Since tomorrow is the first day of December, I'd like to share one of my Christmas songs with you. I originally wrote "This Little Child" for Joey Albert (and it got an Awit nomination for Best Christmas Song back then). This one is the Ateneo Chamber Singers' a capella version of it, recorded and released last year. My friends Jay and Aui Tamayo have told me that the song sends them into the "ugly cry" mode. Precious! =) I hope you guys enjoy it, too. You can listen to it and view the lyrics HERE. Season's Greetings to all!
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"Ang Ating Pasko" is a short song I wrote last year. It's so short that it doesn't even reach the 1.5 minute mark. And so it's been a pleasant surprise to me that some choristers have been asking if they could get hold of its sheet music so they could sing it. The song opens the album of the same title, a Chrismtas CD by the Ateneo Chamber Singers released last year. I remember how we were working on the album and realized we didn't have an album title yet. We tried choosing among the songs we had, but none of them really summed up what the album was about. "Ang Ating Pasko" seemed the most appropriate title because it was a collection of Filipino Christmas songs but more specifically, songs written and arranged by people in the Ateneo community. My friend Niner De Pano, the album's overall producer, told me to come up with a short song that would serve as the album's opening or prelude (much like the cuts in The Carpenters' Christmas Portrait album) and this is the song I came up with. Fellow-Atenean Marvin Querido did the instrumental arrangement and I did the vocal arrangement, and I must say I'm happy with how it came out. Since I don't own the rights to the recording, I can't sell it nor its accompaniment track but if any of you would like to get hold of the sheet music, you can download it from here: http://www.greatsongstosing.com/ang-ating-pasko.html - and you can listen to the song as well by clicking on the video link or watching it here: Enjoy and an early Christmas greeting to you all!
I use my iPad for mainly 2 things: as a sheet music browser (particularly for choral singing) using the ForScore app, and as a tablet to scribble on, a replacement for my various notebooks (my datebook, scratch paper for minutes, writing lyrics, even sketching) using such apps as Penultimate, Noteshelf and Adobe Ideas. For this latter function (which has been life changing and a source of joy to me), a stylus has been a necessity. I had purchased the Pogo Sketch Stylus in San Francisco (even before I bought my iPad!) upon recommendation by my good friend Denise who said it was the best stylus available and I could see why she thought it was: I've seen other styli and some or most of them (including one I regret purchasing for my dad because it was the cheapest I could find) have a tip that feels like a pencil eraser which doesn't glide on the iPad surface as smoothly as that of the Pogo, whose tip feels more like mesh or a piece of foam. It's also very slim and lightweight... ...and so, although I haven't really used any other brand, I do think this is the best stylus brand.
I had gone to the Apple store in Megamall a couple or so times and found other stylus brands for sale but none of them had this foam-like tip, and I was surprised at how expensive these styli were (they cost about PhP800 or more!) I told myself I'd better take extra care not to lose my stylus. And so I semi-freaked out when I couldn't find my one and only stylus a few days ago. I've looked in the only 2 bags they could have possibly been in and couldn't find it. =( Must have dropped it somewhere after ACS rehearsals. I rushed to Google and kept my fingers crossed as I typed in the words "pogo sketch stylus sale philippines"... these words did not yield results months ago when I wanted to buy for my dad but maybe, just maybe, this time I'd get lucky. And I did! Someone from Cebu sells them for just P400 a piece! I ordered 3 pieces (2 for me, one for my dad), paid through my Paypal account and they arrived today via Air21 just 2 days after I ordered them. I can now breathe a sigh of relief. My iPad life goes on. ;-P So if any of you are iPad users and want a good stylus, I recommend the Pogo Sketch Stylus and if you'd like to purchase it for about half the price of styli sold in malls, click HERE. I've always been resisting. When I was invited to Friendster many years ago, it took me a while to agree to open my own account. Then Multiply came along and I said no, I already have Friendster. But then all my friends started going on Multiply and putting their photos there so okay, I opened my own Multiply account. And then came Facebook and I was like no, no, no... we're all on Multiply already, why do we need a new social networking site? Well, I didn't want to get left out and again, plus I wanted to see these photos I had been tagged in so okay I opened Facebook. I said enough already, no need for Twitter. Because isn't it like Facebook anyway? But there's no denying Twitter's vast reach and with this online store and everybody taking to the net and a need to promote my products and services in every way possible, I guess I have to take advantage of all means available to promote so..... hello, Twitter!
It's kind of overwhelming to have Facebook, a blog, a couple of websites, YouTube, and now Twitter - all at the same time. So many things to keep track of! But hopefully I'll get that hang of this soon. All in the spirit of self-promotion. LOL! Wow, I used to think my works would speak for themselves but I guess they could always use a little push. Or a lot. ;-P So here we go with self-promotion: dear friends, please follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/trinabelamide. Thanks and I truly appreciate each one of you who follows me. Maraming salamat! So here we go... my first blog post ever! Let me begin with a shout-out to my friend Lexi, who encouraged me to get into blogging. Lexi, here's hoping I'm doing this right and that I'll be as successful at this as we hope I'll be! Maybe someday I can be a success story you can write about. ;-P Lexi no doubt is helping a lot of people in the field of internet marketing. You can visit her website http://alexisrodrigo.com/.
This online store thing is kind of overwhelming. So much to do to market my stuff, so many details go into each product, so many things I want to do and create and put in this website which I know will forever be a work in progress.. Ayayay! But it's all so exciting, too. I've told some friends that the word "boredom" just isn't in my vocabulary. Well, having this online store is one of the reasons why it never will be. I'll never run out of things to do, things to think about, to dream of. And it feels great knowing that. I feel blessed to be where I am in my life. And with this blog, I now get to share my thoughts with anyone who would care to read about them. Blogging is creative work, which is right up my alley as a songwriter so I'm hopeful that this newfound activity will never feel like a chore. Okay... now to launch this and see what happens... |
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My name is Trina Belamide and I'm a songwriter and record producer.
GreatSongsToSing is my online store and I thank you for dropping by! Do comment on my blog posts. I'd love to hear from you! Learn more about me on www.trinabelamide.com. Archives
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