Recording and the Music Industry
So I’ve been had a few recording gigs in the past few months. I recorded Freedom Fries’ new single (you’ll hear it on the radio soon!), and Pia Mia Perez, a 12 year old amazing singer!
Recording is something I love doing and it was the first business I planned on running after graduating from college. Unfortunately, after finishing Matala’s CD and also watching some other recording studio companies on Guam come and go, it simply seems that Guam isn’t a place where someone can run a recording studio full-time.
If Guam wants to see its music industry flourish, it needs to have some infrastructure. I remember being in Japan and ALL the performing bands in the bars and clubs having professionally made CDs. It was amazing. My friend, Tim, was telling me how it was required for bands in the city to finish a CD before performing. It makes perfect sense. Not only will you have something to sell at all your gigs, but it will help increase visibility and popularity and it will also show that you mean business.
Anyway, recording is very rewarding for me because I spent so many sleepless nights and countless hours learning tips and tricks from many books and many blogs and trying my best to perfect the craft. I am not sure of my ability until I get these recording gigs once in a while where my clients will be very happy with my work, and it makes me with Guam had the economy to support a full-time recording studio.
Until then, I’m still here doing small jobs if you need me 
GuamCollegeBooks.com Update
Posted by Doug Chan in Technology on January 20, 2010
So I made a few cool new updates to the Guam College Books site:
- Auto Suggest
- Newsletters
- Recent Searches Cosmetics and Functaionality
Just in time for the semester too! http://www.guamcollegebooks.com
iPhone vs Windows Mobile
Posted by Doug Chan in Technology on January 18, 2010
I just got an iPhone, contrary to me resisting Apple products. My whole professional life, I’ve been relying on Windows Mobile and Microsoft Outlook to keep my life organized, and it has been simple. Windows Mobile and Microsoft Outlook. Period. So how does the iPhone measure up with keeping my life organized?
When I got the iPhone, the first thing I did was connect it to my computer and sync it with iTunes. To my liking, I found out that the iPhone plays rather nicely with Microsoft Outlook. It synced my contacts and calendar no problem. HOWEVER, the iPhone does NOT come with a Todo app. I was very disappointed.
Luckily, I found a TODO app on the App store, but it was $9.99! The hell… I tried the trial version and it helped me get organized a lot better than the simple todo list in Windows Mobile, so I thought, hey, that’s pretty worth it. I bought it.After I did, I set up sync and was so happy only to find out that it DOES NOT synchronize via cable, but WiFi.
Uh, when I had my WM6+Outlook connected to my computer, it was sync, WAM BAM, k unplug, and you’re all set. This whole App+WiFi sync added another layer of complexity to my syncing process.
I figure I’ve been wanting to ween myself into using more online apps (like Google), so I moved all my e-mail from POP3 to Gmail, and calendars and contacts to Google Apps. Unfortuantely, I needed to get a different app for everything.
So anyway, I went from this:
- Connect phone to pc, sync finished
To this:
- Calendar: CalenGoo App
- PROS
- auto-sync with Google Calendar on load flawlessly
- Works flawlessly
- CONS
- Does not use iPhone’s native calendar app
- Price: $6.99
- PROS
- Contacts: Sync in a Blink App
- PROS
- sync with Google Contacts
- Uses iPhone’s native contacts app
- CONS
- Buggy. Sync not always exact
- You have to manually sync by opening the program.
- Price: $4.99
- PROS
- Todo: Todo App
- PROS
- Great app. Keeps you organized
- Notifications are great
- Better than any TODO method I have ever used
- Syncs automatically upon opening.
- CONS
- Syncs via WIFI: INCONVENIENT
- Syncs with Remember the Milk ($25/yr subscription required): EXPENSIVE WTF
- Price: $9.99
- PROS
So now I have three separate apps that sync differently with several different services. The iPhone sure is fun to use, and getting organized isn’t bad to begin with, but if you need to be really organized, you better be ready to fork out extra money to do so.
Am I doing it wrong? Is there an all-in-one solution? I found an App called Pocket Informant, but it was rather expensive and I had already bought all these other apps. Also, I looked at some screenshots and wasn’t too crazy about the interface.
Sunday Night Concert
Hey everyone! I’m going to be doing another one of those Sunday Night Concerts for World Bridal. It’s $5 admission and only 30 minutes at the Nikko Hotel in the Crystal Chapel. It’ll be a set of all Classical pieces, so if you’re looking for something different, come over and check it out!
IT’S ALIIIIIIVE!!!
Posted by Doug Chan in Technology on January 16, 2010
The Dell XPS m1210 is a BEAUTIFUL machine. I think it’s the best laptop there is. It’s not too big, not too small, and has tons of processing power and of course, it looks and feels great.
Unfortunately, about a year ago, one of my friends (AHEM!!) put the laptop on a surface where it couldn’t ventilate and it overheated and couldn’t be turned on anymore. After doing some research, I found out that the m1210 has a defect where it is VERY prone to GPU overheating!! … So i guess that didn’t help.
To make matters worse, the GPU is integrated on the motherboard, so to fix this thing would require an entire motherboard replacement. Screw that. I sold out most of the parts immediately: the motherboard, the keyboard, the ram, etc. Everything but the casing and screen, because I couldn’t sell them.
And thank God for that. Just a month ago, I had some money saved, so I did some research and found out that I could get this sucker back up and running if I spent about $300. I was thinking… That’s about the price of a netbook, and instead of getting a dinky little thing, I can get my awesomest laptop back!
So I bought a motherboard ($175), CPU ($75), 2gb ram ($40), keyboard ($15), and battery ($30). I was really scared though, because the motherboard came from China, so sometimes you never know what to expect.
I received everything and guess what? It didn’t work!! Man was I pissed. I spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong, but I figure either one of two things: I screwed up, or one of the parts was dysfunctional. I only assumed it was the motherboard, so I furiously contacted the eBay seller and asked him WTF and wanted a replacement. After he agreed, I was taking apart my laptop once again to take out the motherboard to get it ready to send.
But, before I did that, I wanted to run a little experiment of my own. After doing some research, I found out that Rhea’s laptop (Dell Inspiron 6400) uses the same components as my m1210, so I asked her (very nicely) if I could take apart her baby. She reluctantly agreed, so I took out the CPU and RAM and everything and popped them into my m1210.
It worked!! I couldn’t believe it. After doing some troubleshooting, I concluded it was the CPU that wasn’t working. Good thing I make sure all these eBay sellers have a “working guaranteed” clause in their auctions because I got a refund, and after more buying and waiting, I put this sucker together and it works again!
It’s good to have you back
World of Warcraft
Well, I finally got sucked in to playing WoW. Not by choice though.
It all started on Victor’s birthday party. Jhonjhon (old high school friend) came over and he’s an avid wow player, but on a different server than most of my RL friends play on. Jhon’s been bugging me to play WoW for a while, so I said, “Fine, I’ll play if you switch servers.” 15 minutes later, he showed me that he transferred his 3x Level 80 characters.
WTF!!! So yeah. now I’m playing WoW. I’ve actually been playing for weeks now, and I used to be on Evercrack back in 2001, but after quitting in 2003 and now getting back on it just now, I find that my time management skills are much better and I don’t have to play 18 hours a day. Heck, I probably just play a few hours a week.
Good thing that WoW can be fun playing in small time intervals.
Brass
I saw this commercial on TV about this guy that started a Brass band for kids in New Orleans. It got me thinking about Guam. Guam has a serious lack of brass players. GTB is great, but GTB has always lacked brass players too. So I thought, hay what if I start a brass band??
In addition to my 5 year plan, here’s where I’d like to see myself 5 years from now:
- Day Job (9am-3pm): Web work (programming/meetings/etc)
- M/W/F: Brass Band 4pm-6pm (after school program)
- Saturdays: Teach a Maximum of 8 lessons
- Sundays: Off
I think my Brass Band will be all for beginners and I’ll buy all the instruments so that parents don’t have to invest too much. I’ll invest more in lower brass because that’s what Guam is really lacking. The good people will feed into GTB once ready. I think I’m slowly working out of my private lessons phase and I want to work on a group basis soon… Hopefully I can get the funding soon to rent out a place that’ll accommodate it.
5 Year Goal
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on October 31, 2009
So I was talking to Doc and Stevie B about the future of the UOG Music Department and it really got me thinking. I mean, I’ve always been thinking about the future, but it’s mostly been a blur for me… Like, I really can’t see exactly where I’m going to be 5 years from now. Doc says that he has about 6+ years to retire, so he jokingly (or not?) mentioned to me that I should get my DMA so I can come back in time to teach!
Little backstory… I haven’t really had an entire day off since I graduated in Spring ‘08. I teach lessons every day. Sunday/Saturday are my busiest teaching days. I do weddings in the daytime M-F. Even if I don’t have weddings, I teach. If I have a full day of weddings, chances are, I have a full day of teaching after that, and to top it off, a rehearsal. The money is good and the music is fun, but seriously, I want to have at least ONE day off out of the week 5 years from now.
Fast forward to this summer. When I went to the states for Jimmy’s grad, I visited the sax professor Dr. Radnofsky at New England Conservatory about the possibility of going there for Grad school. I didn’t bring my sax which disappointed him a bit, but he was VERY understanding and let me play one of his saxes. He was also impressed that I came from Guam, which was a plus for him because he travels often to smaller places trying to popularize classical saxophone playing. Anyway, I played for him and he was fairly impressed by my flexibility and my background. He told me that if I learned two pieces on a list of ten that he gave me, I would be in.
Yet another tangent (don’t worry, I am going somewhere with this). This year, I became a part of two new web companies: DRT Web Solutions with my friends and Gecko Labs, LLC with my brother and his best friend. I have been programming websites since high school, and I haven’t stopped learning new techniques and technologies ever since. I am well versed in XHTML, PHP, MySQL, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, etc…
So here are all my career possibilities at the moment (in no particular order):
- Running my recording studio (for those who don’t know me, I started it in 2005)
- Running my music store/distribution/repair (same, 2005)
- Wedding Pianist
- Music Teacher (private lessons)
- Grad School
- Web Companies
- Band Teacher (I haven’t totally pushed it aside)
- Gigging musician
I have several scheduling categories for myself: My day-job schedule, my night/weekend schedule, and my late-night schedule. Right now:
- Day Job: Wedding Pianist Full-time (40 weddings/mo)
- Nights/weekends: Teaching lessons
- Late-night: none
This is where I would like to be 5 years from now
- Day Job: Web programmer Full-time
- Day Job: Emergency Wedding Pianist (~5 to ~20 weddings/mo depending on season)
- Saturday: Teaching Lessons (a total of
- Late-night: Gig one or two nights a week
- Sunday: DAY OFF
My web career is picking up quickly, so this doesn’t seem too far off to achieve 5 years from now. If I’m nowhere near this goal in 3 years, though, I am really going to consider going to Grad school to get my DMA in Music (sax) and being a full time Sax teacher/university professor while being a part-time web programmer.
Exercise
I’ve been busy so I haven’t had too much time to exercise. At least I’m staying in the “Normal” BMI area, even though I been pigging out sometimes.
When I work out, here’s what I try to do now:
- Warm up with some Yoga (Half-moon, Sun Salutation, Tree, nothing too difficult)
- Push-ups (10 reps) x2
- Jackknife Challenge (100 reps)
- Free Run (20 minute)
Since I haven’t really updated in a while… I beat the trainer doing the Jackknife Challenge and could do 100reps pretty consistently. After I stopped working out every day though, I can only do about 60 reps now before giving up. Kind of sad. I need to work back up to it. It’s my back and neck that’s mostly giving me trouble.
My new hobby during free run is to set “checkpoints” for myself every minute. I got 4 stars in the 10 minute free run by running .250 miles per minute. That means .125 miles every 30 seconds, finishing at 2.5 miles in the end. I started by doing .2 miles per minute, then doing .21 miles per minute, then .22 miles per minute, then .23 miles per minute, etc. This makes it a lot more bearable to keep the TV on the free run, instead of running without any smaller goals in mind.
After getting comfortable with the 10 minute free run, I’m doing the 20 minute free run, but only doing .2 miles per minute. I can’t last 20 minutes doing .25 miles per minute, but I imagine that’s what it’ll take to get 4 stars, because so far, I’ve only gotten 3 stars. It’s a great workout and I plan to 4-star it one of these days.
On the sad side, I have never recreated my 20-rep push-up/side-plank moment. I guess that was a one-time deal. On the bright side, I am very comfortable doing the free run.
That’s all for now. I’ll update once I’ve crossed another milestone.
Back to Work
Posted by Doug Chan in Life and Stuff on September 3, 2009
This month I’m back up to my number in weddings (about 40). I also have just about all my students back, and a few new ones too.
I always get a little stressed out when I get new students because it’s always something new and different. Every time I’ve had a new student, there’s always been a new challenge… tonguing problems, tone problems, air control problems… Sometimes I don’t have all the answers to all the problems, but I try my best to make them try different things. This has worked most of the time, but I guess in the end, if the student is a natural (and I have maybe one or two), they’ll be able to feel it themselves.
Anyway, I guess I got what I asked for. I acquired a bit of debt over my summer vacation, especially from going off-island twice. I’ve been asking to get busy again so I can roll in the dough to pay off my debt from the vacation, and on top of that, I still have to work on paying my student loans and car. When will it ever end! (nevarrr)