It All Started with 3

Once upon a time not very far away, My friend and i started this so to called Music School, it have been a ride going through all the hurdles in life and the school. We have lots of funny stories going on and if i have the extra money i will produce a tv series out of it... surely you guys will laugh your lungs out.
One of the story is this,

CAN you imagine we started off with limited capital and launch our trading with only 3 guitars?

Yup just 3 as you see beside. The photo is the real thing and real life. Well life's hard, frankly speaking. Lots of sacrifice have to be made, but i believe in " There's no such thing as Nothing for something" Although it's not a famous law or teaching , for me it's rule number 1. The more you put in, it will give back. The more people laugh at what you are doing you will have bigger desire to put more. Hence the return is huge. With just 3 guitars on stand, we worked from that profit until today, we have 2 stores containing 20+ guitars each. and looking forward to bring more in.
Luck?
NO... it's hard work. Being able to do the same things everyday by increase of difficulty each time we do it. It's like playing Tetris in the older times where every level will add speed and it's never gonna end.
Patience and believe in what you do is crucial. If you don't believe who is?

We made it from 2 brothers to a family of musicians here in Music Star Academy, not because we have the values as i said above but also what we give. We always believe in giving more to our customers and students and with their trust in us, We are what we are today.

I would like to thank all of you who supported us and believe in us all these years.

We will continue to bring more great future in music for you and your future.

Do you see it coming?

After the rain Sun and thunder, our first flag had seen it all. Now It's time for a new flag to continue to represent the school where we provide our best education for musicians all around.
Yes, we are here. Always have..

Music Star Academy coming along the new year

July 2013 - Music STAR Academy, finishing our 2 years and 8 months

Getting ready to proceed with our third year and preparing for our fourth year. Many have learned and many have gone through, we are growing and learning on every step of the support you guys have given , just like in life. Every ups and downs provides us lessons to be learnt. 

Students to us are like brothers and sisters alike, we give our 110% on every lesson and make sure you gain on every lesson and together find solutions to you musical difficulties. We made that promise and forever will provide such professionalism .

Recently we launched " Star Shirt" , which is a black t shirt with the MSA logo in front putting the star near our hearts to represent that music comes from our hearts and expression and we are committed to provide students with our best . The bold word " I'm a Musician" is crossed in our backs , because we are musicians. Every student here will be a all well rounded musician.

With much challenges up ahead we will and we will still provide the best music education to everyone here.

Thank all of you for supporting and ever learning music.

MUSIC STAR ACADEMY - 1 YEAR 8 MONTHS

If Music Star Academy is a baby, she can now walk and run. Jump and scream, swipe ipads and dance around to nursery songs. She can eat rice and take solid meat. She will enjoy nature and point at birds.
So many achievements did Music Star Academy done, I'm like a proud father looking at it. Even the road is still far and more to come, the confidence to sprout like a giant tree.
If you guys still remember in November 2010, Melaka flagged a new music school. Now It's all grown up, now let me update you with what we have done, (ps: we're not lazy guys sitting in the shop waiting for customer to come...lol...)

1) We opened another branch in Bukit Beruang, now we have centres in Malim Jaya and Bukit Beruang.
2) We grew from 5 students in November 2010 to 145 students in July 2012. yay!
3) We  grew from 3 music Teachers to a total of 15 teachers. (feel the power)
4) We now holding Tanglewood , Spear & Woodies guitar Hanger in Stores.Pairing with Music Master Studio.
5) We are providing our own syllabus for Guitar, Bass , Ukulele & Drums.
6) We have our in house examination.
7) We hold Rockschool exams in Melaka.
8) We held School tours all over Melaka.
9) We give talks on Guitars and musicianship topics to schools.
10) We make you believe in us and grow together.
11) We provide corporate's music clubs lessons and certification.
12) We provide group & intense lessons to Universities.
13) We did a contest and giving free guitars.


These are what i can think of what we did so far.... I guess we did more than this.
What will we do in future?

Not promising anything right now, but it's all a secret. LOL....

But it all come down to you guys, ever supporting, ever believing in us. This is what makes us going and make us standing strong to provide you guys and future musician the true and unique guidance from all of us here in MUSIC STAR ACADEMY.

We will 

We WILL

WE WILL ROCK YOU!!

Thanks a million.
-Dennis Y

Being a Music Teacher

People thought being a music teacher is the same as being a academic teacher in school, but yes for the teacher who teaches music theory in school where everything is in the textbooks and corrected via an answer book. What I mean is a Music Teacher, the ones that teaches Piano and guitars,instruments…etc.

Music teachers need to be different, because music is very sensitive; it’s very hard to put to words when you want to teach something to the students that relate to emotion. 

How can you tell your student what emotion they should be feeling when they are playing Ode to Joy?

 The feeling of Joy? How will you describe the feeling of joy that you intended for them to feel? The joy of love? The joy of victory? The joys of having your enemy destroy? Do they even know how to feel when they play a tune like “Now & Forever”? as for a 12 years old kid, do they even felt a heartbreak with a girlfriend/boyfriend when they are playing some sad love song?

Everything needs to be very personal; a music teacher needs to get personal with their students. They need to know how they feel things if not 100% but at least 56% on their point of view in things. Because what the teacher teaches or educate will affect the student’s whole journey in learning the subject. If the teacher starts on a bad foot, the student will even hate the guitar.

For me, the most challenging part to teach is the groove, in playing music in any instrument. If you don’t get the groove, you don’t get anything even if you can play Beethoven’s moonlight Sonata perfectly that you don’t miss a note. If you don’t have the groove you missed it all. Getting someone to have groove is the upmost important thing that a music teacher needs. But unfortunately, most of the teachers that I find here, neglects that. They teach what is in the books and make the student pass exams without even telling them who is Bob Marley and the history of Reggae when they are playing a reggae tune for an exam. The student may have passed the exam, but they pass with an empty heart. Only on the outside you may see them playing music but in the inside… There’s nothing. This will always lead to giving up on music and do not care at all for the students when they reach a certain point. But for a student that contains the meaning of music, they will have music in their life until they breathe the last air in this world. 

FB COVER DESIGNING CONTEST!!!

YES THIS GUITAR YAMAHA F-310!!!!!

Brand NEW!!

Here's How to Win This Guitar!
All you need to do is to design a Facebook Cover For Music Star Academy.
Rules are simple.
1) Like Music Star Academy
2) Design a BMP/PNG/JPEG file in 850 X 310px.Must Include Music Star Academy wording or Logo.
3) Send over to musicstaracademy@gmail.com
4) Ask all of your friends to like MSA FB pages and like the design when we post it here.
5) The Design with the most "like" will take the guitar home.
6) No copyright infringement. Please make sure that all elements strictly adhere to international copyright law.
7) No advertisements should be contained in the template.
8) Keep it kid-friendly and “safe for work”.
9) This contest end on 1st June 2012, 11:59pm.

10) Employees of MSA and hired freelancers hired by MSA are not eligible to enter this contest. By submitting a design you are agreeing to license your work to MSA, and MSA have all rights to use it for any purpose. Designs submitted after June 2nd, 2012 at 12:00 am EST will not be eligible for this contest.There will only be 1 winner for the prize mentioned. The rules, judging criteria, and other items may be adapted, edited or removed without notice.

UKULELE STILL NOT OVER!!!!

Hi FOlks!!

How has it been? You guys tried out an Ukulele yet?

I have been posting about ukuleles last month and yes i do apologized that it is not ENOUGH!! lol..

Anyway it's because of MSA's heavy heavy metal duties and task on hand... but i promise you guys i will

I WILL keep posting blogs on time...!! if not i'll slap myself ...lol

joking..

Oh rite!!, today i am goin to let you know that we have tons of ukulele in store for you guys...

So do come and test....

Yes, beautiful ya? I put on the hangers myself... oh well you know me.. I like to DIY my on shop not because i don't wanna pay someone else to do it, but i do like to build anything from 0%. (workaholic!!)

and yes if your asking i took the photo myself too with my 30D EOS DSLR.....

So what are you guys waiting for???

Come on DOwn to MUSIC STAR ACADEMY!!!!!!!!!

UKULELE GRADS!!!

Everything a teacher wanted most is his/her student to love and excel in the subject they were taught..

After every 30-45 min of hard work... The adult class of Ukulelists completed their Debut course...
And this group class only have 3 months to do it and they nailed it!!

Congrats!!!!

Holding their Certs.....with full of joy!!

NEXT????

Starting Ukulele All Girl band????

- Dennis Y

UKULELE COURSE NOW ON!!!!

WHAT ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR????

IT"S NOW HERE!!!!!!
MORE INFO COMING UP!!!!

NEW SHOP COMING TO TOWN

Ok, It’s been a while I know… and I apologized for it. I have been buzy preparing stuffs for our!!!

 1   2  3  4  5!!

NEW MUSIC STAR ACADEMY !!!

Hurray! Hurray! We have not been ayear and yet we open a new branch? Are you guys crazy? Lots of people said that….You guys must be nuts!

Actually we’re not, this business is so good no one even trust it! They say Dennis, you need to do lots of stuff you know in order to survive a music store , you need to have this you need to have that, it’s lot of hard work, you need to do 2 jobs for security and etc etc etc etc etc etc…..

Oh well, Teck Chai and me have no problems dealing with the hard work and doing all the stuffs and 2 jobs and maid’s work, instead we feel pumped up in doing so!! We loved to be over work , we love it so much it blasted our adrenaline so hard we shiver the whole time through and end with a good tea Tarik!!

NOW, we are open in Bukit Beruang!!! YES we are now in MALIM JAYA and also BUKIT BERUANG!!

Bringing all the gears and accessories closer to you guys and the most important, we are bring value to you nearer than what you can imaging!!! The lessons we are giving, the pure musicianship we are bringin to you, The Guitars! The drums! The Bass! The piano! The rock ! the Blues ! the jazz! And if I follow anymore I will used up all the space!!!

So you guys that have been living in Bukit Beruang!! Yes you!! Wanna rock like Van Halen or just play the blues like John Mayer!!! Or even Play classical guitar!! Come on over to

MUSIC STAR ACADEMY

Contact us!!!!

Dennis – 012 3607139  

Guitarist's Ultimate EGO - The Guitar Solo!!

When i was in my teen's... the only awesome thing to do is The Guitar Solo!
When jammin' the only time that gives the juice of it all is the time to execute this ultimate skill.
When done, you will be loved and be treated as a god if your guitar solo ROCKS.
The whole band doesn't matter any more as long as you got a great guitarist that can solo, because his solo can save the band.....

This is when everything screws up...

When the guitarist is treated special becoz of "HIS SOLO" he will be the most arrogant person the world can lay eyes on. 
He will then spend more time on practicing Tech and Circus stunts rather than practice as a band and do his 20% role in a band, "in his mind , he is the 100% of the band".
The most important Guy in the band, without him the band is unless...becoz beside him... everyones' a noob.

Conclusion? 

The band most likely failed and disband. The other players hate him and even not his friend anymore or they would kick him out of the band when they realize the Guitar Rockstar attitude is comin and they foreseen a disband.


The guitarist is weak in playing songs becoz he is spending too much time practicing tech's like sweeping picking, alternate picking etc....until he got no time to learn and write songs which are the most important thing in playing music... what he wants is public attention that he is a great guitarist.....
This guitarist might be enemy of others, because of the "I'm the only best guitarist Attitude"

We can all learn from this situation....
A band = A team
to succeed and being the best winning team you need no Rockstar.
in every team sport, there's no one rockstar that can win the game alone.
It takes the whole team working together to able to get to the top.
Richie Blackmore got kicked out from Deep Purple because of the Ego of his virtuosity.
Malmsteen kick a grandmother in a plane because she is in her way.
Guitarist is that Bad?

Anyway you guys can think of it.... true or not... I'm still guessing (finger crossed)

A collection of Guitar solo's from the greats....

    

Exploder - by Akira Takasaki (Loudness)

Eruption - by Eddie Van Halen 

Frenzy - by Paul Gilbert

Zakk Wylde Acoustic Solo

So What is YOUR SOLO?

Guitar Servicing

This has happened many times…..

Most guitars that I get from customers or students are DIRTY!!!

Strings are rusty that you can use as a weapon to kill someone in SAW movies…,

 The fret board is covered with mud made up of the accumulations of sweat from the hand or whatever parts of the human boy.

The guitar body is either oily or full with finger and hand prints, the bridge collecting dust like it’s in an old library for 1000 years..

The neck is bowed to an extend that you can play bow and arrow..then you can join Robin Hood..

COME on Man!!!!! 

Come on Guitarist!!!! 

Have you ever clean your guitars???

It’s like you put it under a tree and leave it there to rain and glared at the sun….

When you buy…. You are taking out YOUR money from YOUR wallet Right?

SO??????

Oh I see….. it’s like a boy courting a girl and neglect her after successfully being her boyfriend?

As a Guitar Freak myself…. I’m very VERY particular in maintaining the GUITAR…

It’s the most beautiful thing MAN ever create in my opinion of course …(the next is The Internet)

So I polished my guitars(25 of them now) every week… regardless of using it or not…

I make them look pretty all 365days a year…

BUT I have to say….. Thanks to the neglecting….. I get to service So many guitars!!!

In MSA I services at least 5-10 guitars per day…. Man……..

I’m so happy…..(I could cry)…when cleaning them, adjusting them to the optimum performance that they truly are…. When they are looking great and ready to CHEONG (attack in cantonese) I’m like a proud father….lolz

So what do guitarist paid me for???

It depends on how worst the scenario is… but normally I would…

Clean & Wax the guitar’s finishing…

Change the strings and oil them..

Oil the tuning pegs as well as the bridges or tremolo and set them up to perfect positions…

I do the intonations…checked the action… adjust the trust rod…

Adjust the pickups…. And check some grounding issues /wiring/electronics

Check frets if needed..

And see if any modification can be done that can be recommended to the guitarist….

Many more issues that I can help solving, like minor scratches ….and stuffs like that…

So if you guys have no time to take care of your beloved guitar but want it to stay in tip top condition… you guys just need to send it to me… You pay, I do the rest… win-win situation…

How much I’m charging?

Contact me for more detail charges.. meanwhile the normal change string and wax only cost RM15…

Adults Can't learn guitar? True Or False?

One lovely evening, 1 man around his 40's came to MSA with his young 6 year old daughter asking for music lessons. First he ask for the usual thing.... Hey do you guys give piano lessons for 6 year olds? how much? how long? which day? can be on a Sunday?
Usual questions that i will encounter in everyday life in Music Star Academy.. kinda like i can have a few template on answering them,but this little encounter strike me a question that put me into thinking mode...

Man: Hi kawan, ini kedai ada ajar orang macam saya ini tua?
Dennis: Ajar apa kawan?
Man: ajar ini gitar la...ini kayu punya saya minat dulu muda...sikalang tua susah belajar...
Dennis: Bolehhh..... kenapa tak boleh...Encik mahu belajar... Saya boleh ajar punya...
Man: Ada orang macam saya ini tua belajar ka?
Dennis: Ada...... yang paling tua punya student saya ajar umur 75 tahun... Dia cakap tak dapat belajar dia mati pun tak kamwan.
Man: Ini macam ka....bagus bagus....

Thinking mode:
In my opinion.... any adult of any age can learn the guitar or any musical instrument.
All the reasons of hard bones or inflexible fingers are all BS to me. To me the reasons we give ourselves because we are either lazy or too close minded. Seriously, do you think a kid will have flexible fingers before they ever learn to play the guitar? No...they are as inflexible as adults are. The differences between adults and kids learn guitars are that adult knows too much which put them into a position of denial.They "Thought" they know.. but actual in reality are just make believe. To me, i always say to them " Why not? You have not try, how would you know you can't?" 

The only thing that is really really important to learn to play any musical instruments regardless of the skills is this.


                     P  A  S  S  I  O  N


Without this, any one of any age, any background, any state at all... can't learn anything.
When you have passion... you can achieve anything....Django played with 2 fretting fingers..
Tommy iommi played without fingertips.. The drummer of Def Leppard played with 1 arm only..
Beethoven is deaf.. 
With or without talent is another story... PASSION needs to be there...
I have taught over 30 adults ranging from age 30 to 75. All of them ended up playing the songs of their teens and enjoyed it.... I'm proud of it too...

Some updates of MSA?


We now got a wall of guitars!! YAY!!
We Got so many Students and we are not afraid to have more!!
We Got new Teachers for guitar/piano/vocals!!
Dennis is BZ, Teck Chai is BZ!!!


Sorry for the slow blogging!!! 


We Love you guys!!!! Meanwhile enjoy this song!!!!

Acoustic OR Electric ????

  Last week i got a customer sending her 12 years old daughter to my shop signing up for guitar class. As usual i brief her about the fees and classes provide for the month and duration of the class while her daughter was sitting there eyes looking around the place, staring at the guitars i have in stock.
Very common situation and scenario for me as i have been good treating customers and i can proudly say that i do have a good level of customer service as i have been working as a customer service for a big company for more than 3 years.

1 of the most common Question that i find interesting is this.

Which is Better?

Acoustic guitar or Electric Guitar?

Some parents or adult students don't understand, the meaning of learning an instrument. To me, either Acoustic guitar nor electric . It's the same.
Really, it's the same if it is a bass guitar or piano or cello or violin or drums or whatever instrument that you can learn to play. The only thing matter most is learning to play MUSIC with it. that's all it's about. There's no better instrument. It's all the same.
The most important to me is whether or not the person that is going to learn have the interest or will to learn it. That is what matter most to me.
I wanna to learn the guitar, any guitar will do. Bass? Acoustic? Classical? Ukulele? i play it all.
So back to reality.....
I answer the parent the most simple answer of all, i looked at her daughter. Smiled and ask her to point me the guitar that she like, she point at an electric guitar. Then i told the Mom, acoustic or electric? it's the same. As long as your daughter is happy learning it, that will the ONE.

Seeing her daughter smiled from ear to ear holding the electric guitar i brought it down from my hangers , The Mom looked satisfied with my answer.

I have been playing, learning , teaching , analyzing , recording the guitar 15 years now and still counting.
If you ask me, What is most important thing you need learning the guitar?
I will answer you " Passion"
Without Passion, you will learn and gain nothing.
A word of advise from Music Star Academy

*** Just to add some stats, my teachers and i have found out that students learning guitar now consist of 80% female. Only 20% of boys learning guitar. What happen to the rest of the boys? PSP? XBOX 360? come on guys!!!

Why Signboard Are Important ??

We practically waited almost 2months for our application for business & signboard license to be approved. We started out our business then with a registered company name while waiting for it. Been very lucky i would say to get it in 2months cause i have friends of other companies waited more than 4 months and have to follow up on it TO GET IT. Sometimes they get the " You want it now? I can get for you now, if you know what i mean?" kinda thing. I learn a lot on owning your own music school and running it, I have customer claimed that we are a scam and will leave with their money after collecting it simply because we haven't have our signboard up. I mean he is talking about his RM80/= , if i would scam i might consider 7 digits fee to really do it. LOL....

We spend 2months on students enrolling but most of them are friends and people that knew us. It was regular. The thing happen after we manage to put our flag up. 

The MUSIC STAR ACADEMY signboard, we got a great deal. RM530 complete on installing, we got lucky enough to have a box ready and was given by our landlord.We only need to print the front and install it. A Steal i would say.

Before this, i never knew what a signboard may or may not do to a school. I don't see the help as it only serves a purpose of owning a company and do a little in promoting. After we put it up i was amazed by it's power. A 13' x 4' piece of printing that consist of a design with a company's name or logo on it, has the power to attract people. 

   

I am amazed that my phone don't stop ringing and when i pickup , it's about a new student or a customer interested to buy 1 of my products. We now have BZ Sundays, and long weekdays of customer. 

MSA is now almost 5 months and we achieve a lot. As for you readers of this blog and loyal MSAs, 

we promise to bring you the next level of music industry in Melaka. 

Internet Radio - where do i come from?

When i was a kid, the only music source i can get is the FM radio or from a tv. Other than that should be school bands playing school songs or stuffs. That was 1995, when internet is still a mystery. Not everyone have a PC back then, only rich people have 1 and it's running on DOS with big giant flappy floppy disks. you need to wait 20mins to let it load space invader which was displayed on a black and white monitor. LOL....
I was listening to oldies from a radio cassette player owned by my parents. That was the hip thing at that time. Every music store are selling cassettes, no cds yet. Cd players are expensive that time.

 Then when internet came along with affordable pc for the midrange families, my parents bought 1. The time started with 65k MP3s that you can download with a 55k internet speed. 2MB will need about 4-6 hours of downlload time. Think about it...hahaha. Now we are downloading at 200kb/s. Pretty hardcore ya?
When napster,kazza,morpheus and etc.. program came to life. It was 24hours download for me. I download single mp3 files to bittorent files of discography. Burn them to Cdroms then to DVD then to external harddisk.
Now, I listen to internet radio on my Media player. I wan to listen to The Blues? click on the channel and i have blues, Jazz? Metal? whatever man..
Sometimes i think internet is the one. do you think so?

Oh ya, the winners from the DIY guitar from trash!!

2011 Cigar Box Nation Recycled Material Contest Results

Photos taken from Cigarboxnation.com