Following on from my other small posts of randomness, today I want to talk to you about a small snippet of my life: my experiences with music.
Song of the day: L'Orage by Burgmuller (this is me playing it badly ahahahahaha :|)
I don't know about you guys, but in my community, back in the day, Asian parents tended to copy each other. A lot. You send your kid to this school, I'll send mine there too. Etc. So when mine heard that a close family friend's six year old son was taking up the violin, they asked me if I wanted to learn too. I remember saying that I wanted to learn the flute, but somehow I ended up with a violin in my hands in a violin class.
It was incredibly frustrating at first. I was never amazingly talented like my younger brother was, but I worked hard (shed many tears along the way) and reaped the benefits. Later on, I started the piano, and then the gu zheng:
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I tried to learn the guitar at uni but I could never stretch the bar chords so gave up... :(
Now I wish I'd kept up with these instruments because music is such a wonderful way to be creative. Music meant a lot to me when I was growing up ~ it was a way of expressing myself and a way to take a break from studying. But since I started uni, I began to let it slide, and I realised that I'm forgetting things, skills that I worked so hard for as a kid.
In fact, I became so wrapped up in other things that I was only reminded about all of this when a friend who is learning musical theory told me the other day that he wished he had the advantage of having a musical background. When you're pretty much bottom of your academic year group, it's quite hard to remember that there are things that you are or once were good at. In fact, it's been so long that someone was envious of me that this was a kind of a wake up call for me! :|
So tonight, I turned up to an orchestra rehearsal for a concert on Saturday, took my violin out, and played for two and a half hours. At first, it felt a bit strange but I found that I still had some remnants of muscle memory, and then it all came flooding back, as if I'd rediscovered a long lost friend!
The point I wanted to make is that tonight, I learned that you shouldn't neglect the things you are good at, or things that were once very important to you as your talents are part of who you are, so neglecting them means neglecting a part of yourself~ (✿◠‿◠)
Ah, life lessons. Don't we just love them?
Out of interest, do you sing or play any instruments? :D
Yishi x
I've always wanted to learn to play the violin~ My parents ended up making me learn piano first. >u> My friend learned Gu Zheng as well! It sounds so beautiful~
ReplyDeleteI think I'll pick up the violin this summer (or the guitar, depending on which one I can get my hands on first). c:
If only I could sing! xD What about you? o:
I wish I could play an instrument. Growing up, the only thing I ever learned how to play was the recorder. But I quickly forgot every son I learned after learning it. My younger sister was actually pretty good at learning how to play it. But other than listening to music that is pretty much all I can do.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that skill is embedded in my DNA. :/ I wish I could play the piano. It is such an elegant instrument.