Interests

Interests           4/Nov/2013

        Ya,  interests cannot be forced upon.  M..... I picked up the old hobby: piano playing after a lapse of 5-6  years.  Piano playing is a skill like a language.  You have to practise the piano daily for at least half an hour to be fluent.

        I went for piano lessons from November 2002 until October 2003 with my son, Adou when we were in Kuching.  When we came back to Sibu in November, 2003, we went for piano lessons in March, 2004 for a few months / half a year. 

Then my son, Adou protested and insisted that he wanted to play the guitar and so he went for the guitar lessons.   He learnt from 2004 until 2006.  He stopped in 2007 because he had to sit for the SPM examination.   

Without my son’s company, I also quitted the lessons and played at home with all the earnest for a year / two and gradually  the fire went off especially when I moved the piano into the room.  So I seldom touched it and soon it became the place where I put things.  Until October, 2013, I pushed the piano out again to the sitting room and I started playing it.

        This time, I play the piano with a new mindset .  I only choose the songs I like to play and want to play well.  So I try to practise the same song many times until I can memorise the song.   It is the playing of the music by hearing.  It is the practice until it has become spontaneous.  It is spontaneous that I play the music without thinking too much of the notes.  It is about which key to press and which finger to co-ordinate with.
        Last time, I was too ambitious as I wanted to play as many songs as possible.  When I played, I referred to the notes all the time.  Thus I fumbled through and learnt with a lot of frustration because I could not remember the keys and the fingers to co-ordinate for each song well.  With the new understanding of playing the music by hearing, I can play these old songs so much better that ever before.

        So far I have memorised 3 songs in a month’s time and am still practising them.  I am playing Level 3 by Lina Ng.  The songs that I can play from memory are “Can Can Dance”, “Little Buttercup” and “Mor Li Hua”.   For “Mor Li Hua”, I still need to play for a least 20 more times to be as good as I play the song “Can Can Dance”.

        Ya, my son, Adou also started his guitar lessons again in October this year with the same teacher.  He likes this teacher so much so that they have become good friends.  They go for dinner together after guitar lessons on Friday.   
        Adou's guitar teacher is actually major in computer science but he is so music-inclined that he took up the music course.  He teaches guitar and violin to earn a living now.  His 2 other siblings are doctors in Taiwan.  He is different and hence he was once teased to be the "bad durian" in his family.
        The guitar teacher had  the knowledge of computer that my son, Adou could dig.  Thus he was looking forwards to the guitar lesson weekly.  From 2004 /5 onwards, he got the knowledge to download games to play, movies to watch,........  The guitar teacher became so handy to him for computer knowledge and problem he encountered.  Ng......I learnt computer from my son, Adou.  It was no doubt a double gain.
         The guitar teacher also showed him the sect of Buddhism (密宗) and he was quite attracted to a certain extent.  He went to attend the religious functions occasionally.  He read quite a number of books by 卢胜彦。 

        Actually my son, Adou has long fingers to play the piano but he just does not like this musical instrument.  He told me he liked playing the guitar long before we got enrolled to learn the piano lessons in Kuching.   I don't have the long fingers to play the piano.  My little fingers especially are so short.  Imagine the little finger is more than half an inch shorter than the first joint of the fourth finger.  So when I need to use the little fingers to press the black key, I need extra effort and care.
        We don’t care about the music examinations as we don’t like to be pressurised.  So  from the very beginning, we told the teacher before the lesson started.  We can’t enjoy music  if we take exams and then we only play that few boring songs to prepare for them.    We learn at our own pace.  I feel that we learn better when we are not under the pressure of exams to prove.
        At one point/ another, of course, I was tempted to ask Adou to sit for the piano / guitar exams.  But the requirements of the examins just put me off.   So I had to forget about it.

        Music is like a language learning in many respects.  Music has the theory and tune to learn and language, the grammar and pronunciation.  Trust me, you can learn better by hearing than with mind focus on notes by looking.  You have to practise the song to remember it.  For the language, you have to use it to learn it and become a part of you.    From music, I see the drill / practice to form the habit and this habit will become so natural that it will become automatic.  This is the wonder of our minds to learn the skill: music / language.