SV @ JCube opening

Today is 2nd of April and SV Guitars at JCube is officially opened.

I heard that there is a 10% discount all round. Sadly, I am no longer in Singapore. But I hope this helps those back there!

Sayonara.... Singapore

In 6 hours time, I would be at the airport. In 8 hours time, I would be flying off.
I'm leaving Singapore once again. Maybe after 4 years, I will come back here again.
But for now, Sayonara, Singapore.

The G3 but upsized

Remember the Zoom G3?

Well, Zoom now has an upsized version of the G3, the G5.

This G5 was displayed at Musikmesse. This G5 must have the same "blood" as G3 flowing inside it. I think it is not wrong to say that this is a G3 made into something like a G9.2tt. After all, it has a lot of similar feature like the tube energizer and Z-pedal. (which allows a 4-perimeter control)
I guess this is the new Zoom for 2012. I am kinda looking forward to try it, this and the new BOSS GT-100. G3 didn't disappoint me. In fact, it was quite good so I hope G5 is equally nice.

New music place! (Music Essentials)

Okay.. it is not really new. But I discovered it not long ago. This is the shop.

This is somewhere around Concorde Hotel, which is just beside Istana. There are guitars in the shop but I didn't try them because I was too busy listening to the cello there. I love the sound of cellos. Don't ask me why. I just love it. =D
The shop has a wide variety of music related books like ABRSM, theory books and (for the guitarists) a lot of tab books of various genres. You should check this place out.

Power of Mini (Part 1)

Pandora Mini is really...mini. You can compare the size using the AA battery beside it as a reference. 

Compare to the previous Pandora, this is much smaller. It also runs on a single AA battery. Well, use alkaline batteries so that you don't always have to keep changing them. There is no more 4V adapter jack for Pandora Mini but you can still join it to a computer's USB port as a power source. 

Here's a summary for all its function. There are about 20 different types of amp voicing in this little white box. You also get to choose your 'cabinets' for a wider range of tone. There is a 3-band EQ for you to tweak the sound you want. However, I feel that the range of the EQ is quite limited. So the tone it produces is good enough for home practices but I am not sure if it is really suitable for gig-ing or performances. One of the reason is that Pandora Mini sounds terrible when it is joined to an amp. Trust me, I tried this on many amps and all sounded crappy. It sounds better when plugged into a mixer and blasted through a studio monitor.. OR even with these computer speakers:

It has quite a few drum rhythms in it as well. You now have a built-in metronome to practice your scaling and shredding. Quite neat, eh?

The cool thing about this Pandora Mini is that you can run 7 effects simultaneously. It has all the effects from delay, chorus, reverb, flanger and it even has a smart pitch shifter. Though you can't adjust the blend, the pitch shifting is quite accurate and good. Do take note that pitch shifting only works on single notes. Adjusting all the effects however will require quite a lot of patience since there aren't many buttons on it.

Mini companion!

I have been hunting for a pocket size effect so that I can practice anywhere I want. Well, it's also because I won't have an amp back in Myanmar by the time I go back there and since I never stay there long enough, pocket-sized multi effect is what I need.

So, I have 3 effects in my checklist.

Line6 Pocket POD Express

Korg Pandora Mini

Line 6 Pocket POD

And I've made my choice and this came back home with me!

Kamikaze.... Episode-3

Sometimes, our guitars may end up like this due to unforeseen circumstances:

This is actually my CCA instructor's guitar (SORRY WALTER! =P ). This kind of damage isn't really beyond repair. Some guitar shops are able to fix this. Some provide aesthetic repairs for such damages. I remember that Luther Music provides such services.

Well, it would be the best if we try not to damage our guitar. We should always check the guitar straps to see if it is coming off or not. That is really the cause of the Kamikaze and the 'demise' of the guitar. 

Coming soon: SV @ Jurong

I won't be able to update much about Singapore after 8 more days. So I would love to update as much as I can now.

SV Guitars is opening a new branch at Jurong East! This is the address.

SV Guitars @ JCube Shopping Mall

2 Jurong Central 1 #04-04 Singapore 609731

Here's a few pictures to see how the shop is like (while under renovation)

It... kinda looks like a golf showroom because of the green carpet. XD

I don't think it is ready yet though. Maybe soon. Once it is open, it will be happy days ahead for those staying near Jurong East. You don't need to travel all the way to City Hall or Woodlands! In case you are wondering where JCube Shopping Mall is, CLICK HERE for the street directory.

I am leaving for Bangkok!

Hey everyone!

Sorry I haven't been posting up anything lately. I have been busy meeting up all my friends, preparing my portfolio and audition to get into the school I want. Why do I need portfolio and audition? Well, because I am finally pursuing my dream, to study music!

Art WillemXSM on deviantART

Sadly, in order to do so. I have to go Bangkok to study; it's just too expensive to study in Singapore. I am going to miss Singapore a lot. After all, I've been studying in Singapore for 6-7 years. I am going to miss visiting guitar shops in City Hall and trying out various guitars, talking with all the friendly staffs at the shops there. I am going to miss my band, my friends in Singapore and there will be someone who I will really miss. 

But don't worry. When I am in Bangkok (that's around August), I will be writing again. This time, I would have more things to write about (hopefully). Thank you for reading my blog once again! 

How to play by ear?

I was reading through the local music forum and I see this post by one of the people, asking for tips on how we play by ear. I read through it and I think that the replies given are very useful. I thought it would be nice if I can share with the rest here as well. I've been through this before and had difficulties in trying to transcribe a song. It took a while for me to actually manage to transcribe my 1st song (I remember the song was Haunted).

Anyway, here's the link to read all the replies:

http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/showthread.php/224898-How-to-play-by-ear

OR, you can just read this. I think this guy really explains almost all the crucial thing. 

1. Figure out the key of the song by finding the root chord. This is the chord that every other chord in the song will feel like changing to eventually. Very quickly breeze through all possible root position major chords to find one that "sits" with the song. Pop songs are easy because the root chord is normally very strong, in fact, for this song it's the first chord. And to make it easier, they hum the triad of the chord for you (0:00-0:04). This song is in Eb.

2. Know what are the "normal" chords in that particular key (in music lingo, you're looking for chords diatonic to the key). For brevity, I'll just mention that there are 7 diatonic chords in every key, numerically notated in Roman numerals: the Root or I chord, minor ii, minor iii, IV, V, minor vi, half-diminished vii, back to I. Pop songs don't want to scare listeners with weird chord progressions, so they tend to be easy and stick to every possible permutation of I, IV, V, minor vi. In the case of the song, it's Eb, Ab, Bb, Cm.

3. Find the intervals of the chord changes. Long story short, when Eb changes to Ab, there's a certain "sound" to that space between the two chords. That space will sound different between Eb to Bb, Ab to Bb, Cm to Bb, etc. At first, I can assure you the process is quite laborious; I fondly remember having scrapbooks of notes I took while figuring out chords to a song. Since a guitarist can only really play one chord at a time, it's a process of elimination to find out what the next chord is (assuming you've done Step 2). In time, you'll be able to hear I-IV, I-V movements, then extend that over longer chord changes, like I-IV-vi-V.

4. Then figure out how long each chord lasts (ie does the chord last for one measure, does it play over two? Is there half/double time chord changes?) according to the time signature. Neon Trees isn't Dream Theater, so it's strictly 4/4 for the entire song.

In order to do things like playing by ear and improvise, we do need some knowledge in music theory. There are many guitarists out there who play guitar by relying a lot on Guitar Pros and tabs. I am not saying that they are not helpful resources. You may be able to play a tough song through reading tabs and GP and from that you will definitely gain some skills. But I believe that skill and music knowledge must increase at the same pace. Without any knowledge in music theory, you might find yourself only covering songs that already exist and never try to write your own. In conclusion, when we play guitar, we can't neglect the theory part as it is needed in order for us to go to the next level in our guitar-ing.