image credit: lifehacker.com

Since reading that Lifehacker article in 2012, I've developed this habit of having a morning playlist to listen to every morning while I prepare for work. It really helped in motivating myself to get out of bed right after hitting the alarm clock (no more snoozes!). Since all things we do are all out of habit, listening to that set of songs automatically sets my mind to just go wake up and start my day.

For almost three  years, I've been regularly refreshing my morning playlist every quarter, which means I was listening to the same set of songs for more or less 60 weekday mornings before reshuffling and creating a new one.


Since I've been doing this already for a long time, I have become more familiar with my own behavior and how I responded to the songs as the days went by. The trend is that I did not have any problem waking up and doing my morning routine for the first half of the quarter (heh that's some Math for you). By the end of the second month, I was getting sloppy and I tended to wake up minutes later and later in the morning. I was getting used to listening to the same set of songs, and the magic of listening to my favorite songs started to wear off.

Because of that pattern, I have decided to entirely scrap off this current process of constructing my morning playlist, and come up with a new set of rules for this routine.

I won't be using my Q1 2016 morning playlist for the rest of the quarter anymore. Instead, I'm constructing an entirely new playlist wherein I can add and remove songs anytime of the year! The playlist will still be composed of 15 songs, no more no less, because that's the typical number of tracks that will have a one-hour duration. That's usually how long it takes for me to prepare for everything in the morning. The playlist will now be more flexible. If I get to listen to a new song that I somehow learned to like, I'll add it up on the playlist. It's basically just maintaining a list of songs that still has the magic powers to boost my mood and power up my mornings so that I won't be late for work. :p

I somehow got this idea from Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist. This is a playlist consisting of fresh new tracks which Spotify refreshes weekly every Monday. This means you will be able to listen to a list of new tracks every week. This gimmick is effective to me because I am now actually looking forward to Mondays to go to this playlist and listen to the new set of songs added to it.

Yup, it's the start of another quarter again. As part of my routine, I am doing a refresh on my morning playlist and these are the songs included in the new list:




I'm quite a few songs short for this quarter (my routine is to form a 10-track playlist). I didn't have the time to listen to new songs so I pulled out some of my old favorites to this list (i.e. Just Say Yes and Lights). Coldplay's A Sky Full of Stars sounded so magical and dreamy that I got hooked on it immediately. Big Bang songs has become my favorites, especially their fourth and fifth studio albums, ever since I saw their concert screening here in the country last March. I discovered Imagine Dragons through Spinnr and I instantly fell in love with all of their songs in their Night Visions album. I always thought they've already come here to the Philippines in one of those mall tours recently but I think I have mistaken it with another event because I can't seem to find any article about it online. So if they actually have not come here yet, please please someone, somewhere out there! Please bring them to Manila!!! +Manila Concerts +Philippine Concerts

Moving on with the song list -- I was actually a bit late with the Taylor Swift fever. I only got crazy about her a few weeks after her sold-out Red Tour show here. I began to appreciate her music after watching her perform acoustic versions of her songs in her Red album. So if we rewind to several months before her concert here, I think I would consider watching her show (If I were lucky enough to get hold of the tickets... they got sold out faster than you could say 'we are never ever ever ever ever getting back together').

There you go! For the third quarter, these songs will be my company for those hard-to-wake-up hours in the morning before going to work. :D

A month has already passed for this quarter already! OMG! The year is nearing it's end! Time really flies so fast!

There's a lot of great songs recently that I would want to be included in my next morning playlist. But some of them have slow tempos. Instead of perking up my day, I might feel sleepy again. So I am not including them in the list. As usual, it's a 10-track set.





I am really having fun doing this morning playlist thing, most especially because I wake up extra early (before the rest of the people here does, somehow) and knowing that I would be hearing wonderful songs as I prepare in the morning is something to look forward to. It gives me instant good vibes to start the day!

Can you believe that the first quarter of the year is already coming to an end? Sure, time flies really fast when you are having fun! A new quarter means one thing for me -- a new morning playlist! This is the fourth time I am changing my playlist (click to see my first and second playlist, and the third one) :D

So from April to June, here are the melodies that I am setting to hear every morning.




This playlist doesn't include Miley's songs. I can't seem to find a track that is not a cover in Soundcloud. ((-_-))

In tradition of my morning routine, I am shuffling in a new playlist that I will be using every morning next year. I can't believe it's been three months since I last refreshed this list!

For the first quarter of 2014, I am bringing in lots of meaningful songs for me at the moment.





Missing You - 2NE1
Gorilla - Bruno Mars
LOVE Girl - CNBLUE
Adore You - Miley Cyrus
Unconditionally - Katy Perry
Best Song Ever - One Direction
That Girl - Justin Timberlake
Mirrors - Justin Timberlake
Wake Me Up - Avicii
Fly To Love - Lunafly







Some of them are my old favorites like CNBLUE's LOVE Girl. I really love Katy Perry's Prism album and Unconditionally is one of the songs that really moved me. Most of the rest are new releases that I have come to love after hearing it the first time. I have always liked JT's Mirrors but it got more special because Lunafly sang this live during the recently concluded 5th KPOP Convention.

Now I'm ready for my morning wake up calls this 2014! :D

~o~

image credits: josepvinaixa.com | deviantart.com | ernesthgarciadesigns.blogspot.com | logictherapy.wordpress.com | digitalspy.com | musictimes.com | k2nblog.com

I don't know why but ever since I got to see this band live in their concert here in Manila last January, I can't seem to get enough of them.

The thirst for them is real. (´∩｀。)

I was already behind the craze when I first discovered them. I cannot remember how I got to listen to them though, but I'm suspecting it's through Spotify. So I listened to their music and I instantly liked them. I researched a bit about them and found out that they have actually visited the Philippines around a year ago! They held shows at the Ayala malls and I never knew anything about it! (´Д｀。) I added them to my concert bucketlist since then. When I heard they'd be coming for an official concert at the arena, I instantly got tickets! And it was the best concert experience I have ever had so far! (even beyond my kpop ones). I won't think twice seeing them in case they come here again (which they said they would during the last concert... I really hope they do!).



Since after the concert, I'm experiencing post-concert depression and I'm still craving for more from them. I would always have their album as my music on my way home from work. It's a bit frustrating because during the concert I was still getting familiar with their songs (I have my favorites already but I am still not familiar with most of them). Medicine became one of my favorites also, and I did not even realize that I've seen them perform it live! Also, I somehow regret not going to their album signing event in January, the day before their concert. But since I was not that attached to them yet during that time, seeing them all in person is a bit of an overkill. But now I'm ready to see them face-to-face!

The band said that they will be releasing an album soon, and I was really looking forward to that. So it came as a shock when I browsed Twitter on June 1 and learned the reason why they were trending worldwide. I was not able to do some work while I was investigating on it. When their SNS accounts all went back live and online with a pink square photo, I knew everything was just a stunt to introduce the new concept for their new album. (OMG!) I would definitely get a physical copy of it. They have also released dates for their UK Tour on November and I am forever envious of their fans who would be seeing them there.

Since I cannot do anything but wait (for the album and for the date of their possible concert here), I researched for their old tunes in Youtube. The band had changed names in the past. with labels that include Talkhouse, The Slowdown, Bigsleep, and Drive Like I Do. It's a bit challenging to actually find their unreleased songs, because there are tons of them. Big thanks to this thread on reddit, the links from their old songs are mostly available to listen to.

Here are some of my picks from their unreleased tracks.

Ghosts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OoCYpbbOdw
102 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z16SPic_TI
Lost Boys - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grDj9-QlBzU

I am participating again in this month's Piano Jam at the piano subreddit of Reddit, and it's all about Christmas songs (of course, what else is more appropriate? :D). I started joining last month, and so far I find the community a very helpful tool in motivating to learn new pieces each month, even how basic those might be. Perfect examples are these Christmas songs that I have learned. Each piece just spans two pages at the most.





And in addition to these four Christmas songs, I was able to record today the most polished version of Canon by Pachelbel that I have been trying to learn for the past years (yey!)




Though I am happy with my progress on playing the piano, I am beginning to become frustrated with my current keyboard. I bought it two years ago and it was my dream piano back then. However, I realized recently that this doesn't satisfy my needs anymore. Now that I am already taking piano lessons already, I am starting to see the disadvantages of having a non-hammered-and-non-graded 61-key digital keyboard. I would be planning to replace this with a more decent keyboard. For now, I'm stuck with this one. I'll just have to get the most from it.

I have also downloaded some piano sheets of my favorite ballads from JYJ.

Next on the playlist. 😁 #ballads #jyj #junsu #jaejoong #piano

A photo posted by Kathleen Rosario (@katalinarosario) on Dec 12, 2014 at 8:35pm PST

These are a lot more complicated pieces, so I am not sure when I would be able to play them good enough to post my cover online.  I am excited though. I hope to be able play these pieces in the next months to come! :D