Kembang Jagung

is coming

2009-11-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

sapi is coming back soon :)

lovely!

Studying DOUBLE BASS DRUM...Learn how to fill with keyboard...

2009-10-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

I'm now STRUGGLING HARD to learn double bass drumming. It's extremely hard to synchronize my feet together, I never used them for this kind of drumming before so definitely this is going to be a lot of work for me...

Learning keyboard is also another thing..I took private piano lessons for 12 years but really those practices don't really help at all now in terms of technical skills although musically maybe they shaped my ears and rhythm a little bit..

I'm gonna dedicate 3 hours every Tuesday Wednesday and Friday to learn double bass drum techniques and then the next few weeks I'm going to put all my fingers around my new PSR-413..

Those songs that I'm going to put in the new album still stick pretty well in my mind so I'm not too worried about losing parts of those songs that I want to incorporate...

FINALLY !!!

2009-09-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

I finally got my internet connection from QWEST, not as fast as the usual broadstripe but it's ok i guess..

Couple of good news:

-I got my YDD-60 Drum Pads
-I already purchased my PSR-413
-Now Im officially live in Rianna 418

The materials for the new songs are still on my head..Gonna start recording them soon :p

Seattle I'm Coming BACK !

2009-09-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

So sad, I'm gonna leave Jogja soon..

Anyway, this means my project will start soon and I need to think more carefully and plan carefully for the songs that I'm going to put into the album..

I'm also thinking about getting Yamaha YDD-60 from Amazon.com as soon as possible so I can start laying drum tracks as fast as I can.

Gonna meet PAIJO soon ! And gonna change room soon..lots of works waiting to be done..

MORE Updates About the SOLO PROJECT :)

2009-09-13T08:41:00.001-07:00

I've just experimented with a bass that I borrowed from my bro in law and now I think I will put some jazzy bluesy funk bass lines into a song, accompanied with jazz influenced guitar lines and simple but refreshing drum pattern.

I haven't start experimenting on the guitar solo for this jazzy song, but it will be kinda like Casiopea, or at least will be written in the same kind of spirit. I'm going to avoid heavy distortion guitar effect and try to experiment a little bit with my digitech to get a less-driven sound but with long enough sustain to make the guitar sounds as warm as it can.

The bass lines are going to be mostly tapped notes(not slapped or fingered) and I will play lower notes with left hand tapping while my right hand is going to tap above 12th frets for higher notes to get a kind of keyboard sounds out of my bass.

Influence, Influential, Influenced

2009-09-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

I really really hate when people tried to musically influence me with music that they think is "cool" in terms of mainstream approaches. They usually think that what they're listening to are the best thing on the earth, they would call the band members as being gods in what they're proficient at...

They haven't seen the ugly truth in the music industry but they claimed to know everything thanks to MTV. I must tell you that MTV so far is the best killer in the music industry. MTV would raise people who are really nothing in terms of musicality and then MTV would make them to become famous in just a blink of an eye and then they would bring them down so another group can be raised in the same way. But then people who watch MTV would think that MTV is everything because MTV monopolizes the whole modern music industry. MTV would never raise people with good musical ability because they're afraid that these kind of people will make the audience bored or maybe they're afraid that other people might not be able to compete in the same proficiency, etc.

I am raised not under the influence of MTV. I never listened to the radio, I never watch musical program on television; I am not the mainstream type. I don't claim that I know what's the best or what's the most interesting music that is ever created by human, but I claimed that as a musician I have my own style and it was clearly not based on MTV's or current music industry's taste . When someone approached me and said that my kind of guitar playing won't last long in the music world because it's simply too heavy or too fast and doesn't fit the preference of general audience, I simply said to him f*** off..

I don't want people to shape my guitar playing style, I don't want people to force me to play something that I'm not enjoying. In the world of the "underground" music(music that isn't influenced by MTV), lots of bands survived longer although they didn't have the same popularity that MTV people received. Dream Theater survived for almost 30 years while mainstreamed groups can only survive for 5 years and got disbanded after that.

Why I should listen to garbages that won't last for more than 5 years if I can listen to good stuffs that can survive for 30 years?

Influencing bad music into my ears = bad decision..

cheeeerss :p

Updates About Solo Project :)

2009-09-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone !!

Here's some juicy updates about the solo album that I'm going to make soon :p

Okay I'm still deciding between 4 or 5 songs and I may also include one or two bonus songs covering songs from other musicians.

My songs are going to be heavily influenced by Satriani-Petrucci-Vai-Hendrix-Gilbert types of music, but I will make the songs as digestable as possible(more mainstreamed sounding?).

There will be songs that are easy to listen and have more soft-sounding approach, but some songs are going to be metal-influenced with some super crazy fast solos.

I'll certainly need some help from friends for advertising and marketing, and I will put the album into CD format(I might sell the CDs with super low price(less than 5 dollars of course :p)).

Hmmm...what else....????

Keep checking the blog for more information !!

Cheers :)

SOLO PROJECT GONNA START SOON :)

2009-09-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, just want to let y'all know that I'm gonna start a solo project soon..

sorry, not much information I can share at this time because it's still a bit secret..

here's what I can tell you:

-the solo project is going to be a musical solo project; I'm going to produce an album :p

-this album is gonna be composed with mostly rock music and it's most probably gonna be instrumental since I am not in a band right now and I will play most of the guitar, bass, drum pads and keyboard parts since this is called solo project.

-I may launch the album as a concept album although I am not too sure yet about that =,='

here's my plan after I return to Seattle:

-make some money

-investing in hardware: get a new keyboard and drum pads

-getting new recording software from the internet :p

-upgrading some effects

here's my current tool that I have right now that I am gonna use for the solo project:

-Ibanez PGM30WH electric guitar

-Ibanez RG7321BK 7-string electric guitar

-Ibanez SoundGear SDR305 5-string bass guitar

-Korg Tonework Ampwork digital effect processor for guitar

-Korg Tonework Ampwork digital effect processor for bass

-Boss MT-2 MetalZone distortion pedal

-Ibanez Weeping Demon wah pedal

-Digitech RP-99 multi-effect processor for guitar

-Line-6 Amp for guitar

-Peavey Amp for bass

-Johnson utility amp

-Yamaha MW-10 USB mixer

-Sony VAIO VGN-CR220

-some cables, straps, picks(Jim Dunlop Jazz III)

keep checking my blog for more updates :)

cheeeeersss V('',)V V(,'')V

Earth Quake and State of Mind ?

2009-09-07T10:04:00.000-07:00

Just some thoughts that I want to share...

Does earth quake relate with our state of mind?

Does our mind receive any signal before earth quake happens?

I did feel so...

back in 2005 when Jogja first experienced earth quake..nights before the earthquake i felt so sad..tears keep coming out and my minds kept thinking about bad things in my life and i felt so depressed..i did not sleep during that night...then in the morning the earth quake happened so bad and killing so many people..

next few days, everytime an aftershock happened, i would felt very depressed before the aftershock occured..

then this afternoon, after i went back from bali, i took a nap for two hours and i had a bad dream, i felt like i am trapped in the dream world, unable to wake myself up although i am aware that i am having a dream(kinda reminds me about Pink Floyd's song: Comfortably Numb)...then i felt asleep and suddenly go into the 'dream land'..my dream is about earthquake in west java few days ago and the atmosphere of the dream is very very negative although it was very brief..

well...maybe someday people will start researching about the connection between earthquake and our state of mind.....maybe :p

just some thoughts that i want to share...

Most Recent Earth Quake in Jogja

2009-09-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Just felt the shakes few minutes ago...here's some detail about the earth quake..

Magnitude	6.1
Date-Time	Monday, September 07, 2009 at 16:12:21 UTC Monday, September 07, 2009 at 11:12:21 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	10.202°S, 110.609°E
Depth	15.9 km (9.9 miles) (poorly constrained)
Region	SOUTH OF JAVA, INDONESIA
Distances	265 km (165 miles) S of Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia 340 km (210 miles) SW of Malang, Java, Indonesia 360 km (220 miles) S of Semarang, Java, Indonesia 620 km (385 miles) SE of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 7.6 km (4.7 miles); depth +/- 32.4 km (20.1 miles)
Parameters	NST= 61, Nph= 61, Dmin=543.8 km, Rmss=0.99 sec, Gp= 40°, M-type=body wave magnitude (Mb), Version=6
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Lek2an?? Kembang Jagung?? What the does that mean?

2009-09-07T07:59:00.001-07:00

In case you are wondering with those namings, I'll explain those things briefly..

Lek2an means staying awake until late in the night or in the moring, it's something that I am quite used with right now but not really in the past.. :p...the reason I use this naming is because probably the best time to create new post is late at night after I finish homework (^^,)

Kembang Jagung means the flower of corn plant, hahaha it's a song by Genk Kobra, a Javanese music group that creates songs about Javanese culture...quite funny, low quality songs but actually those songs have good moral story

First Post :p

2009-09-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

brief introduction;

my name is Gary Tan Wiryawan

I'm from Indonesia, half Chinese, half Indonesian.

I'm currently studying in Electrical Engineering in SeattleU.

I'm interested in gadgets, computer techs, games, electric guitar, progressive rock, progressive metal, jazz, Dream Theater and of course Google.

I'll use this blog to share things on my mind that I find interesting :)

Hope you all will enjoy my posts :p :p

cheers !! V(^^,)V V(,^^)V