09 12 / 2010
Music and Me
I’ve started playing the guitar when I’m 10 years old. At that time, the only source of guitar chords for me to play are the songhits that can be bought at magazine/newspaper stands. Guitar beginners today are very fortunate to have the internet wherein they could easily learn to play by watching video tutorials. I wish that I had the same technology back then, because it could really boost everything that I know today at an earlier stage of my life.
I formed a band with my brother and a friend of ours around May 2000. All of us know to play only one instrument - the guitar. Since we’re forming a band, we have to play different instruments, that’s the time that I decided to play the Bass guitar and my brother picked up the drums.
“My Basses”
”My Brother’s Drumset”
We’ve been through different band member lineup changes throughout the years, it’s been a headache for me since my co band members considered me as the “band leader”. I mainly decide if one member has to go or another comes in to join. For now I know that we wont be going through it anymore because I think that we have a solid attachment between us. We don’t only look for ourselves as being in a band but also good friends.
We tried to submit demo’s of our original songs in different radio stations around the metro. It’s harder to get through and get your music played on air than most people think. First thing that we have learned is that you got to have connections in the Music Industry. If you don’t know anyone, there is only a little chance that your music will be heard no matter how good you play. It’s a very tough Industry to penetrate that’s why most music artists today resort to “Independent Labeling” - your band produces everything, record your own music, distribute it yourself, play free shows, everything at your own expense. It’s a very hard to accept fact but that’s the reality of the Industry today.
We found a better way to show our talent to the people around us - playing in Bars and special events like birthdays and weddings. In this way we get to play cover songs and paid decently for what we do. In bars, we play 3 sets of songs which runs 45minutes - 1hour depending on the agreement with the bar Manager, it is a good opportunity for me because I go to school in the morning and earn money by night. The money I got goes to my daily allowance in going to school and it helps me and my parents a lot. The only disadvantage that I experienced from it is that I developed a sleeping disorder, I cant sleep early at night, I usually go to sleep at 2-3am but I could handle that by scheduling my classes in the afternoon. Playing in special events is a different story. We get to be paid in double or triple the amount of what we’re earning by playing in Bars, it’s a much better gig because we also get to eat more delicious food and play less songs but its disadvantage is that it’s not a regular gig and comes only once in a while.
I really like playing Music because it gives me a relaxing feeling and it’s very fulfilling every time we go up to the stage but I would never ever consider it to be the main source of my income because it’s very risky, it’s not very stable to be considered a job. I can only consider it as a sideline and I don’t consider that I’m paid by playing Music but think of it that I play Music because I enjoy it and I wanted to.
“Acoustic setup at a wedding ceremony”
“Direk Brillante Mendoza’s birthday”
“Birthday Party celebration at Antipolo”
“Music Museum”
