Wendy Phua

For those who made it down to the bass workshop yesterday at *Scape Centre, thanks for the support! It was indeed an awesome event and definitely should be a precursor to more shows like this. My fellow bass performers Din Safari, Bani Rahman, Matnor, Melvin and Anis were inspiring as always and it is an honour playing alongside such bass heroes. Supporting musicians Paul Das, Alvin and Munir were great as well, a big shout out to you all for making it down. Thank you James from soft.com.sg for making this happen :)And of course my personal thanks to those who managed to buy a copy of my EP. Your support makes it all worthwhile.

To recap, my rig set up for yesterday’s bass workshop was as follows:
4-string Tobias Classic > GT6B > L/R out to Line 6 DL4 > L/R out to 2 Line 6 Bass Amps (1 EQ to focus on highs and one EQ to focus on lows). “Between Here And Then” live looping song included use of a violin half-bow

“BETWEEN HERE AND THEN” EP online purchase:

I will be continuing the sales of my EP here at only SGD 5 (excluding international shipping costs). Local shipping costs will be waived.

The EP contains 3 of the songs which I played at yesterday’s Bass Day, replete with string orchestrations on “Sojourn” and drum tracks on “Stormy Weather” (these 2 were played with just the bass as a solo instrument yesterday). The live looping song “Between Here And Then” features the violin half bow. All songs were recorded, mixed and mastered TOTALLY diy at home with the help of my life mate Mo who has been the biggest support in my music. For those who own a copy of the EP, I sincerely hope you enjoy it as much as I did making the recordings.

I’m helping James from www.soft.com.sg organise a bass day and will be playing in it too.featuring also new bass solo songs that include a live looping composition I just came up with lately.

Event: SOFT Gathering
Date: 2 Feb 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 12pm - 6pm
Venue: *scape Youth Centre (indoor) www.scape.com.sg/
Ticket: FREE!!
Amps: Line6 - www.citymusic.com.sg

The LoDown in Music -
Bass Day Workshop

2pm - 2.30pm : Din Safari
Ten Ingredients In Music
Intrepid bassist Din Safari is best known as the low-ender in professional working outfit Jive Talking, a highly popular band touted by lifestyle publication IS Magazine (Singapore), as “THE BEST CLUB BAND IN SINGAPORE”. Din is also the organizer behind the highly successful Bass Music Camp held in Asia, comprising teachings on Musical Awareness, Principle of Music and the role of a Bass player. For this module, he will be providing an insight into another upcoming Bass Music Camp he is organizing in June with discussions on The Ten Ingredients in music.

2.30pm - 3pm : Bani Rahman
How To Groove Hip
As one of Singapore’s busiest bass sessionists, Bani Rahman’s distinctive bass tone has landed him numerous performing and recording sessions with notable artists like Tanya Chua, Art Fazil, Singapore Idol Taufik Batisah at his “Thank you Concert”, Rosli Mansor, Nathan Hartono, Blindspot and Brinal Chua. Bani has also co-produced and recorded on music for various Cartoon Network’s productions. In this module, apart from sharing useful tips on the trade of being a professional session bassist, Bani will demonstrate on the tricky technique of locking a tight groove with a live drummer in various rhythmic situations.

3pm - 3.30pm : Matnor
Harmonic Highlights
With more than 20 years beneath his belt as a professional working bassist and music educator, Matnor has come a long way since his days as the bassist in Singapore’s earliest hit band, Teacher’s Pet. He has also done various session performances with known artists like Zubir Abdullah and Nuradee. Best known for his meticulous pedagogy as a bass teacher, Matnor will extend his knowledge of the bass with a specific attention to details on the technique of playing bass harmonics without breaking into a sweat.

3.30pm - 4pm : Wendy Phua
Tapping into Harmony
Solo bassist and composer Wendy Phua first began exploring the outer boundaries of bass whilst playing in a prog-rock band under her lead called ZHEN. Since then she has been actively composing bass solo songs with a distinctly keyboard approach on the bass, using ambidextrous tapping methods. Wendy will discuss the technique of bass tapping and how it can be used to deliver conventional bass lines while simultaneously spelling out chordal harmonies. Wendy is currently in the midst of recording an album featuring the bass as a solo instrument, and she will perform songs from the album demonstrating bass tapping methods.

4pm - 4.30pm : Melvin Wong
Bassically Trading
In a constant strive to hone one’s playing on the bass, most bassists would often overlook the finer details of the instrument anatomy itself and the various options of sound each type of bass produces. Avid bass collector and bassist Melvin Wong throws a light on the murky approach to evaluating and purchasing basses, especially used instruments, and how to avoid pitfalls of bad electronics and warped necks. Expounding on what a buyer ought to look out for, from the make of the bass, its electronics and even its re-sale value, this fascinating module is especially useful for both new players and bassists who are looking to start a bass collection.

4.30pm - 5pm : Anis
Married To Rock!
Let your hair down and hang loose with the teeth-grinding bassist Anis from Ministry Of Rock, Singapore’s best known export of Heavy Metal fronted by Legendary Jatt Ali and Singapore’s known “Guitar Shredder” Paul Danial. Anis will share about what it takes to deliver 200% night after night as a member of the high-energy resident hard rock & metal band at the HOUSE OF ROCK club. Anis will also impart his secrets on effective speed picking, cross-string fingering coordination and how to apply bass effects tastefully. This is the ultimate workshop for bassists “married” to their bass!

After being ridiculously busy for the past few months with unforseeable matters that always seem to crop up, I finally got the time to improve past recordings AND come up with more new tunes.Some materialised as thought they were just waiting to be found while some are still taking me great pains to complete as how I see fit. In any case, I’ve re-recorded Classical Sojourn and it sounds WAY better now with a clearer mix. Stormy Weather (the song in the youtube video attached) has been recorded with drums and put up here too, so you can actually hear the difference in that song with and without drum tracks. I still consider this a demo arrangment stage so will most probably put up a final mix later. Lastly, a new song I wrote on Ableton from what was initially a looping experiment - Between Here And Now. This will be performed as a live looping song so it’ll be fun. Will be posting up more tunes over this New Year wkend hols. yes I refuse to partake in the senseless celebration of a new year that occurs every year anyway.

You can tune into to the new song uploads under the “Listen Music” page.

enjoy.

well the show went considerably well despite the thunderstorms and hurricanes. interestingly, whilst preparing for soundcheck, yani and I were jamming my songs and it started raining like there was no tomorrow. BUT when we went on to jam Yani’s songs, the clouds almost immediately went away….now wat’s with that?

anyways a bunch of photos are up thanks to Jason and his lovely camera. you the man!~

also we got videos up too. first time I’m singing and playing the guitar so .. u get bump notes and all. but nonetheless - enjoy

as some of my rookie students were having problems finding my place for bass lessons, not that i’m putting up my add on the web, here’s a decent start to finding a way to get to my area once you find out the add from me >> the bus planner

Singapore is really way too small, you won’t get lost even if you try

for those musicians who fancy yourselves egalitarians and wish to make the world a better place by giving away your music free, you will still need to arm your creative selves with other forms of protection. Creative Commons is an awesome idea for creative individuals like you! a must check it out

it’s been a while since my last entry due to a deluge of commitments that would be too bothersome to describe here.

so..

let’s talk about something more interesting. I came across an article “The Professional Suicide of a Recording Musician” recently broaching on the much debated subject of making music free. As the author of the article Bob Ostertag (an experimental audio artist based in San Francisco) puts it, “When record companies first appeared, their services were required in order for people to listen to recorded music….Now their main function is to prohibit people from listening to music unless they pay off these corporations.”

A compelling article that’s so relevant to our lives as musicians, I felt it is my duty to share it with everyone.

Come Dec on the 15th I’ll be performing with a long-time friend and talented musician, Yani, at a gig coming up in Esplanade. We will be featured under the moniker ’skin’ .. as in we wana play songs that get under your skin..heheh. ANYWAYS I will be playing bass AND guitar during the set, plus I’ll probably be singing a few songs that I’m including within my album, woohoo.One of Singapore’s perservering ardent supporter of local music Audioreload.com is considering a relaunch very soon and I will be featured in a special showcase video to mark the Fvent along with a few other musicians. The video could be slotted in early next year (possibly Jan or feb) and I will be playing solo on bass along with some live looping and bass bowing. may be I should also just jump through a ring of fire while I’m at this madness…

hmmn out of curiosity and since we’re all so bored most of the time, if you’re reading this, why not drop me a comment and let me know what you might like to see on a bass video since the audioreload video will be online and YOU can view it WHEREVER you are be it Jakarta or Zimbabwe. i’ll take the most far out suggestion and see where that can go!

Hey hey, the wonderful guys from Gibson has done a review on Tonequest and it’s up on the Gibson Blog with more photos! so do swing by and check it out cheerios

well the video recording of my bass solo performance at Artshouse is finally up. if you enjoy this, drop me a comment or email and feel free to pass it around to all your frens and enemies cheers, wendy phua