Rant: How To Make a Great Night of Music a Complete Turn-off

I played at Blujaz cafe for an adhoc band put together to support Ivni, a blind drummer (Yes! Blind! He has trumped all other drummers I know) who's a drum student at Ben Lee's drum school.

It was meant to be a great night of music, where students showcase what they've learnt in school. Our band was meant to take stage at 8.45pm--as of writing, there's a band that's been playing since and it's now 9.21pm. I'm not one to complain, but I really felt cheesed off by these young punks. They misunderstood the intention of the gig and made the show about them. Seriously? A night dedicated to music students, giving them the opportunity to experience a live gig, and you pull off this stunt?

"Hi, we're _________ and we're here to play some music for you tonight. Thanks for coming down to support us!"

No. We're not here to support you. If you had any integrity, you would have said something more along the lines of:

"Hi, we're _______ and our drummer ________ is actually learning drums from the school, we're here to support her. Let's encourage ________ !"

I believe the appropriate Singlish term for what I witnessed with this band is buay pai sei. How shameless can a band of young punks get? Let's see:

1. You certainly took your time setting up. Oh yeah, I was counting. You didn't need to bring your three electric guitars, massive pedalboards, your MIDI-controlled keyboard and sound module. Could you not have simplified the setup for this gig, especially since there were many students waiting their turn to perform? Can't you tweak the existing setup that's there?
2. You were all fancy-smancy with working the crowd. I get it that you're a young band. I get it that gigging at legit places is hard to come by. But you didn't have to do the long introductions, regale us with the story of how your band met, and give special thanks to your parents/girlfriends/significant others/cats/dogs/hamsters for inspiring you.
3. And when you finished your jaw-dropping performance (again, I don't normally bash bands or other musicians, but you guys were not as fancy as you made yourselves out to be), you took your time tearing down your equipment. Hurry up!

By the time we took the stage, it was nearly 9.40pm. This band played something like 5 long songs complete with dual-guitar solos and keyboard solos.

Wah lau. Sibei puay sai lei you all! Come back when you're old enough to see that performing isn't all about you all the time.

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At Wong Chiew

I was standing at the front of the counter, waiting for someone to take notice that I haven't placed my order. A server came up to me after 5 minutes.

Server: Are you here to order?

Me: Oh me? Of course not, I'm here to admire the fine art of beheading a duck.

Fret not, I didn't actually say that, but I very nearly did, especially after her condescending tone.

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Tech Noob Moments

I don't know what happened. Poof! My top navigation bar just disappeared, and for an hour I just couldn't get it back. I must have mistyped something in the HTML (which, at this moment, has been modified beyond recognition from its original code), and now, no matter how much I try to use the Blogger menu to change the layout style, it just won't show.

There are days when technology just doesn't work...

I came up with a workaround. You'll now find my biography, guitarists' corner and contact in the secondary navigation bar (which links to home, my band, and great links). It took a little reading to remember how to set it up in the HTML code, but it worked. It's just two more clicks to navigate, and hopefully it doesn't put people off. I'm told by the pro bloggers to keep my layout as simple as possible so that readers won't find it a hassle to click around.

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Strings and Things

I recently stringed up my Fender Stratocaster with 11's in an attempt to test out the myth surrounding different string gauges and its effect on tone. The myths do somewhat correspond logically; higher gauges mean more string mass, and more string mass means larger vibrations, which in turn, ultimately leads to beefier, heavier tone.

I tried it out and got myself really frustrated pretty quickly. Not that the tone was disappointing--in fact, I felt a rather pleasing change in tone. Somehow, the thicker strings EQ my tone from mid-rangy to something a little more round. Rounder is better in my tone book, but that's where the advantages of thicker strings ended. My strat isn't the easiest of guitars to set up, and with heavier strings, the tension applied to the bridge is a lot higher. It pulled my bridge clean off the body, which made it interesting considering I've never played a strat with a "floating bridge". Fun to pull up and down, but throws the whole guitar out of pitch, and intonates terribly.

The next disadvantage really threw in the towel for me. Part of the vibe of heavy gauge strings is that you can really dig in without worrying about the guitar flubbing out. Now, I don't have a strong right wrist anymore, and ever since my wrist injury I've had to modify my technique to accommodate it. I've developed a rather light touch, with very mild pick strokes, and using my other fingers to help pick.

How does playing style affect your tone with heavy strings? For one thing, my volume dropped drastically, and I sounded like a kid in the garage picking up the guitar for the first time. My pick attacks disappeared, and made the finger movement noises from my left hand a lot more prominent.

I did try to salvage the situation: down-tuning the guitar from standard in E to Eb so as to decrease the string tension (it returned the bridge to its neutral position which helped keep the strat in tune), increasing the gain on my overdrive pedals to compensate for the lighter pick attack, and setting my playing height to maximum so as to help my left hand play as precisely as possible.

It worked. Well, sort of.

It just didn't feel right. I couldn't solo with the confidence I had with lighter gauge strings. As you can tell, playability is a big factor for me when it comes to the guitar, and guitars that don't play well or feel well just don't sound good (to my ears, anyway). So a month went by with this ridiculously awkward setup on my strat, and before I knew it, I found myself finding an excuse to swing by Davis and get my DR 9's, a staple of mine for the past 6 years or so.

A few guitarists whom I listen to use heavier gauge strings: Phil Collen of Def Leppard (he mentioned in a rig-rundown on Premier Guitar that it's "easy" to bend 13's!), Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jeff Beck. It's for them, and not for me.

Further reading:

Strings 101

Dave Walker's String Fundamentals 

Stratocaster Setup Tips

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Why Like That!? Episode 2

Multi-storey carparks are difficult to park in; they're tight, they're congested, and they need quick hands to navigate the bends around corners to reach the next level in a bid to find an available lot.

I can understand the level of agitation one may feel at the end of the process, but that's not an excuse to be inconsiderate to other drivers:

I may not know the circumstances behind the driver deciding to make such a hasty parking, which may be legitly urgent, but I think spending 30 seconds more to park properly wouldn't make a difference to the situation, would it?

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Why Like That!? Episode 1

A brand new segment of this blog to commemorate the moments that make us drivers go, "Why like that!?"

For this inaugural post, I present to you a parking specimen:

I hope my tone of exasperation is warranted when I say that this guy is too far from the kerb! Private estates have narrow roads to begin with, so it is imperative to park as close to the kerb as possible, not just for other road users to pass, but also for the behemothal rubbish truck to safely pass through the estate when it makes its rounds in the morning. If the truck comes across a bottle neck (caused by, for example, the above), it will not risk scratching the car and give the houses after a miss.

In my book, that's incredibly inconsiderate.

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