The View From Behind The Mic Stand

So my good friend Joash, who was one of those who insisted I start a blog, has recently been blogging much less actively. So something that happened almost a month ago is only showing up on his blog today. Mind you this was the person who once preferred to stay back and blog while I wanted to go out for a walk, or anything else for that matter, since we were in Baguio. I felt like anything is better than just staying inside. Anyway we finally got him out by baiting him with food!

I felt I should highlight his recent post here so that some of you guys can read his account of what happened in my church on Mothers' Day. Click on the picture or check out Joash Chan's link on my blog.

Joash and Ken, you guys did a great job. I'm sure my guitar had a part to play in that. We'll have you guys back again next time if you're up for it.

As for our worship team, we're off on our way and in the right direction. I predict that in about 3 months we will be seeing marked improvements in the worship team. But worship is not just about the worship team and the music, as a church we need to constantly learn to express ourselves better in our worship to God. Looking forward to better days as God brings us on this adventure of getting to know him better.

Falling In Love With Jesus by Jonathan Butler

Beautiful song. Check out other songs by Jonathan Butler, I previously made another post on his song "We Need You Lord", just use the "Search This Blog" widget on the right side.



Falling in love with Jesus
Falling in love with Jesus
Falling in love with Jesus
Falling in love with Jesus
Was the best thing I ever, ever done

In His arms I feel protected
In His arms never disconnected
In HIs arms I feel protected
There's no place I'd rather rather be

Amen.

We Miss You Mikayla

Mikayla!

Mommy and daddy miss you very much. Your mommy is really feeling it, I guess it's a maternal thing. Daddy misses you too, but being the dude around the house requires some cool, so...

Mommy and daddy have been looking at all your pix and vids. Mommy mostly viewing, whereas daddy was mostly aranging and sorting all the pix out. Mommy and daddy are different in that way. I always like doing stuff, rather than sitting down. Our library is now really neat and chronologically in order. That awesome camera your gong gong and popo gave to us for Christmas takes fantastic pictures.

We will be coming over to Baguio tomorrow to attend your gong gong's installation/inauguration as the president of APTS. Also to bring you back to Malaysia. Compounded with our recent change of church, many people back here are missing you, asking us "Mikayla leh?". So for their sakes here are some pix of you.

At 1U. You love bikes. Whenever you see one you'll sign and make the sound *boo boo boo boo".

At ah kong's house. During Chinese New Year as you can see... You call the orange "ball ball".

At home. Soon you'll be back here...

... and I'll be back to babysitting duties.

It was nice to have a break and spend some quality time with your mommy.


I think now I understand what they mean by "quality time".



At the Curve. Your first time on a slide.


We were waiting to have dinner with your "kai ma" Ke Xin (and Keith).

...so cute >.<

At home. That would be my "other" baby, don't worry, you're still my favourite baby. But it seems like you like the guitar as well, which is good news for me.

Dinner time! You found out you could put the pasta on your finger, mommy, as usual, very fast to take pictures.

I bought this arm chair for you after one of the cell groups, now you can sit and watch your cartoons!

At Ministers' Retreat in JB. That's the toy gong gong bought for you, but you lost interest almost as soon as gong gong paid for it.

Playing "ball ball" with popo and mommy.

On the way back from Ministers' Retreat. You slept most of the time during the journey. We hope you'll have a good trip when we bring you back from Baguio.

This is a recent video of you talking on the remote control. I can understand why you would mistake the remote control for a phone, both have number pads, and they are even arranged in similar fashion. See you soon baby!

Worship List 090222

This session would very likely represent my last session worship leading. As many of you know I am preparing start my career as a minister. So I have to free myself up to focus a bit better, but that would be a whole other post. If you read this page you will one of the first to find out as soon as anything is confirmed.

I believe we are in a certain season now, many people are facing tough times. It is no different with people in Canaan. For some it is tough financial times, for some it's tough spiritual times, some others are facing physical sicknesses, for others still it could even be tough mental/emotional times. Whatever it is, I believe this is true for many people all around the world. In view of that, this week the worship list was all about needing God all the more in our time of need, knowing that he is faithful even during tough times.

Here's the list:

1. Forever (G)
2. By Your Side (G)
3. I Will Run To You (G)
4. Still (C)
5. The reason I Live Is To Worship You (C)
6. Draw Me Close (C) - chorus only

Guitar Tips

Derrick Siow always distracts me with youtube videos. When I am working on my com he sometimes sends me a link and tells me I need to watch it... and so far he has been right!

Anyway he sent me this video and I found this very helpful. I'm sure some of you who are as noob as I am would find this helpful as well.

Basically in this video you will learn to "colour" the songs with different chords. Will definitely bring new life to old songs that have went dull.

My Prayer:

We Need You Lord...

but not just that, I need you Lord...

I know you hear us... Hear our cries oh Lord, hear MY cry oh Lord!

Amen.

Worship List 090118

New year, still unsure of what it holds. However I did expect some chaos in the worship team as the worship schedule was never confirmed. Some of the musicians are also feeling burnt out and I am no different. With all that in mind, I decided for a return to the basics. I picked simple and familiar songs that both musicians and congregation knew by heart. Songs were picked around the song Heart of Worship. This was my call for us to return once again to that first love and reconnect.

The blog has been silent for sometime now, I am keeping to the don't-say-anything-if-you-don't-have-anything-good-to-say policy some have. However I really wonder if that is beneficial for anybody. Would things be better if we just left them alone? Sometimes, but not all the time, so what about the other times? I normally make the mistake of taking action too fast, this time I'm going to try to make the other mistake instead. It goes against my instincts and my believes. But what the heck...

On the bright side, my guitar sounded awesome! The simplicity of the songs allowed my guitar to really ring through. Makes me melt... Anyway here's the worship list:

1. Lord I lift You Name On High (G)
2. We Wanna See (G)
3. Potter's Hand (G)
4. Heart Of Worship (G)
5. I Could Sing Of Your Love Forever [chorus only] (G)

I need to rediscover, reconnect, return, receive, revive... Do YOU need to?

Worship List 081102

So I'm here at the end of another, if not busy, eventful week. I had a wedding dinner to attend, my good friend David Lim was in town for a song writing competition, and yes, I worship led again. When I'm well prepared and have a clear idea where I am leading the church in worship, I really look forward to it. However this time I felt I was less prepared than I would like to be. There was just one up side for me, my guitar is back from the shop and all ready to be plugged in and to go live! So my baby was going to get her first chance at "singing" in front of my church.

Anyway I decided on the theme of God's glory, I wanted to lead the church into God's presence and have his glory revealed to us. So here's the song list:

1. Glory by Hillsong United (E)
2. Cover The Earth by Lakewood (A)
3. Forever by Hillsong (D-A)
4. One Thing Have I Desired unknown (A)
5. Oh The Presence of Your Glory by Ron Kenolly (A-C)

At the end of everything I am thankful that God helped me do a reasonably good job. I think the worship was inspiring, but how it turned out just didn't satisfy me. I wanted more, I want excellence, I want to do my best, and nothing less, nothing less.

Everything went well, apart from one of our keyboard adaptors being out of commission, but minus one keyboard, the music was still quite good and tight, considering that we were doing a new song (Cover The Earth), and also a musically more technical song (Oh The Presence of Your Glory), the church still responded well to the songs. However I was just not satisfied, it feels like it just lacked a certain X factor. During our evaluation the team felt that the practice session was better than the actual worship time, we unanimously agreed.

It just keeps coming back to me... what was missing? There was just something missing and I cannot put my finger on it. I don't think the rest of the team is as bothered by it as I am. But I really want to identify it and make sure our worship team doesn't happen again. Maybe it's just me suffering from a heavy week.

Meet My Farida D52

Have you met? This is my Farida... Farida, meet the world...





I'm sure some of you have already met my baby (not Mikayla, neither is she Melanie), she is my other baby, and her name is Farida.

I bought this beautiful piece of guitar about 2 years ago from Pas. Julian Low, she should be about 3 years old now. Pas. Julian in turn bought her from the Guitar Store. Born in China the Farida D52 comes with a sitka spruce top with abalone shell soundhole inlays; South American mahogany sides and back with beautiful wood binding; 2-piece mahogany neck with rosewood fretboard adorned with mother of pearl (snowflakes and diamonds) inlays; nut and bridge made of whale bone; and chromed machine heads; finished off with matte/natural finish.

I have found my Farida D52 to be the benchmark for all other dreadnaughts to emulate. It is loud and boomy yet defined. The tone is very (did I say very? Yes, very, VERY) warm. To date I have not heard a guitar that gives a warmer tone. At the age of 4, she is just beginning to open up... gosh! Can't imagine when she opens up... When strummed it will easily engulf your cell group host's home, smaller halls will also be completely saturated with her sweet tones; when finger plucked it is just intimate and simply romantic. Perfect for times when you want to sing a simple song, as the voice of the guitar will shine through, just get your voice out of the guitar's way.

Recently I was considering selling this baby off for an upgrade. I was, and still is, looking for a Taylor (7, 8, or 9 series with Cindy in lays) or McPherson. I quickly realized my folly in wanting to trade her in for a "better" guitar during my trip down to Singapore. I was there for a holiday and also to hunt for a new guitar. After trying all the guitars that a Malaysian in Singapore could get his hands on, I realized that all dreadnaughts actually want to sound like MY dreadnaught! I quickly repented and decided that I was never going to part with my baby.

Sounds too good to be true? Check out this 5-star review on the Farida D52. I quote their bottomline, "For: Beautiful sounds, slim neck, great quality woods; Against: Nothing at all!" Believe it!

Click here to download the full review from Total Guitar Magazine

Note that my piece was specially selected and hand-carried by Guitar Store's guitar techs from the factory in China. Three of their technicians went over to check out the factory and guitars before bringing back these guitars. My piece was one of only six that were specially chosen to be brought back as samples. When it got back to Malaysia, Pas Julian immediately tried it out and immediately took the guitar home on credit term without second thoughts, it was that good. When I tried it out in Pas. Julian's house I wanted to immediately take it home as well, but he did not want to sell it then. However a few months later he made me an offer for the guitar and I pounced on it!

So since this guitar was going to be my legacy to Mikayla, I decided that I have to (finally) put in some electronics so that I can use it sometimes. For a long time I was considering the AER AK 15 plus pickup system. For the longest time this was the best choice because of 1) the non-invasive system that would not harm any part of my guitar, as no holes needed to be made to install this pickup, and 2) there are two sources, a standard piezo (under saddle pickup) as well as a mic. These two sources could be blended to create a different sound. Once I decided to put in the electronics I decided to give my friend Jon Koo a call for some consultation before taking action. He quickly pointed me to another similar very new system by Fishman - the Fishman Ellipse Matrix Blend. This system was available in JS Music, and the guitar tech there was highly recommended.

So last Friday I went over to JS Music to try out the system in view of installing it on my Farida. When I was there the guitar tech that I was consulting (Ng) realized that this was one of the first pieces of Faridas in Malaysia he immediately exclaimed that he was one of the guys that hand-carried it back from China. Small world. He was the guitar tech that was recommended by Jon Koo and some other guitarists that I know, he no longer works for the Guitar Store he now works for JS Music. I decided that it was fate that brought us all together so very quickly I decided on the Fishman system and I even got a special price for it. It would come up to RM900.00 (inclusive of installation).

As I type this my baby is in being fitted with her electronics. I'm so excited to get it back this Friday. I hope it is ready by then. I will be woship leading again this weekend (don't ask), and I am really looking forward to breaking in my Farida in with her brand new Matrix Ellipse Blend pickup system.

Check out my baby on some other sites:

Farida's Official Site
D52 on Farida's UK Site
Farida's YouTube Channel
The Guitar Store

** Watch this space, more pix of my Farida with the brand new Matrix Ellipse Blend coming up.