I was thinging of what I should blog about... I don't want to blog the norm of telling you how my day was... so decided to blog about something that you may be interested to know from me... I've decided to blog
HOW I BEGAN DRUMMING!!!

wow... I began to be very amazed to think of how my drum journey has been so far... Never really realised how wonderful God has been to me through my drumming, a gift from God in the first place, until I've decided to blog on this.

So how I began? Let's go to the very root of it.

When I was Primary 3, My mother decided to put me in the Percussion Ensemble of my school, Gongshang Primary School, as a CCA. Well, so that's how I got into the whole percussion thingy. But during those years, I never touched the Drumset at all. However it did teach me the basic rudimentals which is essential for drumset playing. Under the training of Ngoh Kheng Seng, who was and still considered as one of Singapore's best percussionist and he is currently playing in the Sinagpore Chinese Orchestra(SCO), he taught me alot bout Percussion and became his "No. 1" Timpani player... So actually Timpani is my fav perk instrument, not the drumset amazingly...

Then I was invited to play with my school's String Ensemble, which is reputable as one of Singapore's Best Primary School String Ensemble, as a Timpani player on their tour of Taiwan in 2000. Ya, had lots of fun there.

That's also where the Pastor Dale saw the potential in me for playing the drumset. Because at that time, the church still had like a mass prayer for prayer requests that were brought up on sundays. And on one sunday, my prayer request of the Taiwan trip was brought up and the whole church now knew I was a "Percussionist". About a few months later, was approach by a few people, can't remember who were they.I think it was Pastor Dale,Youth Pastor, Pastor Mong Yee, Music Pastor, and Kirk, my drums Si Fu (Master), and sat down with me and my mother and dicussed my future in drums!

At that time in Radical Zone (RZone), a youth service for secondary schools students at that time. We did not have a drummer for over a year because the previous one was enlisted into NS. So ya, a youth band w/o a drummer? ya... Weird... lolx

Lolz... So yea, I prayed about it and accepted to be taught drums... And Kirk became my Si Fu.
Master Kirk Chang

Fyi, Kirk is our resident Main Drummer of the church.

So in 2001, when I was Primary 6, the training began. However we didn't had a real drum training where a time slot is given to me for him to teach me until after my PSLE... then immediately after that on the saturday, 1.00pm-3.00pm if I'm not wrong at the Singapore Chinese Girl School (SCGS), which was my church's temporary venue at that time. And Just after 3 weeks!!! I debuted in an RZone event called "Life Sux!" and the special speaker that day was so happen to be Kirk himself. Haha, still remembered my first song was "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High". So yea, after that, I was a regular drummer at RZone from Oct 2001 - May 2004.

Life was hard at my early stage, my skills was so "lousy" and limited and there were obviously better drummers in the RZone. Some would even go to the drums and "Showoff" after the service and I was abit down by that fact. Moreover, Kirk at around April 2002 had to stop teaching me because he had to go back to do some Army engineering stuff for National Day on every saturday. That was also the end of the regular lessons on saturday. So I had no where to learn from and I never wanted to go a music school to learn due to bad experience from my previous piano lessons.

Then one sunday, I remembered Pastor Dale was preaching something like- Don't let others affect you that it hinders from you from fulfilling your potential. Remember God will also be by your side and He see you the way no other can. If it is God's will, then it will be fulfilled.
Amen, God really spoke to me and I told him that day- You would not have place me in drums if it wasn't your will. So bless me Lord, that I may improve and be used as your servant.

Then one day, I bought a VCD of Hillsong's Blessed album and I became so inspired about how that drummer, Luke Munns, played. He was so passionate in his playing and I wanted to be like him. Thank God that the Church donated an old drumset to me and I was able to practice at home. I tried imitating him and in the course of it, my skills began to improve. SERIOUSLY!! Amazing how imitation can be good.

I was Secondary One in 2002 and I joined the Band as a CCA... At that time, my conductor hired a Percussion tutor to help us. And he is super good at the Drumset. He taught me alot and I really appreiate him. He taught me to be fluent in drums and even taught me how to be a independant learner. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, he only taught my school from 2002 to early 2003.

I would say I improve quite well from then on... In Febuary 2003, Debutted in Hearts On Fire (HOF) because Kirk went for holiday. Haha... slowly I was a regular in HOF and a few months later, took over all the dutties which means I became like a resident HOF drummer, playing for every Friday.

First major project was Christmas Rock 2003... Then had the chance to play the drumset at the main service when we made a guest appearance on Christmas Day.

Then in 2004, God gave me the opportunity to play in the Main Service. Because Kirk was blessed with an opportunity to furthur his studies in Australia so Pastor Mong Yee gave me this chance to be rostered along with angus for sundays.

Angus also taught me drums then. Angus was Kirk's teacher in the past and Kirk was my teacher so Angus is like my grand master... WoW....
Lol, he is an extremely good drummer and teacher... He taught me to go back to the fundamentals and apply rudimentals into my drumming... He really expanded my knowlege of drummming widely. Really thank God for him.

Ricky Ho did not directly teach me drums but he did indirectly helped to improve my drum skills especially in terms of timing and playing as a band. Ricky Ho is keyboardist in my church and a famous musician/ producer in Singapore.
Ricky Ho

He is an award winning arranger and producer and arranged many orchestra pieces for movies and commerical. As a successful music producer, Ricky has contributed to the success of major recording artistes such as Tracy Huang, Eric Moo, Dick Lee, Jacintha Abishenagen, Sammi Cheng, Sally Yeh, Anita Mui, Alan Tam, Leon Lai, Andy Lau, Aaron Kwok, Kelly Chen, A-mei, Su-Rei, Teresa Teng, Wang Jie, Jeff Chang, Young Tigers, Wang Lee Hom, Sky Wu, Rene Liu, Zhang Qingfang and many others. He is also the producer for our church's albums.

He was strict when it comes to music and I really improved under his guidance. More Info of him at
www.rickyho.com


My Perkz Music Summary
School-
1998- started as percussionist in Percussion Ensemble as CCA
2000- Toured Taiwan with String Ensemble
2001- Started drums
2002- Joined Changkat Changi Band
2003- Obtained pass in ABRSM Grade 3 Theory
2003- Obtained Merit in ABRSM Grade 5 Theory
2004- Band Major
2004- Obtained Merit in ABRSM Grade 5 Percussion
2005- Singapore Youth Festival Bronze
2006- Joined Tampines Junior College Band
2006- President of Band

Church-
2001- Debutted in RZone
2003- Debutted in HOF
2003- Christmas Rock Gig
2004- Debutted in Main Service
2004- Debutted in TKK... lolx,really, when Shawn went holiday
2006- 2 Live Gigs