東亞 Artists & Writers Gathering

It is nice to get to know other writers and learn from their composing experience. To my surprise, many of us new writers did not have proper music training, and many even cannot play an instrument properly. We all picked up some music theories and chords on the way and rely heavily on softwares.

Also we all have other day jobs to feed us so that we can make music as a hobby.

I can see the music industry is shrinking, but the quality of music is definitely improving. As more and more people like us where we just want to compose. Our passion is to make music rather than make money. 

Stars

Okay my new composition is finally done. Yet another song inspired by Danny Chan's. I was checking out the old CD's one saturday morning randomly and I heard the song "不再問究竟". The special melody and Danny's vocal performance caught my attention once again after God knows how many years since I heard that song last. I listened to the song a few times and the lyric story kept my mind occupied and I have this picture in my head that want to write something about it. 

So I came up with this demo "Stars".  It is a female version of the story where the girl accepted the break up but didn't want to cry in front of her boyfriend. So she kept her face up pretending she was watching the stars so that her tears wont run down her face.

As the melody and lyric came very naturally, the whole song was written within an hour or so. When inspiration hits, it feels like the song was given to me rather than composing it. It is a truly magical experience.

(Special thanks to Ricky, who made my life easy by playing the piano parts for me. You rock, Mate!)

黑洞

The song 黑洞 was written in mid July, just a couple of weeks before my birthday.

My younger brother had a fatal cycling accident and required to have an urgent brain surgery. There was nothing we could do but pray for his life.

Thankfully, the operation was successful and while he was recovering in the ICU, I was overly exhausted and it was the third nights that I was not able to sleep. Occupied by the grieving emotion that I needed to let it out, so I just went to piano and played randomly, and this song was born.

With no calculation, no planning, merely the expression of the unbearable weight of worries, it was a very effective remedy for me.

The lyric was later written by my friend 頡臣 based on his understand of my feeling.

I thank GOD for taking care of my brother and let me have a new perspective to life.

Rock on!

Okay it might be a 3rd plug now!

Okay, my first song has been modified for the forth times now.

First, it was the arrangement. then it was the lyric, then it was the vocal performance and today they said the song form!

So instead of the original A1-B1-C1-A2-B2-C1-C2, it is now A1-B1-C1-B2-CI-C2-A2.

So the arrangement is to be re-done, and the is vocal to be re-sing.

Now they say it could be the 3rd plug song. No promise but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Yesterday was a fun day. Finally had the chance to meet other new writers from eastasia at the CASH workshop. It is nice to exchange ideas with other composers!!! yeah!

Hello, anyone seen my melody?

I waited for the weekend and hoping to compose something. I had this melody in my head for the whole week but then... when I started my mac, the hard drive was not working... what a nightmare. I end up fixing my Mac for 4 hours, luckily, all projects stayed intact. But then I totally forgot the melody. When it's gone, it's gone. May be it will just come out again sometime when I am relaxed, very relaxed. I was told by my lecturer in cognition science ( yeah, my BA in visual communication was based on cognition science theory). That my brain is actually still processing it in the background. So it should come out again one day.

Recording with Cherry

My song is properly recorded in a studio today. My friend Tse Kit is the producer of the album where young Cherry is the artist. She did a few of my demos before and I am happy that she is going to be the singer of my song.

This is one of the first song that I seriously composed and made a finished demo in July 2006. The original demo is called " 抬起頭．笑著走 ". Lyric by Betty and vocal by Carol.

I felt great seeing them giving life to my song, and I really look forward to hear the final mastering.

多謝 Paco!

I have waited for 3 years. And this week, my dream comes true.
Stephy Tang Lai Yan 鄧麗欣 is going to have my song in her next CD. I have always daydreamed to have my music published and always wondered if it happens who will be the artist.

It feels great! "THANK YOU PACO".

隔膜 Sold!

Today a phone call notify me one of my song was sold. The singer is a new artist called Colleen. I have never heard of her. But it is going to be produced by 金培達 Wow, that's pretty cool. The song was written and modified many times and the final version was co-wrote by Tse kit and me.

眼淚讓我流 - my own favourite, so far!

I wrote the song in early 2008. It was the day of CNY. A day of ultra cold 8 degree C. Quite obviously, Danny Chan's fans will know this is a song name that I got from one of his early hit 眼淚為你流.

It was in the morning. Totally freezing. I was awaken by this melody in mind. Most likely I was emotionally moved by the local artists' scandal during those days. There was nothing the victims could do, except crying. The feeling was so strong that made me finished the song in 30 mins with most of the lyric. I just named it "Tears".

In the chorus, I deliberately used 2 lines directly from Danny's song, because that was the very first thing that I thought of when I first heard about the news. It is just a weird thing to keep having that melody in my head, so I just felt like to document it. To some people it is like copying, but to me, it is a sacred connection between me and Danny.

The composition expressed a devastating feeling from a female point of view. So I used a very basic minor progression to compose the melody.

I am sure I will need to change the lines to avoid copyrights issue in order to sell the song, but I really enjoy this feeling of connection with the pass using music.