Here she is …. All strung up. Going to pick it up in a week’s time. It looks awesome … Can’t wait to have it in my hands and hear how it sounds.
I have always wanted to perform with an orchestra. Didn’t know how that would happen, since I don’t play orchestral music. But it did.
3 years ago Yap Ling introduced me to Foo Say Ming’s re:mix. A crossover string ensemble that had a really fresh sound and was open to experimenting with different types of music. It was perfect for me. That was my first taste of performing with an orchestra … even though it was a “mini” orchestra…. it left me wanting more!!
The following year … re:mix invited me to perform with them at their annual concert held on 21 December 2009 at the Singapore Esplanade. It was an honor, because they commissioned one of Singapore’s most accomplished arrangers, Iskandar Ismail, to arrange a piece especially for me to perform with re:mix. That piece was a medley of 3 songs by Antonio Jobim – Girl from Ipanema, Quiet Nights and One note samba. It was a perfect blend. After that show …. I still wanted more!! … I really felt that I needed to bring re:mix to Kota Kinabalu for a proper concert. That led to last weekends concert at the Shangri-la’s Tanjung Aru Resort.
What a show!! What a sound!! Loved every minute of it….. And yes …. I still want MORE!!
I do hope to work with re:mix again in the near future. I can now cross out “perform with a orchestra” from my to-do list …. Maybe change that to “record with an orchestra”.
Below are some pictures from the concert taken by C.K.Wong
Almost everything is in place. Ready to spray the finish on.
The inlay at the 12th fret of the neck is my surname “Wang” written in Chinese. Turned out pretty cool looking.
Back and sides are now in place. Edward will be putting on the binding around the corners once the glue dries.
Just received these pictures from Edward. It shows work on the soundboard, bracing and head stock. He will be putting all of it together real soon!!
Double Take performed at the first KK Jazz Festival in 2007. We don’t get to perform in our hometown often, so we were very happy to be invited back again for the second time.
It felt great to be able to perform for a home crowd. The applause from home is indeed the sweetest.
As one of the organisers and founding member of this festival, it was a proud moment for me to see what a success this year’s festival turned out to be. If you were there, thanks for making it happen.
Below are some picture of Double Take at the festival taken by Glory Yew.
Just received these photos from Edward with this note: -
Hi Roger,
Here are some photos of the sides. I will finished up the rosette and start bracing, then the sides will be install..stay tuned…
Regards
Edward Hiew
Freeman Guitars Crafter
129-02, Jalan Rimbunan Raya 1,
Laman Rimbunan Kepong,
52000 Kuala Lumpur
Just got these pictures from Edward showing the progress of the harp guitar. He apologized for the delay. I told him I don’t want to rush it and he should take the time he needs to do the best job possible.
Good to see it coming together. Looking good!!
My good friend and great drummer, Peter Lau, was in town this week. I took the opportunity to get him into the studio for 1 full day to lay down some drum tracks for some of my songs. I’ve known Peter for more than 10 years. He has been on almost all of my albums. He’s my first choice for drums. He keeps a solid groove, creative with his playing and is always fun to work with. The session was very productive. I sent the demo of “Where the water flows” to him a few weeks back. So he had already done his homework on that. He nailed it within 3 takes.
I only sent “Audacity” to Peter a few days before his trip, so he wasn’t very familiar with it. Plus the arrangement was a bit tricky. It took longer than he had expected. But we were very happy with the take.
After a short dinner break, we came back to do a new song called “Blue Skies in Jesselton”. Peter hasn’t heard it yet, so together with Moses on the bass, we worked it out the traditional way – Played it over and over again as a trio in the studio till it felt right. It turned out to be the favorite track for Peter and Moses.
We ended the session at around 9pm. Listening to the rough tracks in the car ride back home. It felt good knowing that the progress made that day was a major step forward.
Now the groove is in place ……
You can learn more about Peter and his self-made drum kits here.
There is something about putting on a capo and playing the same song in a different key.
It’s a different sound.
A few years ago I discovered partial capo – that’s where you only capo some of the strings. I’ve written one song where I capo all the strings on the 4th fret except 1st string. And another that’s the other way around. It has indeed opened up some new possibilities.
A few weeks ago I got a Third Hand Capo. This capo takes partial capo to a new dimension. It’s clever design lets you capo any string combination.
The thrid hand capo
I just finished writing a song where I capo all strings on the 4th fret except the 1st and 5th string.
I am liking this. It gives the guitar new life the way open tuning does but without having to relearn the fret board. I am predicting that at least 5 songs on the album will make use of the capo.
Visited Edward at his workshop last week. Sorted out some details on the harp guitar design. He even made a mock up to confirm the size and shape. A lot smaller than I had expected, but I like it that way. I was hoping it would be done by early this month, but it looks like Edward will need more time.
Mock up of the harp guitar with the unfinished neck.
The harp guitar plan version 2. Some minor changes to the previous plan. This includes reducing the length of the sub-bass arm. I have requested Edward to make it even shorter so that it doesn't stick out too much beyond the guitar head stock.
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The whole world is going through an economic slowdown. Everyone is feeling the pinch one way or another. Unfortunately, music too is not spared from the chopping board. People will be buying less CDs and cutting down on live entertainment. Music as an industry will shrink – that’s probably unavoidable. However, music as an art form must continue to flourish. With so much bad news in the air, we need music in our life to remind us of things that are beautiful and things that make us feel good.
With that being said, I hereby unveil my MUSIC STIMULUS PLAN!!!
A dramatic intro I must admit … but I am in a generous mood right now. So here’s the deal – I’ve set aside a bunch of my albums and concert tickets that I would like to giveaway. I will not be able to give them to everyone. So to make things fun and more interesting, I will be giving them away through a series of simple contests.
The first few will be done through my Facebook Fan Page. If you are already on it, just wait for the contest details. If you are not, you still have time to join or just get someone you know who is already on Facebook to join. I am sure that will not be hard to find.
Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Roger-Wang/60170681024
I will announce the contest details on Facebook this Thursday 9 April 2009.
See you on Facebook!!!
Let me introduce to you the guy who is building my harp guitar. He is a Malaysian lutheir named Edward Hiew. Edward has been building guitars exclusively for the last 7 years. You can check out his website http://www.freemanguitars.com
I first heard about Edward in 2007 through Yong Wee Chan, a fellow guitar player from Malacca. Yong is a proud owner of few of Edward’s guitars and has been encouraging me to check it out. I was very impressed with what I saw and glad to know there are more local lutheirs making quality acoustic guitars.
I am happy with the Maton that I have been using and have no desire or need for another acoustic guitar – not even a custom handmade one. But I did mention to Yong that if Edward is able to make a harp guitar, I would be interested.
I finally meet Edward when he came to see me at a concert in Malacca in November 2008. Later he brought me to see his new workshop in Kepong. I was impressed with his dedication to his craft and his attitude.
We started to talk about the possibility of him building a harp guitar. He has never done anything like that before, so I think he was a bit worried if he could handle such a project. After describing to him the kind of harp guitar I had in mind and as well as his own research into harp guitar making, he finally agreed build one.
My initial design guideline to Edward was simple: -
- Make the body as compact as possible, so that it is easier to handle and travel with.
- It should look contemporary and sexy. Unfortunately, a lot of harp guitars look really ugly.
- It will have six open sub-bass strings and the saddle should be the similar to the saddle of a regular six-string guitar so I can use standard piezo pickup system.
- I wanted the neck profile to be similar to one of my Maton.
Edward later suggested 2 very important points to include in the design: -
12th fret neck joint – regular steel-string guitars have neck that joins the body on the 14th fret while classical guitars do it at the 12th fret. The 12th fret joint is known to give warmer and mellower sound due to change in placement of the bridge. Since there will be a cutaway, I will not miss the easy access of a 14th fret joint design. It’ll also bring down the overall size.
Slotted headstock – I have always associated slotted headstock designs to classical guitars. Apparently, this design gives a better string break angle at the nut. This extra pressure on the nut translates to better sound transfer. This also means the tuning peg will be facing backwards and not get in the way of the sub-bass headstock.
Few weeks later, Edward sent this sketch.
First sketch of the harp guitar
I liked the design and told Edward to go ahead and finalise it. This was followed by the design plan below.
Harp guitar design plan
The offset neck was included to allow the soundhole to remain in the centre of the body without increasing the size of the sub-bass arm.
With this confirmed, Edward started the build early March 2009 with the following specifications: -
Body Shape : Grand Auditorium
Scale Length : 25.5″
Body Clear: 12th Fret
Headstock: Slotted
Top: Englement Spruce
Back & Sides: Dark Red Meranti
Fingerboard & Bridge: Ebony
Binding Indian Rosewood
Rosette: Spiral Indian Rosewood
Pictures of the harp guitar build in progress.
The full-size design plan
This will be the back of the harp guitar. Made from 4 pieces of Meranti wood glued together.
The neck with slotted headstock
Some of you may have heard about this new harp guitar that is being built for me. The rest of you would probably be thinking … what in the world is a harp guitar??
In a nutshell, a harp guitar is a regular six-string guitar with additional open strings. Mine will have six open bass strings; giving me the option to play notes up to one octave below the lowest note on a standard guitar.
Why the harp guitar?
Well … the range of the guitar is one of the most challenging aspects of solo guitar arrangement. Many times harmony, melody and rhythm need to be compromised for the sake of the bass note. Throughout the years I have tried various ways to get more bass. This included: -
• Using thicker 5th and 6th strings.
• Using bass guitar strings for the 5th and 6th strings so I can tune it down an octave
• Using a MIDI interface to trigger bass sounds when playing notes on the 5th and 6th strings
• Angle a magnetic sound hole pickup so that it only picks up the 5th and 6th string. Send that signal to a pitch shift and pitch it down an octave. Blend that signal with the regular guitar pickup.
All of the above worked to a certain degree, but it just didn’t feel right to me. There were still limitations.
I am hoping that the harp guitar will help me break through some of these limitations and open up new possibilities for solo guitar music.
If you are interested to find out more about the harp guitar, please visit www.harpguitars.net. It is an excellent resource for all things regarding the harp guitar.
My first encounter with the harp guitar was in July 2000, when I saw Stephen Bennett perform at CAAS convention in Nashville. When he walked up the main stage with his harp guitar, I remember thinking how strange it looked and that the music I am about to hear must be equally as strange. Boy was I wrong! Stephen’s set of covers and original music on the harp guitar was beautiful. The harp guitar quickly went into my wish list of gears to have.
It didn’t take long for me to find out that buying a harp guitar is not as simple as picking one up from a music store. It’s a rare instrument. There are no production units available. Second hand or vintage harp guitars are hard to come by. Having one custom made by a luthier would be ideal, but there are not many luthiers around making harp guitars, plus there is usually a waiting time of 1 year and it can be very expensive.
It looked like the chances of me owning a harp guitar was getting very slim. So I had put that pursuit aside. Little did I know that 8 years later, it would come knocking on my door ……. (to be continued)
Trying out Stephen Bennett's harp guitar in Nashville (July 2001)
During a music appreciation session yesterday, someone asked me if I would add singing into my act. It’s not the first time this issue was brought up. In fact, I started out singing a lot. But I realised that my voice was in the guitar and decided to put singing aside to focus on my playing. Besides, I got to work with many wonderful vocalists throughout my career, so I didn’t really miss singing.
However, since I am getting into the whole reinventing mode for the next album, I think it’s time to re-visit that possibility.
I’ve been fighting a bug the whole day, and came back from the session feeling very tired and sick. Slept at 9pm.
I woke up around 3am. Still thinking about this issue, but this time with a tune in my head. It was a 4-bar riff and I heard my voice over it. I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I took my guitar out to work on it.
The 1st verse and chorus came easily. The lyrics was about being away from home …. A topic I am very familiar with.
I went back to sleep at 5am. Still feeling sick, but very excited about the potential of the song. I don’t know where it came from … maybe it was inspiration waiting for the right time to come…… or maybe it was the medication!!
“Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors
and creative artists than piracy.”
- Tim O’Reilly
This is the game plan for now.
I like how the demoing part is working out. It’s a great way to knock a song into shape and bring away a rough version to listen.
Listen to it in the car, at home, over the headphones when I take my morning walks … Listen as an audience, not as a guitarist or composer.
Identify problems … fix it … demo it … and listen again.
Over and over until it’s ready for final recording.
I can’t confirm this, but I just read an article in yesterday’s Daily Express about how RIM (The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia) has changed the definition of an album. It used to be a minimum of 10 songs to qualify as an album. Now, due to the economic slowdown, RIM has brought it down to 5 songs.
Just 5 songs and I’ve got an album! Hah … if that is true ….. my work is HALF DONE! 
It’s like being told just as you are about to climb Mt. Kinabalu, that once you’ve reach the halfway point, you can tell people that you’ve reached the peak!
It’s tempting, but a 5-song album just doesn’t feel complete. I think I have enough in me give you at least 10 songs.
If there is anything positive about the economic slowdown, it would be that I may just end up having more time to work on this album.
See you at the peak.
Before the concert, the promo tour, album release, mastering, mixing, recording, arranging …. Before anything can begin, there must first be a song. Everything else exists for the song.
Song is king.
That’s where I must begin.
Earlier in my career, I decided to work more with covers instead of original tunes because I wanted to establish myself as a guitar player first. Doing my interpretation of exiting music allowed me to focus on that and I believe it made it easier for listeners to open up to my style of playing.
It’s time to move out of that comfort zone and redefine myself.
Backstage in Melacca. Picture by Leanne Lee.
