I know I haven’t done this for the super longest time. But when I heard the first song of this album, I said I must share it with those of  you who read my blog. This is Francesca Battistelli’s latest album and its creating waves on the billboard but more so on my creative juices. I’ve been waiting to hear an album like this for a long long time.

If you like Colbie Caillat and some of the really catchy pop tunes that you hear on radio with a little folk twist to is. This is the album to get. The hooks on each song is amazing! She write all her songs too!!! If you like singer songwriter type of music. I think she tops all the ladies I’ve ever heard in the gospel music category. I’m analyzing the music and she’s a genius! My only regret is that I never bought her earlier albums.

Usually you like only one song in an album. I like EVERY SONG! This is crazy. Super inspiring. This album is filled with catchy melodies, excellent arrangements, exciting harmonies. The mastering sounds excellent bringing the clarity of the music instruments so clearly that I can hear every detail of the album easily. Mixing is perfect as the engineers visualization of mixing makes me feel so intimate with the recording. Ian Eskelin has got into my books as one great producer too because of this. I’m a fan!

This album gets my satisfaction guarantee status! Donny if you read this you’ll love this album get it!!!! Actually anyone who knows me and trusts my taste you must get this!!!!!!

Sorry super super happy an excited on an album. This is like what I’ve been looking for a year!!!! I’ve spent literally thousands of dollars this year on CDs and this is the first that has got me so excited!

Okie now I’m going to hear this album a million times. BYE!

Song Title: Do It Your Way

Written by: Cheh Peng, Chu Qiao, Jia Zhi, Kai Sin, Leon Lim

It is finally time I post another song. This song was inspired during our song writing workshop. Together with 4 other wonderful people I wrote this song. I hope you all will like it.

I’m posting up the demo again. I somehow like the feel of the song. Just gives me the drive! Yeah….

This song was inspired when a catch phrase came up among us ‘Do It Your Way’. We were really struggling to get something out of our heads that everyone would really agree on. But this phrase just inspired us to know that we really just wanted it God’s way. The music just came to me as something passionately I wanted to scream out. With some nice lines given by Cheh Peng.

The Lyrics were masterfully crafted by all of them brainstorming what they really wanted to tell God. How we struggle to let it all go. But indeed we just want to let it go because we know what God has installed is the best. His way, His will. In the end we came out with this. Hope you guys love it

Do It Your Way

Verse:

I am weak but You are strong

When I’m down, You lift me up

When my strength is gone

Refresh my heart

Search me Lord and know my thoughts

Deep inside I’ve always fought

I’m holding on it’s hard to let it go

Pre-Chorus:

Teach me and lead me

To glorify Your name

Chorus:

Do it Your way

Do it Your way

Not mine but Your will be done

Lord do it Your way

Do it Your way

Do it Your way

I surrender all to You

My everything

Lord do it Your way

Verse 2:

Forgiven all my hidden faults

My cherished sins my secret gods

Your loving grace

Has filled my life anew

I stand before you now redeemed

Your crimson blood has washed me clean

My heart is Yours

You have set me free

Bridge:

I’m letting go

I’m letting go

I’ll live for you alone

(Repeat)

I have finally learnt how to stream the songs! Hallelujah! It was so tough trying to understand it but now. It is done!

This is a demo of the song we’ve done in the studio some weeks back. We’ve introduced it to the congregation last week. I’m leading it this week. What do you think of the song? Please please please share your comments. We need to gather your feedback as we’re deciding which songs to put into our album that we’re working on.

How did this song come to life?

Pastor’s inspired song was kept shelved for years. The project in which this song was supposed to be part of got shelved because of various reasons. When I came here, this was what I was assigned to do. Revive this project. We are naming it ‘Everlasting Project’! The joke is that this project was everlasting and never would be finished.

My understanding would be that this project will be everlasting and will continue to glorify God for the longest time! Amen?

So I was given 10 songs….the first one I worked on was this one. I was inspired to change the feel of the song. Bringing slightly slower and give it a more modern ballad feel. I’m wondering now if i should post up the old version for you all to hear the difference…..nah….hahaha. I’m so glad my boss allowed me to change his song slightly. Also he allowed me to post this up. I’m so honored.

I also changed the song to have two keys. The verse and the chorus being different keys to raise the feeling and mood of the song to focus on God.

Here are the lyrics of the song for your reference:

Verse:
No greater beauty I’ll ever see
No deeper wisdom can ever be
No Peace of mind I’ll ever find
Than what I’ve found in you

Verse (cont’d):
*No ocean wider than Your open arms
No mountain higher than Your mercy
No place on earth has purer love
Than what I’ve found in you

Chorus:
In You there’s hope for the hopeless
In You rest forevermore
In You there’s faith and forgiveness
Healing for sickness in You

Chorus (cont’d)
In You, in You
There’s strength for tomorrow
In You joy for our sorrow
In You unmerited favour in Jesus our Saviour
And that’s what I’ve found in

Song Composer : Lee Meng Cham

Singer :  *blush* me. So it is not so nice ok?  heehehe

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Side note: it looks like he is using a Taylor 514 ce there…..ooooo my guitar soooo coool

My baby sitting pretty on my bed

I have been having the urge to re-string my guitar for the longest time. But somehow I just couldn’t get myself to do it for some weird reasons. After procrastinating for months, I finally got down to it!! At midnight last night. Am I crazy or what? I just felt like it. Haha, you’re right, I actually follow my emotions a lot!

So there lay my baby….beautiful as can be. And to treat your baby right you need the right tools. You want to spoil her not SPOIL her. First I must say, the way I do this may not be the way professionals agree on doing it. Now I must say I am not pro, I just find that this work for me.

First I have my new strings! My favorites are these; Ernie Ball Super Slinky Coated Titanium’s. Why? I’m no Elixir fan because they are too bright and just not my kind of sound. I was recommended these by a friend. I tried a few out before this and I must say these sound the sweetest. They cost the same as elixirs though‚Ķthat’s a downside. Upside is I really like the fact that it has titanium reinforcements cause I’m really a heavy strummer. Now I can play hard and not worry they’ll snap on me. I was wondering‚Ķ..will they really work? They do. I can’t even break my old strings. These strings have kind of a nice blend in between normal phosphor bronze strings sound and elixir bright sounds. Another thing I really really like? They are coated and are gold in color on the 1st 3 strings‚Ķ..nice! They are not silver like the usual. So nice!!

Next is a must have. The ultimate guitar-tuning tool! The planet waves pro winder. It is a tuner head winder, string clipper and a bridge pin puller. It is not expensive too. And it works. It does the job well as you will see later.

Pro-winder transform!!

Then you must have a good cloth to wipe your guitar. Not just any cloth but one that will not scratch your guitar. There are many many types of cloths available. Micro fiber cloths are good too. I have one but I’m not using that this time.

To accompany the cloth to remove the dirt, I got this Fender mist cleaner. It is not a polish because some say that polish actually spoils the guitar finish. This is just to remove those things that dirty you guitar like oil, dried saliva and dust! Hehe yeah quite disgusting.

So the first thing I do is loosen the strings.

Then I’ll remove the bridge pins. Use the pro-winder or else you’ll damage your bridge‚Ķ

Then I unwind the tuning heads one by one until they are loosed enough for me to remove the strings from the bridge.

It is time to remove the unwind strings at the headstock then

My photographer had to arrange the pins and take this photograph!

I usually coil together the old strings like that together for easy disposal

It is time to clean my guitar. Body, neck and all until it is shiny miny! (I invented that word; shiny miny. Nice?). Oh I don’t spray anything on the neck area. Only the body and head stock. I think it will damage it.

Looking good with the new set of strings all ready…..can you spot my toes? hahaha

After cleaning it so beautifully, it is time to re-string it with the new set of strings.

Unpacking them gently then placing them in the bridge holes then, I proceed to place the bridge pins in.

Then I start with the thickest string first, the 6th string. After putting in through the tuning heads hole, I then use one hand to hold it at the hole then with the other, I use my thumb to stretch it up and measure it with my pointer finger on the 5th fret. The height of the second finger will give it just the right length for tuning. If you have long fingers. You could probably use the 4th fret.

With that length held earlier, that hand will proceed to bend the strings at the hole at a 90 degrees angle.

It is time to cut off the extra length of string and then now we can begin tuning that string until you get a reasonably good tension (not too much). Turning the tuning head anti clockwise. You will see that the length works out beautifully. I do that for all the strings by order. Take note that you turn the bottom tuning heads anti clock wise as well.

See how nice the length turned out on the tuning head? Not too much not too little?

My transforming pro winder cutting the string snip snip snip

All nice and trimmed

When I’ve got all 6 strings done. I start tuning from the 6th string again with a tuner. Each time stretching the string a little and re-tuning. If this is not done, you will realize that the tuning will run as you play. Do it as many times as necessary until the pitch becomes stable and doesn’t go out of tune. Do it with every string then you will see that the 6th string will be out of tune again because the neck tension has changed. So I would repeat it until the strings pitch doesn’t run.

Ta da! We’re done. So easy! Right? I hope I have been clear enough haha. Here are some more pics of my baby. She sounds so so so so sweet now.

I’d rather have bad times with you, than good times with someone else
I’d rather be beside you in a storm, than safe and warm by myself
I’d rather have hard times together, than to have it easy apart
I’d rather have the one who holds my heart

Man, that is just so awesome and cool. This was one song that hooked me the first time I heard it years ago . Enjoy

This is a picture of our beautiful studio in church

I have been given responsibility of a huge project and I’m really really nervous. It is the church’s CD project. This year we will be coming up with a live worship album! I’m so excited at the same time very nervous and worried. The timeline seems to past too fast.

There will be a Live Worship at my church at the end of the year and it will be recorded into an album of all entirely Grace written songs. If I am fortunate enough and if the songs are good enough, you will hear some of them in the album. The recording process and song writing process that we’ve been doing so far is pretty exciting. I can’t wait.

Closer look at the board!

The pressure to perform and to make it nice is also killing me. I don’t know if I can do it! For any Grace member who reads this blog. Join me in the excitement. You’ll be hearing these songs introduced to you in the worship services very soon. We want to hear your feedback on which song really blesses you and we’ll choose the best to be placed in the album.

Also if you have written songs. Submit them! Quickly. We covet your songs! Spread the word around. Just send me the song with a vocal and an instrument playing and we’ll do the rest. If your song has the potential to make it, it will sound great, trust me

For the rest, I will work on streaming the song demos for you all to hear. Give us your feedback ok? Tell us if you love it or loathe it. We want honest feedbacks. Thank you.

Another angle of our studio workspace

I came across this album about a week ago. I went on a mad cd shopping frenzy again and my friend got angry with me cause I grabbed one cd from her. Sobs, I’m a terrible person. I want to apologize here. Please forgive me.

Sighsssssss bad news aside, I am here to review a CD. I chose this cd firstly is because this stood out among the rest when I first placed it in to my player. The first song got me out of my seat! There aren’t many Christian Rock bands with a female lead singer. Even more, I most I’ve heard so far boring. Now this one is plain hot! It just really made adrenaline rush through my body.

This is in between heavy rock and pop rock. Reminds me of something what I felt when I first heard the secular band Evanescense. They have that sort of feel, but not so gothic and dark. Very positive sounding yet very strong with the emotions. Feels like I want to scream my lungs out. I must also say that their hooks in their songs are nice! I have yet to read up more about them but lyrically they sound really cool. Teenagers will love them.

Her voice is sweet yet so strong. Oooh very very nice! Mastering sounds good too, it is a very well produced album in my opinion. I have been looking for an album like this for a long time. Even more a rock female singer. We needed a good one. I’m loving them. I wanted to scream out all the emotions inside and these songs just got out all the negative emotions inside me.

I really love the song ‘Stand Up’. Man I want to scream like that. I only wish I was a rock singer! Haha…..little dream of being a rock star coming out haha. No la, I cannot sing rock. Look at the lyrics, it’s just so cool! And the song is great as well.

Look at all the lonely hearts
Shivering out in the dark
Hiding from the truth
Cover up the proof
Demons that I’ve tried to hide
Imprison me in my own lies
And all that I can do is cover up the proof
Don’t be afraid to…

Stand up!
Stand up if you’re broken
Stand up!
Stand up if you feel ashamed
You are not alone when you hurt this way
Stand up!
Stand up if you need love
Stand up!
This is not judgment day
You don’t have to hide
There’s no need to run
Everything will be okay

Secrets got me torn apart
Trying to destroy my heart
But I can see the light
It’s cutting through the night
Don’t run away
(Don’t run away)
Don’t be afraid to…

You say You love me
That’s all I’ll ever need
If You say I’m good enough
That’s good enough for me

The best part, is I love every song in the album, which is rare because I seldom like every song in an album even though it is from my favorite artists. This is their second album, before this I didn’t hear of them. Now this album made headlines with 4 Dove Award nominations!

Artist of the Year

Rock/Contemporary Album

Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song – Unbreakable

Rock Recorded Song – The Hunger

Check out the nice sounds I’m talking about at their website http://www.fireflightrock.com/

Album Rating : 9.5/10

These are the real tickets!

Wait a minute, its past midnight! It is today, not tomorrow, if you guys haven’t realized? Today is my big day. Ermmm why? Read this http://leonlimkokweng.com/archive/ive-got-two-tickets.htm

Oooo understand now? So what has been brewing all this time? Nothing hahahha. Well the musical is going on in 19 hours time and well, it is pretty exciting! I have a date too. Ooooo…..please don’t think too much of it. It is not a romantic date or anything. It is a special date with a friend from Alor Star which I blogged about some time ago….ok ok I will put it here…..

Here is a picture of her and her younger sister

Another of her and her sis

Yup, she’s the one. Ahhhh! It makes sense now does it! Hahaha. Oh well I invited her to come and sure thing she did! So I have a date. So nice hor. I’m excited, I get to see my favoritest singer of all time. I also get to go with someone special that I admire. Hehe. That is great! I’m so honored she agreed and came all the way on bus for almost 700kms!!

So tomorrow is going to be a great day! Yes! I’m going to be playing drums too for service! I’m going to play great! (Positive reinforcement) cause I don’t think I can do it hahahaha.

Now I’m too tired to post more. When all this is done! I will ok?

I really hope I can, considering next week is a killer week! Anyway CHEERS everyone! It is a NEW YEAR! Happy NEW YEAR!