Angry Birds Theme Song

I love playing Angry Birds on my iPhone! I am not really into games, but I have to say that I am quite obsessed with Angry Birds!

Maybe it's because I find those Angry Birds so cute and adorable! Haha! Even the green little piggies are cute too!

In fact, I even got myself an Angry Bird plushie - the red one - all the way from Hong Kong. That was early last year when the plushies were not widely available in Malaysia yet. Now you can see them everywhere!

Last December, during the Secret Santa gathering with my fellow bloggers, I received the green piggie from my Secret Santa Caroline! I was really happy with this Christmas gift as I could then place the little piggie next to my red Angry Bird! Haha!

Now all I need are a few more birds, a few more green pigs and a slingshot - and I am all ready to play Angry Birds in the real world! LOL!

Besides the game, I also enjoy listening to the Angry Birds theme song as it's very cute and playful! One afternoon, I discovered the music score online and quickly downloaded it! This is how the score looks like.

I went straight to my piano and played the theme song. Fortunately, it wasn't too difficult. Here's the result. I hope you like it! : )

Hua Hai

I love Jay Chou's songs. One of my favourites is Hua Hai (Ocean Of Flowers).

Have you heard of this song? Watch this music video!



Taken from his 2008 album "Capricorn", Hua Hai has a very nice melody and I was inspired to play the song on my piano.

So one fine afternoon, I was in the right mood and decided to try this song on the piano. It so happened that someone had given me the piano score of this song earlier and so I did not have much difficulty figuring out the chords and all.

But as usual, I never ever play a song following the written score strictly. The only type of music where I played exactly what was written on the score is classical music. For all other types of music, I always improvise and add my own decorations and melodies. In my opinion, that's the way it should be to keep the song fresh.

Now this is not the first time I play a Jay Chou song. I had played another one of his songs before in an earlier post. The song is called Cai Hong and you can listen to it at my blog post HERE.

This time however, I found that I could not stop playing and actually did not know how to end the song! So my playing turned out to be a little bit longer than usual, lasting almost 7 minutes! (The original song was only about 4 minutes long)



If you are interested to know, I started improvising the melody from the 4th minute onwards. Well, I hope you will enjoy my piano version of this beautiful song albeit a bit long!

FIRST COMMENTER

Tong Hua

Have you heard of this song Tong Hua (童話) sung by Malaysian singer Michael Wong (王光良) ?

It is one of the most popular Chinese songs ever in the world, making it to the top of the Baidu 500 for a record 15 weeks right after it was released as a single in January 2005.

Translated to English, Tong Hua means Fairy Tale.

Composed and written by Michael Wong himself, this song has a simple but very nice melody. Perhaps because of its simplicity, many people like to sing it, making it a top song on the karaoke charts for many years.

Here's a music video of the song. You may need to increase the volume a little as the audio quality is not very good.



This video had generated much debate as many people believed it was based on a true story about a girl who died of blood cancer. As such, this song had moved many to tears.

The song was so popular that it was even recorded in the Malay version by young and upcoming Singaporean singer Aliff Aziz. However, the lyrics were changed and the title was called Cinta Arjuna.

Watch the video here.



After listening to this song many times, I decided to try and play it on the piano. I love to improvise a song I hear to make it sound a little different from the original and that's what I had done for this one.

As usual, my playing is not perfect, in fact I think I was rushing in certain parts, but I hope you will enjoy it! Thank you for listening!

FIRST COMMENTER

My Very First iPhone

YES!! Finally! I am a proud owner of an iPhone! Yes!!!

OK, this may sound terribly outdated since I bought the iPhone 3GS a few months back. Besides, iPhone had just released their newest version iPhone 4. I should have blogged about this then but I guess it's better late than never!

Now many people tell me they don't like iPhone. They prefer Blackberry, Nexus One, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC, Nokia N series and a host of other smart phones.

Well, I don't like smart phones because they are smarter than me. That's why I own an iPhone! LOL!!

Here is a picture of my iPhone.



Oh, if you want to know, the one on the left is a condom for my iPhone. Haha! It's to protect my iPhone you know, just in case...

With the iPhone, I can now check my emails, update my Facebook, chat on yahoo messenger and msn, tweet on Twitter and watch YouTube videos on the go!

I can surf the web, take pictures and post on my Facebook, record a video and post on YouTube, play games and even update my blog if I want to!

I can also listen to songs on my iPhone's iPod. There is no need to get an iPod!

Recently, I have been using my iPhone to record my piano playing and share with my blog readers. It was cool! Perhaps you want to listen to my rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars with a twist? Enjoy!!



Oh by the way, do you know iPhone can save your life? Yes, if you are lost in the jungle, and there is no line, you can use iPhone's compass to navigate your way out!

Since I am not a very technical person, I won't go into details about the iPhone. Suffice to say it is giving me hours and hours of enjoyment! I don't think I can survive without it!

There are however, two things I don't like about the iPhone. One, is its high power consumption. If I tweet a lot or play games on it, the battery will drain off fast and I would need to recharge it. That's such a hassle and can sometimes be very inconvenient especially when it takes close to two hours to fully recharge!

The other thing is if I set the alarm and switch off my iPhone, the alarm would not work. Unlike my previous handphone, the Sony Ericsson C902, I could set the alarm, switch the handphone off and when the time comes, the phone will switch on by itself and sound the alarm. Not so with the iPhone!

I bought this iPhone from Digi, and subscribed to its iDigi88 plan which requires me to pay RM88 per month for 24 months. Recently, Digi lowered the iDigi88 monthly payment to RM60 for new subscribers. That was a reduction of RM28!!

This is the new iDigi plan. Click to enlarge.



I was quite upset with this but what could I do? Looks like early birds never really had it good! RM28 per month for 24 months would mean I would be losing out on a total of RM672!!

Imagine what I can do with RM672!

✔I can stay one night at the Sea Villas in Pangkor Laut Resort!
✔I can dine at the dinner buffet at Le Meridien KL at least 6 times!
✔I can watch my favourite movies in Gold Class at GSC Signature at least 11 times!
✔I can enjoy crepe cakes at Food Foundry 74 times!
✔And if not mistaken, I can enjoy up to 672 sundae cones at McDonalds!

So am I pissed off? You bet!

But did I regret buying the iPhone? Hell no!!

Now go get that iPhone if you have not already. And tell me what you can do with RM672.

FIRST COMMENTER

Hero

It has been quite some time since I last shared my piano performances with you all. With Imeem gone, I had some problem finding the right tool to store my songs and embed them on my blog. Until now, that is.

Let me introduce you to Chirbit, my life saver! It is a recording tool that allows you to record, upload your recordings, listen, download and share your recordings with anyone! What I really like is you can embed codes to your blog so that you can share your recordings with people who read your blog!

Since I am a huge Mariah Carey fan, what better way to start than to play one of her songs on my piano, record it using my iPhone, upload it on Chirbit and then share it with the rest of you here?

So, without further ado, here is my piano version of Mariah's Hero. Written by Mariah herself, this song had proven to be very inspiring for me since the very first time I heard it.

I must admit my playing is not perfect and if you listen carefully, you will no doubt hear some wrong chords, wrong notes and even wrong timing!! Oh well, I just did the best I could so I hope you will enjoy it. Thanks for listening!!

I've provided the lyrics below if you feel like singing! : )



Check this out on Chirbit

There's a hero
If you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid
Of what you are
There's an answer
If you reach into your soul
And the sorrow that you know
Will melt away

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

It's a long road
When you face your world alone
No one reaches out a hand
For you to hold
You can find love
If you search within yourself
And the emptiness you felt
Will disappear

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

Lord knows
Dreams are hard to follow
But don't let anyone
Tear them away
Hold on
There will be tomorrow
In time
You'll find the way

And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
So when you feel like hope is gone
Look inside you and be strong
And you'll finally see the truth
That a hero lies in you

FIRST COMMENTER

Guess These Songs And Win!

After watching and listening to that wonderful piano and cello performance of Love Story Meets Viva La Vida, I was inspired. I spent some time playing my piano again last night.

But guess what? I heard my niece played this nice little jazz piece and I thought, well, maybe I should try and play that! So here it is, a short jazzy piece called "Jay Walk" composed by Pam Wedgewood. Hope you like it, and please excuse my wrong notes! Only managed to practise it twice before I recorded it.

jay walk.wav -

If for some reason, you are unable to listen to the song on this post, click here.

Since I recorded a few songs last night, I thought it's time again for my contest "Guess This Song And Win!" except now I'm inviting you to guess 2 songs. Guess one song correct and you win a RM10 Jusco voucher. Guess two songs correct and you win RM20 Jusco voucher.

So here's the first song. Name the title of this song and the original performer. I have played in a slightly different way from the original piece just for fun.

Guess This Song 3.wav -

Oh! I just realised Imeem edited my song! Why did they do that? It's not like I'm posting the original song here. It's my own performance! : (

From my over 4 minutes performance, they shortened it to....30 seconds?! To hear the full song, go here.

This is the second song. For this song, I didn't need Imeem to edit for me. I didn't finish playing this song as I have sort of forgotten how the chorus (middle part) sounds like and the chords that go along with it. Heck! I think even some parts of the melody are wrong. But I will try to listen to the original song again and figure it out, and maybe record a complete version next time.

Let's see if you know this song even though it's only half finished! Just name the song and the original artiste who sang it.

Guess This Song 4.wav -

Contest Rules
1. This contest is open to Malaysians and non Malaysians.
2. Non Malaysians who win the contest will be given Entrecard credits instead of Jusco vouchers. (You have to be an Entrecard member to receive EC credits)
3. The first person to correctly guess the name of the first song and the performer will win a RM10 Jusco voucher (or 100 EC credits).
4. The first person to correctly guess the name of the second song and the performer will win a RM10 Jusco voucher (or 100 EC credits).
5. You can give as many answers as you like, but only the final answer will be accepted.

Note: I just realised you can click on the 'Play Full Song Here' to listen to the full song! Silly me! Sorry Imeem!

Clues
For 1st song - This is a song composed and performed by a famous Korean pianist.
For 2nd song - The singer of this song released a No.1 hit in 2005 called "Bad Day" which was featured in American Idol show.

FIRST COMMENTER

Guess This Song And Win!

Hi, everyone! I am back!!

Back from my holidays! And bringing back with me muscle pain on my legs (which I like!) and a sore and painful ass (will let you know why in my future posts!Haha!)

And guess what? Imeem took a break with me, and is now back from its holidays too! Yeah, the Imeem website is running again. Hooray!

That means I am able to upload my piano performance which I recorded the night before I left for my trip. And you'll be able to hear the music today and guess the title of the song and probably win a prize!

OK, I know some of you are eager to read about my holidays and see some photos. Rest assured I will blog about my escapades, but I just need some time to upload the photos onto my laptop and edit them. So in the meantime, why don't you take part in this contest I've set up for you?

This time, however, you would need to answer 3 questions. The first person who answer all the 3 questions correctly will be the winner! You can guess as many times as you wish, but only your last answer/comment will be accepted. This contest is open to Malaysians and Singaporeans only. However, sorry to say Singaporeans will need to come to Malaysia to enjoy the prize!

So what's the prize? Well, I'll keep it a secret for the time being and will reveal it later. Haha!

Click below and listen to the song. Sorry if the recording is a little on the soft side as this was recorded at about 1am! I had to mute my playing in order not to disturb my neighbours! Also, please excuse some wrong notes and blunders as I'm certainly not perfect!

If you are familiar with this song, you may perhaps notice that I have improvised the song a little bit and added some new melodies in the middle part. Hope you like my improvisation!

Guess This Song 2.wav -

Questions
1. Name this song.

2. Name the composer of this song.

3. This song was featured in a famous Hollywood movie. Name the movie.

Bonus Question
This bonus question has nothing to do with the song above. If you are the winner of this contest and you are able to answer this bonus question as well, you will get an additional prize!
The bonus question is : Guess where did I go for my holidays?

Good luck, everyone! Happy guessing! : )

PS: Sorry, no clue this time UNLESS no one gets the answer. In such a case, I will provide some clues later. Enjoy! : )

Post Update (April 21, 2009)
OK, seeing that no one has yet to give the correct answers to my 3 questions above, I would now give out 2 clues.

Clue#1 : This song was composed by a Korean pianist and composer.

Clue#2: The movie is a 2008 movie based on a book starring heartthrob Robert Pattinson.

Post Update (April 22, 2009)
This contest is officially closed. We already have a winner!
Congratulations to Phatelara for being the first to answer all 3 questions correctly! You won a Jusco voucher worth RM20.

The answers are:
1. River Flows In You
2. Yiruma
3. Twilight

Answer to Bonus Question : Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

FIRST COMMENTER

My KFC Giveaway

Yesterday, I received a gift from a friend. It was a small "thank you" gift for teaching her a few techniques in playing the piano. I didn't expect it at all, but when I saw what the gift was, I was like, OK, this is so not my kind of gift!

I know it is the thought that counts, so I do not blame my friend at all. It's just that the gift happened to be a KFC Voucher for 1 snack plate. And I do not fancy KFC. Or any fast food for that matter. Well, among all the fast foods out there, I really think KFC is one of the worst!



But you know, I am sure there are people out there who would love to receive this voucher. I am sure there are lots of people who love KFC. Although I must really advise them not to eat too much of it as it is very unhealthy.

Since I won't be using this voucher, it would be a waste if I just throw it away, right? So what better way than to pass this to my readers?

Now to make this fun, let's play a guessing game. I have recorded my piano performance of a song which you can listen to here.

Guess This Song.wav -

All you need to do is to guess the name of the song and the original artiste who played or sang this song. That's it!

The first person to answer correctly will get the KFC Voucher! This contest is open to all Malaysians. Non Malaysians can join in too, but obviously if you win, you will need to come to Malaysia to use this voucher as it is only valid in KFC outlets in West Malaysia only. You can guess as many times as you wish, but only your last answer will be accepted.

Happy Guessing and have a nice weekend, everyone!! : )

*HINT #1 : I have blogged about this song before in one of my posts.

**HINT #2 : Search for the right post under "Hit Songs" category/label.

***HINT #3 : The title of the song contains the word "Secret"

Jay Chou's Rainbow

It's just a few days into the new year, and here I am, as busy as ever!

Gosh, I'm already looking forward to the coming Chinese New Year holidays!

Seeing that I do not have much time to write a lengthy post today, I am just going to share with you my piano rendition of Jay Chou's song "Cǎi Hóng" (Rainbow)

In case you have not heard of this song before, watch this music video.



This song was from his 2007 album Wǒ Hěn Máng (On The Run).

And here's my piano performance of this song. As usual, please excuse some slips and errors in my playing. Hope you like it! : )

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,

It’s been some time since I last wrote to you. How are you? And how is your favourite Rudolph? Oh, send my warmest regards to Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen and not forgetting Comet, Cupid, Donder and Blitzen too!

I know now is the busiest time of the year for you, but I hope you will just drop whatever you are doing, get yourself a hot cup of coffee, take a seat and read my letter.

Oh, by the way, I’ve got a gift for you! You know how much I’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas which I can never experience here in Malaysia. I know! I know! It was really silly of me to ask you to make it snow over here last year, but I just wanted it so much! I know that's against the rules now, so well, I’m pretty fine with it.

Anyway, my gift to you is my rendition of White Christmas on my piano. Just click below and listen while you take your time to read the rest of my letter. Hope you like it! : )



As you know, I’ve been a pretty good boy this year. Except for the occasional lies and greed, I think I’m really proud of myself this year. So, if it’s not too much to ask, here’s my Wish List this Christmas…

1. A Steinway or Yamaha six-foot Grand Piano
My current upright piano is more than 15 years old! If you listen properly, you can hear that the tone is no longer as nice as it used to be. And since I love playing the piano for hours on end, a grand piano will suit me really well!

2. A Canon Digital SLR camera
I would love to own this! Presently, I am just using my Sony Ericsson C-902 camera handphone to take pictures. Although it’s not bad, I think I still prefer a real camera! Then I can take really nice pictures and send them over to you, yes?

3. Two front-seat tickets to Mariah Carey concert anywhere in the world except Malaysia!
It will be my dream come true to see my idol, Mariah in the flesh. I know, I’ve attended her concert when she performed in KL a few years back, but at that time, she wore the same T-shirt and jeans for the whole concert as a protest to my country’s ridiculous rule that all foreign acts must be decently dressed. Watching her concert in a foreign country will give me the chance to see her in different costumes, especially now with her newly toned and slim figure! Oh, it would be nice if you include 2 free flight tickets and hotel accomodation as well!

4. A Toyota Vios car
I love this car! Driving it would be cool! I’m not asking for a Merz or BMW, just a humble Toyota Vios to replace my old out-of-date Proton! See? I'm pretty reasonable.

5. An all-expense paid Alaskan cruise
I have never been to this part of the world, so it'll be a dream come true!

6. A 52” Sony Bravia LCD TV
Not that I watch much TV, but it will surely make my home looks much nicer!

7. A year’s supply of Leonidas Belgian chocolates
I promise not to eat all but share with friends who love chocolates like me! And I promise to work out too after eating these chocolates! Which leads me to....

8. Free Fitness First gym membership for the whole of next year
I really don't mind it if you throw in a free personal trainer as well!

9. A 3-day work/4-day rest job with twice the pay I’m getting now
I really don't know where I can find such a job, but I hope you will get me one!

10. An OSIM massage chair
Or even better, a free masseur for every day of the year!

Am I asking too much? OK, OK, if you can just grant me wish no. 1 and 9, I think I’ll be quite happy and satisfied! Thanks so much, Santa!

Lots of Love,
Foong PC

PS: Oh, one more thing, Santa! Please drop a gift to everyone who takes the trouble to comment on this post! Thank you! Merry Christmas!!

NOTE: Dear readers, due to some unexplained Christmas magic at work, you may not be able to read this post. You may only see stars and symbols. If that's what you see, please copy this post and paste it onto Microsoft Word, change the font and you will get to read this post in English. Thanks & Merry Christmas!! : )

Age Of Glory

I love playing the piano. I can play for hours and hours without feeling bored!

Recently, a friend of mine heard me play this theme song from the ntv7 local Chinese drama series called Age Of Glory or Qíng Qiān Nán Yuàn. He wanted to play it too and asked me to pass him the piano score. Unfortunately, I did not have the score because I played it by ear.

In case you do not know what show this is, and how the theme song sounds like, watch this YouTube video.



I enjoyed watching this show and tried to catch it when it was shown on ntv7 every night from Monday to Thursday a few months back. Basically the story is about the lives of Malaysian Chinese during the post war era of the 60's and especially revolved around three ladies played by Debbie Goh, Danielle Dai and Aenie Wong.

I must say I was pleasantly surprised by the fine acting skills of these three actresses, particularly Debbie Goh and Danielle Dai, whom I considered to be a very natural actress. I have not heard of them before so I was really blown off by their good looks and superb acting skills. Looks like Malaysia can produce good actors and actresses too and give the Singaporeans and Hongkies a run for their money.


Debbie Goh who is also Miss Malaysia Chinese International 1998 plays showgirl Rose, based loosely on the legendary cabaret dancer Rose Chan.


Danielle Dai who plays Shu Juan is a very natural actress IMHO


Melvin Sia and Aenie Wong in a scene from Age of Glory

The show was so popular among Malaysian TV viewers that it set the record for the highest ratings ever for a local Chinese drama series. Perhaps one of the main attractions of the show is the nostalgic 60's feel. The show creator even went to the extent of painstakingly constructing a full scale replica of BB Park, the famous entertainment centre in olden days KL complete with carnival, cabaret, theatres, games stalls and dance halls. For your information, the old BB Park was located at the site where Sungei Wang Plaza presently sits.

The series also showcased many popular songs from the 60's, with all the songs given new arrangements to suit the show. In fact, I found that I enjoyed listening to all those old songs while watching the show.

However, the song I like best is the opening theme song, specially written for the show. It's called Full Circle or Yuán Què and is sung by newcomer Cheryl Lee, who also happens to be the co-host of 8tv's popular singing competition, Project Superstar.

I liked it so much I started to play it by ear on my piano. Would you like to hear it?

Ok, here it is. Please excuse me if you hear some wrong notes and blunders as I'm not perfect.



Well, how is it? Do let me know!

My friend whom I said earlier wanted to play this song pleaded with me to write out the notes for this song. Oh, so much hard work to write it out! I did not have the time, so I just scribbled some notes out. Look at the mess I wrote!



I did not even bother to put in some of the left hand parts! I hope my friend knows how to improvise the left hand part by himself! But with the way I scribbled, I am not too sure if he can even read what I wrote! LOL!

Even though I could play a song I hear by ear, I am not that talented to get everything correct. Well, if I can hit at least 80% accuracy, I am quite satisfied. I just hope my chords are correct!

Meantime, if anyone reading this have a copy of the original score, please, please pass me a copy, will you?