I suppose it had to happen some time.

The once classical guitar centric “International Guitar Festival (Singapore)” has now been rebranded as the “Singapore International Acoustic Guitar Festival”.

It’s more than a cosmetic change.

The competition and visiting personalities are now geared towards acoustic guitarists instead of classical guitarists. Whereas last year’s competition winner received a Sakurai/Kohno classical guitar, this year’s winner will receive a George Lowden acoustic guitar. There is also no set piece for the competition nor any criteria. It’s definitely not a ‘classical guitar only’ competition anymore. It’s going to be strange seeing classical and acoustic guitarists participating in the same contest.

I can’t imagine a classical guitarist winning and walking away with a high-end acoustic guitar.

For several months I heard rumours that Thomas was thinking about repositioning the festival. He has clearly followed through. I can’t blame Thomas for doing so, there is much more money in organizing an acoustic guitar event, which has more mass appeal, than a niche classical guitar event, especially in a small market like Singapore.

It’s the end of an era, and a start of a new one.

Sadly, this is the first festival that does not appeal to me at all. I’m not sure if I will be attending any of the items.

Competition Heats & Semi-finals:18-20 June
Concerts: 20-24 June
Workshops & Masterclasses: 21-23 June
Competition Finals: 24 June

Venue: RELC International Hotel

Featuring Martin Taylor (UK), Michel Haumont (France), Paolo Sereno (Italy), Thomas Leeb (Austria) and Paco Renteria (Mexico). Tickets on sale now.

More information available on tomas-music.com.

Singapore International Acoustic Guitar Festival 2012 is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

My friend and colleague Andrew Wee is organizing a talk for parents interested in enrolling their children in a Suzuki method for classical guitar.

The Suzuki method applies a mother tongue approach towards learning music, where students ‘hear’ and ‘speak’ with the instrument first before they learn to read. Yamaha once had a dedicated centre for the Suzuki method that has now become defunct.

Andrew is currently the only Suzuki classical guitar instructor in Singapore (that we know of anyway). He’s a gentle and nice fellow and I’m certain he’s well-liked by his young students.

The Suzuki method requires a great deal of involvement from the parent (they need to sit in for lessons) and offers many opportunities for paren-child bonding.

The talks will be given by parents who have benefitted by the programme and not by Andrew himself, though he will be on hand to moderate and answer questions.

There will also be performances by a paren-child duo and solo performances by 2 child learners.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in a Suzuki classical guitar programme, I highly recommend that you attend this event to learn more.

1 May 2012
1.30-3.30pm
The Little Arts Academy
1 Selegie Road PoMo #05-01/02
Free Admission

To register, email or call Andrew at andew@suzukiguitar.sg/85000346.

I’d love to attend, but my office is short-handed at the moment so I can’t take leave. Sorry Andrew!

1 May 2012 Suzuki Conversations is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

Where should I go? What should I do? What should be my agenda?

I toyed with the idea of going back to Japan, or going to Europe and visit the factories in Spain or the craftsmen in the UK. I even considered going to Korea and China to try the guitars of up-and-coming luthiers.

I’ve finally come to a decision, and it was motivated by one of the most unlikely variables ever: wrestling.

When I was a teenage, I watched a fair amount of WWE (back then still referred to as WWF). I was lucky to be a fan during the Attitude Era and I always said to myself, “Wouldn’t it be awesome to go to Wrestlemania one day?”

I grew older and the appeal of WWE faded over time. Nowadays I don’t even watch it. But the Rock’s recent return to the ring has piqued my interest again.

So I thought to myself, “Why not kill 2 birds with 1 stone?”

I’ve decided to travel to the US  so that I can attend Wresltemania 29 and go on a guitar expedition.

This has got to be the strangest photo I've ever posted on a guitar-related post

What a strange combination. Who would’ve guessed I would combine 2 of my guilty pleasures into one insanely awesome vacation idea?

On the guitar front, I hope to visit GSI and other prominent American luthiers. Perhaps Kenny Hill too, if he would have me. I’ll also want to attend some masterclasses and concerts, something I desperately wanted to do in Japan but had problems doing so due to the language barrier.

Chances are I’ll also be coming back with a new guitar, but that really depends on my budget. Wrestlemania and guitar masterclasses and concerts are probably going to be pretty expensive!

As with my last visit to Japan, I hope the guitar portion of my trip will give me valuable experience that I can apply to the local scene in one way or another.

Shocking details on my next Guitar Trip is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

I love playing the works of Fernando Sor. It’s easy to see why Sor’s work has become a staple in classical guitar music. This piece in particular is a simple and fun exercise that demonstrates Sor’s ability to write great music at all technical levels. A fun and enjoyable piece of classical music. In my opinion, it is crucial to a strict tempo throughout this piece.

Here it is:

Performer: Dedrick Koh
Guitar: Wataru Tsuji Grand Suprema
Recorder: Zoom H2
Year of recording: 2012
Composer Fernando Sor

Fernando Sor Op. 31 No. 2 is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

This pop piece was made famous by Madonna in 1985. It was written for the film ‘Vision Quest’ and was one of pop princess’s biggest hits at the time.

This classical guitar arrangement of “Crazy for You” was written by Noriyasu Takeuchi (竹内永和）. As a child of the 80s, I always enjoy playing this. It brings back a lot of memories and nostalgia. I imagine it was a popular song at proms and school dances at the time.

I hope you like it.

Here it is:

Performer: Dedrick Koh
Guitar: Wataru Tsuji Grand Suprema
Recorder: Zoom H2
Year of recording: 2012
Composer: John Bettis and Jon Lind
Arranger: Noriyasu Takeuchi (竹内永和）.

Crazy For You is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

Kenny Hill Signature Series

Roland Wang, a classical guitar teacher at Cristofori, recently acquired a Kenny Hill Signature Series guitar. I gave him some advice regarding the availability of Kenny Hill guitars in Singapore and he kindly reciprocated by offering to let me try his new guitar.

It was a composite top with a layer of cedar over a layer of spruce. It was a very nice guitar. It was powerful and very even with great sustain, clarity and separation. The setup was excellent. The slight relief and low action makes it easy to play while retaining plenty of headroom.

The response and projection were both phenomenal. Not only was it a great concert guitar, but it was worth every penny. I was very tempted to e-mail Kenny Hill to place an order.

I had a blast playing it. Thanks Roland.

I forgot to bring my audio recorder with me though, so I don’t have any samples.

Catching up with Divian

(From left to right) Jordan, Divian Nair and me

When I was studying  at Murdoch University I took a couple of modules with 98.7FM’s Divian Nair. Recently, I’ve had the chance to catch up with him.

He was scheduled to interviewed the winners of NYP Jam! so my colleague Jordan and myself attended the taping to help facilitate.

I was Divian’s senior at Murdoch and graduated before him, and honestly we were only acquaintances, so I did not keep track of what he did after I graduated. He made some pretty interesting career choices that have clearly paid-off. Good for him.

Divian is a nice and likeable fellow. Very-well suited for the entertainment industry.

The Corp Comms Ninja pops up at Discover NYP

Years of working in the marketing communications line has taught me how to operate stealthily behind scenes like a corporate communications ninja.

But recently, I was spotted in the ‘wild’ in this Discover NYP blog post.

Here I interview Joseph and Melinda, who both won awards for packaging design.

Unfortunately, the area for the interview was very tight and my photographer could not find a good spot so I was forced to use that photo.

This is the first time I’ve seen my photo in a publication I’ve worked for (aside from this website of course). I’m usually much more careful about concealing my involvment.

Kenny Hill Signature Series,Divian Nair and Ded in action is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

Students at NYP's School of Information Technology

For 3 days I was walking around campus, taking photos, and updating our social media products. It was pretty awesome. Tiring, but awesome.

A demonstration on how to deliver a baby. On a practice dummy. Because a 'live' demonstraion would be weird.

NYP is a very nice place to study. It’s conveniently located next to Yio Chu Kang MRT station and it has a vibrant student life. Whenever I stay late, I always see students happily hanging out,  socialising or participating in their CCAs. It’s a polytechnic that has a night life.

It’s common to see students dancing hip-hop, lifting weights, playing water polo and everything else in-between. There’s a palpable feeling to the campus and it runs into the night.

NYP's CCAs were out in force to welcome visitors.

One of my favourite shots. The timing was perfect.

Students at NYP study hard and they play hard, with the school giving them everything they need to do both. I think the NYP Open House did a great job of encapsulating that experience for visitors. We even staged a Night Open House where we had guest performances by singer/songwriter Bevlyn Khoo, the finals of NYP Jam! (a singing competition)  and a dance party.

As a child of the 80s, I wanted a giant disco ball to descend from the ceiling. Instead all I got was fog machines and laser lights.

I enoyed working with the contestants for NYP Jam! We received a tremendous amount of talent this year. Many were nervous, so I tried to use my experience as a performer to quell their fears.

“Don’t worry,” I’d tell them, “when you go up on stage, you have nothing to lose but your pride.”

“And at your young age, your pride isn’t priceless. It’s worthless. So if you really think about it, you have nothing to lose.”

I think my advice helped. My experience in rehearsing and preparing for live performances probably helped a bit too.

Hui Min, one of the finalists of NYP Jam! this girl was REALLY good.

The contestants put on a great show and my colleagues Carol and Jordan told me that the contestants performed much better during the finals than they did in their rehearsals. No mean feat considering the enormous crowd and the celebrities in attendence.

Speaking of which, I also had the opportunity to meet with singer/songer writer Bevlyn Khoo and her team. She is exceptionally nice for a person of her talent and success. A great voice and excellent musicianship. She is very clear about her musical intentions and the NYP Jam! Finalists could learn much from watching her perform.

I also got to meet the hosts for NYP Night Open House: Shan and Rozz. When I was at MINDEF Public Affairs, I used to see Rozz at the CMPB canteen during her Power 98 days. It’s hard to miss a tall girl like that in a male-dominated working environment like CMPB.

She was quite possibly the best-looking person in boots. After myself of course.

I previously met Shan Wee (and his colleague Justin Ang) during a press conference I organized for the People’s Association.

Me, Shan, Rozz and my colleague Jordan. I'm 1.78m tall, so that should give you an idea of how tall Shan and Rozz is. Despite Rozz's height, she still wears platformed shoes! Useful in retrieving errand balloons I suppose.

I also found Open House fun because it was the first time in months I was behind the lens of a Digital SLR. I borrowed my colleague’s  Sony Alpha DSLR 200 and took plenty of photos of the event. This shoot was particularly challenging as it was the first time I went for a night shoot!

I was quite pleased with the results. It’s nice to see that whatever skills Wayne Umehara imparted to me have not waned (no pun intended).

Dedrick @ NYP Open House 2012 is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

This year, I’ve seen some poor behaviour and this made me think about why people behave badly.

I was especially disgusted by the poor behaviour of music retailers. The guitar community is small and closely knit. I find it disturbing whenever I hear of unethical behaviour. Even big brands like Maestro Guitars have been accused of wrong doing. I feel great shame when such a high-profile, national brand gets accused of selling counterfeit guitars.

Ho Zen, the owner and founder of Maestro Guitars, has told me some pretty tall lies over the years, including his claim that they made guitars for Asturias (which I debunked when I visited the Asturias factory in Japan and confronted Head Luthier Wataru Tsuji and Rokkoman President Sho Kido) and that he could procure a 7/8 sized Alhambra Guitar, that didn’t exist, in 3 months. Of course he could not, and this affected my students who were preparing for exams.

I feel like Hozen will say anything in order to make money. I once gave him the benefit of the doubt, but it has become clear that his repeated lies are not the product of a fledgling brand trying to find its legs.   Sadly, he is not the only guitar retailer like this.

It’s easy to blame a company for wrong doing. But individuals and youths are not exempted from bad behaviour either.

When I was working at MCYS, I was struck by a particular incident that happened as we were preparing to launch a new season of the President’s Challenge. We were launching that year’s initiative with a celebrity football match and our partners had generously donated various items for our goodie bags.

We had several juvenile delinquents packing the goodie bags for us as part of their rehabilitation program. It was an easy job. They worked in our air-conditioned meeting room, and my bosses Karen and Audrey treated them to pizza for lunch. I also walked out to buy them muffins.

It was much better than picking up trash at a beach somewhere.

Occasionally, my colleague Faizal and myself would conduct spot-checks to make sure that the bags were being packed properly. By the end of the day, every thing seemed to be in order and we released them.

In hindsight, we should have performed a strip search or cavity search.

When we were cleaning up, we discovered several empty packages that were supposed to contain 1GB thumb drives that Microsoft had generously gave to us. Eventually we found over 20 thumb drives missing. We had over 800 goodie bags (of different variants) to pack, so we were unable to catch the discrepancy during our spot checks.

We called the probation officer and the boys admitted to stealing them and managed to recover the thumb drives. So much for giving ex-offenders a second chance. Sadly, this incident occurred close to my birthday and this left me pensive and reflection during my celebratory dinner at Double-O.

“The greed of money is the root of all evil.”

These examples of dishonesty are powered by greed. We live in a society where we base our happiness on our material possessions. Have we forgotten what happiness is? Has replacing ‘happiness’ with ‘greed’ accelerated moral decay in society?

If you randomly ask someone, “What do you want?” the reply will probably pertain to a material possession. You will probably get the same reply if you ask “What will make you happy?”

Recently, the Workers’ Party suggested a happiness gauge for Singapore. The suggestion is interesting and novel. But considering how materialistic Singaporeans are, wouldn’t happiness be tied to GDP growth anyway?

Afterall,

More growth = More Money = More iPhones and Cars = More ‘Happiness’

Coming from an advertising background it feels strange for me to argue against materialism and consumerism. But my experiences in the guitar community and the social services sector has shown me the perils of such devices. The guitar community and the social services sector cannot afford acts of evil powered by wanton greed. Both sectors are vulnerable and need all the help it can get.

We need to carefully examine and redefine how we determine happiness. I’d hate to see what would happen to society if we continue down this path.

Materialism as the basis for happiness is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

Unfortunately, that means that I missed the Singapore Guitar Show 2011. Even though I had completed my ICT by that time, I had other things to do. For one, I brought my family to Angus House to celebrate my Dad’s birthday (which I missed because I had to stay in camp during his birthday).

Dad and I at Angus House

Since I started working, I have been making a conscious effort to take better care of my parents. In addition to giving my father money every month (which he really doesn’t need), I also try to buy a nice dinner for everyone every Sunday (usually Thai food from the fabulous Nakhon Kitchen near my home).

My dad used to be a banker, so he’s quite well to do. The money I give him isn’t much compared to what he used to make, but I do it anyway out of filial piety. One day, I hope that I can earn enough money so that they money I give him really makes a difference.

It was nice to bring my family out for a nice meal at a place like Angus House. I’ve been working so hard lately it’s good to spend it on the family. The bill was $170, but it was totally worth it. The tenderloin steak I ordered was cooked to perfection.

Mum and my brother Keane looking at the menu.

Textbook medium, very tender and incredibly juicy. It was the second best steak I’ve ever eaten. The best was the steak I ate at the now defunct Compass Rose during dad’s 50th birthday.

My compliments to the chef for preparing this excellent tenderloin.

Paying for the bill made me feel good. I’ve worked very hard through the years and the ability to comfortably afford a $170 meal made me feel like I’ve made it. I worked my way up from the bottom and got to where I am today through pure skill, hard work and talent. I never pulled strings (no pun intended) or relied on connections.

Everything I’ve done in my career, from working at Ogilvy to the President’s Office was 100% me. And keep in mind I was very lowly paid in my first job. I wasn’t making much money and I had to work on weekends and public holidays and sometimes stayed in the office till 5am!

I’ve come a long way.

The dinner wasn’t my only extravagance. During the last 2 weeks I also bought a Samsung Galaxy S2. I gave dad my old HTC Desire.

When I started work at Nanyang Polytechnic I quickly realized that I had to change my phone. I love HTC’s ‘Sense’ software, but  HTC has never been very good with hardware. The photos I took with my HTC Desire were downright pathetic. I felt terrible using those photos for blogs and other social media platforms.

Fortunately, my new Galaxy S2 takes GREAT photos. I previously owned a Samsung Omnia 2 (running the now-obsolete Windows Mobile 6.5), so I know Samsung is great with hardware.

A sample photo from my Samsung Galaxy S2. Look at how vivd those colours are!

Another sample photo. This is my cousin's dog, Oscar. Oscar loves it when I rub his tummy.

It’s a pity that they are terrible at developing software though. It is also unfortunate that I am unable to claim some of the cost from the polytechnic. After all, I need the phone to take photos for Nanyang Polytechnic’s social media platforms.

I also spent the last 2 weeks doing a lot of guitar-related stuff. I’ve been looking at a lot of exam and Christmas material. It’s a good thing that I brought my Yamaha Silent Guitar (SLG 120N) into camp with me during ICT. It was a life saver!

When my ICT ended, I also had to pack and store my army stuff and clear the downstairs room for my sister and brother-in-law, who are coming back to visit later this week.

All this activity forced me to miss the Singapore Guitar Show  2011 (sorry Terrence!), hence the lack of coverage on my website. Maybe I’ll be able to cover it next year.

Aw well. Hopefully things will lighten up soon and I’ll have more time to relax and blog.

ICT, Dad’s birthday and a new Phone! is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh

The Singapore Guitar Show is coming back on 3-4 December at Suntec rooms 325-326. It will be open from 10am to 6pm and admission is free.

Mark the date down on your calendar and remember to attend this event.

Classical guitarists will want to check out the guitars of Rod Capper, Graham Caldersmith and Dennie Prim.

I have my annual In-Camp Training during that date, but I’ll do my best to attend. I’d love to see the wonderful performances and the visiting luthiers if my schedule will allow. I look forward to trying these 3 luthiers’ guitars and whatever Thomas Liauw from Tomas Music Centre has on hand.

This year’s show will also feature  performances by prominent classical guitar group, Guitar Synergy and soloists Zulkifli M Noer and Gladwin Pantastico. There’s lots of attractions of classical guitarists this year, so make sure you go down.

Guitar Synergy  will be performing on 3rd Dec 4.20pm. They will be performing a  20min set comprising of the Overture and Waltz of the Flower from Nut Cracker Suite, Moon River  and Lotus Eaters. Make sure you catch this prominent classical guitar group.

Singapore Guitar Show 2011 is a post from: The Official Website of Dedrick Koh