AhDoe – Music as an International Language

After watching Red Cliff 1 (赤壁1), I am ready for the sense of humour from Red Cliff 2 (赤壁2) and I should say: John Woo has gone too far this time.

First of all, those who have read Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义) will find it ridiculous to see Sun Shang Xiang having an extra boyfriend from the enemy’s camp. Moreover, he’s too dumb for her.

In fact, the show turned out to be a comedy instead of a faithful historical adaption from the book. How disappointing!

If you are interested in its CG and special effects, you can still go for this movie. If you are into something hilarious, this would be a good choice too. But sorry, this movie is not really up to my taste.

I wonder if you’d notice, a lot of Chinese soundtracks nowadays had been outsourced to Japanese musicians. Ip Man (叶问), The Painted Skin (画皮) and both Red Cliff 1 and 2. Wow, I just realized that I’ve actually composed and posted all of their piano sheets online. An applause for myself!

Taro Iwashiro (岩代太郎) composed the theme song of Red Cliff 2. The song itself gave away information about the composer. From my observation, Japanese songs normally apply lots of Major – Minor transitions and combinations of inconclusive inharmonics to conclusive harmonics. This is exactly inside Red Cliff’s theme song. Khampa Tibetan Alan (阿兰) is the angel with that heavenly voice who sings “The river flows eastward” (大江东去) from Red Cliff 2.

You can even play it on your piano now:

Red Cliff 2 (赤壁２) Theme Song Piano Sheet Preview

Too bad, there are some important scale progressions in between that you have to overcome. You can choose to ignore it but it will greatly reduce its vigor.

Other than this, this piano sheet:

1) Is in its original key, Bb Major
2) includes both lyrics and chords

Help yourselves with the piano sheet by clicking the link below:

Download link for “The river flows eastward” (大江东去) from Red Cliff 2 Complete piano sheet.

Ip Man rocks!!! Donnie Yen rocks!!! Weng Chun fist (咏春拳) rocks!!!

I first fell in love with Donnie Yen 16 years ago when I saw him in the Iron Monkey (少年黄飞鸿之铁马骝). He’s not only good-looking and good in martial arts, I bet not many people know that he is also a good pianist. Yeah, trust what you’ve just read in the previous line – pianist!

Donnie Yen plays Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu Op.66

Although there were some obvious stumbles in his playing, he is still a genius!

Ip Man (Pronounced as Yeep Mun, should not be mistakenly misread as eye-p-Man) is a story about this invincible but low profile guy who is good in Weng Chun fist who eventually survived the 2nd world war and established Hong Kong Ving Tsun Athletic Association (香港詠春拳體育會).

Good movies usually come together with good soundtracks. Ip Man’s theme song brings out the grandeur of the whole image of Ip Man at a moderate tempo but firm beats.

Yeap, Ah Doe’ve done the piano sheet for Ip Man’s theme song. A very short one, just something that I do to pass time while getting over Ip Man.

Information about this piano sheet:

1) It’s in original key, Ab Major
2) Chords included, no lyrics because it’s instrumental

Maybe I should briefly elaborate on the composer as well. Kenji Kawai -san (川井 憲次) is famous for his contributions to anime soundtracks. Ooops, too bad I don’t watch any of them now. All I know is that Kenji Kawai’s work can be found in some Hong Kong movies such as Seven Sword (七剑) and A Battle of Wits (墨攻) .

If you’ve watched Ip Man, I’m sure you will find this song familiar.

Download link for Ip Man’s theme song complete piano sheet.

The show is over. It’s a funny experience to watch the last episode at the kopitiam with several uncles aunties around. We must have looked so silly to face towards the same direction to that television. During the commercial breaks people will start to go to toilet and make noise, when the show starts again everyone kept really still and quiet as if all movement in the kopitiam was frozen until the next commercial break.

I spent $2.60 for two drinks there throughout the show…

I guess people still can’t get over this drama right now. Same here, I read a lot about the actors and actresses from this drama within these 2 months. These are some photos of the relevant artists, taken during the Money Not Enough 2 (钱不都用2) Premier.

Qi Yu Wu and Felicia Chin – Photos Courtesy of Szeping.com

Guo Hui Wen, Huang Jiong Yao and Apple Hong, where Huang Jiong Yao is NOT acting in The Little Nyonya drama – Photos Courtesy of Szeping.com

Now, back to the Ru Yan (如燕) piano sheet that I have posted before…

I received a comment from Richard:

umm Ah Doe, i am trying the piano score of ‘Ru yan’ that you posted and i was wondering if you could post a video or a sound clip using the piano score because i have trouble playing it… the tunes do not really come out and there are some parts which seem kind of weird.
Thanks

Hi Richard, it’ll be better if you’d left your email behind. Well, I hope that you are still following my blog. Regarding your comment on “The Little Nyonya” theme song piano sheet, I’ve attached the MP3 of this song’s piano version. That will mean, if you follow the notes in my piano sheet, this is how the whole song will sound like. There’s always room of improvement and I really appreciate your effort of bringing up the flaws in it. If possible, a specific description such as in which bar, the tempo, wrong harmonics etc will be more helpful.

Anyone out there, feel free to comment on this piano sheet. I will be utmost grateful to constructive suggestions.

This is the consequence of not having a television! I heard everyone talking about it, I heard its theme song on radio stations, I read all the trivias of this drama and interviews with those artists who star in this drama, BUT I never get to watch it!

Can Mediacorp release its DVD version asap? Thanks!

Jeanette Aw (欧萱) as the beautiful and determined Nyonya, good in cooking and beadwork and makes a good housewife

You know everyday I get those complaints about how evil Lim Mei Jiao is in Little Nyonya, how pitiful Jeanette Aw is and how delicious the nyonya delicacies are. Hey you know? I am quite familiar with Malacca as well, why don’t you guys join me for a tour in Malacca? I’ll name it as “The Little Nyonya” tour…sounds great huh?

Yes933 is always playing and hard-selling its theme song: 如燕 (Like the Swallow), pronounced as “Ru Yan”. Olivia Ong surprised me by her accurate Chinese pronunciation. She has a soft and gentle voice, maybe angelic is the best word to describe that feeling. Well, she looks pretty as well.

She is definitely the dream girl of many guys out there! Guys would like to keep her beside them and command “Sing to me! My angel!” whole day long!

Photos Courtesy of Nicholas Tan and clubsnap.com

I’ve prepared a piano sheet for this Little Nyonya theme song as well, and I think there is no better time than now to post it before the drama finishes.

Some information about this piano sheet:

1) It’s in original key, Bb Major

2) Lyrics and chords are included

3) See some ornaments in the piano sheet? It’s the imitation of Malay accordion and guitar in this song.

4) No repeats. Therefore this piano sheet is 9 pages long. You don’t have to jump from this bar to another bar and find where the signs are.

Download link for The Little Nyonya Drama Theme Song piano sheet – Like the Swallow (如燕).

This outstanding christmas tree was standing alone in the middle of a piazza, surrounded by nice view but a gloomy weather. The floor was wet, if you’d noticed it.

I’m not really in the mood of celebration this year, even walking around crowded shopping malls seems so meaningless. My aunt just passed away, economic is not good, job security is damn low, even traveling to Malaysia is a disaster now as I predict I will be sandwiched between people. Nothing seems to be promising now, what a Christmas!

This photo was taken in Taormina, Sicily Island of Italy 4 years ago, by the way.

Life still goes on, and the good news is, I’m already working on a new piano sheet which I suppose, will be your favourite. This coming piano sheet will be ready in approximately 3 days’ time.

Remember, be the first to grab it and I’m sure that it won’t disappoint you!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!