A Fairbanks Piano at Club Balai Isabel

My family and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to escape everyday life for a day and a half in a place called Club Balai Isabel. It’s a vacation spot in Talisay, Batangas where we enjoyed a great view of Taal Lake and Volcano, buffet-style meals, and cozy accommodations. Though it was brief, what more can we ask for? It’s a trip sponsored by my wife’s employers that gave us a chance to live like kings and queens for a day. From my own personal end, it provided me with an opportunity to refresh my creative juices and play a fantastic antique piano.

Other than the fact that it was a good opportunity for quality time with my wife and child, I thought of the trip as a way to get inspired to write some new music. Since we decided to bring our own vehicle instead of riding on a hired shuttle service, I was able to bring my nylon-stringed guitar and Zoom H4n recorder, and a laptop, essentially a portable studio ensemble. I was able to record a few musical ideas on the H4n after gaining a fresh new look at the sights, something that I have taken for granted on numerous occasions. However, the afternoon of that day led me to discover this antique piano.

The piano was an upright piano built in 1910 by the Fairbanks Piano Company of Southern California. It had the appearance and feel that you would expect from antique instrument. It was no Yamaha, Steinway or Bechstein but it did have a remarkable character or its own.

As you would have noticed, I am a sucker for pianos and other fine instruments. I just felt the need to play it and see what I can do with it. My wife was initially resistant but then she asked permission on my behalf so that I can play it. As you would see from these videos, I really took advantage of that opportunity.

In order to make my sense of shame and shyness disappear, every time I played on the piano I ordered a drink or two (one of which is for my son). I even managed to record my son playing J.S Bach’s “Bouree in E Minor” on that instrument. I also was able to perform a number of pieces while I was there.

About a few hours before returning to Manila, I was able to record myself playing that wonderful piano, and so here’s how it all turned out as I played for a very small audience consisting of myself, microbes, some flies and perhaps one or two people passing by. I played five pieces all in all: an improvisation, Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude, Debussy’s 1st Arabesque and “Reflets Dans L’Eau” from Images Book I,  and a sketch of my original composition entitled “Waltz on Water”. You can watch and listen to my “live set” below courtesy of the all-powerful YouTube. I’d also like to dedicate this performance to the late Bernabe “Totchie” Galang, my uncle who’d probably have no idea what I’m playing:

01 – Improvisation

02 – “Revolutionary” Etude (Op. 10 No. 12) by Frederic Chopin

03 – “Arabesque No. 1” by Claude Debussy

04 – “Reflets Dans L’Eau” by Claude Debussy

05 – “Waltz on Water” by Mark A. Galang

Would I say that it was a concert-worthy performance? Of course not. I’ll be first to admit that even though I desire such skills, I’m no Lang Lang, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, or Cecile Licad. My excuse would be that I’m more of a composer rather than a concert pianist so I was more of trying to coax out some more creative juices courtesy of that piano rather than trying to please a crowd. After all, you won’t expect me to play pop tunes for solo piano for some people who merely dine and treat pianists as if they were Muzak machines. Anyway, the point is that I really felt happy being able to play a vintage instrument that was still in playable condition, and that doesn’t stop me from trying to act like as if I were a concert pianist, hehehe!

A Tribute to My Uncle Totchie, Gangster Hero of the Streets

Death is a thing that no man can escape. Sooner or later, despite all the advances of science and medicine, regardless of stretching out our telomeres to unimaginable lengths, we would all soon expire. We’ll never be certain how, where, when, what or why should we give up our breath. Should it be feared or should it be accepted? If you ask Mr. Bernabe Galang, he’d probably say that if it’s time, it’s time to accept and embrace it wholeheartedly without fear or remorse.

Two days ago, Bernabe Galang a.k.a. my uncle Totchie died. He was a man that had a rather colorful history that many people may dismiss as nothing worth noting. How he came to be “Totchie” despite being named “Bernabe” is something that his brothers and sisters would only be able to answer properly. In our family, he’s infamous for his character flaws and his vices. In many ways, he could have been stereotyped or pigeonholed as the neighborhood tough guy, a gangster with a bottle or two or Red Horse or Colt 45 malt liquor in each hand. It’s no secret that he mooched off money from my Dad, my Godmother as well as my uncles and aunts. Some may say he may have led a selfish life. However, the opinions of other people may differ.

My Dad describes him as a person with a remarkable sense of honesty and justice. During his stint as a dispatcher in Alabang’s jeepney terminal, the place was safe. Stories have indicated that no pickpocket or mugger left the place unscathed. Such was his reputation as the bane of petty criminals on public transport that you would hear accounts that snatchers would rather give up their stolen goods rather than receive a beating from a 60-year-old former Philippine Constabulary sergeant. Without a doubt he would never hesitate to save your life when you are in trouble.

From an occupational therapist’s perspective, I find his sense of self-discipline remarkable. While he may have his destructive habits, he had enough wit and determination to enable himself to functionally recover from incidences of heart attacks and strokes. Unless you were trained in the rehabilitation or health sciences, you wouldn’t notice he’s had neurological problems in the past. He fared better than the rest of the people I’ve encountered that have had similar medical histories just because he was determined enough to relearn how to do his everyday tasks independently as if he hadn’t had stroke for a number of times (and yes that includes maybe punching a few muggers in the process).

No matter who he was or what sort of legacy he had left, he remains to be loved by the people around him, the family he had left behind. Was he afraid of death? Certainly not. From what I’ve heard yesterday, it seems that at the very least he believed in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Perhaps he wasn’t afraid of giving up his breath because of that. Struggled he may with his vices, I choose to remember him for his redeeming qualities, the positive things I remember about him as a child, the fascinating stories, the one-time 30-second sparring match when I was a teen (an event where I’m pretty sure he was going easy on me), my Dad’s stories about his love-hate relationship with the man. All of these things have led to forming the image of a fascinating man in my mind.

Did he leave this earth in peace as we all would like to believe? We wouldn’t really know, but it wouldn’t be hard to form that image in your head that he’d smile and laugh about all of this as he watches how everything unfolds. We’d all like to believe that perhaps during the last few seconds of his colorful life, he had felt some form of peace and comfort. Someday, I might write a piece of music or a song about him if the inspiration fuels me enough. It drove me enough to write about this and so I wouldn’t doubt if it does happen eventually. One thing for sure is that such a life was enough for me to honor Mr. Bernabe Galang, the gangster hero of the streets, as a person who acted as the spice of life for the Galang family.

When Common Courtesy and Manners Disappear

Communication is supposed to be a two-way thing. You send out a message and expect a reply. It is very odd that in today’s world where people from all over the world can easily communicate using smartphones and the Internet, people can still be as rude as ever. What sort of excuses would people have today for not being able to send a simple reply? Could it really be that technology meant to bridge people together could actually be working to force people apart?

If you’d like me to cite some examples, I have some notable ones to draw from my career as a freelance worker. There were many instances when some clients suddenly become uncommunicative. Apparently, even when things seem to work out nice for them, they wouldn’t bother giving you the dignity of replying to a request, an inquiry, a submission or whatnot. There were times when I have completed a number of successful projects they hosted or sponsored that after paying for the job they suddenly become unresponsive. There also are some of them who, after a couple of jobs and an end-contract request (on oDesk), they suddenly become mute. It’s as if in an instant I had become categorized as spam. After all the niceties of communicating and doing a great job, I suddenly get ignored. Is it so difficult to say that you no longer have any projects for me to work on?

There are those people who make appointments or deals with you but they would not honor them. They may call you up and then ask for a meeting at a specific time and place. You show up, honoring your end of the deal. You wait for hours, send out texts and even make a couple of calls. You may even receive a return call, making you expect that the meeting would push through but no. Four hours later, you lose all hope of that meeting pushing through. In other words, they wouldn’t show up. What’s worse is that some of these people are highly educated or hold high positions of leadership e.g. lawyers, physicians, CEOs, COOs, etc. If such esteemed people behave in such a bad manner, what is there to expect from the rest of society then? In today’s world, what was once common courtesy and decency are as rare as fist-sized diamonds.

So, in such cases, how do I deal with such crass behavior? Do I become aggressive and spew out my hate? No. Such an act won’t go anywhere. In such cases, I believe the best way to handle them is with a certain degree of class and a positive attitude. I may send out a final and polite note the same way I would respond to critics who would act mean towards me. Sarcastic it may seem, I would wish for their well being and success in the future. However, the prospect of doing business with me afterwards is gonna be pretty slim, that is unless they pull through to start honoring their words and commitments they have set.. What’s the worth of all that advanced communication when common courtesy, decency and manners are thrown out of the window? Apparently not much at all.

The Challenges of Writing Sleep Music

Sleep deprivation is a problem in contemporary society. The demands of today often call for long work hours that would stretch the strength and patience of anybody. What’s worse is that instead of being able to rest, some people couldn’t even sleep at all. This is where a variety of interventions come into play. You have the allopathic medical solution (drugs) and alternatives that include sleep music. As a musician, nothing can be more fulfilling than one person finding your music to be helpful. However, the ironic twist to that is making sleep music can be very challenging and tiring.

In my experience, composing sleep music gives me that dose of irony. I write music with the intent of inducing deep sleep yet sometimes I myself get sleep deprived working on it. This has to do with the fact that an 8-minute sleep music track can take around 16 hours to write, perform and record, mix and master. If you are a musician like me who does all of the music production processes, you know what I mean.

Melody is an important aspect of my music, and that’s why I try my best to introduce it in sleep music. However, composing a melody for sleep music is one heck of a challenge. It should be interesting enough to be appreciated yet it should be serene and calming to induce sleep. Put in the fact that prior to recording, I have to practice playing some of the instruments live myself. It can take up to an entire day to do just this.

When I get the chance to record the music, it’s all a mix of playing pre-composed written ideas and improvisation. Another challenge at this stage is to make an arrangement (or in many cases, improvise an arrangement) that would be serene and calming yet remain to be musically interesting.

As much as I love shredding on a guitar or playing runs like Chopin on the piano, you can’t do that in sleep music. At one point, I even tried to pull something out of Debussy’s book, a fast run that sounds smooth. My artist manager didn’t think that would fit in a sleep music context. What I learned here is another challenge to writing sleep music: restraint and control. While it may seem to be natural for players to insert fast runs into a seemingly slow piece of music, it takes a good amount of impulse control to prevent showing off while writing sleep music.

The last challenging thing I can think of at the top of my head when it comes to sleep music is mixing and mastering. These production processes also consume a lot of time. Imagine yourself having to listen to your track for 10 times or more, one segment at a time, in order to mix it. This is the equivalent of reading an embarrassing section of your diary over and over again. Mastering your own tracks is like that too except that you would be listening to two or more complete tracks over and over again to see if all of them fit well in an album. The repeating drone of a binaural beat, which is designed to make your brain shut down for sleep, doesn’t help much either in keeping your concentration up.

Writing sleep music shouldn’t be taken for granted. Just like playing prog, jazz fusion or modern classical music, sleep music has it’s own heavy set of challenges as well. It is good to know that one would easily reap the rewards of doing so.

Anyway, if you’re off to go to bed, check this latest easy sleep music track of mine from a7records:

 

What It Takes to be a Music Transcriber

Music transcribers may be some of the most patient people in the world. Although I cannot say that I have such patience, I believe I have enough that turned me into one. How does one really go about becoming a music transcriber? There are many approaches and certain qualifications to become one.

First off, a music transcriber should have really good knowledge of music theory. A music transcriber needs to be able to interpret what is heard and turn it into standard written notation. As there are many ways of interpreting a piece of music onto paper, a music transcriber should be able to determine the best way of writing down music that would make it easy for any sight-reading musician to accurately reproduce.

I believe that a music transcriber should also be a musician. It’s not just about jotting down notes into Sibelius or Finale. I think that in music transcription, a transcriber should try to play himself or herself the music with his/her instrument of choice. In many cases this could be a piano, but a few people like myself use other instruments like a guitar, sax or any other instrument. Not only does trying to play the music help the transcriber understand what’s happening to the music, it also improves the transcriber’s musical ear. It also happens to be a fun activity too. If you want evidence of that, take a look at serious jazz musicians who have been transcribing the solos of their heroes, a task called “woodshedding”.

A music transcriber should have a good sense of rhythm. Every note in any kind of music follows a certain time frame, hence following that time frame by being able to follow the rhythm is actually one of the first steps of being able to reproduce what is heard into what is written.

Music transcribers should love all kinds of music. It helps to listen to all styles and genres be it classical, jazz, metal, rock, pop, polka or what have you. An open musical mind leads to being able to enjoy the arduous task of music transcription.

The last (and probably the most important) thing allows a person to be a good music transcriber is patience. Imagine having to listen to one song over and over again, bar by bar, part by part, riff by riff, lick by lick, and then writing them all down into paper (or Sibelius/Finale). It is tedious, stressful work that can be very frustrating a lot of times. Like medical and general transcriptionists, music transcribers experience “ear fatigue”. However, the rewards of such diligence are great.

If you happen to possess such qualifications, you could possibly be a music transcriber. It’s also one way of improving your musical skills. Just listen to people like Steve Vai and Franz Liszt, music transcribers themselves, and you would have clues as to what made them who they are as musicians.

Flipbook Assignment 01 Complete

Just yesterday evening, I have finished my music composition and sound design project for Flipbook’s (www,flipbook.asia) initial digital gifts. It was tough but it was a really great experience.

It’s a good thing that I had some assistance from my wife and son, performing voice work for some of the animation cuts. I could never have accomplished the project without my new Zoom H4n, a great handheld recording device that seems to turn any room into a recording booth. A couple of times, I even used a car as a booth with considerably good results.

Anyway, all that’s left for me to do now is wait for feedback from Flipbook. After accomplishing this feat, I now have some time on my hands to give my cats their long-awaited bath sessions, something that they’re not so thrilled about.

A New Beginning

For the very, very few who have been following me and my journey through music, this is now my new web site. You might have visited chromaticism.webs.com or sterilium.tk before, my previous web avenue. From here on, the latest things going on in my career as a composer, sound designer and musician get covered here.

If you are one who has managed to stumble upon this page or have been following me previous, thank you for visiting. I hope you enjoy your stay,

Project from Flipbook Nearing Completion

I just finished 8 out of 10 animation clips meant to become “digital gifts” by Flipbook. I just hope I can complete pending compositions as well as sound design for the last two clips and then proceed to working on a new music transcription assignment courtesy of Music Preparation Services in India. I’m hoping that all would go well as I wake up tomorrow early morning.

While I’m feeling drowsy and ready to pack up for the night, I’m glad I had supper with my wife and son at Sen Lek, great Thai food on a shoestring budget.

Solo Fire: New Lead Guitar Instruction Course by Steve Stine

This is my second big project courtesy of Guitarzoom.com

If you desire to be a lead guitarist, then check out this new guitar instruction course by Steve Stine called Solo Fire. Visit the link below to know more:

http://guitarzoom.com/solofire/

Music transcription in standard notation and guitar tablature format by none other than yours truly. If you want to know the “how” of rock guitar soloing, then this is the best course out there.

Now, if you’re looking for the “what” of rock guitar soloing, check out another course called 96 Rock Licks by Steve Stine. As usual, the tabs for these were my own transcriptions.