"My Number One" - Self Review

My Number One (Rough Demo/ Beta version)
Song/words: Ejoy
Genre: Pop
Recorded: Between 6pm – 7pm, Sunday April 05, 2010.

“My first attempt to compose a fully English Song”. Over the past 2 years, I discovered one melancholy tune while improvising few chord progressions with my Les Paul Fender Acoustic Cutaway-Dreadnought. The tune was meant for those who are confused with the definition of love, yet feeling lonesome. However, as I kept playing the tune again and again, I knew there were something wrong with the verse and the lyric.

The tune of the verse did not sound good enough and I believe it was too depressing – did not too catchy I should say. Until one day, I learned one of the most fundamental secret of how our brain functions and how does it related to creativity and arts, how does it inspire musicians to compose a wonderful piece of song and how does it influence thinkers to come up with ideas and thoughts. The class is so called a Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) and it was part of the communication module in BeST program.

That night, I grabbed Pjoe's Mitchell acoustic-electric guitar, just a moment before I dozed off, and ran on this particular pop's chord progression (I usually don't play or cover people songs, but I love to run some random progressions). The room surrounding was dark; though the moonlight was still be able to go through the window, and it was just a right atmosphere for us to fall asleep. Suddenly, there it came. Too fast which I almost did not realize how could I come up with the verse, and it suits well with the pre-chorus and the chorus I mentioned earlier. Malays call this as “Ilham”.

Later, the words were again revised and I decided to make it sounds more 'general' instead of making it sounds too passionate. You may sing this song to your friends, closed friends, or even your loved one. It depends upon that person understanding, as if how he or she to interpret the whole message, but I believe the song is all about “Friendship, Trusty, and Love”.

Recorded using my built-in web-cam microphone (ASUS EeePC), indeed the sound's quality is so cheap. I was singing while playing the guitar, and the laptop was exactly in front of me (to record my play), placed about 30cm in distance. I turned on the fan in purpose since it was damn really hot that evening. So, you may hear lots of noise, jumping and breaking up, here and there. Nothing much could be done since I left my 'real' recording tools in Taiping. In the first place, this is just a real rough demo and my intention of posting this version is just to show how the melody/words and the rhythm sound together in order to receive some feedback. Like I said before, this is “My first attempt to compose a fully English Song”, and I still need feedback and guidance.

Talking about feedback, I do receive comments from friends, mostly FB friends. I would like to share some of the comments here, listed from the most precise to the most general:


Yanglin Yeo (via FB, BeST friend)

“hey, i cant listen clearly,but just roughly the melody. i dont have any idea on the lyrics since my English very poor...hehe...the melody is okay too...did u turn on the fans during recording? maybe u can try to use headphone microphone to record and at the same time turn off the aircond and fans, this is what i tried last time and it's quite clear.”

“Then need to improve on the arrangement which i could not help (haha, i didnt touch music for more than 5 years), since just have guitar (if not mistaken), it's quite simple now, like create different 'scenes' from verse to pre-cho and lastly to chorus, something can bring the audience to the 'climax'.”

“Dont know how to express, like got 'rise and fall'. now i feel that the pre-cho is abit stronger than the chorus and the current chorus sounds like going to the end of the song. Same goes to the vocal, haha...like the song just now also, the voice sounds like u stand quite far away from the mic.”

“the sentence 'and pretend like we haven't met' maybe can do some changes, coz like all the words clump together...from the end of pre-cho to beginning of chorus, not very smooth, coz it's like 'putus' halfway...but like i said i just can give u my 'not professional' comments.”


Ahmad Aziq (via FB, ex-schoolmate)

“ejoy, i simply love the song, bila nak buat yang btul punyer? Aku ingat macam pernah gdr lagu ni kat sini, ade sket2, hehe..just nak cakap bile dgr lagu ko, teringat kat lagu yang kat utube tue.. cepat2 sket ye ejoy, bagi aku first yg dengar, yeargh!!”


Hare (via SMS, Bandmate PseudoAudio)

“Srsly lagu sedap do. Tone best. Chord biasa tapi x pa. Haha x dpt on fb dah, st*lker dah stat kaco”


Chong Min San (via FB, BeST friend)

“No wonder... I was trying so hard to connect the song and the lyrics. Anyway, it's a nice song. Thanks for sharing. Gambateh!!!”

P/S: She was first confused while listening and referring to the lyric. It turned out that I accidentally gave her the “Enigma” song, but the lyric is “My Number One”. Obviously both songs are in different language, Haha. Clumsy me..


Mohd Fadhli Hamdan (via mulut ke mulut, kawan karib)

dude, you pronounce 'met' for this part “and pretend like we haven't met” as if “and pretend like we haven't MATE”

*Mate = Mating. LOL


That's “My first attempt to compose a fully English Song”. I would like to thank Ranald Ho for his words contribution in this song, although it is just one sentence long. Last but not least, I would like to dedicate this song to all friends who know me, both from the bad side and from the bright side, and also to all BeST Programme 2010 members. I'm looking forward to record this song professionally in the near future, but do comment and correct my grammar, choice of words, sentence structure.. Please, it is still in Beta. And I'm still learning :) Till then, see you in the future, and in Facebook!