tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69332531232108418742024-03-12T21:10:52.450-07:00KJ's American AdventureThe on-going journal of KJ's American Adventure!KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.comBlogger177125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-72653148242870935692011-01-28T19:09:00.000-08:002011-01-28T19:11:56.734-08:00Chapter 177<div style="background-color: transparent; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="internal-source-marker_0.9568897816352546" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">THE FINAL CHAPTER</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Here it is folks. The end of the American Adventure. The last and final Chapter of KJ’s American Adventure. I started this blog with a desire to save these precious memories for both myself and my family and all my friends. This has been yet another huge chapter in my life in every single aspect and boy has it truly been an adventure! </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">So much has happened in so little time - well, not that little actually - but time has a weird way of acting in relevance to how you live your life. I’ve never in my life admitted to myself that time went by quickly simply because I never did fill my time as much as I have in these past period. But now, now that I’ve tasted what it’s like to have so much to do with so little time to do it, I truly feel like time is whizzing by at the speed of a fast whizzing thing. A frisbee. Thrown by dynamite. On a jet plane.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">In this adventure I’ve seen and heard some amazing musicians, met some truly eclectic people, found many loving friends, seen an ever evolving culture, experienced a taste of the world, shared life with both the rich and the poor, and encountered God at every step of the way. It’s incredible just how much your life can change in such a short time. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">But now the journey comes to an end. The American Adventure has run its course and God has a new direction for me. A new season in life. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">This is to all the people who have been in some way or another involved in the great American Adventure. I raise my glass to you, take my hat off to you, and every other form of salutation to you. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">This is KJ, signing off for KJ’s American Adventure.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Thank you for watching. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">-THE END-</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12046.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12046.jpg" width="320" /></a></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12047.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12047.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-18607545079384782882011-01-24T22:31:00.000-08:002011-01-24T22:32:21.877-08:00Chapter YumzzzYou may or may not have seen a not so recent twitter post regarding an awesome argentinian grill by the name of Lala's.<br />
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</div><div>I went there again recently because it was just awesome.</div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12024-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12024-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12025.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="320" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12025.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12026.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12026.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12027.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="320" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12027.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12028.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12028.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12029.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12029.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12030.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12030.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
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</div><div>And here's a bonus shot of what I call a good night. A cold beer, and a good game.</div><div><br />
</div><div><a href="http://s97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/?action=view&current=SDC12022-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img alt="Photobucket" border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC12022-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
</div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-2170999721218006552011-01-20T13:56:00.000-08:002011-01-20T13:56:31.986-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 14Welcome to the final chapter of Tales from MI. It's taken a while to sit down a get this all down in my blog, but I felt it needed to be here as a representation of my fantastic time at MI and all the people I've met.<br />
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We finish up today with the much anticipated Schroeder Ensemble.<br />
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The Schroeder Ensemble is a group class led by the amazing legend that is Carlton Schroeder. The man is a genius. His musical knowledge is so immense it would take years just to pick at it. He's quite the eccentric person as well, as you would expect from musical geniuses.<br />
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In this class we form a band just like the Jazz LPW, but it isn't only for one quarter, it lasts for as long as the band wants to play together. We get a good ol' fashioned jazz standard when we get in there and basically the class is about improvisation around the jazz standard. And we get to trade eights just like good ol' fashioned jazz standards.<br />
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This class is probably the most amount of fun I've ever had and the biggest exposure to actual jazz playing that I've ever got.<br />
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The drum teacher in this class is world famous Chuck Flores, who's played with many of my jazz heroes in his lifetime. He's like 75 years old now and is a wealth of musical knowledge. And he's incredibly funny.<br />
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The man himself, Mr Carlton Schroeder.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11852.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11852.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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And the other champion, Mr Chuck Flores.<br />
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And here's some pics of some of the people I played with in this awesome class.<br />
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Here's to awesome memories of my stint at an awesome music college.<br />
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*Salute*KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-46135026766254227572011-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:002011-01-19T19:42:42.785-08:00Chapter avlntnauvleanvluSo this past weekend I had the opportunity to do something that I absolutely love. I got invited to be part of the worship band for a high school winter camp organized by a church around the area. It's been what, 3 years since my last one, the awesomeness that is TeenStreet? So it was incredible to be doing it again.<br />
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Started off with a 2 and a bit hour drive up the mountains to <a href="http://www.alpinemeadowsretreats.com/">alpine meadows</a>.<br />
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Pics from the road.<br />
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Gas stop..<br />
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As the sun started to set we soon arrived at our destination. A nice little place with cabins inside and a warm hall. Our little worship spot..<br />
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For those wondering, or for those assuming, I was on keys and vocals. Not on the drums this time. But equally as much fun. More tiring actually. Respects to singer musicians who do these kind of things. You know who you are.<br />
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Chillin' in the cabin after the first night.<br />
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My buddy Joe and Spencer's foot.<br />
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The view from outside the cabin in the morning.<br />
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And how often do you get to see a snow filled pool?<br />
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Lastly some pictures of what went on those couple of days.<br />
Lots of music, lots of teaching. Goooooood stuff.<br />
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Our awesome soundman Brian! Soundmen are highly under-appreciated!<br />
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And the band!<br />
From left to right<br />
Joe, Me, Spencer and Patrick.<br />
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And the band blocked by high school pastor Josh.<br />
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Band and soundman Brian!<br />
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It was a great weekend. Lots and lots of fun. I might just update this thing and post a little more stories but until then.<br />
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Ciao.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-905077685543424682011-01-17T21:35:00.000-08:002011-01-17T21:35:06.595-08:00chapter tooth and Chips part 2If you remember part one, awesome. If not, go look it up.<br />
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So the part of my tooth that came off and was replaced has fallen off again. I sorta knew it was going to happen eventually because the dentist didn't do a very good job. So there you go. Kinda sucks.<br />
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Moving on.<br />
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Some really cool updates across the board here. I realised that I had taken some pictures recently and forgot to put them up here so here we go. Starting from Christmas wayyyyyyy back in 2010.<br />
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To answer a famous question that has been asked like a million times...<br />
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Yes. That is a real tree. It needs water. It's alive. And green. And soft. And smells good.<br />
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Isn't it purdy?<br />
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More house decor...<br />
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The daytime isn't especially flattering to the lights eh.. They did look good though.<br />
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All set for CHRISTMAS PARTY! (on the 18th... church christmas party hosted at the house I'm staying in)..<br />
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I didn't take that many pictures... I'm getting less trigger happy with my camera. It's not good.<br />
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END OF CHRISTMAS RELATED POST.<br />
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NEXT.<br />
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Random shot of quadruple B'day celebration with friends.<br />
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More stuff coming up later! Had a great weekend adventure this past weekend. Look forward to that.<br />
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KJ over and out.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-63998180734636315132011-01-13T14:22:00.000-08:002011-01-13T14:22:13.415-08:00Tales from MI - chapter 13We resume the final chapters of Tales from MI. So that I can get them out of the way for some new stuff coming up.<br />
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You've been introduced to all my classes and my teachers so far so now let's move to the extra stuff. Starting off with the Traditional Jazz LPW.<br />
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I participated in this LPW for 5 out of the 6 quarters that I was at MI. It was one of my favourite things to do at MI besides the Schroeder Ensemble. We got charts for traditional jazz arrangements by some fantastic jazz composers and it was great to be able to be part of a band and rehearse on a regular basis each week. And well, it's jazz. I love anything to do with it.<br />
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Each week we'd turn up and play the chart down with guidance from a teacher for each instrument. I got to hang with Keita Akutsu, an MI graduate from some years ago, and perhaps the most laid back teacher in the entire school. He is an amazing player and I also got to see him live at LACMA once.<br />
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There are some other pics with my band(s) and such that I might put up, or you can be a smart one and go look up some links on facebook with me tagged in it, or check out my photobucket albums.<br />
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Also on this chapter we meet the insanity that is Bernie Galane. Look this guy up. He is ridiculous. And I got to meet him for his open counselings. OCs are basically open hours with the instructors for anyone to walk in and ask any kind of questions. It was just amazing to have an insight into this monsters playing skills and technique.<br />
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Next time on TALES FROM MI, we finish up with the great and amazing Schroeder Ensemble! You don't want to miss the grand finale!KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-41264124087179556572011-01-04T08:50:00.000-08:002011-01-04T08:50:14.303-08:00Chapter 04011988 (Part 3)WARNING! INSIDE JOKE!<br />
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Ready?<br />
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1...<br />
2...<br />
3...<br />
4!<br />
<br />
Ling ling a ling a long<br />
ling ling a long<br />
Ling long a ling ling ling longgg!!!<br />
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Ling ling a ling a long<br />
ling ling a ling a long!<br />
ling ling long<br />
LING LING LONG!!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90dXGoGEwYBnipan2h38BjJkrDIElw8thaoqcls5JVq6kM6l9vkrIC8RMkoy7WEgO4Y63Euc-uW28X1B7iCXfByxOoNGn8AgvucwWvb-Lc40rLRwcDFt1qSs3yIZRgKjmgPS4PMpGCg4/s1600/Bday2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90dXGoGEwYBnipan2h38BjJkrDIElw8thaoqcls5JVq6kM6l9vkrIC8RMkoy7WEgO4Y63Euc-uW28X1B7iCXfByxOoNGn8AgvucwWvb-Lc40rLRwcDFt1qSs3yIZRgKjmgPS4PMpGCg4/s400/Bday2.jpg" width="400" /></a>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-30587595587546539842011-01-03T23:59:00.000-08:002011-01-04T00:00:45.253-08:00Chapter 04011988 (Part 2)I strongly suggest you turn up your volume (assuming Vimeo hasn't blocked the song in your region) and blow this up to full screen to enjoy the full effect of it.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>It's my birthday, but there's much more to celebrate than just 23 years of life...</div><div><br />
</div><div><iframe frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/18419144" width="400"></iframe></div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-990780692280324692011-01-03T19:38:00.000-08:002011-01-03T19:38:31.236-08:00Chapter 04011988 (Part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_iQwVz9BnzDrSqPILDXzEclRBi3imvWXnFRhMvcNOcY5jqBEIRt-t-GNBQ7pkzj8Zkgu8B5lcnXesiK7X4ffXARLIhJYI4YD0jJmk-VK1ukjj95F07ruPa_8g26pnvtlWJQxRlnjHA/s1600/Untitleddrawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrs_iQwVz9BnzDrSqPILDXzEclRBi3imvWXnFRhMvcNOcY5jqBEIRt-t-GNBQ7pkzj8Zkgu8B5lcnXesiK7X4ffXARLIhJYI4YD0jJmk-VK1ukjj95F07ruPa_8g26pnvtlWJQxRlnjHA/s640/Untitleddrawing.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-79983122807668784612011-01-03T08:39:00.001-08:002011-01-05T10:45:07.132-08:00Chapareterasdafasdzxx<br />
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Welcome to KJ’s wrap up of the New Year.<br />
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It’s been a while since I’ve said this but 2010 was a GREAT YEAR. It was a fantastic year. And it’s been a while since I’ve been able to reflect on a year and be proud of it.<br />
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Before I got my butt into the States, I was living a very dull and unproductive life. I was teaching music part time for three years almost and doing really nothing in between. The years were filled with much time wasting, much procrastination, failed university applications and a lot more stuff not worth mentioning. I used to wake up each day asking myself - what on earth is God doing in my life right now and what on earth am I doing about it?<br />
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It wasn’t a waste. It was a time of maturing and growing and preparation for the life I would live outside my home, away from my family and into a brand new environment. There were ups and downs and there were highs and lows. That was before this American Adventure began.<br />
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The pursuit for musical excellence and a career in music began after I graduated ‘A’ levels, at the age of 17. Even before I finished that, I had already decided it would be music. It was a strange decision coming from me, the boy who studied sciences and did reasonably well at them. Coming from the person who used to want to build mechanical arms for a living. Then again, I remember clearly my ambition to become Doc Brown from Back to the Future so obviously I know nothing about my own ambitions. I’m 22 now verging on 23 in a couple of days (YIKES!) and that brings my pursuit for this to five and a half years now. Five and a half years and more than half of that time was quite unproductive.<br />
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God’s way of doing things usually never coincides with how we want to do things. I believe that’s because we’re just so far from God sometimes that we don’t want what He wants. And what He wants for us is always the best. If we truly were with Him and know Him, we’d do what He wants because we know He knows best. The journey to where I am today was completely not my choosing. It deviated entirely from the plan I was making. I arrived in a school I had not originally intended to go to, I spent over two years longer than I would’ve liked waiting to get here, and so on and so on.<br />
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But reflecting upon the journey until today, God really does know best. I always imagine what it would be like if I arrived in this country at the age of 19. I think my mom would be completely freaked out with her every waking moment.<br />
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But I deviate. I’m telling the story of 2010, not the story of 2005-2010. It is necessary to give some context though to give you an idea why I say I’ve never really had the chance to call a year ‘great’. Perhaps my idea of ‘some’ is somewhat thwarted. Yet again I digress.<br />
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2010 has been a year of fulfilling. It has been a year of faithfulness. It has been a year of fulfilled promises.<br />
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For the most part the year was taken up by music college. Until September my days were filled with productive classes, training and practice. The tough part came when graduation came closer and closer each and every passing week. The question of ‘what are you going to do next?’ kept coming at me like a pesky insect that I didn’t want to deal with at that point in time. But it was coming and I knew it. The day was coming when I would be out of school and out into the working world.<br />
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So began the exploration of options. I basically did everything within my power and left the rest entirely to God. I sent out applications to another school, not sure whether I was even going to go to school for more. I looked online for jobs, sent out resumes, called phone numbers, met people, did all I can to try and get some kind of work - including my one audition for a cruise ship. I gave it all I got. I gave it my best shot. The rest was literally up to God. I had no idea if any of it would work. I was never sure if I was ever going to make it as a working musician.<br />
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All this has only served to build my faith in Him and trust His faithfulness.<br />
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God has been faithful to provide me a job.<br />
God has been faithful to provide me places to live within my budget.<br />
God has been faithful to provide great friends, great community.<br />
God has been faithful to provide great teachers who’ve helped me mature in my Christian life.<br />
God has been faithful to provide relationships that will last forever.<br />
God has been faithful to literally provide all I need, and then some.<br />
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One entire year, just witnessing the faithfulness of God. Witnessing Him fulfilling His promises that He will take care of me, that He will not forsake me, that He has my best interests at heart, that He is in control of everything and as long as I trust Him, He will be there for me.<br />
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2010 has been also an incredible year of learning. There’s more to college life than learning academics. There’s a lot more to college life outside on your own than learning your profession. You learn to live. As cliche as it sounds, it’s the first real taste of the world, cuddled safely around the normality of study life. There is still a routine, there is still something to do each day, but there are also aspects of life that will continue on forever.<br />
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It’s life. Managing finances, managing meals, managing time, managing resources, balancing social life with work or study, learning to live in close proximity with people as neighbours, learning tolerance, learning how to show grace - learning how to live life on your own. A taste of what life will be like once we’re all grown up. Learning how our parents do it.<br />
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It’s also been an incredible year of learning about Christ. I’ve been so blessed to have had great mentors in my life every step of the way. God has always provided men of wisdom and men of faith and men of love around me to teach me and show me what it means to be a Christian and what it means to live by faith and what it means to live for Jesus.<br />
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I’d highlight some awesome events during the year, but honestly there are quite too many that I can’t keep track of them all. That’s what twitter is for I suppose. I wish there were some better way of going through my old tweets.<br />
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2011 - Here I come. A brand new adventure.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-58384982648425055922010-12-31T08:23:00.000-08:002011-01-03T20:15:53.101-08:00Chapter appyhay ewnay earyayToday is new year's eve. And I thought I'd show you something 'interesting'.<br />
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Instead of posting on twitter the random boring stuff that happens today, I will show you just how uninteresting my new year's eve can be by posting a regular update on this blog post.<br />
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Here we go.<br />
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It's now 8:22. Had a short brief chat with family members back home when I woke up.<br />
Best quote<br />
"Why can hear children?"<br />
"Because there is a children."<br />
Made coffee. Sat down. Typed this.<br />
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Stay tuned for more gripping events as they happen.<br />
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8:32 - second cup of coffee. Let's go wild!<br />
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8:54 - playing some music on itunes. Darrell Evans' version of trading my sorrows is my favourite. There are some songs you grow up with that you will never let go. This is one of them.<br />
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9:06 - writing a year end essay. Pulitzer for sure. Or whatever award you give to essays. Someone needs to pay me to write these things. Anyone? Anyone?<br />
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9:19 - Things are going crazy! It's time to up the ante and wash some dishes!<br />
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10:27 - Now the real fun begins. Things are really hotting up and getting crazy here on New Year's Eve. Now I'm going to go help some people move house! Isn't that awesome! Let's DO THIS!<br />
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11:33 - Haha! Friend brought a drink shaker for tonight's entertainment! Sweet.<br />
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14:00 - Pizza lunch time! Crazy stuff!<br />
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15:27 - Done and done. Tired. Time to go pick up 'tonight's entertainment'.<br />
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16:15 - Look at the queue. Everyone at the store with their selected poison for the night. Me? A bottle of olives, some gin, and some dry vermouth. Yums.<br />
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16:25 - Home at last. Rest up before the 'big party'.<br />
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16:57 - SWEEEEET!!! My I Fight Dragons T-shirt arrived in the mail. <a href="http://store.ifightdragons.com/2010/04/22/umbrella-t-shirt/">http://store.ifightdragons.com/2010/04/22/umbrella-t-shirt/</a><br />
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17:10 - Oh MY GOODNESS! Things just got incredibly crazy here at the HUGE PARTY that I'm having with myself. First beer of the evening! Hoowah!<br />
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17:14 - Oh no, oh no! Things are getting really wild. Some friends from around the world just showed up on skype! This can only mean one thing! - STARCRAFT! See you on the other side of the match.<br />
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17:42 - Game 1 over! Looks like some people need to take a breakfast break. Yeap that's right. Malaysian friend decided to not eat breakfast and play first. Funny.<br />
Oh and by the way .... VICTORY! Yay!<br />
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18:06 - woah the epitome of fun - watching videos on youtube. I am just that awesome. This party is going wild.<br />
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18:10 - Game 2 of international Starcraft begins!<br />
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18:39 - Game 2 over! Victory! Totally won by my allies. Starcraft done. Friend in the UK needs to sleep. Fun times!<br />
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18:42 - Time to bring out the BIG GUN in entertainment and super crazy fun time. Happy awesome power! I'm going to play some digital legos now. LEGO DIGITAL DESIGNER!<br />
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19:39 - Finished dinner. Home made kuay teow soup. Time to build more legos before the first martinis are served.<br />
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20:14 - The first martinis are made. Time to get crazy!<br />
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20:49 - Martini number 2! Time to shake things up and watch some basketball!<br />
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21:05 - Wow, things just got even more exciting! Now we're swapping in and out between the basketball game and the movie Zodiac. HAVE YOU HAD THIS MUCH CRAZY FUN IN YOUR LIFE?<br />
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22:12 - Martini 3. I need gloves to shake my martinis in this cold weather. Still watching Zodiac.<br />
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22:28 - I'ma have some CHIPS and DIP.<br />
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00:10 - oh .look it's new years. I dozed off watching ZOdiac drinking martinis. There's fireworks going off everywhere.<br />
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Happy new year.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-24137229603175864392010-12-24T00:11:00.000-08:002010-12-24T00:11:22.232-08:00Chapter Eve EveYet another satisfying night of moving stuff around.<br />
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It's Christmas Eve today (exactly 5 minutes past midnight) and I just spend the eve of the Eve doing exactly what I did last year. Points if you remember it from last year when I blogged about it.<br />
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Yes, we have Christmas Eve service at a church building and right before it, on the Eve eve, they run a toy drive for the neighbourhood families where they basically give out free toys for Christmas. So because we need to use the space on the Eve, we spend the Eve eve clearing up the area and packing away stuff.<br />
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It's no big thing really. Just a bunch of people from the church gathering together to perform some required labour. No big deal, nothing fancy. Nothing glamourous.<br />
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Yet there is a real joy in doing something tangible like this. Sure it's all good to be doing service in many ways but to me there's something about doing manual labour that's just extra satisfying. The fact that the group of us will probably receive no attention for it (except the far away attention that I'll get from telling you all about it here) and we'll get no real credit or whatsoever for doing it brings more joy to it because all glory goes to God.<br />
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Service in secret. Service with joy. Service like no other.<br />
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Merry Christmas Eve eve, and Merry Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas tomorrow.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-36948878282115862722010-12-18T15:52:00.000-08:002010-12-18T15:52:34.046-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 12Final bits of Level 3 before we move on to the miscellaneous classes and stuff! Lots more to get through!<div><br />
</div><div>So we have the Latin class in level 3. Taught by Latin supremo Chuck Silverman.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I actually heard of Chuck way back when I was visiting the Drummerworld.com forums. And then when I got over here and saw him on the list of instructors I was really stoked about it. I signed up for almost all the classes he was teaching and eventually when I got to the final 6 months of my MI stint, I got to take his Latin drumming class.</div><div><br />
</div><div>The class covered drumset styles inspired by Brazilian rhythms and Cuban rhythms. Everything from samba to bossa to cha-cha to songo... I learned as many of them as possible. A whole bunch of them really helped out in my audition so this was definitely one of the most informative classes.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Also, Chuck is a supremo when it comes to latin rhythms. He's your typical white canadian man, but he's fallen so deeply in love with these rhythms that he's spent so much time pursuing it and learning it and playing it. He's been to all these places and seen the actual traditional rhythms like Cuba and Brazil. He's managed to encompass all these rhythms in his own playing. This is great motivation for guys like us who aren't in any way brazilian or Cuban. </div><div><br />
</div><div>I also took private lessons with Chuck for a semester and it was great. Lots of chart reading and tough songs and rhythms to play. Really good real world training.</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11855.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11855.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
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</div><div>I had a second private lesson for my last semester there. Taught by jazz extraordinaire Jason Harnell. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Jason was such a wealth of knowledge regarding jazz music. He's also such an awesome player with such great finesse it was such a joy to have him listen to my playing and offer constructive criticism. I had the opportunity to watch him live at the Baked Potato and it was just incredible seeing all the skills we talked about translated onto the drum kit.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I also bought a couple of his CDs. Good stuff.</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11858.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11858.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
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</div><div>Stay tuned for the next few episodes as we wrap up the electives and LPWs and the fantastic Schroeder Ensemble!</div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-56041768741483057112010-12-16T13:43:00.000-08:002010-12-16T13:43:18.106-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 11Next up is another real treat. From the next class - Ensemble playing technique - taught by none other than the legendary Ralph Razze.<br />
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THE RALPH RAZZE!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11874.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11874.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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You have no idea how much of an honor it is to see and hear this man on the drums. Big band playing legend, sessions legend.. LEGEND.<br />
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While the class itself wasn't too taxing - we basically learned how to interpret charts in a real life setting (which by the way really helped when it came to my cruise audition) - and I breezed through most of the class, it was incredible to witness Ralph blasting his way through these charts.<br />
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Also incredible was the fact that Ralph is an incredible library of amazing music. He's worked on GI JOE commercials - which I HAVE THE TRACKS FOR NOW - and a lot of like cool 80's big band funk and all sorts of stuff. He's just worked on so much stuff and in his class we got a taste of all the stuff he's worked on in the many years.<br />
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Equally mind blowing was our next level 3 class - Odd meter - taught by another legend, Ed Roscetti.<br />
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Composer extraodinaire, innovative legend, world music genius and perhaps one of the greatest educators I've ever met. Together there with the live band we played in class. Ed is an incredible educator. His approach to learning and teaching is just so thorough and effective it makes it hard to believe that few others teach the same way.<br />
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I also did get the chance to see Ed live several times and one of the greatest encouragements is that he IS what he talks. To use a cruddy cliche - he talks the talk and walks the walk. Everything I saw him teach and talk about I also saw him use in a live setting. There are no tricks, no special moves, no hidden secrets. He teaches the way he plays and his own approach to becoming good in what he does. It's incredible.<br />
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That and he reduces the notion of playing in weird odd numbers into a super systematic method of learning.<br />
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And of course the best part is that he's so vocal with his teaching. A trait I think all drummers should have. He sings beats and rhythms and everything with his mouth. He then plays it with his body. He encompasses the instrument so well.<br />
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Great two classes. Awesome experience. Tune in for more!KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-91801306705208083372010-12-14T17:22:00.000-08:002010-12-14T17:22:55.908-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 10Moving on now to LEVEL 3! Why was level 2 so short, I hear you ask. Well the rest of the classes were the same as Level 1, just a lot harder. There still was the ever testing RSW class and reading and technique. So now we move on to LEVEL 3!<div><br />
</div><div>And we kick it off with one of my favourite classes - Studio Drums. </div><div><br />
</div><div>In here we got to sit in the recording lab and play to a professional track and record drums over that. And then force ourselves to sit through the horror of our own ugly mistakes. We crossed several genres, but stuck around mostly pop, rock and a little funky stuff. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Some weeks were pretty good and some were just terrible. It was an incredible learning experience though. I've never been in the studio before nor have I even recorded myself prior to coming to MI. So this was quite a refreshing and educating experience. Nothing teaches better than the recorder. And nothing motivates more than listening to myself. I see how crappy I am, but I also notice some of the awesome stuff I manage to do.</div><div><br />
</div><div>My final from the class is in an earlier post titled Chapter Z26. Go check it out for a sample of what goes on in this class.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I did have immense fun in there. Overall one of the best classes at MI and it really helped prepare for future studio recordings should I ever do any. </div><div><br />
</div><div>And our teacher, Mr Charlie Waymire, was always on the ball. He was incredibly keen eyed (and eared) in spotting my errors and telling me how to correct them. And he's also one of the funniest dudes at school. Good stuff. And where else can you go except music college where your teachers have mohawks and join in the photograph fun like this?</div><div><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11875.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11875.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br />
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</div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-16990813487397633192010-12-13T15:54:00.000-08:002010-12-13T15:54:54.077-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 9More tales from MI!<br />
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Now we go into our next LEVEL 2 class - contemporary drum concepts, or better known back in the day as ROCK DRUMS.<br />
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This is the class where I learn pretty much just how bad I am at playing rock. I'm terrible at it. My volume levels are all jacked and I have terrible power behind my strokes. I hit the toms like a sissy and I pedal my bass like I'm stepping on a hamster. Woah, scary analogy.<br />
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Yes. Rock drums. And a whole bunch of stuff that came with it too. We had a double pedal portion of the class too - you can see my failed attempts at it on my youtube page. Double bass disaster. Pretty much sums up just how much I enjoyed that portion of class.<br />
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We did also have some crazy paradiddle permutations and linear patterns and stuff that were really cool though. And some great triplet-y fill ideas and all sorts of other really cool bits in class. And this was the other class that we got to play with a live band every week. I'm not particularly a fan of playing in that class though because quite frankly I did stink at playing rock.<br />
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But all that changed after going to MI. Now I can back beat like a caveman with a club and I'm pretty darn sure I'm capable of smacking the bass drum straight through. And then some. It's not just about the volume though - it's about the balance of sound.<br />
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And none of it would be possible without the ever awesome super cool Scott Wittenberg.<br />
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More tales from MI coming up!KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-25121680728762293632010-12-09T17:17:00.000-08:002010-12-09T17:17:11.401-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 8More classes to talk about. Entering the second batch of classes after 6 months, also known as LEVEL 2 (yeah like a character level up you know? add more skills and attributes and pwn more enemies.. I'm getting off topic here), we now have a couple of new classes.<br />
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First one is Jazz. Now I've been a jazz fanatic pretty much all my growing up life. I know it's weird for a 10 year old to get into jazz and fall in love with it but I did and I've always loved listening to it. I thought myself pretty darn good at it already and certainly thought I'd ace the class. It was fun to be able to get to play with a live band each class. Basically we got to play a chorus of a standard, have some solos, and then trade 4's or 8's with the soloists. Pretty standard stuff.<br />
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It did throw me off guard right away. I've never had the opportunity to play jazz with a live trio before. I've only ever played with tracks that I owned so it was a new experience. I fuddled it up quite a bit here and there.<br />
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But then I got myself a new private instructor for my next stint and he was, as they call him, the grease monkey. None other than Jazz guru Tim McIntyre. T-Mac, as he is also known as, also taught the jazz class and so I got a pretty good dose of jazz lessons.<br />
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While I may have had the skills and coordination to pull off most of the exercises he gave me, I didn't have the right idea about the sound of jazz. We spent lots of time playing around with the idea of making the thing sound right and having the right feel. And it was a lot of revamping on my part and putting my mind in the right place.<br />
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Also spent a lot of time listening to all sorts of material on youtube and from his personal collection. Great stuff.<br />
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It's because of this and my affinity with jazz that I started to become the jazz monkey in my batch. Me and a few other guys started nailing it down pretty good. And that helped in the Schroeder ensemble. More on that later.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11870.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11870.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-83007130973481013632010-12-07T15:22:00.000-08:002010-12-07T15:22:06.211-08:00Tales from MI - Chapter 7Continuing my catalogue of my MI experience - very delayed I know.<br />
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So you've seen technique with rob carson, and now we move on.<br />
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We're only on day 3 to be honest. More RSW and more reading.. and not much else. I'll cover my electives and other stuff later.<br />
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So on to day 4. New class is music minus one. It's a simple class. We're given a bunch of tracks and we're to play along to them with some lead sheet charts. Stuff is open for interpretation and there are a couple of hits to make and stuff. It's more a class to just have fun and play along to minus one tracks.<br />
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Looking back at it now, it was good training for my audition because sure enough I had to play to some pre recorded tracks. It's tough at first lining up perfectly with the track and carefully playing in time and catching every thing. Gary Hess takes this class once again and his approach is always the most simple and effective. In retrospect this was perhaps a crucial class for me to score that audition. Learning how to do things the easy way and making sure they worked was certainly a big help when I had to learn 3 charts on the fly in less than an hour.<br />
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We had some fun in this class and some crazy ideas among students. Also the tracks are mine to keep and they are actually pretty darn good ones too. Apparently John Pattitucci recorded the bass on some of them. Pro level minus one tracks? Any day.<br />
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Day 5 wraps up with the programming bit of Digital Drumming with Donny Gruendler. Here we learned how to program backing tracks and all sorts of stuff to do with technology - the part I'm actually very unfamiliar about. Protools, Reason, Ableton etc.. all the good stuff.<br />
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And that's Level 1 for ya. Next we move on to the classes that added on as the months went by. Stay tuned.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-53241271711811859572010-11-29T09:42:00.001-08:002010-11-29T09:42:35.641-08:00PRAISE THE LORD!JOB LANDED!!!!!<br />
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CONFIRMED!<br />
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WUAHAHAHAHHA!!!!<br />
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POP THE CHAMPAGNE!KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-32532897767152789652010-11-23T16:52:00.000-08:002010-11-23T16:52:17.597-08:00Chapter waaaaaaaSo long no update?!!<br />
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Such is my life at the moment - nothing happening. So sad. No money go anywhere. No vehicle go anywhere. No motivation to go anywhere.<br />
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No job. No work.<br />
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Very bored.<br />
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But fear not!<br />
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I just had a very interesting audition experience just this last Monday.<br />
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It was an audition over the phone. Yeah, you read that right. Audition over the phone for a company called proship entertainment. Yep, KJ is applying for more cruise gigs because they are just awesome jobs.<br />
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So before we get to the juicy details that only relatives can possibly care about - like how it went and when I'll hear back from them and whether I'll get the job - let's go into the juicy details that I am obviously good at describing. The audition itself.<br />
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It was a very weird experience. I've never done any auditions over the phone, heck I've barely done any auditions live but I do know what it's like to play stuff for people on the spot, but in the same room with a tangible human. I did that all the time at school.<br />
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But over the phone? Not even skype? Not even a video conference? On my cell phone?<br />
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You'd think it'd be impossible, but they seem to have the process down very good.<br />
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So the guy calls me at ten in the morning and directs me to a website where I download a whole bunch of mp3's for the audition later. I give all of them a quick listen, my heart thumping like mad and my fingers cold with nervousness, I say out loud to myself 'Hoowah, let's do this' in my best <s>Arnold Shwasz... shcawsz... schwayzsy... shwazszrenger... </s> Terminator voice and hop on my bike and get down to the studio.<br />
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Oh wait, I forgot to mention I also had charts to work on. I had 3 songs charted out and these weren't your basic lead sheet charts. Oh no, they tried to confuse me as best as they could with their weird phrase lengths and changing beats and weird broadway 2 beat boomchak 'botak' groove charts. Now I didn't have a printer handy at all. Thankfully there was a printing shop right next to the studio I was headed to.<br />
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25 cents a print.<br />
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WHAT!!! You're insane lady!<br />
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Considering that a printer costs a lot more than that, I decided to pay quietly for my charts. A quick glance at them and a swear word later I was in the studio, panicking.<br />
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Wait... No I wasn't. That's because the stupid studio guys opened LATE! ARGH. I lost 15 minutes of precious prep time. I told them ten in the morning. And they showed up at 10:30. Only served to feed my panic.<br />
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So there I was frantically trying to set everything up. It did serve well that I used that very same studio the night before and everything was already in place.<br />
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I had an hour between the first call at ten before the guy would call again for the audition. Half an hour of that prep time had gone. I started working through the charts. Initial reaction was 'Oh crap these are HARD!!! ARGHHH!'<br />
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Thankfully, I've proven to be a systematic learner. The more I played the more I got.<br />
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11 o'clock. RINGGGG!!<br />
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Here we go.<br />
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So the guy runs me through the process and I put down the phone, not hang up mind you, and sit it right next to my drums, put the tracks on and here we go.<br />
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Part 1 of the audition required me to play a total of 8 different styles like swing, funk, rock, samba, rhumba, broadway, etc (strangely no blues) and some brush work. MI training came in handy immediately. I racked my knowledge of latin styles and pulled out my grooves to perfection. And it totally helped that I spent the last six months at school working on my brush technique. I was the 'brush dude' in class. Nobody saw me without my brushes for that period of time.<br />
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SCORE!<br />
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Then came the terrifying charts. But then the audition-er told me something that totally calmed me down - they weren't going to cut me off if I messed up. I got two chances, and they will be impressed with the ability to fix stuff and improve quickly.<br />
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Luckily for me, I am a master at fixing my errors off the bat. All that playing in LPW's in school had totally prepped me for that. I used to play once, get my teacher's advice on what was crap and immediately sound like a pro the second time I played it. And this was no exception.<br />
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I CAN DO THIS (Terminator voice)<br />
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The whole idea of doing it over the phone made it seem more awkward than it needed to be. But I got through it nonetheless. I video-d the whole thing and packed it up and sent it off to them over the internet.<br />
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It took almost an hour to get through all the material and then I had some extra stuff to do for the video. But at the end of that, I was totally exhausted. And hungry.<br />
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I went home, ate, and totally crashed the whole afternoon. Maybe my nerves had tired me out. But still, it was incredibly exhausting.<br />
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So there you go. That was my audition.<br />
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I've gotten two calls back so far to check up on some details and initial reports say I did well in the audition.<br />
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The kind lady at proship called me today to ask if I would be interested in a six month contract on the Celebrity Millennium. I said yes without a second thought.<br />
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Go look that ship up. If I get that job, I start in march. Unless they whip up something earlier for me.<br />
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It's not confirmed yet, but it does look very hopeful. Keep praying. Hard.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-41645060960704644172010-11-06T16:41:00.000-07:002010-11-07T00:07:14.899-07:00Chapter 79.625 - You're never too far from home part 5To the peeps around the world - You are NEVER too far from home.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Post tasting observation</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Product is made in Colombia. Wow.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- Taste much less sweet than Malaysian version. Without sugar, 5 table spoons in one cup is still not sweet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">- More chocolatey? Not by much.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">What's to be said? Buatan Malaysia version better. Long live Milo Ais at the mamak.</div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-76556942893360361072010-11-05T15:09:00.000-07:002010-11-05T15:11:53.333-07:00Tales from MI - Chapter 6.5Continued from the previous post regarding my playing technique class.<br />
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Rob's finals have always been some of the most challenging. They aren't hard, they just require the most amount of rehearsal. He often includes snare drum pieces and exercises that include all sorts of rudiments, dynamics and tempos.<br />
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The very last final was a particularly tough challenge. Here's my original piece that we had to write for the final. Take a look at it and see if you dare play it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11893.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11893.jpg" width="479" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">So there you are. I wrote something regarding the title some time ago so if you didn't read that story, here it is.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ji2u4lNjH2_tJr2E5nqVks9NOBrpj4uR9IiNY8JDZig/edit?hl=en">Diddles and Mangoes</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And now comes the kicker - me actually playing the damn thing. There was a small mistake in the middle section where I stopped and restarted, but for the most part, it sounded pretty good.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here's the insanity.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KYFfgoVchvw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KYFfgoVchvw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There you go. That's the culmination of 18 months of intense physical training and coordination. Questions regarding the piece? Anyone want to attempt it?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I didn't think so.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Till the next part.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-78960725379343661512010-10-26T01:55:00.000-07:002010-10-26T01:55:17.663-07:00Chapter 300309922Random update. I know I haven't posted stuff in a while. To be honest, there hasn't been much going on except that I'm still hunting for work. It's been more than a month now and still nothing develops. New York has yet to reply me as well so nothing on the American Adventure volume 2 has opened up.<br />
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As for the 'Tales from MI' series that I've been posting, I've been delaying that simply because I keep forgetting to upload my picture and video that I need for the next update. I want to keep it chronological so it'll wait until the day I actually remember to put that darn picture on my mac.<br />
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Unless I decide to take an Adventure somewhere. Which I think I will. Stay tuned for that. Apparently there's an awesome free holiday destination somewhere in LA that I am yet to visit. So I might just go for it. We'll see about that.<br />
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Till the next time...KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-48960279356188575962010-10-07T00:45:00.000-07:002010-10-07T00:45:19.268-07:00Tales from MI - Chapter 6Just to clear things up, I'm not attempting to write a day by day account of my life at MI. Even I, who's certainly capable of writing nonsense to that amount, can not account for every single day spent at MI. What I am doing is taking a class by class approach. To make it systematic so that I don't glance over classes I'm going through them in the chronological order in which I took them. This brings us to the final class of day 2 - Playing Technique.<br />
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I was looking forward to this class a lot upon coming to MI. The one thing I was never sure about when I taught myself was my technique. I'd escaped any form of drumming injury in my 10 years of playing experience and had not come across anything which I couldn't eventually learn in my rudimental playing. For the drum-uneducated, rudiments are like drumming scales. They are fundamental exercises which every drummer does to make sure his hands are in check and that he can play any kind of stroke required on the drums.<br />
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Having never confronted my own technique and cross examining it with someone who actually knows what their doing, I've always feared that my technique harboured some bad habits which needed to be fixed. As such I was looking forward to a class that would actually make sure that my technique was up to par with what was required of me as a drummer.<br />
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It of course helps that the class is taught by 3 time world champion super snare drummer Rob Carson.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11857.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/SDC11857.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Rob teaches in a mixture of intense physical training, zen mastery and mental preparation. I'm not all for the zen mastery that envelopes some of his talks but he doesn't force it on anyone. It's his own little way of approach and it's cool. But man is he a monster for speed and hand condition. His curriculum contains hand exercises that are designed to just screw with your physical capabilities and they push the limits of what the hands can do. They build around all the drum rudiments and require control, speed, power, and everything else a drummer's hands need to do.<br />
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I managed to make my way through his 18 months crash course relatively unscarred. Well, scarred in a good way - my hands are no longer the same ones that I had when I left but are now these machines that are capable of things I only dreamed of doing.<br />
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It's an intense class. And it requires a lot of ritualistic practice. It takes up a huge bulk of my time in the labs - at least an hour every single day - and it's the most difficult thing about practicing drums. It's exactly like scales. It's tedious and uninspiring, but necessary for advancement. I'm glad I muscled through it.<br />
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And those DC 10s.. will never forget those. The insane heavy weapons for the technique war that is Rob's class.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/IMG_0397.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l225/kengjoon/IMG_0397.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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A picture I posted a year ago and more. Just a reminder of how epic the size of these things are.<br />
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There's more that I can say about this class and that'll be next chapter. Plus you'll get to see a transcription and a video of my solo piece for my final - the one and only 'I SQUEEZE YOUR MANGOES'.<br />
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Laterszszzzzsss.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6933253123210841874.post-78210208080773604312010-10-04T23:08:00.000-07:002010-10-04T23:08:06.450-07:00Tales from MI - Chapter 5The Hess part 2.<br />
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So you've met gary in our previous chapter. He wounded up as my private instructor for my first 6 months too. I'm incredibly grateful for that. Gary's not the man with a million chops, but he's got everything he's got so solid you couldn't move it with a nuclear bomb.<br />
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And that helped me a lot because that's exactly what I needed - some good solid foundational stuff to build on. I've never had a teacher before coming to MI and so none of my skills were properly grounded. And Gary fixed that up real quick. It took him no less than 5 minutes into our first lesson to give me something that completely messed with the way I was positioned behind the kit. He slapped a little 16th note funk chart in front of me that totally screwed up my hands and how I was hitting the drums, immediately requiring a fix.<br />
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Best part about working with Gary was the fun big bang charts we did in the second quarter. I've never played to jazz charts before in my life, let alone big band stuff so it was incredibly fun. Coupled with his reading class, I started to get the hang of reading charts right off the bat and now I can do it pretty easily. Setting up figures and stuff is a lot of fun when you've got a whole brass section behind you and you nail those notes right on the head.<br />
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I also had Gary for my music minus one class.. but that's day four. We'll get there when we get there. We're in day 2 and that's no where near getting done.<br />
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Stay tuned for the next chapter - Playing technique with 3 time world champion snare drum master, Rob Carson.KJ Wonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05104271889425370142noreply@blogger.com0