On the drums again

Last night was the rehearsal with Vincent's group. I was hyped up about it because this Sunday will be the last service I'll play for until mid November. I thought I was quite disciplined in playing to the click track. I also felt "organic" while playing with it. The ease (although I lost my "one" somewhere in the song) of playing with the click made playing in the band felt really good. The hours I spent (abeit not long) air-drumming on the bus or MRT helped a lot. The only thing I was very cross was that I couldn't deliver the drum introduction for "Made to worship" where the 4th snare was a open roll, but I played it like a closed roll having a diarrhea. . I didn't know it was so difficult to incorporate a roll into a groove. Something has to be done to my rudiments. Arhgh. So what I did was I changed the beat and played something more funky, a la Chad Smith monster groove.




With the excitement of playing comes the joy of mixing and matching cymbals. I brought a long my K Custom 16" dark crash so that I'll have two of the same crash on my left and right. I kept the HHX extreme crash in the middle. Added the Meinl Byzance 10" splace to the two splashes that were already there. What I love about this Myzance is the dark and almost dirty-quasi-thrashy sound. A great contrast to the Sabian (which sounded traditional) and the Pasite (which was too bright-sounding). The 12" china is now on it's own (the Byzance used to sit on it to give a effect of a "stax"). I replaced both hi-hats on my left and right. For the main hats, I changed the top to a Zildjian Mastersound top while retaining the Paiste bottom that was already there. The auxillary hi-hat was changed to a Sabian 12" David Gibraldi's Signature mini-hats. Lastly the ride cymbal was replaced by the "mother" the Paragon 22" ride.




During the rehearsal, we played an instrumental part for quite a few bars (longer than usual). I thought I could do a monster fill in the middle of it. So I tried, but dang! I came in short! When I crashed for breat "one", I was actually at "4" Arhghhh... so I found my "ones two threes" and continued playing until the next repetition. I attempted the monster fill again. It's the kind that's played in phrases of 3 over the bar-line that creates tension then reached the climax and released using triplets over the drum set.I didn't play exactly like him, but it was something inspired by Mike Portnoy's monster fill in the guitart solo of "The Spirit Carries On". This time I nailed it and some gave the look that said "nice, but dun do it again". Yes it's true. Musicially it adds to the music, but for something to play in a worship service, it might be a big distraction. Will I attempt to do it on Sunday? I don't think so. Such ideas are great drumming-gymnastics, but it might throw muiscians off. It's ok if the fill is HUGE if the space in the song calls for, but playing phrases over the bar-line? That might throw people off. Nonetheless, that was a moment for me last night.




"I play my best for him... on my drums"

- Little Drummer Boy"

Soli Deo Gloria

Worst of us, best of Him

"God's people have always in their worst condition found out the best of their God. He is good at all times; but he seems to be at his best when they are at their worst"

C.H. Spurgeon in his sermon "The Golden Key of Prayer"

Grace

I love that name "Grace". If I have a daughter, her name is "Grace". Now that Pudding Baby #2 is arriving, I am sure his name will be "Grace" related.

After reading so much about grace from the Reformed theologians, I have yet to read one by pentecostal/ charismatic. Or may be I was too ignorant to notice. Just think about it, what a name! When I think about my church, I am in awe of God's work of Grace in our lives, without which it is really impossible to enter God's kingdom. One of the greatest preachers of the 19th century gave me a taste of how sweet sounding Grace really is. Of course I am talking about Charles Spurgeon. I can't quote anything from him now, but I remember reading Iain Murray's biography called "The Forgotten Spurgeon" where the focus was on the 3 main conroversies that plagued Spurgeon in his lifetime. One of them is his defence of the "Calvinism" (it's like a vulgar word in some community like "puritans"). While Calvinism was seen then and even today as being "evil" and "not from God", yet Spurgeon embraced it as "the gospel". It just happens that it bears the name of "John Calvin", but he believes it is the system of believe that is biblical. It is commonly known as "the doctrine of grace".

So yup, I took out the Iain Murray book again to read that chapter again. Recently I also bought the biography of Jonathan Edwards. Same kind of theology and the same kind of response when his name is mentioned. These were great men! Surely there is something they done that make us remember them. I want to inspired!

Edit:
I found a link from Wooqie Man's blog. Check this out. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/september/42.32.html

Destined to Reign

I went for a breather at Jurong Point this afternoon. While looking around at Popular Bookshop, I say Joseph Prince's "Destined to Reign". I browse through the book and it was dealing with the topic "The Gospel of Grace". I thought I'd like to read what he has to say about Grace and what's so unusual about his preaching on Grace as compared to "traditional" preaching about it. I found the book very refreshing. It broke a lot of conventions in his teaching about the role of the Ten Commandments, the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer and non-believer, health and wealth.

I am mid way through the book (the fastest I've ever read as it is very simple to read and it has no theorectical jargon at all) and I am totally sold to his Gospel of Grace. The reason is because I cannot find a better way to share the gospel without spelling out Salvation by faith through grace. In my opinion his message of grace is almost identical to the gospel of grace preached by Calvinists (or the old time preachers) although I have not done a study/ comparison of the two (Ah Ha, something to do learn about my faith again!). However in the past 2 years, I found no other gospel (not the 4 spiritual laws or the bridge to life) spell out the salvation message more biblically than the gospel of grace.

The book helped my clarify certain things that has been talked about among friends who finds Prince's teaching controversial and also help me understand what my friends from New Creation Church understood as well. So for now I'll put aside my personal battle with him about the topic on wealth and now worship God and thank the Lord for the liberating, soul-satisfying doctrine and gospel of Grace.

Funny photos

He looked so professional! Wahahaha...

A story board

The Ambush

The Surprise
The counter-attack
The torture

The prize

Last day!

Yeah, tomorrow going back to Seoul to do one interview then fly back to Singapore in the evening. Let me introduce Benedict to you. He is my room-mate for Taiwan and Korea. This photo will give you an idea how we get along...

Today I was listening to "Let Go", the demo version of "Mask" and "Wave" on my i-Pod and I was thinking about my personal TOSOG project which is "long long long, way too long overdue". I'm glad that dream is still on. I am still dreaming about my dream-jamming session at void decks and G2's lobby. It's a good dream. It's stuff like this that makes life interesting for me creatively. So I am blogging about it again to remind myself about this dream. Game On!

Dreaming

Jeju Island

Now I know why this is such a tourist attraction. It's really different from the rest of Korea. The island has so much natural history and culture. Just watch "Da Ching Jing"! That show made this island famous. It's really a great holiday destination. Hmmm... one for the family in future perhaps?

The first leg of the Korea trip is coming to an end. Before Jeju, we were at Quensam where they had the Ginseng Festival. Wah piang, every meal have ginseng. It may be good for our health, but 3 days of those stuff can be nose-bleeding unhealthy man! Anyway, I really look forward to going home on Thursday. I miss SW and Chia Ee.

Surprise Surprise!

Hello! This too surreal, can? In Seoul lor! I bought something un-Singaporean though,- an Ice Green Tea. Before we left, I looked at the cashier and said "I feel so loved". Hahaha... I doubt she knew what I meant.

In South Korea

This was taken at the Seoul Towe and have this fence and many love-birds put a lock there to pledge their love and their lies to each other. Fascinating. I even though of puting three locks inter-locking: Joshie, SW and me. May be a forth one for Baby Chia. Bonded together by ONE.

Everytime I want to type "Korea" I spelt it "C.O.R.E.A". It's definitely my subconscience paying tribute to Chick Corea and the CD "The Three Quartets" with the amazing and inspiring Steve Gadd on drums.