pardon for the long wait
here you go, the stories and photos
click for full post, now going to bus station….

guitar student David Chee playing acoustic version of “I've Got Rhythm” (George Gershwin) and “Jump” (Van Halen).
he is preparing for a guitar recital tommorrow. meanwhile, he will also be performing on the drums today…
enjoy guys….

click here to watch

the new uglyboyz video featuring haris on bass, playing uglymen's robotz. haris jammed with uglyboyz after only listening to the billborad hit song “robots” a few times… enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y8vUqxf4qY

not too long ago, i was fortunate enough to be engaged by uum  (northern university of malaysia), to design and start a module under children cognitive development program called children's creativity through music and arts. i started to design and research for the module back in 2007. where the module focused on  children's cognitive, behaviour, and growing phases. and at present i am still fine-tuning the material and the way i conduct the whole course.

it is a major leap for me in my music career, and more classes will start soon in the upcoming months. after conducting the courses for over 1.5 yr, i feel that uum is doing a great job in introducing this program, as you know, kids nowadays are really growing too fast, too furious, and some may fall into the wrong path. this program stresses on the moral, behaviour, logic, creativity and self-conscious of what they are doing as they grow. nonetheless this job has taken a huge crunch of my time now, i am still enjoying what i do. as the program is not only conducted in uum itself, i sometimes may have to travel to usm, ukm..

i hearby like to thank a few very important people who supported me in becoming what i am doing for uum today.

dr zahyah
tai suan
hooi
silverisle
jan jan
reena kaur
and others who supported me with material either in physical or spiritual form.

*recent class conducted in uum

*in deep thoughts…

Biggest EVENT of the YEAR… full of mistakes and bloopers!

Event: Beautiful Mistakes
Day: Friday
Date: 30th May 2008
Time: 2.30pm – 5pm (long long show)
Venue: M Sistem

this will be ONE HELLUVA show…. full of mistakes and funny moments, so come enjoy…

Sessionist- Luis Leow / Kaevin / Bak Pao / Jason / Kiam Hoo / Yeoh Sheng / Han / michael

Performers -
kok zhew / seok joe / david / zoe / wei loon / shou wei / derrick / weddy / george / jason / li jia / yang yang /wei keat / angel saw / ming hao / kae vin / boon hoo / ming le / lim seng / chin hong / wei huang / uglyboyz / yuna / chin sing / kae vin / leng zhai / kiam hoo / bak pao….

after stupid Youtube deleted my “Yui: Cherry on guitar video”, and sent me a warning email asking me not to post any more video with “copyright violation”, i already tulan them and never record or post anymore.

this canon rock, was recorded and posted by our drummer ah leow using his handphone without my knowledge, as i was playing for a student in the studio… playing with tempo slips and misc hiccups…

i am still wondering why the hell they deleted my video after all, they DID NOT delete all the others playing Cherry… &^%%$#%$*^&(%&

Click here to watch

piano:

1) chia kok chew
2) zoey wong
3) teoh siew yen
4) yeong siew wen
5) tan yen joo

guitar:

1) tan jia wei / tan ming hou
2) tan chin sing
3) ang weddy
4) ng kae vin
5) leong chee meng / liong khim yun

-sorry for late announcement, too much work.
-michael-one.com will not be updated till further notice as i reformatted my laptop and all macromedia software still not installed.
-i forgot server ftp liao… need ask paul first..
-since i have cut down the number of students drastically, i will only list out the top five.

Piano~

1) Teoh Siew Yen
2) Chan Qi Sheng
3) Zoe Wong
4) Chia Kok Chew
5) Ung Chuin Ling

Guitar~

1) Chan Qi Sheng
2) Tan Chin Sing
3) Seow Lim Seng
4) Ung Chuin Ling
5) Ng Kae Vin

congrats and keep up the good work!

p/s: also many congratz to students who won award at the music school annual award show (i did not attend, so not sure if everyone got their award, but below are my choices)

Best guitar student of 2007 – Tan Chin Sing
Best piano student of 2007 – Chan Qi Sheng
Progressive student for guitar 2007 – Ng Kae Vin
Progressive student for piano 2007 – Zoe Wong

well, it isnt that bad actually… uglymen is a wonderful band (at least to me) and it is the place, the time, the act, which let me forget all of my problems, my work pressure, and also self-inflict death sentences. i am writing this post while my laptop this downloading over 70 songs, to be performed next week.

ok, to make things clearer, here's the story, as i said, teaching music in alor star wont earn you a good living, yes, you could survive by it, but only just. many friends kept on asking me about when to jump the ship since last year when i said i was cutting down students intake. my total number of students standns at 48 at present, compared to 62 same time last year, and the number will decrease further starting from 16th march 2008. i simply have to look for other options, and those options come with a price…. uglymen

since February 2003, i have been travelling to penang weekly from alor star to jam with uglymen, from just a hobby, to a vision, with an objective, took part in competitions, winnning several important titles down the road, releasing ugly CD, touring, going overseas, meeting so many wonderful musicians aroud the world. my passion of music, the fire burning within with uglymen is always in my soul. however, as i moved on, my objectives has slightly changed. my reason of playing with uglymen was simple: entertain the crowd, share our music, release tension, and get helluva fun on gigs and tours. at later stage, i started to focus more on music criticizm, judging music competitions, a music forum article contributer and speaker in music seminars. then, my biggest aim in band scene changed: to help new-comers, contestants to succeed in music or competitions, forming new bands (both students and non-students), create their own music and perform infront of the general public, from itosii, storm, uglyboyz, x-malaysia, eclipse to many other great bands… i found satisfaction when i see they feel confident, happy, and believe in what they can do with music, helping them to achieve their little dreams in the process. although the time and effort spent in developing new bands is really tiring and not justified (from income point of view), i see it as a very important milestone in my music career. organising music festivals such as the ghost show festival last year, and chinese new year carnival were also important experienced printed in my musical adventures.

last year, a very good friend / student of mine, recommended me to a local university and i have started lecturing in local u since. it was another big step for me in my career, although it does not relate to the music lessons i teach. it is a very tough job but when it is done, you can breathe huge relief and look back at what you have achieved. wow, talking about all the tough preparations, credits must go to my good friend ah leow, silverisle, yuna for help, and most importantly, to the person who recommended me to the university ~ pro dr pn zahyah.

ok, get back to the story… after engaging in the lecturing job, i already started kiss-goodbye to some students, at this point, i am not afraid to write here that, i do not treat all my students the same. there is NOT one teacher in the world who treats ALL of his / her students the same. let's face it, no matter how dedicated a teacher is (i consider myself one of the most dedicated, ok, you can say me si ai bin, but that's my song any way), there will be super nice, nice, neutral, so-so, waste-time, better-dont-come students, and the effort you put into each individual student will be different, bcos some students you know they will strive, best is better than me one day; and the other category, you will know his / her parents are just too rich by dropping him by for baby-sitting… so, the first ones to go are those who are in the lower category. for those who are good but unfortunately i still have to drop, i will recommend a VERY good teacher too, which i will also announce here when the time is right.

in penning the contract of my new job, not only i will be sacrificing uglymen, but also playing guitar, as i wil not play guitar anymore for the time being. the new jobs are, playing 6-day a week shows in a local pub, plus, probably an early evening music show in a local hotel. i will be playing piano and keyboard in both places.. as ah leow says…. my guitar era might just halted and the keys taking over. i still prefer playing guitar A LOT compared to piano….sigh…

meanwhile, i am also planning to venture into some non-music related stuff later this year, if i can over come time and financial constraints…

i've talked to tai suan and metal and suggest uglymen to bring in a new vocalist and guitarist to replace me, though i doubt they can find some one ugly and fat in size as me, so probably the next time you see uglymen perform, it might not be so ugly anymore liao… i am still writing uglymen's second album songs though….

the new jobs i will undertake also mean that i no longer can travel to penang weekly to teach one of my best friends in penang, ah meng, plus two really cool bros ah yu and ah pao, i wil miss them a lot.. sob sob… one thing for sure is good…to the folks at jelutong factory, finally they can stay-in-peace… hohoho, if you know what i mean.

to all friends, supporters, band scene co-warriors, musicians, everyone who likes uglymen, thank you very much for all these years' endless support.

p/s: the show taisuan mentioned on 22nd june is in kampar, perak, not in penang. and my work is 7-day per week, not 6 day la, thursday night has to teach too.

Zzzzzzzzzz….. i hope most songs are done downloaded by now.

5.28am,
in air-cond-off studio with heavy running nose and sneezings
mike
 

Yoyo, a very hardworkding and dedicated piano / guitar student (2004-2006), performs “Tears” by XJAPAN, his all-time favourite Japanese band. Yoyo no longer learn the piano nor guitar since he moved to Penang, but his passion on piano remains and he wished to share this video online.

enjoy:

Youtube: Yoyo plays “Tears”

another year draws to an end, (ok, it ended already, this post was written two weeks ago!) and 2007 was one of the most exciting years throughout the 15 years of my music-teaching / musician’s career. as i am again tied down with work, and also stupid fever and flu… i’ll make this one short. the more SIGNIFICANT stories, from 20th to 1st:

at NUMBER 20~
“The rise and rise and then… collapse of Uglyboyz”
Uglyboyz were carefully crafted to be what they are today, sadly, members’ commitment is at a miserable level

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at NUMBER 19~
“student band ITOSII making waves in Astro & RTM”
ITOSII remains the best band i’ve ever taught, well-mannered, industrious, highly disciplined. in 2007, they played in numeorus TV shows and appeared on Astro and RTM, including playing “Love Bubble Tea” and “Missing You”

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at NUMBER 18~
“smashed guitar for the 2nd time”
ok… nothing to shout about, but i was very sad, bcos the guitar failed to break into two. the first time i smashed was back in 2005 at Malito gig in Sri Kembangan (forgot the gig name… Band Sound?) darn it! this guitar did not break after two smashings…

*Photo by Shou Wei
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at NUMBER 17~
“Uglymen appeared in local newspapers, French TV documentary, online news, giant banners”
Fabio, a producer in France chose Uglymen to feature in his French musical documentary; appeared in Sin Chew many times, online news portal many days, appeared in Sarawak’s local newspapers….. and still nobody knows who the hell is Uglymen… HOO RAY!! men? wat men? Uglymen??! who the hell is that?

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at NUMBER 16~
“Uglyboyz hired for christmas countdown gig”
have u ever heard of a band, where its members only averaged 14 years old, played in a pub for over an hour paid-gig, on christmas eve? in front of a full house crowd drowing with alchohols among others… (p/s: Uglyboyz are not alchoholics)

*Photo by SilverIsle
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at NUMBER 15~
“Manchester United are the Best!
Ok ok… i noe this is not music-related, but still it is one of the important stories to me in 2007.. Sorry Arsenal, sorry sorry Chelsea, sorry sorry sorry Liverpool…. devils are the best, and MU won the title with two games to spare.

*Photo from Fanzone.
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at NUMBER 14~
“welcome back long-long hair”
the last time i had long hair was back in september 2005 (half wat to waist), i dont think it really looked good, it really looked ugly on me, but i like it… yeah! that’s why we are UGLYMEN!!

*Photo by angel (2007)

*taken early 2005
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at NUMBER 13~
“Uglymen go wireless”
hooi and me got wireless and we can roam around the house (pub), while hooi can play bass and con some chicks at the same time, i can go outside buy some food while still playing,,, pity suan, he has to sit there…wahahahaha…. dont get me wrong, getting a wireless is nothing to show off, but to uglymen, it may just help us move around more as we have lots of choreographs and dance moves in our songs.

* Photo by Glacius
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at NUMBER 12~
“Uglymen to Kenting, Taiwan”
an unforgettable trip for uglymen to Kentington, being the very first Malaysian band to play in the annual Spring Scream international music festival, thanks to our nicest friends Becky & Pei Yu, the trip was marvellous at its best.

*Photo by Becky
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at NUMBER 11~
“all-girls-fronlined Eclipse”
in conjunction with the Yu Lan Sheng Hui festival street band show, the band X-Malaysia was formed (later Eclipse), and performed in a few venues in alor star and penang. the band is no where near excellence but shown every one what confidence and determinataion can help to realize dreamz, even if its a small one to others.

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at NUMBER 10 to NUMBER 1, see next post lo…