Today, I have realized that I accidently  forgot to “publish” some of the blog posts. It is very annoying. What Edublogs has are the “save” and “publish” buttons, but it also has the “publish status” option? It makes people CONFUSE!!!! If you do not set your publish status to “publish,” the post is not published even if you press the “publish” button that is located right next to the “save” button. Oh, and I have a very useful tip for edublogs. If you edit your previously written posts, your publishing date DOES NOT change. Sweet!!! I’m not sure if I am the only one who knows this fact. But, it is something good to know; you can edit your posts even after you publish them.

——————-WARNING THIS POST IS VERY SERIOUS AND SAD——————-

The end of my Sophomore year in High School is approaching. So, I have decided to write a reflection that clearly shows what I have done right and wrong concerning the serious school life (but mostly GPA).

As an energetic student, I entered the sophormore year with maxed-out enthusiasm. I met many new teacher and students. Because I knew that the year was the second most important year in highschool, I set a goal for my GPA; I must get very close to 4.00. To fulfill my goal, I studied very hard in the first semester. Because I did not have any sports in that semester, I had plenty of time to do my homework, review and prepare for any tests or quizes. Of course the works were not easy, but life went smoothly and everything seemed to be fine. I kept quite good relationship with the teachers and friends too (at least in my opinion). The first semester went good. I was able to maintain quite descent GPA and was happy about it. I am not sure if I should write what my GPA was in this blog, but let me just tell you that it was around 4.00.

But when second semester started, my life was completely devastated. I think the cause of such destruction came from Swimming. If  you did not know, I was in Varsity Swim Team. Because I went to practices everyday except for Monday, Saturday, and Sunday 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM, I was tired almost everyday. I can not do anything if I do not get enough rest. So, whenever I came back from swimming, I slept for at least two hours. When I got up, it was usually 7:00 PM or later. Basically, I lost 4 hours of time four times every week. Also, the team had five or six events during the season, and those were usually one saturdays and were held from 9:00AM to 4:00PM or so. All these things related to swimming shortened the available studying time and brought me a catastrophic consequences. First of all, my Spanish, English and Pre-calculus grade simply went downhill. I had A for all those classes last semester except for English, but nowadays, I am not even sure if I can get A-. To be honest, My English grade did not go downhill, it is about the same as last year. As the result, my GPA fell at least 0.1 point compared to last semester. Also, I think I completely failed my AP Biology. Many of my friends said it was easy, but not for me. I already know that I wrote something irrelevant to one of the essay questions. Moreover, as I have mentioned in the previous post, if everyone does well, then the curve becomes higher and it gets much harder to get a 5.

What should I do? I am serious, Seriously. Am I becoming like Mr.Joo (my chem teacher) who also burnt out seriously during his second semester in his sophomore year? I am very depressed and serious. I think I need to watch the soccer bloopers again, seriously

Seriously, if you readers have any ideas on what I should do, post some THOUGHTFUL and SERIOUS comments. Thanks.

This is how I feel like…..awe~~~

Source: http://laneysolovely.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/sad_puppy.jpg

AP Bio….every time I think about her, I always feel sad. It seems like I didn’t do much for her. I should have done better. I regret…..If I get a 4, my mom is going to kill me. The test was relatively easy, meaning that the curve will be higher. I am depressed. Anyways, to refresh my feeling, I logged into Youtube.com and searched for funny videos. While I was searching, I  remembered Jin Kwon, one of my best friends and a soccer addict, showing me funny soccer bloopers about two years ago. If you are depressed, watch this video and you will be laughing for hours, hours, hours, and hours. Be cautious when watching.

Hope these two videos refreshed your mind.

Quite often, I have heard many of my friends ask questions such as, “How do you simply listen to a song and play it perfectly?” or “Do you have Perfect Pitch?” From all these questions, I could easily figure out that many people do not know what relative and perfect pitch are, and for people who know what a perfect pitch is, they do not know the difference between the relative and perfect one. So, in today’s post, I will kindly introduce to you what perfect and relative pitch are.

What is a perfect pitch?

I did describe what this is correctly in the previous post. According to Wikipedia, “Absolute pitch (AP), or perfect pitch, is the ability to name or reproduce a tone without reference to an external standard.” Basically, if someone with this pitch hears a random sound of a piano, he or she can instantly know what the name of the tone is. I have seen some people with this ability. For example, my cello teacher possesses this skill. Perfect pitch is such a great skill for people who plays instrument that must be tuned before playing. Let us say that you are about to perform, but about two minutes before the performance, you drop the instrument and it goes out of tune. You search for tuner, but it is sadly broken. You search for a piano, but it is out of tune too. If you are a person with perfect pitch, you will smile and professionally tune your intrument using your perfect pitch. If you are a person without it, I don’t even want to think about it. I know I have just given you an extreme example, but who knows such accidnet will occur or not in the future? Am I a perfect pitch? Well, I can be very close when reproducing a tone without any external standard, but I can not usually guess exactly.

What is a relative pitch?

This is what I have for sure. According to Wikipedia,

• a musician’s ability to identify the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch (A = 440 Hz)
• the skill used by singers to correctly sing a melody, following musical notation, by pitching each note in the melody according to its distance from the previous note. Alternatively, the same skill which allows someone to hear a melody for the first time and name the notes relative to some known starting pitch.
• developed through intense training, practicing hearing differences between major, minor, diminished, and augmented intervals

Quite many definitions, but I do belong to all of them. First definition is simply an ability to reproduce a tone with an external reference. The second definition is very similar to the first definition. And the third definition is the ability to tell the kind of chord you are hearing. Not only that, it is also an ability to know how to harmonize a melody and how harmonies progress to create a musical flow. Very impressive skill, and I have this!!! Yes!!! Whenever  you go to Youtube.com and watch a piano cover video, many pianists would say something like “I learned this by my ear, so please do not ask me for the music sheet. I do not have it.” they are the pianists with Relative Pitch.

Source: http://www.perfectpitch.com/perfectrelative.htm

Hmmm… Then which pitch is superior? You cannot really determine which is superior to one. They are two seperate things and each are impressive in their own respect. But, it is defintely superior to have both since it is really really and really hard to obtain both skills at the same time.

Do you have any more questions? If you do, leave a comment. Gracias

Nowadays, I am in LOVE with acapella. There are many famous and skilled acapella groups, but I especially like The Real Group from Sweden. If you like Pop Acapella, you will definitely love this group. In fact, I think almost everyone who is into music knows this group since they are extremely famous (at least in Korea).

But, because I am such a kind person, I will tell (write) you the background of this wonderful group.

The Real Group is the PROFESSIONAL acapella group consisting of five members. Soprano Emma Nilsdotter, alto Katarina Henryson, tenor Anders Edenroth, baritone Peder Karlsson, and bass Anders Jalkéus. The group was created in the year 1984 (before I was born) and are still active. When the group was first created, Emma was not in it; Margareta Bengtson was the soprano. But, in 2006, Margareta broke of from the group to release her single jazz album. This is quite annoying to me because it looks as if Emma used the group to gain reputation, and when the reputation was gained, she simply… But, I do not think so. I read somewhere in the internet that Emma’s friendship with the other members was unquestionable, and I think it is much harder to be a solo singer since she must now start all over again. Anyways, the original members were students at the Swedish Royal College of Music. Their vocals were so impressive that one of the professors recommended them to be singers. Since 1984, The Real Group has performed more than 1000 live concerts, sold more than 200,000 albums, and have worked with great musicians like George Martin, Bobby McFerrin, Barbara Hendricks and Toots Thielemans. The group also won numerous awards such as

Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARAs):

• 1995: Best Contemporary Cover: “Dancing Queen” from Varför får man inte bara vara som man är
• 1995: Best Jazz Song: “Flight of the Foo-Birds” from Varför får man inte bara vara som man är
• 1996: Best Female Vocalist: Margareta Bengtson
• 1997: Live Album of the Year: Live in Stockholm
• 1997: Best Original Pop Song
• 1997: Best Jazz Song
• 1997: Best Female Vocalist: Margareta Bengtson
• 1998: Best Holiday Album: En riktig jul
• 2003: Best Classical Album: Stämning
• 2003: Runner Up for Best Classical Song: “En vänlig grönskas rika dräkt” from Stämning
• 2004: Best Holiday Album: Julen er her
• 2004: Best Holiday Song: “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” from Julen er her

Enough with the background, let us explain why The Real Group is one of my favorite Acapella groups. First go to the following link and listen to one of their famous songs named “I Sing You Sing.”

As you can see, NO instruments were used. Every sound is produced solely from human voice. And, believe it or not, this is LIVE. LIVE!!!!!!!!! Some, very few people think they are simply lip-syncing. But, to people who are so doubtful, listen to approximately 0:46 to 0:50 of the video. If you still think the song was pre-recorded, I simply have nothing more to say. No machines were used to fix their pitch, yet they sing the song with perfect pitch. How do I know they have perfect pitch? Because I have partial perfect pitch, also known as a relative pitch. It simply means that if I hear a sound and someone tells me which note the sound was, I can be perfect pitch. According to Wikipedia, the relative pitch is a musician’s ability to identify the intervals between given tones, regardless of their relation to concert pitch. Also, the harmony is simply amazing; it relaxes one’s mind. Indeed, I listen to the group’s albums before I go to bed XD.

Now, listen to the following song named

The Thingamabob.

Not only is the group incredibly musically talented, they also possess a great sense of humor. This song is not relaxing, but is very funny and comical. I think I laughed at least ten times at the sound and the “noise” when I was first watching this video. You can also hear the audience laughing hrad. Also, It is simply amazing how the group can make such sound WITHOUT ANY INSTRUMENT.  I think it is even hard to make such sound WITH instrument. I simply admire this group for their great harmony, perfect pitch, and the sense of humor.

If you have bothered to look at my previous posts of my “about” page, you will know that I love to be special. And, without any doubt, The Real Group is SPECIAL! This is also one of the reasons why I LOVE The Real Group.

If you guys have time to listen to some new songs, try this group. I bet you will also be in my situation very soon.

Most of my friends are simply addicted this song called “Sorry Sorry” by the group named “Super Junior.” I have also fallen in love with the repetitive and techno tune that instantly grasp my attention as I hear the song.

Do you want to know what the song is like? Simply follow the link to the Youtube video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QO6SjMsmY8

As you listen to the song, you will understand why I like the song so much. There are repetitive tunes and rhythms that were also in my other favorite songs such as “Gee” by SNSD (Please read my post on SNSD if you do not know who this is). The base line (or the chord) is simply repeated in every four seconds or so, and it never changes. Despite the fact that I love “Sorry Sorry,” I also feel that there is something wrong with K – pop nowadays. I completely understand that the trend of “Unchanging, repetitive tune and rhythm” is very popular in Korea, but I do not really like the fact that almost every famous singers are following the trend. For instance,  another Korean singing group named Davich released “8282″ that also has quite repetitive tune. “Gee,” without any doubt, also has a repetitive melody and base. To verify my claim, I have listened to the three songs and surprisingly, found out that there are quite many similarities between the songs. You can personally check this out by visiting the Youtube videos of “8282,” and “Gee.”

8282: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R3zjbLEMco

Gee: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSUaj4xQWE8

Yes, I completely understand why many famous singers are following the trend; many Koreans are attracted to songs that follow the trend. Well, many singers sing because they have passion toward music, but they also sing to earn money. In order to earn money, it is a good idea to simply follow the trend. However, will K-pop culture progress if the artists simply imitate each other concerning the style? Definitely not. The artists might earn much money, but there would be no “uniqueness.” What do I like to be? Yes, I want to be special (in a good way). Therefore, I would like to see many artists seeking for new unique types of songs that could possibly create a new trend.

(SUPER JUNIOR ALMUM)

Source: http://lirikorea.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/super-junior-sorry-sorry.jpg

Lu Xiao Yu is one of the original soundtracks used in the Taiwanese romance movie called “Secret,” starring Jay Chou. Now, do not ask me any questions on the story of the movie because I am not a movie critic; all I care about is the music that were used in it. But, if you have time, watch it because it received 9.22 out of 10 in www.naver.com movie section. Naver.com is one of the biggest Korean search engines.

I posted this poster because there is another movie with the same name. And “All-text blogs are B-O-R-I-N-G” (Patterson).

Source: http://www.moviediary.net/technote6/data/board/pyungjum/file_in_body/1/lposter040360f1.jpg

Anyways, Lu Xiao Yu is a soft, slow-tempo, and romantic song that was originally designed for two people. One person sitting on the left would play the bass and the other sitting on the right would play the melody. However, as I have stated in my about page and many other blog posts, I want to be SPECIAL and UNIQUE so that I can stand out and be somebody. Also, it is somewhat depressing to say, but I did not have anyone to play with. The song is suppose to be very romantic and I do not know any female friends who can play the piano. Why did not I play it with a guy, such as Albert Joo or Chris Nam? I think you can answer that question by yourself; Considering my appearance and the musical talent, they might fall in love with me, and I defintely do not want that (XD joking). Because of all these excellent (rather foolish) reasons, I rearranged and changed some bass to make it possible for it to be played solo.

If my purpose was to simply make the music solo, why did I have to change the melodies too? Listen to the original song and you will very soon realize how simple the song is. I love the mood and the style of the song. The piece is very beautiful, romantic, and soft. But it is definitely a bit simple and dull. I know that “Minimalism*” is very popular these days, but everyone has different taste in music and I DO NOT like dull music. Wait a minute composer Tim. Determining whether a music is simple or not is definitely based on personal opinion. To prevent any of my subscribers (I do not know if I have any) from criticizing my post for being biased, I have asked my brother, friends and even my parents if the music is too simple. Just to rearrange the song, I asked at least TEN PEOPLE just to write a improvisation!!. Guess what the answer was; almost everyone agreed with me. So, no criticisms por favor*. Back to my taste in music, I wanted the song to have more elaborate tunes that can instantly grasp people’s attention and not does not allow people from getting bored even after hearing it 10,000 times. Therefore, now I have the Lu Xiao Yu Piano Improvisation. Some people will like it while some people won’t; as mentioned before, everyone has different taste in music. Some people might think that it is too elaborate and type every school-appropriate bad words for the comments. But, the song was intended to be elaborate, so I won’t edit the video even if there are millions of complains on how the original song is better.

My Improvisation

The Original Song (The smaller size of the video box was intended XD)

Enjoy XD

*Some “difficult” words used in my post

Por favor : Please in Spanish

Minimalism: A trend that pursues simplicity.

P.S If you do like my improvisation, come and talk to me. I will be happy to teach  you how to play it.

Today is March. Yes, it is spring!

Yesterday, I was sitting in my room, thinking what to play during my leisure time. As I was looking outside the window, I saw beautiful flower petals flying around. For a moment, my head was only full of the words “Flying” and “Petals.”Then, I remembered a song that will always be remembered; it is “Flying Petals” from the Korean drama “Spring Waltz.” The song is very bright and extremely beautiful in my opinion. I do not think I am articulate enough to perfectly describe how the original song is like. There is a famous Chinese proverb saying “a picture is worth a thousand  words.” Also, the song is played by Daniel Henny and Suh Do Young, who are very handsome and popular Korean actors. So, I am definitely sure that my introduction can grasp many (Asian) female readers easily.

Enough with the original music, unlike the original song, my improvisation is played solo. Also, It is an improvisation, meaning it is a little bit different from the original song. But the melodies are very similar, so you will be able to recognize the tune very effortlessly. Again, please ignore some of the mistakes that I made in this video. I am not a professional pianist like Albert Joo (In case you do not attend my school, he is one of the best pianist in my school).

Now, let us examine the music a little bit more specific. It is played in C-major scale (If you would like to learn what “scales” are, go to the page right next to the  “about” page). And it took me about an hour to practice and 20-30 minutes to record because I kept making big mistakes that totally ruins my performance.

Why did I chosen this specific piece to play? Why not other songs with spring theme?

Now, here comes the INTERESTING part of my post. Well, about three months ago, one of my friends told me to listen to this song. Well, I am an innocent young boy, so without thinking anything, I listened to the song. Right after it ended, my friend simply stated, “master this and teach me starting from tomorrow.” My friend was older than me, and according to the Korean culture, you better listen to what the seniors say. Again, because I am a shy, young, and innocent boy, and was a little bit intimidated by such a forceful statement, I said, “Well, there are many piano player in our school who are better than me, but I will try…” That day, I went straight to home and practiced for about four hours just to completely master the piece. I do not even know why I did that. I could have just practiced only the first part and teach only the beginning part. But again, I am an innocent young boy, so I did completely master the piece. The next day, with a big smile, I went to the senior and said, “So, you want me to teach you, right?”

Wow, the word she said right after me completely destroyed and bombarded my feeling. “Well, I found a better piano player and he is going to teach me.” Because of the privacy issue, I will not reveal the name. I know  you guys are eager to curse her, but please don’t do that. It hurts my feeling (^^) But anyways, I was really offended. So, to release my anger that I got about three months ago, I played the same exact song and recorded it yesterday. So, why did I chose this specific song? Well, the first reason was because it is spring and I wanted to play something related to spring during my leisure time. The second reason was to release my anger.

What a lovely piece, right?

Due to AP biology exam that is on May, I have extreme amount of biology informations and concepts to memorize and study. So, I won’t be able to play a song every week just like I did for the past three weeks. But, I will try my best to try to play at least two improvisations. So, let me tell you the possible piano improvisation videos for April.

So, the first possible song is “Lu Xiao Yu,” which was one of the original soundtracks from the Taiwanese movie “Secret” that Jay Chou starred and directed the whole movie.

The second possible song is “Flying Petals” written by Lee Ji Soo. I personally love this song. So, I am almost sure that I will play this.

In today’s post, I have not provided you with any descriptions on the possible songs. But on the next post, I promise you that I will post detailed explanations of the possible songs with a video of me playing one of those.

This song was requested by Jenny Lee sophomore. Thanks for requesting.

Note: the paragraphs with purple color simply explains who Kara is and what “Honey” is. I wrote the exact paragraphs in my previous post. If you know what they are, you may skip these two paragraphs.

Wait a mintue, who is Kara? What is “Honey?” Kara is one of the famous K-pop group that consists of five young girls. The girls’ names are Nicole Jeong, SeungHyun Han, GyuRI Nam, Jiyeon Kang, and Hara Gu. This group released their first album called “Blooming” in the year 2007. Nowadays, they are very famous for songs named “Prettygirl” and “Honey.” These two songs were in the album called “Pretty Girl” released in December 2008.

Just like SNSD (Girls’ Generation)’s “Gee,” both “Prettygirl” and “Honey” are songs that have repetitive rhytim and tune. I personally love both songs, but since “Honey” is more recent that the other song, I put this song on my “Possible Piano Improvisation” list. The following website is a wikipage for the group Kara: Wikipedia.

Back to my music, this is an improvisation. It might not sound like the original song because I have turned it into a more semi-classical song. Basically, the melodies are the same, but I have changed the chord a little bit and the rhythm to make it sound smoother and softer.

Why softer? Why have I done this to such a vivid, live, and powerful dance song?

Some people might criticize me for changing the genre of the music. But, I have always wondered, “hmm….why not try something new?” Why do dance songs always have to be played as a dance song, and classical songs always be played as a classical song? I do not like being normal. I want to be exceptional, and be recognized as someone different than others. Unique is the word that I like very much. I will definitely hug anyone who says “Tim, you are special (in a good way) !” Remember, Thomas Edison was definitely unique because received Fs for his math classes when he was in a elementary school but later became a famous scientist. Since I do not like to be a boring normal person, I have decided to deviate from the stereotype and do something that is completely new and will throw everyone off. Be prepared. You will be thrown off right after you finish hearing my wonderful soft and smooth jazz-like piano improvisation of “Honey.” Also, I LOVE listening to semi-classics such as “Maybe,” “”When Rain Falls,” and “River Flows with You.” If you have bothered to look at my “about” page, my favorite pianist is Yiruma who composed all these three songs.

Anyways, I have kept my promise to post the video (read the previous post, and you will understand). Obviously, there are some mistakes, but I tried my best to not make any. By the way, If you like this improvisation, please leave comments. I would appreciate very much. Even if you hate the improvisation, just write a comment on how I can fix it. Thanks.