TULANMEN - 4 UGAYMEN, WE R VERY TULAN

It was a great night to be remembered, the night turned out to be more successful than what i have expected. However, success does not come overnight as every one knows, and before i get in depth with the show, let me share with you how hard the preparation had been before the actual day. 

The show was actually in plan only after the grueling trip to Taiwan early April. We were like having just 1 month to prepare. So I actually asked my students who wanted to perform in the show, with some exceptions on those who i already included them for a compulsory performance. It ended up like 20 students from the total lot. The time slot for all were to be too long and i have to omit some less-effective performers for future shows.

After finalizing the line-up, i had huge headache

 of getting everyone to rehaerse and practise together. Because, half of the show would be in band form. For the passed years, I have been doing minus one tracks (blieve me, it made you rooted to the computer chair for weeks), I hate MIDI tracks on live performance, not to say they are not good, eh… simply because they are ~ extremely not good. Yes, they do make a good teaching aid and learning tool in music education, but when it comes to live performance, it sucks. So, I am stupid enough to make real-audio backing tracks for my students..eh… say, a song might eat up about a week of my time. Laying the drum tracks, playing the bass, input the guitar, colour the songs with keyboards, sing some backing vocals, balance, mix down and blah blah…. But they (the students) really enjoy playing with real audio tracks! That made them feel good. Though I still consider myself to be stupid wasting so much time on recording the backing. Probably I’ll do everything with MIDI for the next in-takes of students and never tell them about real audio backings, then I will have more time to watch MU kick Chelsea’s butt. ha~ ha~

So, after recording 4 backing tracks for the show, I had another idea, find some session players to jam with my students, DONE! no more backing tracks, and it will bring a whole new experience for my students who were never in a band. So, without hesitating, i picked up my phone and called two members from the famous band called Uglymen (they are famous, but just incase you dont know them), I called the drummer ~ Tai Suan, and the bassist ~ Metal Sow, to helped out on a few songs. And to make things more interesting, i invited a friend Chun Wei (Puma) to play drums on 3 other songs, and my sweet friend Khim Yun to help out vocals in a Japanese number. DONE!

Let’s take a photo with all the session players… where is hooi??

Now, came the biggest problem, how were my students gonna jam with the sessionist. Uglymen are always in Penang, Chun Wei hangs around SP and Alor Star, and most of the students couldnt come out to jam after 9pm. Damn it, let’s call the show students jam session. Considering they will be jamming with a BAND (note the capital BAND, to them, who had never played in a band, jamming with a band is a real big thing, like the first time i found out a condom is not a bubble gum about 20 years back). So, i expect some mistakes if not major tragedy during the show (ha~ that din happen yesterday!)

So, back to square one, i did actually again, did a backing track, albeit  much simpler ones for the lads to practise alone at home before playing with the band. We did have a one time practise less than 24 hours before the show, like each student playing 2 times with the band the day before.

Mean while, on my side. I always like to take opportunity to experiment new things or introduce some new presentations in a show. Thus, appointing myself as the MC of the show. We have a few really good MCs around like Daniel Kuilan and Kang, but i opted for the mikes as I wanted to try out some silly if not stupid things. Two days before the show, i actually went online for the whole night til 6 am in the morning, in search for one-liner comedies, watch how MCs or artitses present themselve on stage, like in the Grammy Awards, talk shows… I watched those clips till tears flowing out from my eyes and that’s when i notice it was already 6am. The best thing i learnt from the online research was using material enhancers, ya, writing some wordings on a piece of paper, and show it to the crowd, and see how they re-act. I was kind off like hey… will that work? What if you show the paper and nobody reacts? Then you are a dead moron man. Uh… i dont care, so i started to write some wordings on a paper jut 4 hours before the show… i wrote “Please Clap”, “Louder Louder”, “Say Shit“, “Scream”, “She is HOT“, “I think he is GAY“, “He is Single”….. Theses papers were to be shown when a performer is in the midst of his performance. Thank God that worked so great, many thanks to the audience!! 

Apart from displaying paper writings. Another important element i found in making an effective and entertaining presentation is: slow down your speech when you are moving into some thing stupid, and lower your tone, like eh… try reading this line: “I love kids, this is a general statement, but if you are into specifics, then you are into trouble.. “I — like — 12 — year — olds…”

Most of the students were very excited to perform on this never-done before format of the show. Some were very excited, eh maybe nervous, kept calling my cel for the whole evening before the show, some were cracking their heads on what to wear during the show.What i liked so much about them was.. they treated the show so seriously, and they really enjoyed it to the fullest! Some put decent make-ups, invited their pals along. Seriously, without their presence, the show wouldnt have been so great as most of the screams came from them…

Once again, here are the performers, in exact order of the show, and some of my thoughts on their showing:

The show was divided into two sections, Solo Performances and Band Jam Sessions.

Solo Performances:

1) Edward Lim (Pop Piano ~ To Be With You)
I have taught Edward since two years ago, he was eh… slimmer last time, I think he’s catching up with me now…hoho… thats not a good thing. On performance wise, he was cool and always confident of what he was playing. Note that he played without looking at the score. I love that kid! (See i say in general, not love the 10-year-olds)

“Up Town Girl… she’s been living in the…”

“She’s been living in the oopsss… “Hey guitar, where you goin?”

2) Eddy Chua (Electric Guitar / Singing ~ Uptown Girl)
Eddy is one of the coolest, and one of the most entertaining that night, I think he made a name for himself too! When I first started to teach him approx 1 year ago, he was eh… opposite of hardworking, absent from classes. But he is now totally different, from late 2006, he changed dramatically, trying to nail down the things I taught and this time round, he sings and play the guitar at the same time. Notice from the pics, he did not put up a strap (could you explain that Eddy?) He gave a very good explaination, that was intentionally for cemedy effect. His guitar slipped off, almost dropping to the ground half way in his performance, and he somehow was in time to grab it quickly, to the amuse of the crowd, everyone claps and screams. Next time you can consider going up without a belt?? Nice work Eddy.

3) Lim Hui Fenn (Electric Guitar / Singing ~ Suteki)
Hui Fenn is another good example of students maturing with music. She had gone through a lot of hardship in playing music, heavily opposed by parents, finding time to practise. But finally, I am so happy for her, because yesterday, she sang her favourite song and soloing ..eh… she actually screwed up the solo… but we enjoyed it a lot. Cos as i said, we were not looking for perfection, all of us came here to have fun, we were not playing in a competition, you wont get shot like in Virginia Tech if you make mistakes.

4) Afina (Pop Piano ~ Romance D Amour)
Afina needs more practise, eh…. and constant lesson attendance. She loves music and piano a lot, this i could see, and she is joining her school enssemble. She has the passion, but the effort she’s putting in at the moment cant really take her to the stage where she is dreaming of. Work on it Afina. Afina was allocated the 2nd slot but she failed to reach here promptly. This problem has been around for quite some time….

5) Muhd Taufik (Pop Piano ~ Miraii)
Taufik, another long-time student here… I think this is the 4th year, and he had performed about 4 times already. The best was back in June 2006. This year, he chose to play a Japanese number as he is currently so into Anime and Japanese stuff. In fact, out of the 15 performers tonight, we got 4 performing Japanese songs. Taufik never fail to impress and again, he played smoothly most parts with eh… burp…. minor hiccups in the middle section. I like the expression on his face though. You know what, he aint this huge too when he started the piano class… “i will follow you my teacher…”

6) Elaine Wee (Pop Piano ~ 老鼠爱大米)
Elaine is 13 years old, joining piano lessons for the 4th month now. Her main objective of learning the piano is to be able to play nice songs for her family, how sweet. I accompanied her on guitar to cover some chordings as she is still in the midst of learning chord patterns. One thing I like about her is there was no hesitation when i asked her whether she wanted to give a try on stage. She stopped half way through the song but kept calm and found the way back into the song. We are proud of you Elaine. Thanks for your performance.

7) Woon Zuyi (Pop Piano ~ Canon in D)
Zuyi is a talented lad who also plays the druns besides piano. He joined the pop piano course after quiting classical piano as he thought classical was way too boring for his liking. I played guitar and harmonised some parts in the song, and created a flowing part like the piano and guitar were chasing each other. I thought he played well, the culprit was me, as i am tired after running the show and teaching since early morning on Sunday. Zuyi is so calm that he actually strecthed out his foot and relaxed on the piano base wood. Zuyi shares some common interests with me, he supports MU, he says Chelsea sucks, and yes, he is wearing MU red jersey.

Chan Qi Sheng (Pop Piano ~ Kiroro)
Qi Sheng is another passionate music student who actually put high expectations on himself. Some times, a little impatient in achieving his goals. He is hardworking though and very determined to be at the top in the future. He is so in love with his music that he always ask me, “michael, you think i still can learn music here after form 5?” “michael, you think by year end i can play this song oready ah?” “michael you think…”… well, as u know my name is michael, not st michael. About his performance on this song, i was a little surprise he slipped up at the intro as he was doing fine every time in studio. That shows playing in front of a crowd is really different, i wish there were more shows for students to play….. if i had the energy

Phew! End of Part 1 on The Solo Section, coming up soon will be Part 2 ~ Band Jam Sessions…  Hell Yeah!!

P/S: All Photos by Khim Yun except 1st photo, as she was in the pic