Category: Music Journal

Well, actually I don’t know what good voices are made of. According to the book, there are different stages in singing technique breakthrough. Basically, one will encounter of cycles of improvement, setback, and breakthrough.

Yesterday was actually a setback. I hated my voice throughout the jamming session and I hated my vocal recording prior to the session itself. It was as though all the old habits just creeped out from nowhere.

Today, I tried to record my 2nd Christmas song, Don’t Give Up, and to my surprise I was able to record 3 takes in one go without doing any punch-in (i.e. minor correction). It was as though the confidence has come back to me. After Cynthia ok’ed the recording (3rd take to be precise), I was so much relieved that it is over.

I have broadcasted the 1st Christmas song last night and I have received feedback and encouragement from my friends in various forms (emails, online chat, and comments on the site). These messages touch my heart and that is exactly why I keep on moving forward.

Putting Don’t Give Up side by side with The Right To Live (Oh Holy Night) is a big risk. The last time I tried putting one song sang by Cynthia and one song sang by me, the contrast was so great that one song was deemed unacceptable to listen to. And you know which one I am talking about of course.

Nevertheless, I still wish to upload Don’t Give Up mainly because this song is entirely written by me and I would like to dedicate this song to my sister whom is in need of some cheering up right now. Hope she can find the strength she needs from the song.

Well, actually I don’t know what good voices are made of. According to the book, there are different stages in singing technique breakthrough. Basically, one will encounter of cycles of improvement, setback, and breakthrough.

Yesterday was actually a setback. I hated my voice throughout the jamming session and I hated my vocal recording prior to the session itself. It was as though all the old habits just creeped out from nowhere.

Today, I tried to record my 2nd Christmas song, Don’t Give Up, and to my surprise I was able to record 3 takes in one go without doing any punch-in (i.e. minor correction). It was as though the confidence has come back to me. After Cynthia ok’ed the recording (3rd take to be precise), I was so much relieved that it is over.

I have broadcasted the 1st Christmas song last night and I have received feedback and encouragement from my friends in various forms (emails, online chat, and comments on the site). These messages touch my heart and that is exactly why I keep on moving forward.

Putting Don’t Give Up side by side with The Right To Live (Oh Holy Night) is a big risk. The last time I tried putting one song sang by Cynthia and one song sang by me, the contrast was so great that one song was deemed unacceptable to listen to. And you know which one I am talking about of course.

Nevertheless, I still wish to upload Don’t Give Up mainly because this song is entirely written by me and I would like to dedicate this song to my sister whom is in need of some cheering up right now. Hope she can find the strength she needs from the song.

It is Christmas time (and see how happy my wife Cynthia was to receive a gift from a party)! Here is something for you all – two songs that I have recorded just for this festival. I hope that these songs can touch your hearts and to be reminded what Christmas is all about besides all the shopping and partying. The title of the 1st song is The Right To Live (Oh Holy Night) and as for the 2nd song, it is Don’t Give Up.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Right To Live – Written by Wilfrid Wong
Oh Holy Night – Tradition
Vocals: Cynthia Arianto, Wilfrid Wong
12-String Guitar, Classical Guitar, and Bass Guitar: Wilfrid Wong

There are wars that break out everyday
People dying everyday
If we strip away our faith and race
Don’t we all see a common face?

No matter if you’re a believer or not
No matter which religion you come from
We all wish this world a better place
We all love one another like brothers and sisters
We all love one another like brothers and sisters

There are sorrows that plague the world today
Children crying everyday
If we stop to hurt and start to think
Tell me where do these ever make sense?

Let’s give each other peace and love
Let’s give each other the right to live
The right to smile, the right to laugh
The right to share the joys in life
There are many songs that sing this hope
There are many songs that sing this love
Let’s start with a song that I know
Let’s start with a song that I know

O’ Holy night, the stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth
Long lay the world
In sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt His worth

The thrill of hope,
The weary world rejoices
For yonder brings a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees
Oh, hear the angel’s voices
O’ night divine
O’ night when Christ was born
O’ night divine
O’ night, O’ night divine

In this night when hope was born
This is when we started to see
This light that warms our heart
That is when our souls felt its worth

The thrill of hope,
The weary world rejoices
For yonder brings a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees
Oh, hear the angel’s voices
O’ night divine
O’ night when Christ was born
O’ night divine
O’ night, O’ night divine

Don’t Give Up – Written by Wilfrid Wong
Vocal, 12-String Guitar, Classical Guitar, and Bass Guitar: Wilfrid Wong

Don’t give up. Have faith in what you do
Trust in God our Lord who will leave you peace and shelter you
Through the darkest hours of yours

Don’t give up. Have faith in who you are
Trust in God our Lord who will lift you up when you’re down
Time and time again, and again

And when you’re weak, He sends His spirit to dwell within you
Making you stronger each moment you pray with Him
His love for you is overwhelming and so it is this perfect love …
That casts away all your fears

Don’t give up. All you need to do is to
Say His name and he will be there for you
Everything is gonna be fine like before

Don’t give up. Leave it all to Him and you know
In your heart He will carry you once again
So long as you let Him to

And when you’re weak, He sends His spirit to dwell within you
Making you stronger each moment you pray with Him
His love for you is overwhelming and so it is this perfect love …
That casts away all your fears

And this Christmas marks a new beginning
For the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ
And His love has inspired us for thousands of eyars
May you find your strength in His name
May you find your strength in His name

And this Christmas marks a new beginning
For the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ
And His love has inspired us for thousands of eyars
May you find your strength in His name
May you find your strength in His name

Copyright © 2004 by Wilfrid K. F. Wong. All Rights Reserved.

First, it is the recording of the 12-string guitar. It is tough because playing a 12-string guitar by itself is very tough. It requires a lot of stamina from my fingers, mainly because instead of pressing 6 strings in a normal guitar, I have to press 12 instead. So painful to play and so frustrated when I need to rectify my mistakes. Hope the reward is there because 12-string guitar does give a very nice atmostpheric sound.

Next, it is the bass guitar. I am not a bass guitarist and so playing bass is never natural to me. I have to play the notes evenly and at the same volume and it is not easy. It is not as though I have been practicing all these while. Nevertheless, my music cannot live without the bass.

Playing the electric classical guitar is the easiest for me. But the challenge here is to follow the 12-string guitar because even the slightest out-of-sync would be very obvious. And I don’t want that. In fact, I shall innovative a different strumming pattern that complement the 12-string guitar. Tough … tough.

And the vocal recording. What more can I say? I have to love my own voice. I have to love my own voice. I have to …

Of course, we still have all the mixing and fine tweaking …

Passion is beyond all rationale …

Have you ever wondered what recording is like? Have you ever wonder what are the basic ingredients of a home studio? Now, here is the chance to see how I record the songs.

As you can see, recording the 12-string guitars itself is not a trivial tasks. Welcome to my world of recording.

Recording the 12-string guitar is never easy. And I think that getting a bit drunk kind of take the pain out of the concious mind. Today, I have recorded 7 songs in one go. If I didn’t make a irrevisible mistake on the 8th song, I would have ended up with 8 songs. Well, I guess it is a long process. I have till Valentine day 2005 to get it done.

Back in October during one of the warm-up session prior to the jamming session, I had an idea to write a song based on the chords from the Christmas song Oh Holy Night and I did. It is like this … the songs started with lyrics and melody that I have created and then transit smoothly to the well known song Oh Holy Night. The title of my song is The Right To Live (Oh Holy Night).

Now, here is the deal. If more than 3 persons post a comment here and say that they want to listen to this The Right To Live (Oh Holy Night), I will get the recording done before Christmas and have it posted on the website.

Back to the history … perhaps the song was not well practiced (after all, I just wrote it in the morning), Jason kind of liked it but had the concern that it may sound too much like one of the songs from Michael Jackson.

I kind of put the idea aside until recently I have made a recording with Cynthia singing the vocal part of the Oh Holy Night while me singing the The Right To Live at the beginning.

Tonight I played the song again and kind of love it. Perhaps (or more definitely) I need to re-record my vocal and put in the bass.

Again, if more than 3 persons post a comment here and say that they want to listen to the song, I will get the recording done before Christmas and have it posted on the website.

If more than 5 persons post a comment here, I will throw in another original Christmas-like song I have written called Don’t Give Up.

However, if there is no or less than 3 people post a comment here, I may still release these songs just for Christmas.

What are you waiting for? Post some comments!!!

Hey folks, I have just designed the cover for my new album. Please email me and let me know what you think. I think it looks pretty professional. For this new demo album that will be released in the Internet, it will be nothing like the ones I played for my one and only band NoEyeCandy. It is a dedication to my friends and families that have supported me throughout this more than 10 years of my songwriting experience. A big thank you to them. And I have included some songs that they love as well as songs that I love and yet my friends and families just stood by my insanity.

I will be playing all the instruments and all the tracks will be recorded in my humble home studio.

And the back …

People kind of giggled a little bit when they heard that I bought the book Singing For Dummeis. I just so glad that I have bought that book (together with another more profession one that I hope will arrive at my doorstep before Christmas). I did not realised that I have committed so many vocal crimes. It is hard to describe the tranformation. I can say that there is improvement in my singing. However little it is, it is always welcome.

Sad discovery goes first. Today, I dug up one of the song that I have lyrics completed back in Nov 12 with the first verse recorded. I wanted to finish the song especially the title of the song Emptiness does suit today’s mood. Once I have written the melody of the 2nd verse, I realised that the two verse may not gel and most disturbingly was the fear that the song will become one of the “non-jamable” items.

I then discarded the entire 2nd verse and repeated the chords from the 1st verse. It sounded ok but when I listened to the previous version, this new “jamable” piece was just too ordinary. All of a sudden, my fountain of creativity just ran dry on me. How sad to realise that.

And then I moved on recording the Cantonese song (again!) with my dynamic mic. I went bored and that was when the cool discovery kicked in.

I muted most of the 12-string guitar track and only played it at some of the song’s transition. In another words, I sang the song with just the beat and no music in the background. When I listened to the entire recording with the music track, I can’t tell that the vocal track was recorded mainly without any music background.