So it begins...

Most of my friends, orgmates and bandmates know that this is my all time favorite tuning. It just brings out grit and a heavier side of the guitar, and it’s so nice to play open chords with especially on an acoustic.

Well, guess what? I have a band that almost completely focuses on the tuning and all the riffs and arrangements you can make with it, as well as variations.

We jammed, recorded and mixed our first live studio recording yesterday. For now, we shall be known as the Drop D Project:

David Lina - Drums / Bert Ong - Guitar / Anton Magno - Guitar / Gab Palanca - Bass

Standby for links of the session. I’ll probably be spreading it everywhere.

I’ve been playing the bass for 8 years now, the guitar for as long as I can remember, the piano, for a while, and also dabbled in drums and percussion. But still, music and the many secrets at its birth and the secrets that it subsequently produce remain, shrouded and leaving me lost at times.

I realized at a young age that I did like playing with musical instruments, whether tapping almost random keys on our old piano or plucking away my grandfather’s guitar. It always seemed fun.

Fun. That word is so contextual and volatile you can almost make a Facebook page of its own and its timeline would be much more interesting than yours. And that’s just for one person’s ever changing definition of fun.

Fun. Playing and experimenting around was fun. I’d do crazy things as a child to satisfy my curiosity, though I’m sure we all did. But, I don’t know. Something kicked in about this curiosity, like it was feeding off my mini discoveries and experiments. And then they had specials and features of the moon landing on Discovery Channel.

That’s when I pretty much decided to be an astronaut. But a scientist would do as well.

Fast forward to 1st year college. By this time, I had been playing with vigor for about 4 years. But my musical performances were somewhat a haven from my logical, inquisitive, perfectionist self. Aside from knowing the notes on the fretboard, I kept my playing simple and with one principle: if it sounded and felt good, it probably was.

Then I met and watched all these great people, showing me techniques and skills and concepts and theories I never knew existed contained in and produced by the simple wood, plastic and steel ensemble that I held for my expression and others’ entertainment. It was a flood I had never felt in a long time. The flood of curiosity, along with the thrill of enlightenment.

My mind consumed everything it could. I began research on scales, keys, tones, woods… you name it, I was on it. I wanted so bad to know everything about music.

I still have trouble. A lot of trouble. I am no master in technique nor theory, but I am an ever curious student, always wanting to find something new and apply it, someway, somehow in my playing.

I will be taking Rudiments in Music this semester to refresh whatever is left from my piano lessons as a child. It seems fitting because there’s been a lot of talk lately on music theory and its role in us enjoying the songs on our hard drives.

I know both sides, the theory-based and the feel-based, and if I could just weigh in, this is my stand:

To know theory is an excellent thing. It helps you understand, replicate, master and progress in your craft. It’s like the process of making fine wines. Refined, made better, more complex by the barrels that it is stored in, allowed to age. To mature. Theory adds a whole different level, dimension and flavor in appreciating and creating music.

But in the end, doesn’t all that complexity and sophistication come from something raw and simple? Does logic not stem from intuition? Explanation from curiosity?

For me, there are many ways to look at things, and our thirst for knowledge can show us a glimpse of everything. There is the hand that controls how we view through our telescopes and where we point them, but also the yearning to actually try to see through it.

Theory and non-theory coexist, inseparable and are codependent. We might just be unaware how organization and arrangement evokes certain emotions in a musical piece, and in turn, what effect our simple nature has on the way we construct theories.

I could be, and most probably am, wrong. Theoretically.

Enough man. Why the hell are you doing this?

You’re better than this.

Everything will pass.

Life doesn’t get easier, you just get better.

So yeah what are you gonna do about it?

Bounce back. Hard.

And that pain?

Tough luck.

Suck it up.