En Route to Jakarta pt 2

Ok i've got to finish this post within half an hour so i can make it in time to fulfill my curfew to sleep before 12am. And since no one is online to chat with me now , i'd better use this time to blog. Today is another part of my en route to Jakarta story ... i think i should continue blogging until i step my foot on Indonesian land. Whatever you call that country... Anyway , today started off with waking up at 8 20am and got myself ready and poked my eyes to opened it so i could stuff my contact lenses into them... Took a warm shower and grabbed my boiled sausages from the table and left the house at 9 am sharp.

Why so early?! Not to go practice of course ... the sky would fall if i am willing to wake up at the WEE hours of the day and practice. It was to meet MF for a scheduled workshop he conducted for myself and C.H. We were still joking last night saying that 9 30am is a little too early and i am still usually on bed and stuffs like that .. but anyway i'm a WOMAN of word so i promised to be there at 9 30am and i was there at 9 30am sharp.

I reached the office and heard that MF went into the hall already , so i quickly ran upstairs and found him along the way and went into the hall shortly. He started off by listening to my first song ("CYPHER") recording which i've recorded for him in the pendrive earlier. He kept giving me this warm greeting smile kind of thing , which i dunno what for ... but i just smiled in return politely... then after the song was over , he asked

"what do you think?"

"what ? do you mean my performance or the sound? Honestly this performance a bit koyak coz i was almost drained off that day recording this.. ahhaha sorry!"

He admitted that the playing wasn't so clean but anyway we started ... without my dearest teacher anyway ... so yeah we started off by talking about the level of reverb of the song, and also touched a little on the TOO HEAVY and muffled sound of the bass throughout the whole piece.. which he thought kind of muffled my playing. Anyway we went on ... discussing a little about the different levels of reverb in different halls so we couldn't do much about this until i've reached Jakarta.

Then shortly we went on to try section by section .. i started playing the intro - it was fine. Moved on the my main theme ... he stopped and talked about the lead voice and some of my playing technique and stuffs.. then C.H arrived with this blur morning "I just woke up" face. Then we started discussing about the various sound changes ... and then MF started pointing out the different effects we used on the stagea for each sound and how it wasn't sometimes consistent WHICH WE BOTH never paid any attention to them until he pointed out. HAHAHHA... pai seh .. both men then started experimenting with the different sounds and effects to make it better.

What was i doing ? Basically busy absorbing and playing for them to hear each time those little changes are made... and sitting in the center of 2 of them i felt

"This is pretty cool .. never have i been surrounded by 2 teachers in my life"

Anyway we moved on towards the other sections and the process continued ... until we reached the middle Ad Lib section .. MF found out we used this saxaphone sound that actually doesn't really suit the range of our melody ... BUT it wasn't noticed until he looked at the instrument name anyway .. And he did pointed out that probably we should try another instrument more electronic and synthesized instead of the acoustic saxaphone. When he talked about all these , all C.H and i could do was LAUGH .. (pai seh coz didn't really pay enough attention to all these little details until he pointed them out to us). Then we moved to my swing jazz piano section ... MF once again changed the right hand sound from the initial pretty mellow rhodes piano to another elec piano that sounded more BRIGHT and twinkling... i kind of like this sound because now i could hear my running notes much clearer although mistakes could be heard EASILY as well.

By then we were only left with 2 more main sections and we're done. It was return of the B section and the B section was a joker really .... i didn't even realize that some things i did was of no use and it was in VAIN! Until he pointed it out of course ... and i was a little dumbfounded. But it's ok , i learnt a whole lot deal about stagea from doing this song. Anyway after that we moved on to the ending section which was my climax ... and there was nothing much to be edited there , because MF liked that part a lot too. While we were moving on from sections to sections , all i saw in his eyes and facial expressions were ,

"GOOD! next ..."

"AAAHHHHH nice ... again. Again.. Nice nice!"

"AAAHHHH getting better.. let's move on!"

"Aiyah little bit only , change now la."

"Ahh so fun ...hhhehehe"

"OOOH i'm loving this song.."

"Let's hear from the beginning! I'm loving this!"

Finally after all the main things were edited , and saved ... i played the whole song twice for the men to hear and both of them just sat behind me pretty far away and listened , while i was trying to enjoy and get used to the new stuffs ... Just before i played the last time, i said

"I sense him getting HIGH already (referring to MF)"

So we closed this song and moved on to the arrangement ... and there was nothing much to be done there actually ... he left most of the stuffs to our own interpretation and ideas because it's so subjective ... I looked at the watch and saw it was already almost 1pm and i complained being HUNGRY after so many rounds of playing in the morning ... He then stopped the session and did say a few last words to us before we leave for Indon . Pretty good stuffs to learn from ... but like he said , EASIER SAID THAN DONE .. So although deep down i feel i am starting to get a little freaked out at how much effort still need to be put in .. but it's ok

"'I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME"

So we stopped there and i left to buy lunch. And came back to continue practice till almost 4 30pm until i couldn't take it anymore .... was sooooo tired and drained out after several rounds of that song again. Honestly , majoring in electone is really a good way to lose weight and energy. Let's not talk about my metabolism rate being high. Anyway it was quite a productive morning and tomorrow we still have loads to catch up and discuss before finalizing the song ... although these things are pretty subjective to different people , but in the end ... both C.H and i admit that MF has a very soft spoken (berbudi bahasa i call it)personality with different ways of setting registration and sounds while we are the ROUGH and BARBARIC ones - so that explains the little details we kind of not see before him. I have to admit though, one day if MF decides to stop doing music he can try being a comedian. (super lame joker)

Conclusion:

Looks like i've got to sleep and hug the stagea until i reach Jakarta and is over with 23rd.

(yay! I'm on time! it's 11 59pm now! NITE)