The Wise Curve

Vlog: a new path to the world of music

Before the era of Web 2.0, musicians have little opportunity to gain exposure. Their option of showing off their talent is quite limited, where they have to perform live on stage or busk on streets to get attention, which can be very inconvenient and time consuming. The chance for them to gain fame and publicity is very slim. (Last time I gave a flower to a violin playing girl in Budapest, Hungary. She didn’t kiss me back)

Nowadays, musicians can post the videos of their performance on their vlogs (video blogs), and distribute them over the Internet. Anyone with internet connection can gain access to their work. Some of the lucky ones gain media attention and become the stars of internet.

One of them is Philip Howells (philipmaestro), a self taught young pianist who makes recordings of himself playing pieces from Final Fantasy and posts the videos on YouTube for people to watch. He marked his first personal achievement on public television when BBC made a report about him on 20th of December 2006, as shown below:

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Unfortunately, YouTube has suspended his account for no apparent reason. Most of the videos were lost. Luckily, he has created a new YouTube account. If you are interested to follow his Vlog, here’s the link.

Music Vlog does not limit itself to private performance at home. Sometimes, public performances are recorded and put on Vlog for people to enjoy. Look at Aerith, she’s playing her own Final Fantasy theme song at a concert:

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Sorry guys, I can’t resist but to post the video of my favourite piano performance: Summer Snow (the original song is sung by Sissel)

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Piano is not the only music instrument featured on vlog. If you have the chance, don’t forget to check out some of the electone (electronic organs produced by Yamaha) performances, which can be quite awesome. The next video is Voyager, which was performed on Yamaha Electone EL-700

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Don’t think that only amateur musicians use Vlog. Nowadays, professional artists have their own video channels to promote their work. The next video features Umberto a.k.a. e-motions, a singer-song writer from Germany. You can dig more about him on his official YouTube channel and website.

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I think there is a need to promote and support our local musicians, so now I want to present you my multi talented blog pal KCLau. He has created a special blog called Klavier Creation to promote his music work. This blog also gives tips on how to produce and market music composition, which is quite useful for some musician wannabes. For your information, KCLau has launched two solo albums before, they are Kite Shepherd (2002) and Simple Melody (2003).

I think his piano composition is nice and soothing. Here’s one of his original songs played on electronic piano, Rose Wine:

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Another talented Malaysian artist is namewee. He makes highly controversial music videos that challenge social sensitivity and norms. Nevertheless, his music and video editing is superb, even my film-making neighbour Lucas praised his video.

It seems like Malaysian government will hunt him down for making ultra sensitive music videos. Here’s one of his famous (controversial) songs, Muar Chinese (warning: the video might not be suitable for minors)

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This week I stumbled upon Blue, a local blogger from East Malaysia. After chatting with her, I learned that she also posts her singing videos on her vlog. She also recommended me to dig Speaking Tomato, another local singer-song writer. Go and have a look and support our local talents

Finally, I would like to conclude that vlogs have revolutionized our experience of enjoying music. Through vlogs, music lovers can find their idols and musicians can share their masterpiece with the world. I hope you enjoyed reading this short introduction on music vlogging. Let’s end this post with a very cute, kawaii music performance (sorry QiaoYun, I can’t resist ).

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