A Learning Experience

Wow…that’s all I can say for last weekend’s experience.

In Muar
It has been a tiring week for me, with all the nightly rehearsals. We reached Muar around 9+pm. The host church of this event is Full Gospel Centre Muar pastored by senior pastor, Dr Jonathan David. The church there resembles a multi purpose hall, like a dewan. We stayed in their Bible school dormitory where the rest of the bands were placed.

We had our sound test but had not much time to perfect everything because other teams needed to sound test as well. I wasn’t too happy with the sound, but like I said, it was an experience and a trial. Only half of Altered Frequency was there, Andy, Agnel and David Gary. Later we had supper at one of the hawker centers called the BOM. One thing I have to say about the host is their hospitality is good, they gave us very good meals throughout our stay. By the time it was time to sleep, it was around 2am. We needed to wake up around 7am the next day for last sound test,

This event was an evangelical concert. If we had known, our choice of songs would have been a little different…but anyway we went ahead with it. There were some glitches here and there since it was their first time organizing it…a bit not smooth. We had the afternoon off to rest. Raj was a bit annoyed because of certain last minute changes they had imposed causing us to rearrange our playing. An ice kacang made us feel a lil better.

That night, the hall was quite full…around 700 people. We were the first band to play…but before that they also had some dance moves, some lucky draws…etc. It was a bilingual in English and Mandrin event. Pastor shared and some people gave their lives to Christ. I was a bit uncomfortable with the way things were organized…but that’s where we all learn to improve.

Learning from Altered Frequency
Overall, I was a bit nervous. Now I finally realize that my weakness is in my finger picking technique. It’s totally unsatisfactory. I learned a lot from Altered Frequency. On the first night during supper, me, Vijay and ZX had the chance to chat with Agnel and Andy. I learned a lot from asking their advice and about their experience and how they made things work. One thing that learned is that they get together and pray once a week and also be accountable to each other about their lives. Because according to Agnel, the ministry they are in involves their lives…so they needed to check their lifestyle, their relationships, etc. Prayer and seeking direction helped shaped A Frequency. Pray for what gigs to accept and what not too…Be faithful in all that you do…your availability matters, your five loaves and two fishes…the crux of it was to make Jesus famous to the church and also the unchurch. Also practice and practice, play harder songs…set goals, learn new scales, new beats. I won’t quote everything here because it will be too long…but I learned a lot.
Another thing is, before A Freq existed…they had been playing for a long time as friends…so it was because of friendship that they now exsist.
Anyway, we told them about PG 165 and stuff…later when we told them what it stood for…ZXin’s number plate…they were like, ‘wah…that’s soooo spiritual ar…I thought it stood for Psalms or something…’ and they laughed. Vijay and Agnel have become better friends coz they were friends before this…Raj and David Gary seemed to click… I wish we could sit down and chat more. We got some cool pics. They kept asking me what guitar I was using because of it’s rare body shape.

Conclusion
I agree with Raj when he said they were nice guys and not only pretending to be nice. David Gary has skill man…when the two guitarist arrived…Daniel and Kysern. I was really humbled to watch them play especially Kysern…wow, his groove…I was really humbled. I know that I need much improvement on my part. But also I saw that PG 165 really need to sit down and pray and be honest with ourselves.

We finally reached home around 2.20am Sunday morning. We made some good friends in Muar including one sound engineer Samuel Lau aka Paul Gilbert of Muar coz he played a Paul Gilbert signature series including all the solos. This guy owns so many gadgets (own personal studio, guitars, amps, effects) that he sold me a BOSS Metal Zone and a Lazer Sustainer and Compressor for Rm 300. A good buy in my oppinion yay, new toys to play.