-body electric (without the need for piezo saddles) and simulate any kind of pickup. That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Applying distortion to it while it is rigged in a hexaphonic manner was very interesting: full triads sounded very nice and very different. Rather than the aggressive high gain sound you usually expect from your typical humbuckers running into Marshall stack, it sounded more like a guitar orchestra. You could actually play your thirds with the gain all the way up to 10 without sounding harsh or dissonant. I could already imagine setting up six amps in a room or hall, surrounding both guitarist and audience, with each string’s signal going through each amp, exuding music like you’ve never heard before. An added bonus is that the pickup is so quiet even with distortion that the only thing a noise gate would do in this instance is to turn down the ambiance from the amp itself. Another thing currently in development is for this pickup to function as a sustainer. Once Cycfi Research finalizes the design of this pickup, I’m very sure that the serious musician will have to rethink about how to make a sound with a guitar. The question of single-coil versus humbucker would not matter with this kind of pickup. Rather than getting a pickup installed to give your guitar a certain kind of character, you can get the exact kind of voicing you want with this hexaphonic pickup by just using EQ.

(Cycfi Research Hexaphonic Pickup Prototype)

To cut the story short, I was very happy and honored to have met Joel. I hope that this will be the start of a mutually beneficial working relationship. More important than that is the fact that I have met a new friend who has the same sort of passion that I have for something new in music, finding ways to make music that’s really progressive.

To find out more about Joel and his projects, visit http://www.cycfi.com.

Billy Joel Was in a Metal Band

I’m pretty sure that hardcore Billy Joel fans already know this, but I only found out about this tidbit early this morning. And so, out of curiosity, I found out about this silly looking band called Attila. It’s an organ and drum duo. Here’s a YouTube clip showing the duo’s fondness for barbarian outfits and tons of meat going hand to hand with some of the silliest lyrics on the planet:

Okay, as far as my limited knowledge goes, three men spring to mind as individuals who properly used a Hammond organ in a heavier rock kind of context: Jon Lord, Keith Emerson, and Rick Wakeman. Billy Joel’s attempt was laudable although it seemed like there was too much processing going on that it sounds like a lot of noise most of the time. Perhaps he should have listened to stuff like “Tarkus” or “Highway Star” to figure out how organ in a heavy rock context should be done. Coupled with those atrocious lyrics, I’m not surprised why Mr. Piano Man called it “psychedelic bullshit”. Attila’s album though is remarkable as a sort of template for keyboard and drum duos. Perhaps Billy Joel in a proto-metal band sounds and looks so kitschy and so bad that it can actually be like a pug or a bulldog and end up being cute.

The Cycfi Alpha

I recently discovered this one-of-a-kind guitar that’s made out of carbon fiber and bamboo, equipped with DiMarzio pickups, soon-to-be equipped with a unique hexaphonic pickup, and impressive switching options that would provide a wide palette of guitar sounds. Oh, before I forget, did I mention that this is 100% Filipino-made? It is the brainchild of IT consultant, guitarist, and luthier Joel de Guzman:

It looks pretty, and (based on the recording I checked out) it sounds awesome too. Just go to http://www.cycfi.com/2011/03/finally/ so you can see what this instrument is all about.

If I could have one of these for myself (it’s pretty obvious now that I want one), it will open up more possibilities for future compositions. I could perhaps ask Mr. de Guzman to build me a custom Cycfi guitar (if I have the money for it), maybe a 7-string model with locking tuners and floating bridge or a guitar with MIDI output (something that would help me transcribe GuitarZoom lessons better). Wait a minute. I think I did ask him via email. Unfortunately, the Cycfi guitar is still in the prototype stage (Alpha) so there are no production models out yet. The instrument looks very promising, a form of innovation you rarely witness in this tropical country called the Philippines.

In a matter of months or years, will the Cycfi Guitar be featured in events like the NAMM Show or Musik Messe. I do hope so. In any case, should the time come that the Cycfi Guitar becomes available in the market, I will get my hands on one. After all, it is that sort of instrument that would implant a nagging thought in your head like, “Play me,” or “Check me out!” Therefore, I can say with confidence that this guitar induces GAS!

On a final note, Mr. de Guzman is looking for a luthier he can work with so that he could kick start the production process. If you know of one, please contact him through or drop a note here.

Some Musings on Education, Creativity, and Music

I have always believed that there is something miserably wrong with education, especially here in the Philippines. Growing up, I had to go to school every day, wear my uniform, pin my ID in a very specific manner, and keep a hairstyle exactly as described in the student handbook for discipline. The one thing that baffled me was why did I have to look like everybody else in order for me to have a good education? Does that exercise in conformity lead to anything beneficial? I have always thought that the answer was no. I have always thought that such rules were of no value and they only contributed to a superficial sense of order and discipline. A prescribed haircut never contributes to knowledge within my head or the life skills that I should possess. Matter of fact was it even encouraged me to rebel, seeing how utterly useless such rules were. Looking at the bigger picture of things, it seemed to me that schools (yes, even private ones with expensive tuition fees) are hell bent on producing “cookies”, mass producing students who eventually become part of a grand industrial assembly line. This cookie-cutter-style education, as Sir Ken Robinson puts it, kills creativity.

I can remember how many times I’ve heard something like I should be this or I should be that. It can become really frustrating because many people try to put you in a mold where you don’t really fit. I’m guessing all would agree that with the exception of art schools, the arts (music included) are of a low hierarchal standing in many educational systems. It’s good that we do have to place good regard for math, the sciences, and language studies, but shouldn’t we put the arts in equal footing? It’s really sad to see in this part of the world where I live that music is lumped together with other arts and physical education into a single subject. It’s just wrong! What happens in the end really is that these schools produce students who have some semblance of athletic ability, standard curriculum knowledge, zero knowledge about and appreciation for art, and almost nothing about music except some form of dancing to it and barely carrying out a tune. It really is sad given that one of the primary ways of learning is through listening, the primary sense that music appeals to. By lumping all of the arts into a single subject called MAPE and then placing it at a category lower than all other subjects, the present education system in the part of the world where I live is indeed killing creativity.

One thing that I have to say, however, is that in order to translate creative ideas into tangible output, discipline still is necessary. I remember my classical piano training in that regard: I would have to say (without any offense to my wonderful piano teacher) that it is the farthest anyone can go from exercising creativity in terms of music. It’s the kind of training that expects you to become as accurate as a MIDI player, and unfortunately I don’t seem to be very good at it. You have to follow the whims of the composer almost 100% of the time. One thing I would appreciate about it, however, is that it builds the skills that are necessary for me to be able to execute or communicate to others my own musical ideas without needing the assistance of a performer. Even something as free-spirited as jazz or the Blues requires knowing how to play a pentatonic scale. While the creative impulse has to be fed, it still requires discipline to execute properly.

The discipline we get out of schools is much appreciated, but if we lose touch of any attempts to become creative then such discipline is worthless study. The discipline and order we get out of education should go hand-in-hand with exercises in creativity, and therefore education shouldn’t be a lopsided affair where we push math, science, and linguistic studies to the top and regard music, dancing, painting, sculpture, etc. as mere extracurricular activities. It is true that you cannot produce creative output without the means to execute it. It is also true that without any semblance of creativity, all those means of execution obtained from rigorous discipline is unusable.

Facebook, Virtual Society, Virtual Insanity, Chaos, Order, George Carlin, the “Paradox of Our Time”, and Ecclesiastes

I am but one of the many who have noticed that Facebook is the host or platform for today’s virtual society. Much of the world interacts of Facebook. I myself am, out of necessity (unfortunately), within the confines of that bandwagon. Almost everyone I know is on Facebook although there are three friends who come to mind who are not on Facebook (a high school buddy and two physicians). As almost everybody is immersed on Facebook, almost all sorts of human activity is (dangerously) represented in it such as music, the arts, work and business, social interaction, leisure, etc. Coupled with the advent of tablet computers and smartphones, everybody has a photo album inside Facebook, making physical photo albums almost obsolete. Heck, I for one have digitized some photos from old collections myself. Since FB now appears to be the platform of global society, I also see things such as rumors, political agendas, and everything else in between. You can even say that it also has become a platform for anarchy: one could now easily express thoughts and ideas (through writing mostly) that people would be ashamed of proclaiming in setting where people have to physically meet other people. Apart from actual physical manifestations of people, animals, things, places, etc., it is as if almost everything is there on Facebook, very much like the town squares of cities worldwide, a virtual space where order and chaos are playing tug-of-war.

Much activity on Facebook operates on writing a post, commenting, “liking”, and sharing. Being mired with human imperfection, we often get too much unverified information out of it. Many of my Facebook “friends” have posted a lot of unverified rumors and statements ranging from the usual gossip and pseudoscience to urban legends. A notable one is the essay “Paradox of Our Time”. I’ve been hearing excerpts of this essay over at 98.7 DZFE for quite a few years when just this morning, It’s a very insightful piece regarding observations we see in society today (double income, less family time, the negative perception of marriage, more technology, less physical human interaction, etc.) I saw a friend of mine share the essay over Facebook, saying that the comedian George Carlin wrote it. My skepticism led to me to find out (outside of Facebook) that it was written by a pastor named Dr. Bob Moorehead. Another thing is that on the old George Carlin website, Mr. Carlin said that the essay is not his writing and he even goes on to call that essay as “bad prose”, “weak philosophy”, and a “sappy load of shit” that he doesn’t even care about. The sad thing is that, like in actual physical society, many of my FB “friends” would fall for it, believing that essay to be George Carlin’s writing. I also remember listening to Jamiroquai’s “Virtual Insanity”, which is apparently Jay Kay’s rant about how messed up the world is.

Such observations have led me to thinking about a number of things. It’s already very obvious about how messed up this world is. Chaos has been increasing day by day. It can be easily observed from a number of things ranging from November 2013 supertyphoon in the Philippines to how relativism and situational ethics have become the primary guiding philosophy of this generation. It’s also odd that in this day and age where knowledge flourishes, a lot of people just choose to accept information rather than think about it. I remember that catch phrase from Ecclesiastes that says, “Meaningless. All of this is meaningless”, or “Vanity. All is vanity.” Most of the time, it does appear to be that way, unless you have some sense of purpose of an absolute guiding philosophy that directs how you conduct the way you live out your life.

If I choose to think of my life as nothing more than an accident, then I could just do whatever the hell I want without regard for consequences. After all, everything and everyone is either an accident or a part of something whole entwined in a complex process that is part of a singularity, that somehow, whatever it is that I choose to do, it will all work out towards becoming one. And so therefore chaos wouldn’t matter much. Why would I care then?

However, I don’t think of life that way. I’d rather believe that I have meaning and purpose in life. Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 reads,

“Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.”

You can call me stupid or crazy but I’d rather believe in meaning than randomness. Let’s say that, for example, I die now and my existence ceases (as naturalists would believe), then I have lost nothing. But if for example I die now and there is something beyond this physical life (yes, I’m talking about God), then I would have gained more. What is there to lose when you believe in something greater than what your five senses can perceive.

Now, what has all of this got to do with the Paradox of Time, Facebook, etc.? Seems like there isn’t a lot but let’s face it. Facebook is now a reflection of what life is like in a messed-up world where everybody calls himself/herself an expert. If you have no solid philosophical framework as the backbone of your mind, then you would be easily led to believe everything you see and hear. We all need some semblance of morality and philosophy to help guide us how we think for ourselves and how we decide what to do with the things we perceive on a day-to-day basis. The philosopher of Ecclesiastes said, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” This is especially evident in the age of information, and Facebook (unfortunately) represents that, a platform that is capable of bombarding us with information, much of which I believe to be useless, and this is why we need something in our minds to filter that.

A Sequencer?

I like looking around music stores and testing their stuff. It’s like the equivalent of a candy shop for the kid in me. It also happens to be the kinds of places where I get all sorts of info regarding the local music scene, and so here’s one story:

There was one time when I was visiting one of my favorite music stores (Lazer Musical Instruments SM Bicutan), and the reliever for the store manager was there. We jammed a bit, talked about music, about performing, etc. and then he asked (I’m just paraphrasing here), “Nagsi-sequencer ka ba?” Now, for my non-Tagalog-speaking friends, the question seems odd. Bear with me for a little while and you’ll get the gist of what the question is all about. I thought that the guy meant, “Do you use a sequencer for live performances?” And so I replied, “Hindi, pero sa bahay may computer ako na ginamit kong sequencer.” (No, but at home I use my computer as a sequencer.) The ignoramus in me never thought that he was referring to a kind of musician.

So, since I’m rather ignorant, I ask what exactly is a sequencer the musician? From what I have deduced from my conversation with that guy, a “sequencer” is a pianist or keyboard player that plays cover songs in lounges or bars with a singer. From what understand now, “sequencer” is Filipino musician slang for lounge pianist or musician (which I am not) that specializes in performing covers of other artists. And so, when I Googled that up, I found terms like “sequencer band” or “sequencer duo”, all search results referring to groups of Filipino musicians. It must be like that because they’re supposed to sequence a musical program or perhaps sequence a musical program with real instruments plus a sequencer (the hardware). I’m not really sure if that’s how would you define “sequencer”.

And so, the lesson learned here is that if you’re going to talk to a Filipino musician, especially the kind that plays in cover bands or groups, and you’re talking about sequencers, clarify first what is his/her definition of the term “sequencer”.

Fourth Day at Grad School

As some of you may or may not know, I still have some knowledge gaps to fill hence my latest endeavor: going back to school. I attend school here:

This is the exterior of the Philippine Women’s University where I attend classes at the School of Music (a department which has been declared by CHED as a center of excellence for music) with the hopes of earning an M.A. in music education. It’s in Manila, not a pretty city by any stretch of the imagination.

The school building is pretty old, but I could imagine that it was a glorious place when it was built. It has this center, open-air courtyard, which I think is a good idea:

Anyway, enough talk about the school building. When I’m by my lonesome self, I tend to eat cheap, hence after my morning Intro to Grad. Studies and Ethnomusicology class I walked a few blocks to Pedro Gil St. and found myself at a street stall for my lunch which looked like this:

Filipinos call this thing “kwek kwek” or “hepalog” (as I’d like to call it). It could take the form of balut (duck embryo with yolk and albumin) or penoy (fertilized duck egg) deep fried in orange batter. With what seemed to be like an unlimited supply of chopped shallots and cucumbers, I topped it off with some chili flakes and some mystery sauce (vinegar based). It certainly looks ugly but I’ve always found this stuff to be delicious. I had three of these plus some water and a soya drink from the nearby convenience store.

Since I still had two hours before my piano class, I practiced in one of the practice rooms at school. Let’s say that the piano I got to use was less than satisfactory:

At the very least I am fortunate enough to be able to practice in one of these.

Anyway, 30 minutes before class, my piano teacher allowed me to practice at the school’s piano lab, which has an excellent upright piano. Too bad I was unable to take a picture of that. The thing that I am very grateful for in my piano class is that my teacher is very patient and I get to learn something new every meeting. I always receive tips on how to improve my technique and build precision. I still find the training to be difficult (having come from a background that relies heavily on improvisation), but I appreciate it very much. The kind of discipline you can get from classical piano training is something that I do think would help me take my skills to higher levels. I do think I am very much too old to become a concert pianist, but at the very least I know I can polish my technique as I attend these piano classes. It’s an effort to bring me closer to gaining the physical skills to bring my musical ideas to life in the best way possible.

Tomorrow is another day where I get to juggle homeschooling my son with schooling myself and working my ass off. I am very much grateful to The LORD for granting me such an opportunity.