Hey all,
it's been a while. And no, I have not forgotten you all! (I wonder if anyone is even reading this. lol) Let's see now.... what have I done for the past 2 months? Times certainly flew by quickly and I can't help but feel that I haven't done much, despite the fact that I've pour a lot of hours in practicing my piano.
Last month, the guy who sold the piano decided to host a recital at his shop and he was kind to invite me to play a piece for the recital using a grand piano! I knew I wasn't exactly ready for it, but I decided to accept his invitation and chose to play Clementi's Op. 36 No. 1 (all three movements). I can't help but feel amaze at how everyone is great at playing the piano (well, they were leagues better than me since I was the only beginner there) but nevertheless I enjoyed my time there. Since I wasn't exactly fully prepared (and I was exhausted from work too but still, ultimately my fault for not being fully prepared), I accidentally stumble a few times especially on the third movement. Usually I would be very critical of my mistakes, but the lesson to be learn here is to accept my mistakes and learn from it. I graciously accept the mistakes that I've made during the performance and bow in front of the audience. I guess I needed more experience to perform publicly, huh.
A few days later, I packed my luggage and lo and behold, my vacation to Sydney is finally here! To be honest, I have been extremely looking forward to this trip. It's been a long while since I've done any overseas travelling. Why was I looking forward to this trip? If you think about Sydney, what would be the first thing that comes to your mind? That's right! It's the Sydney Opera House! I was able to make a booking to see one of the classical music orchestra to further expand my classical music exposure. Sadly, during my stay in Sydney, there weren't any piano concertos or performance held so I went for the next best option: Wilton's Belshazzar's Feast. I attended this orchestra during the night with a little skepticism since I am more interested in piano performances. The whole performances has two acts: the first act is Halleluja - Oratorium balbulum, a modern 2015 piece by Peter Eotvos that talks about prediction; whereas the second act is highly anticipated Wilton's Belshazzar's Feast. Sadly I did not enjoy Halleluja as it was more of a 'show performance' rather than a 'musical performance', and I really dislike how they just simply time-skip the story from the past to 2001 to the future and then back and forth again. This performance's main theme is mostly about philosophy about our life and while I thought the ending is cool with everyone on stage ended not nothing a single muscle in the dark, but I still think it was underwhelming. After a quick 10 minute interval, the performance for the second act starts. As much as I would like to describe how I feel, I am simply powerless to express my experience. All I could say is that I was completely absorbed in the music, so much so that it felt it I was at Babylon, watching the enslavement of the Jewish people and the celebration of King Belshazzar's grand feast celebration. It was truly amazing. After the performance, everyone (me included) can't help but keep applauding at the brilliance of the performance that we've witnessed. The standing ovation lasted for more than 10 minutes! Simply bravissimo! I am glad that I was able to witness such an amazing choir orchestra and was satisfied with my trip in Sydney. You must simply attend an orchestra if you've visiting Sydney! I also did have a good time in Sydney as I managed to stumble upon a public-use piano and play a piece. It was fun but man, I seriously need to get over my shaky fingers. I'm just glad I have the courage to performance in public and I should be proud of it as I am expecting to do more public performances in the near future.
My Sydney lasted for a week, and despite my effort to make it a tireless trip, I came back home exhausted. I won't deny and say that I absolutely miss playing piano, so I make an extra effort to make sure to practice more than usual. Last week when I attend my class, my teacher decided to drop another surprise on me. He told me that I will not be doing my ABRSM Grade 5 practical exam next year due to time constraint. Hurray! But.... I will be doing ABSRM Grade 6 practical exam two years later, in 2019 whereas next year I will be doing my ABRSM Grade 5 music theory exam. What the...? Why...? Nevertheless, I am glad the stress has been lighten a little since I will not be preparing for a practical exam next year, but it's Grade 6, man! Grade 6! It's miles more difficult than Grade 5 and I'm not even sure if I have the confident to do well this time. It seems my teacher is confident that I can perform well for the exam, so I guess I would have to place my trust in him. So to start preparing for Grade 6, I have increase my scales practice from 3 octaves to 4 octaves, and have also started practicing Minor Melodic Scales. Maybe I'm insane, but I actually do enjoy the increase difficulty in learning more difficult stuffs in piano (must be the effect of playing Shogi, since I enjoy playing against players way stronger than me. I strive on pressure. lol) . My teacher even took the liberty to start my journey with Bach's songs, and I can tell you that it was insanely difficult. It was suppose to be a normal crochet legato but I'm suppose to play semi-staccato. What the heck? I don't get it but I guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it. It also certainly doesn't help that my teacher would want me to start learning new sonatina pieces which I'm pretty confident to say that it's a grade or two higher than my current level. Strangely this time, I enjoyed the challenge, but I'm sure I'll performed terribly initially. lol. At my current schedule, I am learning 4 new pieces of music each week and it was insane. I'm glad to see that I've improved but man, there's so many things to learn in a week! Your confidence in me is too high, teacher!
Anyways, I can't believe there's so many things to write. I just kept typing and typing and my fingers wouldn't stop. I'm pretty sure there's more things that I would like to talk about, and I guess I'll leave it to next time. Sorry about the huge gibberish and mess I've typed here because I was just so excited talking about everything here. I know I promise to post a video of my performing Clementi's Op 36 No 1, and I'll try post it once I've further polished myself with the music. Anyways, see you all next time!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Exam Results and the Beginning of 'Real Stress'
Hey all,
after waiting for almost a month, I've finally got my exam results for my ABRSM Grade 3 Piano. Can't say that I am anxious about it because I am only expecting to only get a past for my results. I know I made a lot of mistakes during the exams so I didn't really expect too great for my results.
I wasn't able to attend my class last week due to illness, so I wasn't really informed about my exam results. But when I went to my recital a few days ago, my teacher inform me that I've actually gotten a distinction for my exams. All I could think on my mind was the word "Impossible". Since my main focus was on the recital, so I didn't really pay much attention to it.
Did I mention I didn't really perform too well during the recital? I was perfectly calm during before the performance but when I actually sat myself on the chair, my heart starts beating like madly. I don't know what came over me. Since I can't control my crazy heartbeat, I used my mind to control my fingers to play my piece. As you expected, I definitely made a few blunders, but I make absolutely sure to keep playing the piece without stopping, without restarting a phrase, keep up a consistent rhythm and more importantly, not to shake my head whenever I made an error. And I did manage to do all of that. I was told by my teacher that my nervousness showed greatly during my performance, so I guess for next year's goal I have to learn to control my nervousness and stage fright if I were to do more performance in front of the audience. Time to work hard!
So where was I? Oh, the exam results. Sorry for getting off the track. So yesterday I went for my class and my teacher finally gave me my exam assessment. I really did get a distinction for my exams! I am proud of myself for achieving a distinction, but at the same time I am also worried. The thing is, my teacher plans to make me take Grade 5 exams next year! I have a lot of pressure and stress preparing for my Grade 3 exam this year, and I am certain that I am going to have more pressure preparing for Grade 5 since I do know that it is not easy to take Grade 5 exams. It's going to be another year till my exams come, and yet I'm feeling more inclined to practice more. I guess it never hurts to start preparing early rather than late, huh?
Aside from that, my class lessons have increased in time due to preparing me for taking Grade 5 exams, and I am actually glad it happen. Although I work 9 hours a day in the office, I am always constantly thinking about going back home and play the piano so I'm really glad I get to spend more lesson time with my teacher to improve my piano skills. It is tiring to practice daily, but I've always enjoyed my time spent with the piano.
As of this moment, my teacher has already started me on learning all the required scales, arpeggio etc for Grade 5 and I've taken most of my time to make sure I remember the key signatures. More so than ever, I am highly motivated to approach and learn new difficult pieces to increase my repertoire and musical knowledge. I can't wait to see how much I'll be improving for the following 3 months!
Enough rambling today. Right now I'm trying to learn Clementi's Op 36 No.1 so once I did I'll try to post a video of me performing it. Till then, see you guys in the next post!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
after waiting for almost a month, I've finally got my exam results for my ABRSM Grade 3 Piano. Can't say that I am anxious about it because I am only expecting to only get a past for my results. I know I made a lot of mistakes during the exams so I didn't really expect too great for my results.
I wasn't able to attend my class last week due to illness, so I wasn't really informed about my exam results. But when I went to my recital a few days ago, my teacher inform me that I've actually gotten a distinction for my exams. All I could think on my mind was the word "Impossible". Since my main focus was on the recital, so I didn't really pay much attention to it.
Did I mention I didn't really perform too well during the recital? I was perfectly calm during before the performance but when I actually sat myself on the chair, my heart starts beating like madly. I don't know what came over me. Since I can't control my crazy heartbeat, I used my mind to control my fingers to play my piece. As you expected, I definitely made a few blunders, but I make absolutely sure to keep playing the piece without stopping, without restarting a phrase, keep up a consistent rhythm and more importantly, not to shake my head whenever I made an error. And I did manage to do all of that. I was told by my teacher that my nervousness showed greatly during my performance, so I guess for next year's goal I have to learn to control my nervousness and stage fright if I were to do more performance in front of the audience. Time to work hard!
So where was I? Oh, the exam results. Sorry for getting off the track. So yesterday I went for my class and my teacher finally gave me my exam assessment. I really did get a distinction for my exams! I am proud of myself for achieving a distinction, but at the same time I am also worried. The thing is, my teacher plans to make me take Grade 5 exams next year! I have a lot of pressure and stress preparing for my Grade 3 exam this year, and I am certain that I am going to have more pressure preparing for Grade 5 since I do know that it is not easy to take Grade 5 exams. It's going to be another year till my exams come, and yet I'm feeling more inclined to practice more. I guess it never hurts to start preparing early rather than late, huh?
Aside from that, my class lessons have increased in time due to preparing me for taking Grade 5 exams, and I am actually glad it happen. Although I work 9 hours a day in the office, I am always constantly thinking about going back home and play the piano so I'm really glad I get to spend more lesson time with my teacher to improve my piano skills. It is tiring to practice daily, but I've always enjoyed my time spent with the piano.
As of this moment, my teacher has already started me on learning all the required scales, arpeggio etc for Grade 5 and I've taken most of my time to make sure I remember the key signatures. More so than ever, I am highly motivated to approach and learn new difficult pieces to increase my repertoire and musical knowledge. I can't wait to see how much I'll be improving for the following 3 months!
Enough rambling today. Right now I'm trying to learn Clementi's Op 36 No.1 so once I did I'll try to post a video of me performing it. Till then, see you guys in the next post!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Hey all,
Finally my piano exam is over! I'm so glad. I can't believe I actually spend more than 5 months preparing for a practical piano exam. It was definitely nerve wrecking, but a good experience to boost confidence and reduce performance anxiety.
Nevertheless, this is my first time taking a practical piano exam. But it is strange - when I entered the room I feel calm. However, as I sat down and my fingers touched the keys, I can feel my fingers start to shake. Oh dear, the goddamn nervousness have gotten hold of my fingers. Any thoughts start running through my head - was it the height of the bench affecting my posture and position of my fingers; or were I not used to the piano keys (it was a different piano with different key stiffness), or was it because of the room etc etc. But I quickly shrugged off my negative thoughts by telling myself that I should bravely confront the exam.
The examiner serenely asked me if I chose to perform my pieces first, or scales. I chose scales first because I thought it would be a great opportunity for my fingers to get used to the keys' stiffness and the sound. It is no wonder that most pianist would usually play scales before their actual performances to warm up their fingers and get familiar with the keys. So I had scales for my first part of the exam. Although my fingers are still slightly shaky, my mind remained composed and I think I got the first part with no problems, although I did accidentally made a note mistake in the beginning.
Next comes the 2nd part - piece performance. Stirring up the confident in me, I proceed to play Clementi's Allegro boldly with force and speed, I was able to play through the piece with the rhythm that I wanted but the unthinkable happened - my fingers slipped and I mess up the last few measures of the piece. Dammit. Of all times why did it happened now? But there's no time to worry, cause my examiner is expecting me to start playing my second piece: Rebikov's Pastushok na svireli igraet. I never did have any troubles with this piece before, except for the second phrase of the song which you have to play A major scale starting on E5 with fast tempo. Usually I would have troubles with this part while practicing because my fingers are still not fully used to playing the black keys (especially true since I started to change my fingers' posture of playing the black keys a few weeks ago). But I'm glad that I got through that piece with no mistakes or problems, although I think I might have accidentally connected two notes together earlier in the piece instead of disconnecting them. Lastly, Nikki Iles' Cotton Reel. I can't really remember how I did, but I think I might have made a small error in the middle of the music but still satisfactory nonetheless.
Then comes the third part: the dreaded sight-reading. I have been preparing extensively at home with sight-reading and if I botched this, there's a high possibility that I will failed my exam. The examiner gave me a short passage and I was given 30 seconds to read through it. Nevertheless, I take the opportunity to try it out but man... my fingers just won't stop shaking! I made lots of error playing the wrong notes while trying out and I was like OMG I'm doom. Ding! Thirty seconds are up and it's time to play. Much to my amusement, I was glad I manage to play the piece with no mistakes and good rhythm too. I think I have avoided the crisis. I'm pretty sure I've passed my sight-reading. Hurray for big persistent of constant practicing sight-reading!
Then finally the last section is Aural. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how well I've performed. I did give my answers confidently to the examiner as he tested me, but there is no sure way of telling if I did answer correctly or not. My teacher did advice me that I should answer quickly and confidently which I did, but there's no way to tell until I got my results three weeks from now.
Now that the exams are over, I can finally have a breathe of relief. I remember clearly that as soon as I got out of the room, my teacher just simply walked up to me and told me that I will be having a recital next month. You can probably expect to see me with a huge expression of WHAT? then and there. Haha.
With my exams over, it doesn't mean that I should be relaxing too. I've noticed that with my improved sight-reading, I was able to play some of the pieces with much ease so I would like to take this opportunity to increase my practice schedule. For the moment I'm looking at doing these exercises every night:
1. Hanon Finger Exercises from 1 to 20 (probably going to increase it to 30 or even 40 depending on my free time)
2. Scale, Contrary Motion Scales, Arpeggios and Chromatic Scales for all learned majors and minor scales (2 octaves). To be perform at least 10 times with no mistakes, proper tempo and evenness
3. John Thompson pieces (Both pieces and technical. To be prepared for class' next lesson)
4. Czerny Op 599 (for additional learning and sight-reading training)
5. Sight-reading (I'm thinking of going through Grade 3 sight-reading again and slowly increasing it to Grade 5. I've already consulted my teacher to give me materials for practice).
This is my current plan and I hope I will be able to stick to it persistently. Nevertheless, I'm definitely looking forward to how much I've improved before I take my next exam again next year (please teacher, don't make me take Grade 5 exam. I don't think my heart's ready yet...)
Sorry for the lengthy post but I am glad I was able to share my experience with you all! See you all next post!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Finally my piano exam is over! I'm so glad. I can't believe I actually spend more than 5 months preparing for a practical piano exam. It was definitely nerve wrecking, but a good experience to boost confidence and reduce performance anxiety.
Nevertheless, this is my first time taking a practical piano exam. But it is strange - when I entered the room I feel calm. However, as I sat down and my fingers touched the keys, I can feel my fingers start to shake. Oh dear, the goddamn nervousness have gotten hold of my fingers. Any thoughts start running through my head - was it the height of the bench affecting my posture and position of my fingers; or were I not used to the piano keys (it was a different piano with different key stiffness), or was it because of the room etc etc. But I quickly shrugged off my negative thoughts by telling myself that I should bravely confront the exam.
The examiner serenely asked me if I chose to perform my pieces first, or scales. I chose scales first because I thought it would be a great opportunity for my fingers to get used to the keys' stiffness and the sound. It is no wonder that most pianist would usually play scales before their actual performances to warm up their fingers and get familiar with the keys. So I had scales for my first part of the exam. Although my fingers are still slightly shaky, my mind remained composed and I think I got the first part with no problems, although I did accidentally made a note mistake in the beginning.
Next comes the 2nd part - piece performance. Stirring up the confident in me, I proceed to play Clementi's Allegro boldly with force and speed, I was able to play through the piece with the rhythm that I wanted but the unthinkable happened - my fingers slipped and I mess up the last few measures of the piece. Dammit. Of all times why did it happened now? But there's no time to worry, cause my examiner is expecting me to start playing my second piece: Rebikov's Pastushok na svireli igraet. I never did have any troubles with this piece before, except for the second phrase of the song which you have to play A major scale starting on E5 with fast tempo. Usually I would have troubles with this part while practicing because my fingers are still not fully used to playing the black keys (especially true since I started to change my fingers' posture of playing the black keys a few weeks ago). But I'm glad that I got through that piece with no mistakes or problems, although I think I might have accidentally connected two notes together earlier in the piece instead of disconnecting them. Lastly, Nikki Iles' Cotton Reel. I can't really remember how I did, but I think I might have made a small error in the middle of the music but still satisfactory nonetheless.
Then comes the third part: the dreaded sight-reading. I have been preparing extensively at home with sight-reading and if I botched this, there's a high possibility that I will failed my exam. The examiner gave me a short passage and I was given 30 seconds to read through it. Nevertheless, I take the opportunity to try it out but man... my fingers just won't stop shaking! I made lots of error playing the wrong notes while trying out and I was like OMG I'm doom. Ding! Thirty seconds are up and it's time to play. Much to my amusement, I was glad I manage to play the piece with no mistakes and good rhythm too. I think I have avoided the crisis. I'm pretty sure I've passed my sight-reading. Hurray for big persistent of constant practicing sight-reading!
Then finally the last section is Aural. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea how well I've performed. I did give my answers confidently to the examiner as he tested me, but there is no sure way of telling if I did answer correctly or not. My teacher did advice me that I should answer quickly and confidently which I did, but there's no way to tell until I got my results three weeks from now.
Now that the exams are over, I can finally have a breathe of relief. I remember clearly that as soon as I got out of the room, my teacher just simply walked up to me and told me that I will be having a recital next month. You can probably expect to see me with a huge expression of WHAT? then and there. Haha.
With my exams over, it doesn't mean that I should be relaxing too. I've noticed that with my improved sight-reading, I was able to play some of the pieces with much ease so I would like to take this opportunity to increase my practice schedule. For the moment I'm looking at doing these exercises every night:
1. Hanon Finger Exercises from 1 to 20 (probably going to increase it to 30 or even 40 depending on my free time)
2. Scale, Contrary Motion Scales, Arpeggios and Chromatic Scales for all learned majors and minor scales (2 octaves). To be perform at least 10 times with no mistakes, proper tempo and evenness
3. John Thompson pieces (Both pieces and technical. To be prepared for class' next lesson)
4. Czerny Op 599 (for additional learning and sight-reading training)
5. Sight-reading (I'm thinking of going through Grade 3 sight-reading again and slowly increasing it to Grade 5. I've already consulted my teacher to give me materials for practice).
This is my current plan and I hope I will be able to stick to it persistently. Nevertheless, I'm definitely looking forward to how much I've improved before I take my next exam again next year (please teacher, don't make me take Grade 5 exam. I don't think my heart's ready yet...)
Sorry for the lengthy post but I am glad I was able to share my experience with you all! See you all next post!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Stress is coming!
Hey all,
it's been a while. There are a few times that I've wished I could have updated the post, but I was busy with work so I kinda have to delay writing this post.
I know I've been stressing this alot, but my ABRSM piano Grade 3 exam is coming. It'll be on 18th September 2017, which is less than 2 weeks! I am definitely nowhere improved my sight-reading. To combat this weakness, my teacher actually gave me a Grade 4 sight-reading material to improve. Why practice with grade 4 when I'm not even good with Grade 3? I can feel my head spinning everytime I tried to practice the Grade 4 material. Ughhh.
Anyways, recently I've gotten hold of Czerny's op 599 for practice. It is definitely helpful for me to improve my sight-reading and I'm really looking forward to go through the whole book together with Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. Nevertheless, my practicing time has increase alot as a result of it.
I've recorded playing a piece, so I hope you will enjoy it!
it's been a while. There are a few times that I've wished I could have updated the post, but I was busy with work so I kinda have to delay writing this post.
I know I've been stressing this alot, but my ABRSM piano Grade 3 exam is coming. It'll be on 18th September 2017, which is less than 2 weeks! I am definitely nowhere improved my sight-reading. To combat this weakness, my teacher actually gave me a Grade 4 sight-reading material to improve. Why practice with grade 4 when I'm not even good with Grade 3? I can feel my head spinning everytime I tried to practice the Grade 4 material. Ughhh.
Anyways, recently I've gotten hold of Czerny's op 599 for practice. It is definitely helpful for me to improve my sight-reading and I'm really looking forward to go through the whole book together with Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises. Nevertheless, my practicing time has increase alot as a result of it.
I've recorded playing a piece, so I hope you will enjoy it!
See you guys next time!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Hanon and Sight-Reading
Hey all,
For the past month, I've been learning and practicing Hanon: The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 exercises. As a result, it has increased my daily practice session by an hour. I remember it used to look very daunting when I first took a look at it years ago, but I'm glad now I'm able to play till Exercise 20. Although still not a master with it, but I can see some improvement on my fingers posture and strength as a result of using it. I wonder when I'll be able to play those exercises with a M.M. of 108?
Anyways, I've always been terrible at sight-reading and yesterday was my first attempt at a sight-reading test. The result? Terrible. I'm absolutely terrible at it. I understand that sight-reading is important for all pianist, so I guess I really have no choice but to grin and bear it.
Nevertheless, I've been trying to find ways to increase my daily practice session. There are still a lot of etudes that I would like to spend more time on, but for now I'm spending more time on Hanon, Scales, Sight-Reading and my exam pieces.
It's less than 3 weeks left till my exam. Am I really going to be ok? I'm really worried. =/
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
It's been a while...?
Hey all,
It seems I've pretty much left this blog empty for a long time. I can't help but wonder how I was able to write so much 8 years ago. Wow, 8 years of inactivity!
It's really no brainer: so many things have happened ever since I graduate from university and left Melbourne. There are so many ups and downs in my life (mostly the downs, but I'm still staying optimistic.)
So where to start? I guess everyone probably know by now that 8 years ago I left this blog so I could concentrate detailing my Shogi life in my other blog. And since I'm pretty much inactive in Shogi (excuses excuses I know but I guess I'm pretty much been active in other stuffs), that blog has pretty much been updated quite rarely.
Fast forwarding to current day, as a normal adult, I am now a member of the working society. Slaving my butt to the seat from Monday to Saturday working 8 hours per day: pretty much living the same lifestyle as most adults in the world.
Please pardon me for rewinding back to 3 years ago, a unique thing occur to me. I was at home one evening and saw my sister's digital piano left untouched in the living room. I have always been skeptical of myself when it comes to musical instruments: I've tried learning them in the past but it has always been unsuccessful. Tried to learn a guitar when I was still in highschool but peer pressure got the better of me so I gave up. Tried to pick up guitar again during my college days but it was a failure due to importance of other stuffs in my life. Two failures, surely I won't succeed at another one again, right?
Here's the thing about pianos. I've never liked them. I've always think people playing the piano are cliche and overrated. If I have to rank piano as one of my favourite musical instrument, it'll probably be at the last in the list. Electric guitar has always been my most favourite instrument in my life (hence I've always tried to pick up a guitar), with violin coming in second and saxophone in third (that delicious jazz music. Yeeeeeaaaa!)
Nevertheless, I sat myself down and tried playing the digital piano. I texted my sister about which book I should use and tried to play the first song. Not bad, it was easy although it took me 3 days to actually got the song down. Onward to the second song: a little tough but still manageable. By the time I realised, I have been playing the piano untutored for a year (and even completing the book!) I was pretty amazed at myself. A person like me, who could never play a single song with a guitar in the past and now I was able to play the whole book! That's when I've decided to gather my courage and make up my mind.
On one of the lunch breaks during my work, I muster up my strength and drove to a musical center. I've decided to enroll in a piano course. Of course my skepticism got the best of me again - am I going to give up and quit a few months later? I registered at the school and went for my first lesson the following week. I was criticised by my teacher that my playing form is incorrect and I found myself playing poorly in front of him. With no choice, he had to start me with a beginner book, although I've been self-taught myself with a piano for a year.
3 years later, which is now, I am still in that school, learning piano. My passion for piano has only strengthen and I'm really glad I took up piano. I am pretty much surprised at myself. I thought for sure I'll give up along the way but I'm still here standing strong. In fact, at the end of this month I'll be taking ABRSM Grade 3 practical exam. I'm nervous, but I guess it's something that all amateur pianist have to go through in their life.
My love and passion for Shogi has always been great, but my affection for music has always started since I was 4. Music has always been a huge part of my life that you would simply see me constantly listening to music everyday. My love for music is like a drug addiction: I could feel emotional and cry while listening to rock music, or stay up all day and night listening to music hence unable to sleep.
I was really glad that at the very least, I am at least proficient at one musical instrument and able to play music to my heart's content. Although still not a great pianist, but I will continue to strive to improve my skills and technique.
Since piano is a great part of my life now, I can't help but feel that I should share my piano experience with everyone. I once did create a Shogi blog to detail my Shogi experiences, but after some thought I really do not want to create a new blog just for piano. That's why I decided to update this blog and try to see if I'll be able to focus on talking about my piano experience. How knows? Maybe I will create one in the far future.
Nevertheless, it's great to be back and hope to see you all in the next post, about me talking about my new piano adventures!
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
It seems I've pretty much left this blog empty for a long time. I can't help but wonder how I was able to write so much 8 years ago. Wow, 8 years of inactivity!
It's really no brainer: so many things have happened ever since I graduate from university and left Melbourne. There are so many ups and downs in my life (mostly the downs, but I'm still staying optimistic.)
So where to start? I guess everyone probably know by now that 8 years ago I left this blog so I could concentrate detailing my Shogi life in my other blog. And since I'm pretty much inactive in Shogi (excuses excuses I know but I guess I'm pretty much been active in other stuffs), that blog has pretty much been updated quite rarely.
Fast forwarding to current day, as a normal adult, I am now a member of the working society. Slaving my butt to the seat from Monday to Saturday working 8 hours per day: pretty much living the same lifestyle as most adults in the world.
Please pardon me for rewinding back to 3 years ago, a unique thing occur to me. I was at home one evening and saw my sister's digital piano left untouched in the living room. I have always been skeptical of myself when it comes to musical instruments: I've tried learning them in the past but it has always been unsuccessful. Tried to learn a guitar when I was still in highschool but peer pressure got the better of me so I gave up. Tried to pick up guitar again during my college days but it was a failure due to importance of other stuffs in my life. Two failures, surely I won't succeed at another one again, right?
Here's the thing about pianos. I've never liked them. I've always think people playing the piano are cliche and overrated. If I have to rank piano as one of my favourite musical instrument, it'll probably be at the last in the list. Electric guitar has always been my most favourite instrument in my life (hence I've always tried to pick up a guitar), with violin coming in second and saxophone in third (that delicious jazz music. Yeeeeeaaaa!)
Nevertheless, I sat myself down and tried playing the digital piano. I texted my sister about which book I should use and tried to play the first song. Not bad, it was easy although it took me 3 days to actually got the song down. Onward to the second song: a little tough but still manageable. By the time I realised, I have been playing the piano untutored for a year (and even completing the book!) I was pretty amazed at myself. A person like me, who could never play a single song with a guitar in the past and now I was able to play the whole book! That's when I've decided to gather my courage and make up my mind.
On one of the lunch breaks during my work, I muster up my strength and drove to a musical center. I've decided to enroll in a piano course. Of course my skepticism got the best of me again - am I going to give up and quit a few months later? I registered at the school and went for my first lesson the following week. I was criticised by my teacher that my playing form is incorrect and I found myself playing poorly in front of him. With no choice, he had to start me with a beginner book, although I've been self-taught myself with a piano for a year.
3 years later, which is now, I am still in that school, learning piano. My passion for piano has only strengthen and I'm really glad I took up piano. I am pretty much surprised at myself. I thought for sure I'll give up along the way but I'm still here standing strong. In fact, at the end of this month I'll be taking ABRSM Grade 3 practical exam. I'm nervous, but I guess it's something that all amateur pianist have to go through in their life.
My love and passion for Shogi has always been great, but my affection for music has always started since I was 4. Music has always been a huge part of my life that you would simply see me constantly listening to music everyday. My love for music is like a drug addiction: I could feel emotional and cry while listening to rock music, or stay up all day and night listening to music hence unable to sleep.
I was really glad that at the very least, I am at least proficient at one musical instrument and able to play music to my heart's content. Although still not a great pianist, but I will continue to strive to improve my skills and technique.
Since piano is a great part of my life now, I can't help but feel that I should share my piano experience with everyone. I once did create a Shogi blog to detail my Shogi experiences, but after some thought I really do not want to create a new blog just for piano. That's why I decided to update this blog and try to see if I'll be able to focus on talking about my piano experience. How knows? Maybe I will create one in the far future.
Nevertheless, it's great to be back and hope to see you all in the next post, about me talking about my new piano adventures!
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu!
Regards,
Ryou Takehito
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