This is Dream2breakaway’s favourite song. =) Watch us duet.
Love, Seren
Collaboration Weekend!
03月07日2010年 — Seren 古心弦Teahouse rocks! WOO!
This has been a great weekend for me. As you would have known so far, I’ve started small, and have been working alone for all my music pieces. After publishing a few solo vids onto youtube, I found some GREAT people to collaborate with, and met them for the first time this weekend! But the pressure is on me, to finish recording a good piece before returning to New York. *bites nails*
First I met YZ, and I contacted her while I was still in NY. Gosh, she is really good! She picked up really fast, and is able to play the full song, even though she has not heard of the song before! I wrote her a score, but believe me, my score is terrible. There are no lines to indicate duration of each note, and no dots to indicate which octave to play at. But she got it. That was so cool..
The best thing about her is that she was really kind. I mean, who am I for her to help me? She really didn’t have to. Best of all, she even introduced me to another guy to collaborate a second song with! And do you know who she introduced me to?
It’s coligar the PRO. *gasp* I’ll do a duet video with him, we’ll see how that goes.
Anyway I’m gonna meet YZ again on Wednesday to do a recording for a Michael Jackson Tribute in June. And perhaps, I will try to produce a score for her favorite song as a gift for her. Hmmm… 
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Next, I met a new bunch of guys for Band Practice, first time ever in my life!
It’s been a great weekend, mostly so because it’s feels good meeting people who are really serious about music. I can’t wait for the next collaboration and band practice.
British Property Named After Me.
03月05日2010年 — Seren 古心弦I noticed something really interesting in the newspapers today.
Seren Park, private real estate for sale
Wow, someone decided to name the condominiums in a prime London location after me! Weeee! Wouldn’t it be cool if I could own one of the units? … 
Artist's Impression of Seren Park (exterior)
Property Address:
Greenwich, Restell Close, London SE3, z -
Description:
Seren Park is one of the most desirable residential developments in London, situated in close proximity to the cultural Greenwich/Blackheath Village. Steeped in History, Greenwich has retained its authenticity with Georgian architecture, antique markets and traditional shops, all nestled discreetly in amongst the charm and antiquity that only this area of London SE3 can offer.
Artist's Impression of Seren Park (Interior)
Features
- On site 24/7 concierge
- Secured undercroft carparking
- Landscaped courtyard garden
- Communcal roof terrace
- Cycle & Cage Storage
Specifications
| Developer | Urban Solutions |
| Tenure | 125-year leasehold |
| Anticipated Completion | Phase 1 : Completed Phase 2 (Blocks B2/C1) : Aug 2010 Phase 3 (Blocks B1/A1) : Oct 2010 |
| Projected Rental Return | 4.5% – 5.0% (estimated) |
| Ground Rent (p.a.) | 1 bed : £200 2 bed : £250 3 bed : £500 |
| Floor Area | 513 to 1,270 sq ft |
Artist's Impression of the Courtyard
Well, Seren is a Welsh name (or at least babynames.com claims it is of Welsh origin) so it is not altogether surprising that this private complex is in the UK. It amuses me nonetheless. Btw the meaning of the name Seren is Star. :”>
After spending 3 hours with my friend who helped me correct my broken and incomplete Chinese Lyrics, here’s 2 Haikus to describe how I feel.
03月03日2010年 — Seren 古心弦Hànzì! Kanji! Words!
Why did my mind reject you
Only to yearn now?
—-
I hated Chinese Class
When I was forced to study
Now I want you back.
Time to have children
02月17日2010年 — Seren 古心弦When is the right time to have children?
This Lunar New Year, darts of questions came flying about whether I was going to have a child soon. From people who say “No pressure lah huh!” to people who say “Better Hurry Up!” to people who even suggest “have 4 children”! And of course, grandma stretches out her hand to rub my belly and mumur words I could not comprehend. She was speaking cantonese without dentures.
Speaking of grandma, I was sad to see that her health is not as pink as it used to be. I spoke to her over a long distance call about a month ago and everything seems fine…she sounded good. But now, face to face, I know that it’s really not that good afterall. She is not overly ill, and everyone is convinced that this is just a normal part of aging. She is afterall in her late 80s.
Life goes on, and my younger cousins who used to be geeky are now grown and worldly-wise. And the greatest change would be the little neices and nephews I haven’t seen in a while. Wow, how much the children have grown! My niece is now so much friendlier than when she was a baby, and she can speak so many complex sentences, reflecting what’s going on in her mind.
It seems that my peers are having kids too. I just found out that my best friend from 5th and 6th Grade has a 5-month old daughter.
Wow. Am I waiting too long? I feel that there is so much I want to do before I become a full-time-24hr-standby-no-sleep-for-the-first-few-months Mom. So much that I want to learn in terms of music, and to develop Spirit Teahouse more.
Lord, guide me.
It’s good to be home
02月08日2010年 — Seren 古心弦After a long flight of almost 24 hours and lots of nice inflight movies, I am finally back. My in-laws were waiting at the airport for me and my husband. The air is warm and humid, and I find myself smiling alot to everyone that I meet. I am smiling alot more than when I was in New York City.
Btw my dad-in-law and mom-in-law are the best people in the world. They are the warmest kinddest people I know. I am so lucky.
Ah, it is good to be home.
Bugs & Bubbles (a FREE new iPhone game by Floating Cube Studios)
01月30日2010年 — Seren 古心弦Hey guys, if you are not aware (although some of my twitter and facebook followers might know) I did some sideline work for a friend, Ian. He started up a company called Floating Cube Studios to develop iphone apps, and he needed background music for an iphone game he and his team were constructing. So I helped out.
Here’s the trailer of the game, you can hear three quarters of the loopable tune that I helped design for them.
Bugs and Bubbles Poster
FCS Bugs & Bubbles Credits
Anyway, this game is FREE, so if you have an iphone, check it out. Support floating cube studios, and feel free to give them comments and encouragements! I don’t have an iphone though. LOL
Hmmm I was wondering how to catagorize this blog post… I guess since this was volunteer work, but I personally get to build up my “portfolio”, I shall catagorize it under both ‘personal’ and ’social work’. Hehehe.
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Ok a word about the music. I must say that I learnt alot during this experience – I have never been “comissioned” to produce a piece before, and I have learnt to put other people’s tastes as a priority over my own when working as a team.
Independent songwriting is great, you get to write whatever you want, and you can identify yourself to the music. You are the BOSS and you don’t have to discuss it with anybody else. If you have fans that love the song you wrote, great. If they don’t, doesn’t have to matter too much.
But game songwriting is different. It is not about realizing the vision about songwriter, but about realizing the vision of the game creator… your tastes in music could be similar… or yours tastes could be totally different. You may not be able to identify with the music at all. I didn’t identify with this 2min+ piece of loopable music I created for Floating Cube Studios… it’s just not my style.
It was also not my 100% original creation, but an innovation from a 10 second copyright-free clip of mp3 that Floating Cube Studios sent me (Haha yeah, I’m really honest 
). And as a first timer, that really helped me to understand the kind of music they wanted. Therefore I guess the term “Sound Composer” is apt because I added sounds to the original, such as guitar sounds.
In conclusion: (1) There is no right and wrong to music, (2) put others’ needs before myself when writing a commercial piece, and (3) realise that I can expand my capacity to create styles of music that is different from my own.
Ahhh…Life is a learning journey. ^_^ I was also asked to create “sound effects”, but I was notsuccessful with those. I don’t have skills and resources to make suitable sounds, and I don’t have proper recording equipment… and I realised what an extensive field of knowledge and skill sound engineering is. Wow.
Luckily there are other sources where they could find appropriate sound effects for the game. Praise the Lord. =)
Love you all. Remember to check out the game if you have an iphone ^_^v
Seren’s Secret… 心弦の不能说的秘密…
01月17日2010年 — Seren 古心弦For my ‘Spirit Teahouse 2010 Collection’, every week my video would be themed towards the particular season or holiday of that week or month. And today, is one of many Birthdays that I would highlight with my song of the week.
This week it is Jay Chou’s Birthday!
I thought very hard about what song I should play…but most of the pentatonic songs by Jay Chou have already been covered by another fellow youtuber bastian984! So I did not wanna cover those songs that he covered because there is no way I can play those songs better than he can, especially within one week (to learn, record, edit and upload) !!! Bastian 他真的弹得很棒！我好敬佩他！
So I decided to play a song that he has not covered…however, I did so much to play this song, that I was advised by my hubby and friends to keep it a secret… hence, “Seren’s Secret”.
Here’s my first example of what I mean by “Seren’s Secret”.
If you look at the “design” of the “Seren’s Secret” words…does it remind you of anything? Yes I was inspired by Jay’s Move “Secret” when I created it. I thought it fits my purpose perfectly ^_^v Hee hee…
I won’t be posting “Secret” songs too often, don’t worry. The next “Secret” Song would be in April.
I’ve got a new SerenKoo.Com custom-print cap! 我有个新“网站标志”帽！
01月13日2010年 — Seren 古心弦Tada! I’m absolutely delighted!
I wonder what you guys think of it? 不知你们有什么感想？
And you can have it too. Just go to vistaprint.com. You can upload your own image (like I did), or choose from the designs they already have there. You get to type in the words you want for free! Here’s what mine looks like:
Front of SerenKoo.com cap. SerenKoo.Com帽的前样。
Tell me what you think. Is it cute? wierd? I think it’s just plain fun. Bear in mind though that I had to pay for shipping which was about $4. Which I don’t mind. How does vistaprint.com earn money then, if they are printing free caps for people? They earn when people buy in bulk. ^_^
Please comment! And visit the gallery for more pictures. <3!
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