I have been gearing up this month to begin working on my current music projects that I am doing and started looking at music genres to write for. There is a possibility of adding two more projects for this year; a Christmas CD; it would be instrumental and my take on them. Building a list at the moment of public domain Christmas songs. The second project will be a Theme oriented CD; a selection of theme oriented cues that could be used in film or tv.
For this year 2019
1. Lullaby Project CD (in progress)
2. Solo Piano Project CD (in progress)
3. Christmas CD
4. Themes CD (in progress)
I also have my music submissions to submit to the music libraries I am signed with each month.
Last month there was opportunities for me to score some short films from the Sydney Film School but I could not do due to the time factor that it had to be done by and my wife and I was leaving for Singapore. I am hoping this opportunity window continues to be open for me to score some future short films.
Lately I have been listening and analyzing various TV shows old and new and films on orchestrations trying to make sense of it all…
From what I remember back in the 80’s, there is no familiarity with me in the present. Everything here in Singapore has change visually. It is a lot more commercialized now than before. The city transportation to me is very efficient; buses and MRT trains running orderly; taxis are operating normally as I remembered; no flagging them down from the street you have to queue up in a line; but what I am hearing now it cost a lot more to go by taxi than before. On the bus I have noticed all the high riser apartments with a food court and little shops to accommodate them like groceries, pharmacies, etc…
I sometimes feel like I am in a miniature city while riding on the bus; the roads are well kept and everywhere I see is like we are riding around in a big garden that has tall buildings and landscapes of trees and flowers everywhere. The Orchard Road street is completely different but the shopping is still the same. I have seen more influence of the western culture here than before. The eastern influence seems to be with the older people trying to adapt to the new surroundings and their present status seems to be in question with me because I have seen some of them working in retail stores & food courts and I know that they should be retired. However, I am unsure what kind or any kind of social security or supplement from the government they would get at what age and how much…
There has been short bursts of rain here almost everyday since we arrived. With the rain, it is much cooler than I remembered but still humid and sticky. The clubs where we played in the 80’s are completely erased from the present; like it never existed; that is how much this place has changed. The local food courts are still inexpensive and you could have 3 full dinners with boba teas for around $20 Australian dollars. I was able to get a new temper glass shield for my Iphone and a brand new phone case all for $12 Australian dollars…
There is a upright Yamaha piano here but I have not played on it as much as I thought I would. Lots of reflecting here and looking forward to focus on music projects when we are back in Sydney. Singapore was a musician road vibe to me in the beginning but I became more of a tourist than a musician on the road after a week. I was actually bittersweet being here appreciating what they done in the present but reminiscing what was before.
I feel that the best way to perform anything live is to rehearse as you are performing live. Most rehearsals usually one or two musicians are learning the tunes during the rehearsal which can be frustrating if other musicians already know the tunes; or a guitar player or bass player will already know the tunes but just sit down on a amp or chair while they rehearse. If this sounds familiar you are not rehearsing the way you are going to perform live. For me, the ideal way of rehearsing is to get close to how you are going to perform in a live situation. It is always best to perform live as much as possible if your not not going to rehearse often. To perform live on something never been rehearsed forces you to really focus on your performance. By all means performances are not always perfect but the goal is to be consistently be performing at a high level and be the best you can be. Being consistent performing at a high level puts you in that circle of perfection.
Gwen Brisco show rehearsals
During my touring days when we would rehearse for a new show, we would have a learning the tunes session first. Then rehearse as if we playing live and start experimenting with transitions between songs and creating dances sequences for the dancers. The idea was to always workout the technical things first then rehearse it as if we were playing live. After a while once we were able to go through the rehearsal performances, our manager would come down and take a look at it, and if it didn’t feel right to him visually or musically, we would have to adjust to make changes in music arrangements or dance sequences. Our shows sets were basically around 90 minutes long. We usually had 3 shows sets when we were on the road. Usually our shows on the road would lead up to some important gigs (shows) to perform at. Prior to those important gigs, and if it was a new show, it would get performed constantly to work out the performance timing of the show as I would call it. I think performance timing is similar to a comedian, or entertainer when they are working on new material in front of a live audience; working out the kinks and performing interacting to a live audience is the best way to describe it before doing the important gigs.
It is a vibe that comes from the musicians in the band playing together as one; meaning that the musicians are having musical conversations with each other through their instruments. For me I have been fortunate to have played with two fellow musicians (bass player and drummer) since we were kids and then traveled the world touring (over 30 countries) together playing music in our 20’s. Being able to have these musical conversations of playing together is a result of many years playing together and understanding how to play together musically. You can not just put together great players in a band and expect that universal vibe to happen. It just does not work that way. This is the most overlook part of playing or performing music; being able to play musically together and having conversations musically with each other in the band. For me I did not really understand this until I started touring; and it makes sense because I was 24/7 with the guys in the band. We did everything together. Rehearsing 12-16 hrs 5-6 days a week for two months before going on tour was the norm for us. I began to gradually understand how to play musically together in a band. This universal vibe come from musicians who understood how to play musically together and have been playing with the same fellow musicians for a very long time and maybe at one point 24/7. When you look at the the most successful bands it is quite apparent that they have being playing together for quite a while before they even became famous. Other examples would be the Funk Brothers from Motown, The Wrecking Crew, and top Studio session players. All these musicians have one thing in common; they have played with the same fellow musicians for a long time and at one point 24/7; but most important the chemistry between them personally and musically together and enjoying having the musical conversations with each other in a band through their instruments is what that universal vibe is.
I have read this book a few years ago. Found it to be very insightful when it comes to successful productive people. I find myself always going back to what I have read on books that focused on self-improvement and I am always reflecting where I am in the present; and I realize that your present is never the same. It changes every time you make some kind of mental breakthrough or surrounding environment with yourself. You have to constantly relook and refocus at everything that you do in your present life. Although all success blueprints in self-improvement books have common themes, it boils down to your personal perspective on what you need to do. These self-improvement books are merely just guides.
In the book Outliers, there is a chapter on the 10,000 rule which basically says that successful people had invested at least 10,000 hours into their development of their skills. It is believed that investing 10,000 hours into whatever skill you are doing you will become most likely successful at it. What I got out of this particular chapter is that whatever skills you have invested 10,000 hours in means that you have come to a point where your particular skill has become part of your DNA. Something that you do not have to think about the skill, (technical aspect of it) you just do it naturally. Your DNA skill is inspired by your heart expressing how you feel and communicating to some kind of universal purpose. Looking at this from my perspective; a piano player who at a very young age focused mainly on piano technique to help me express myself better as a player/performer and practice many hours just exploring (improvising) on the piano has become my DNA skill. It is a personal success for me to be able to have this DNA skill to compose music.
A recent video of me just improvising being in the moment.
This coming Friday our upcoming trip, my wife and I will be going to Singapore and stay throughout December. It would be a little over 30 years since I was in Singapore; in fact my girlfriend at the time who is now my wife met me there to follow me home to the USA after our tour ended. I was fortunate that she met my parents back then since now they have passed on. While in Singapore, I am hoping to reunite with some musician friends who I met back then; and I will be meeting my wife’s nephew and his wife and newborn who lives here for the first time. We will also be celebrating our 3rd anniversary.
With the Lullaby album project in the works, I am looking ahead and planning to do a solo piano album project and have already started working on some ideas for it. I was inspired by George Winston’s solo piano albums and this is something I have always wanted to do but never got around to it.
with George Winston at the City of Hope Bone Marrow Reunion 2016
George Winston and I have had bone marrow transplants from the City of Hope, Duarte, California. Once a year the City of Hope will host a reunion party for all bone marrow transplant patients who has had it done there. Next year will be 25 years since my bone marrow transplant.
At the moment I have not decided what I will do when the Lullaby and Solo piano projects are ready to be released. (Licensing or album release) I am hoping to release both projects sometime next year.
I was discharged last Sunday. I am still on antibiotics now taken orally instead of IV. My left hand is not as swollen as it was a few days ago but still I am limited in my dexterity on playing the piano.
Gout has been an issue here with me since moving here. Although I’ve had only a couple of bad flare ups this year; last year I was getting it almost every other month. Since my heart attack back late January of this year, I have made some changes slowly in my diet and now walking regularly. The second of the gout flare up this year happen in the hospital last week. I am guessing the beef processed dinners I had for a couple of days caused the flare up. So the infection and gout pain together has been increasing my blood pressure significantly.
I had to see my renal doctor last Monday due to the creatinine levels was not normal to the doctors when I was in the hospital. Fortunately my renal doctor knew my health history from the City of Hope where I had my bone marrow transplant in 1994; my creatinine levels was much worse back then than now. It seems that my kidneys at one point got better but stayed around 50-60% functioning ever since. I know as we get older our kidneys normally decreases in full functioning slowly.
Reflecting back on my health all these years, it all started with a diagnosed of leukemia in 1993 and had a bone marrow transplant in 1994; had a heart attack last January of this year and had 2 stents put in my heart for the blockages I had in my main arteries; and a slowly but steady declining of my kidneys functioning all these years; and gout.
Something I’ve been aware of a while back called the Pareto principle. It is what you call investing 20% of something you are doing that gives you 80% of your outcome. For me, it was focusing on my piano technique 20% of my time during my road days and it gave me the freedom to improvise and express myself freely 80% of the time.
It can be a constant struggle to focus on that 20% to get that 80% outcome. I am guilty of this and it will sometimes goes against you; while you are thinking that your focusing 20% of your time, you are actually focusing 80% of your time that might not be working on what your focusing on and you will end up with 20% of your outcome.
I guess it comes down to knowing what you need to focus on to get that outcome you are looking for. It can sometimes be a trial and error on what you need to focus on.
At the moment investing 20% on organizing my composing writing process helps me focus on just the music that I am creating. I have been creating templates on my DAW for specific music genres for sometime now and continue to explore and create more templates for other musical genres. It has also been a journey through trial and error with the Post mix and Mastering mix stages but setting up these DAW templates for them seems to be evolving constantly when I learn something new on mixing.
Most importantly my health has been affected by my 80% of doing the wrong things for many years and have now been slowly focusing on the 20% on doing the right things health wise that will eventually benefit me 80% of the time.
Currently composing new piano lullabies. Not sure how many I will write. I have 5 piano lullaby’s ready to record so far. My last lullaby project was called ” For the Little Ones ” dedicated to the cancer kids at City of Hope. Here is Lullabies 1 & 2 that I posted a while back on SoundCloud.
