SAFRA The Ultimate Voice 2016

SAFRA organizes an annual singing competition called The Ultimate Voice and we were in time to sign up for our very first singing competition as a 3-piece band. There're solo category and group category.

We're required to submit an audio clip of our performance, if I don't remember wrongly, the duration is limited to less than 2 minutes, where I had a hard time deciding which portion of our cover to be trimmed, we submitted "The Scientist" by Coldplay by the way.

Quarter Finals @ SAFRA Toa Payoh (20 Feb)

We're informed that we're in the quarter finals on 16 Feb, an awesome start for us. And later on I found out that one of our Temasek Hall band juniors, Yoke Ling was also in the quarter final, what a coincidence. Check out her blog entry about SAFRA TUV.

I think there were 19 quarter finalists from group category and 100+ from solo category! That's crazy, and no wonder they limit the duration to 1 minute 30 seconds per contestant.

We performed a mashup of "Shut Up and Dance" by WALK THE MOON and "How to Save a Life" by The Fray, it's random I know, and there's barely any link between the songs but somehow they key Gary sings these two songs in the same key of B♭ major, plus the similar tempo, ultimately I think we're just trying to be 'different'. LOL...

Thanks to Hannah for the video, and we got into Semi Finals. So did Yoke Ling.

Bruno Mars - It Will Rain (Cover by Cynthia Ng)

Cynthia Ng Yi Xyann, the name one always heard in primary school (Penang Chinese Girls' Primary School), owing to her title of the 'flower of the school' (校花), whom I have not been keeping in contact with for 11 years!!! ever since Primary 6, whoolala. We're in the same class for 2 years (4H, 5H) anyway.

I guess after watching my Happy Birthday A Cappella, she intended to do a cover with me when I got back to Penang, and thankfully when I flew back to Penang from Singapore during my recess week, we managed to make one cover in one night at her house. It's a cover for Bruno Mars - It Will Rain.

Can you imagine how insane Bruno Mars is? The key I played for Cynthia (D major) is the original key Bruno Mars sang in, without her realization. He's just totally singing a female's key. I bet none of his songs is probably comfortably singable by normal guys, except The Lazy Song, I supposed.

Recording the audio was quite an impromptu. Luckily the clavinova at her house which she hasn't been touching for ages is a Yamaha clavinova, I know how to record the playback. Well, the reason of recording the playback is basically, the keys are making too much noise, it could've been louder than the musical notes produced by the keys.

The next fortunate and unforeseen thing was, she has a karaoke system at home. So having no mixer and stuffs, the smart way (or rather unprofessional) is to record her voice with my iPhone, by placing my phone in front of the one of the speakers. But sadly she has no pop filter, and it took me a while to bring down the volume of the 'p' and 'k' air.

Editing the video transition was another pain in the ass, as she kept having different postures (of the way her hands were holding the mic stand) when I was shooting her lip syncing with our first successful recording.

Well, I love collaboration, when you get to halve your effort for publicity.

And I have to say that she has a very voice, which she utilizes well. That's why I didn't even want to harmonize, because my voice just won't fit hers in any way.

So please do check out our cover for It Will Rain!

The More We Get Together (Piano & Harmonica Cover)

There's a Chinese phrase that I've been hearing since young, 「吃飽沒事做」, lit. eat full nothing do. Wow, they rhyme.

So this time it's the retarded me playing instruments in the unusual way.

I just need to play the harmonica by biting without moving it horizontally because this nursery rhyme (a British folk song actually) uses only two chords. So I just blow for a C chord and draw for a G chord (although it's actually a G^7add9 without G itself).

I crossed my arms and faced away from the piano to play and that's really obstructive to my movements, but if you noticed, my right hand was still on the side where is should be and so did my left hand, so it's still not too challenging, unlike those performed by professional entertaining pianists who're able to switch their hands' role.

But still, it's not easy for mine. You can try and see.

---

[The More We Get Together]
The more we get together, together, together,
the more we get together, the happier we shall be.
For your friends are my friends,
and my friends are your friends.
The more we get together, the happier we shall be.

【當我們同在一起】
當我們同在一起，在一起，在一起，
當我們同在一起，其快樂無比。
你對著我笑嘻嘻，我對著你笑哈哈。
當我們同在一起，其快樂無比。

---

李佳薇 - 煎熬 (Cover)

哇，N年沒用中文寫部落格了。

好了，話說回來，這次要分享的是我小弟譚耀明翻唱李佳薇首張專輯主打《煎熬》的視頻。我則幫他彈吉他伴奏。

耀明的音準對我來說，真的比其他和他同年紀的小朋友好多了。很久以前我就注意到了，可是媽媽就只為他學業操心，學鋼琴也有了半途而廢的過去。有時就聽到他唱嘛，起初是想：“ㄟ，《煎熬》的音他還唱得上，反正如今尚未變聲，就趁現在讓他秀一秀。”

不過他可真忙啊，好不容易百忙中抽出了時間來錄影，錄完之後又得馬上就寢養神了。

下面兩個視頻分別是原曲和翻唱之後上載到YouTube的視頻啦。
以C調演奏（比原曲高一個Key），其實這樣子和弦按法就簡單多了。

原唱：李佳薇
作詞：徐世珍/司魚
作曲：饒善強

早知道　你只是飛鳥　擁抱後　手中只剩下
羽毛　當初你又何必浪費
那麼多咖啡和玫瑰　來打擾

我想要　安靜的思考　天平上　讓愛恨不再
動搖　一想你就平衡不了
我關燈還是關不掉　這風暴

心一跳　愛就開始煎熬　每一分　每一秒
火在燒　燒成灰有多好　叫思念　不要吵
我相信我已經快要　快要把你忘掉
跟寂寞　再和好

得不到　也不要乞討　怎麼做　不需要別人
轉告　在陷得太深的海底
我也只剩下我自己　能依靠

心一跳　愛就開始煎熬　每一分　每一秒
火在燒　燒成灰有多好　叫思念　不要吵
我相信我已經快要　快要把你忘掉
跟寂寞　再和好

我相信我已經快要　是真的我快要
快要可以微笑　去面對　下一個　擁抱

視頻是在我房間裡錄的。影音文件是從相機裡取出存進電腦的。聲音素質有些怪，因為經過了Adobe Audition CS6的雜音消除過程，而視頻是經過Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5編輯的。歌詞輸入真的要人命，而且也是最麻煩又耗精費神的了。

我們都不是專業的，所以根本不算是什麼很出眾的表演，當然耀明也有好些部分唱走音，尤其是第二副歌那裡，假音也有些虛。與其評估這翻唱的水準，不如看看我這快要12歲的弟弟多可愛唄！

也希望大家會喜歡這個Cover（我們可是只錄一次從頭到尾的喔）。

PS：李佳薇真是我們大馬的驕傲！^^

Hatsune Miku 初音ミク - Dream Light

やっと、僕の初めて作曲した日本語の歌ができて、Vocaloid 2で初音ミクに歌わせた「Dream Light」っていう歌。嬉しい！！

その上、ビデオも作ってYouTubeにアップロードした、Dreamみたいなぁと思う。

NUSで取った日本語五の永見先生に歌詞をコメントしていただいて、忠祥さんに歌詞に目を通してもらって、どうもありがとうございました。

僕の日本語能力でいい歌詞の書くことはあまりできなくて、ごめん。

お楽しみくださいね。

I've finally finished composing my first ever Japanese song, and by using Vocaloid 2, I made Hatsune Miku sing this song, which I named "Dream Light". I'm damn delighted and satisfied!!

Besides, I made a video (not an MV actually) and uploaded it to YouTube, ah... it's like a dream to me, never thought I would manage to complete such project.

I wanna hereby thank my Japanese 5 teacher, Nagami sensei for commenting and correcting my lyric and Theong Siang (also from Chung Ling High School) for looking over my lyric.

Too bad my current Japanese proficiency doesn't allow me to write too fancy lyric.

But anyway, enjoy!!

作詞・作曲・編曲：譚凱升

雨雲を通り抜けると　不思議なこと起こるはずよ

あのオーロラは　夢　希望の種を　照らす
まだ消えてしまわないうちに　よく祈る　明るい場所で

微笑みの裏に　瞳の叫びが　涙をぬぐうように

青空にドリームの心　朝日が昇ってるところ
雨雲を通り抜けると　不思議なこと起こるはずよ

そのオーロラは　夢　未来の道を　点す
暗闇に負けそうなときにも　思い出せ　あの笑い声を

頭に残った　記憶のメロディは　笑顔を取り戻すの

青空にドリームの心　朝日が昇ってるところ
雨雲を通り抜けると　不思議なこと起こるはずよ

青空にドリームの心　朝日が昇ってるところ
雨雲を通り抜けると　不思議なこと起こるはずよ　起こってるよ

このオーロラは　夢


Streetvoiceでも聞くことができるよ！＾＾