Electronic mail address

wodned@lycos.com, wodned@hotmail.com, ligno@lovemail.com, wod@yesibelieve.com

Web address

https://www.angelfire.com/musicals/wod

Phone numbers

088-493912(H), 088-490942(H), 088-248523(O), 016-8428797(HP)

Name: Edward Ebin

Nick: Wod

D.O.B: 13^th November, 1975

P.O.B: Lawas, Sarawak, (Malaysia)

Horoscope: Scorpio...though I don't believe in prediction using star positions.

Chinese Year: Rabbit...the same goes to this one.

Height: 5'3"

Weight: 48~52 kg

Eyes: Dark brown

Complexion: Yellow

Hobby: Playing musical instruments, singing, sleeping, listening to my Walkman, computer games, chatting (let's not forget about this one), etc.

Favorite Music: Nothing specific, I like all kind of music, although I have to be careful with some.

Favorite CCM Artiste: Petra

Favorite International Artiste: Fire House

Favorite Local Artiste: Siti Nurhaliza

Qualification: BTech (Hons) University Science of Malaysia.

The followings are my personal interests. Keep in mind that the most important thing in life is your personal relationship with God. No matter how good you are in whatever you do, if you neglect your personal relationship with Him then all is in vain.

[Musical Instruments]

A lifetime is not enough for learning anything. You will never know your talent if you don’t try. Naturally, anyone has talent by 30%, the other 70% have to be worked out. Do not give up easily on anything. Hold your tongue, observe, figure out, hypothesize, experiment, practise and exercise. If there’s an expert, ask anything you could think of. Absorb as much as you can on the answers, practice then exercise. Throw any ego into the dustbin, not in the garbage truck so you can retrieve it later if you wish to. Listen to music, any kind, rock, jazz, blues, sentimental, hardrock (but be careful with this one) rhythm & blues etc. By the way, be careful because music are very influential (see www.av1611.org). When playing an instrument, one must be one with the music. A player must feel the music flowing. One's mood really affects how one plays. Let the music flow from the heart. Even rookies play nice if they play from their heart. Worship God with your instruments.

[Guitar]

Guitar is the easiest instrument to learn but rather hard to really master, at least for me I guess. I use Ibanez, Yamaha, Kapok (someone gave me this guitar when I was doing my degree in USM). I categorize guitar playing to three disciplines, namely rhythm, lead and plucking (classical).

At first, I learned strumming bare handedly, meaning I did not use pick. I used my right hand index finger and thumb, putting them in a pinching position, but relaxed. The major movements of the hand strumming occur on the wrist where you can swivel very fast. This is used when playing fast songs. Minor movements are contributed by swinging the arm elbow-down. This usually used when playing medium paced and slow songs. After being used to playing without pick, it is easier for me to learn to play with pick. The same methods apply. But I prefer bare handed where I can easily switch between strumming and plucking.

Electric guitar is already amplified so I don’t have to strum really hard to produce audible sound, obviously. That means I do not have to strum like mad. Sometimes, it is enough to strum only the high pitched strings below. And for hard rockers, sometimes they strum only the low pitched strings above. Sometimes, I muffle the strings at the bridge with my palm as I strum. This can also be exercised to acoustic guitar thus producing variety of styles.

Newly learning this one. I observe many people don’t use their little finger when doing the fingering. Using it meaning one can play faster. Besides, what’s the little finger for?

I use the thumb for the low E, A, and D strings while the first finger for the G, B, and high E strings. But I guess, of course, any guitarist would know this. But rookies should exercise this before it’s too late and you would stuck playing the G, B, and high E strings with only your first finger. Believe me, I’ve seen people doing it. I started learning with just one chord and variating the plucking pattern. It really helps when you know somebody who knows any easy piece. Ask him to teach you one piece and memorize it. This really improves how you play. You could create your own piece or just play any famous tune. Don’t worry about whether the tune is like the real thing or not. Play by how you hear it. If necessary, play your own version of it.

Newly learning this one. This is done using only the pick for all strings, alternately plucking downward and upward. I could not play fast using pick that's why I don't like to use them.

[Synthesizer]

Playing synthesizer is different from playing piano or keyboard. Synthesizer is sometimes addressed as keyboard but this is actually wrong. Synthesizers are single planed instrument while keyboards are double planed instruments with bass pedal and volume control, if you know what I mean. For piano, I prefer clavinova which is electrically generated piano (this is different from to the electric piano, electric piano is a type of sound) because the touch response can be adjusted. Sometimes I hate playing piano because my arms always get hurt in the end. Again, use every finger you got. If possible do warm-ups before playing. This can be done by going through the octaves with both hands simultaneously using various keys.

[Drums]

I've been playing drums since 1993. One can learn to play drums even without a set. Just play with tapping your hands and feet anywhere. Only about a couple of years back I started teaching myself to read notation but I could not constantly study the notation because I was in college then. I used a manual by Mel Bay. Drum notation is very simple. One can even play without knowing the value of the notes. I taught a friend how to play drums using the book I used to teach myself. He was so enthusiastic, he even took time learning by himself. Now, he’s already playing for a congregation. I use matched grip. For the bass pedal, I put my foot flat on the pedal but the batter head is rested on the skin. This way, I can relax my foot but at the same time can play fast.

This is the easiest of all drum patterns. I play rock patterns. I like to do syncopation. It makes the groove jazzier.

This pattern is hard I tell you. But many professional rock drummers have jazz root. This enables them to create varieties in their groove.

[Bass]

I started learning bass since I was in form 5 but until now, I still haven’t played for congregation. Besides, I don’t spend much time with bass. I play only synthesizer and drums for congregation and I play guitar only in cell groups or when I sing alone. Playing bass is just like playing guitar in which one should use all four fingers of the left hand (for right handed of course). The strings should be plucked with alternating first and second finger on the right hand.