I love music. I think music is an
essential part of a life. Life without music would be dull and melancholic. Also,
I feel extremely pleasant when I can play a piece of music with my own hands. I
believe music can meditate, entertain, lift one’s mood, relieve stress and
brighten up a day.
When i chance upon someone playing
piano, be it in the public or during a musical performance, I would stop
whatever I am doing and for that few minutes, just concentrate on the graceful
melody the pianist is playing. Way before I developed a sustained interest in
piano, as a kid, I often think playing on a piano is something that everybody
would dream to do. Don’t you admire someone who plays beautiful songs on a
piano? In my opinion, playing piano is something everybody would want to learn
if they are given the chance to.
I am not born in a wealthy family.
Spending money on additional enrichment activities like piano lessons, dance
classes or tuition are things my parents seldom consider. I started my interest
in piano when my father bought a mini Kids’ Keyboard when I was 5 years old.
Back then, I only know how to play “Do Re Mi”, which is the playing of the
consecutive notes on a keyboard. Other than that, I learned to play some simple
nursery rhymes like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars” and “Happy Birthday Song”. I
begin to love playing piano, but it was something I merely dream of it, because
there was no opportunity where I can be exposed to music and piano, so I did
not think too much of it as a child.
My elder brother, seven years older,
has a fair bit of interest in piano too. Self-taught, he plays songs by entirely
listening to them with full attention. Eventually, he plays songs by ear; slowly
figuring out the tune of the songs on the keyboard. One who thinks hard about
playing a good song, my elder brother finally bought himself a piano worth a
thousand dollars with his first salary one year ago. That was when I was
secondary four. It was a stone that killed two birds, fulfilling both me and my
brother’s wish to have a real piano and to be able to play on it.
Since there is a piano at home, I
wish to start picking up piano as a hobby. My goal was to learn a complete
piece of music within a year. The steps I thought I wanted to take are to be
exposed to real guidance on piano and to learn basic theory of piano such as
reading the notes. In April 2011, my plan was to join the Piano Club as CCA.
From there, I can learn how to read notes and be guided by pianist when playing
on a piano. Besides that, I am going to look up on more tutorials on piano on
the internet to further enhance my learning of piano. I want to pick up piano
quickly and be able to play a song.
So I joined the Piano Ensemble Club
as my CCA. In the club, I do not have to pay for the lessons and I am taught by
the senior members in the club who are mostly with high grades in piano. I
learned the reading of notes, which are also called the scores to the songs.
I started looking for ways which I can
learn piano without paying a huge price for it. Then I came across websites and
video teaching people how to play piano! Not hesitating, I begin my self-learning
on piano. It was then it became my passionate hobby and an interest I would
like to pursue for life.
Coming to the action I take to fulfill
this passionate pursuit of mine, having a piano is the very first step to it,
and my elder brother has fulfilled this for me. The next big step is the
starting of the hands on learning. Learning a song that I really adore is very
important because it can sustain my interest in wanting to learn the whole song,
as well as motivates and gives me the drive to learn it. I can easily spend
hours in a day listening to songs played by a piano to look for a song that I really
love and really want to learn it.
The beginning step was hard, but I know
I have to slowly take it onto hands. As I have not gone through professional
lessons on piano, and reading on the theory notes online would take ages for me
to understand the terms, I’d decided to watch and learn from the videos on
Youtube. I searched for piano tutorials; those that are played live by
pianists, but in a slower version, and started following the way they play. I
needed to know the fingering - the way a pianist put his fingers on the keys
and how they switch to play another set of keys.
I still remembered how tough it was
when I tried my hands on the piano, trying to play my favourite song with
complex keys. It was nerve-racking when I faced difficulties trying to
coordinate my two hands, sometimes I just feel so fed up when the timing of the
hands cannot match the melody of the song. At times I feel like my brain is
going to burst as I have to concentrate my attention on two hands, not like
playing the simple keys of the nursery rhymes! Still, I know I have to take it
slowly. At first, being so enthusiastic about learning the song, I can spend
2-3 hours daily to practice it. As I am usually lazy about doing homework, I was
surprised that I was so enthusiastic about learning piano at that time. How I wish
I can apply the passion I had for piano onto academic wise.
Every time, a single session with
duration of 2-3 hours, I could only learn around around or less than ten
seconds of the song. However, I feel a great sense of achievement as long as I learn
new keys every time, because I know eventually, no matter how long, if I learn
new keys every time, I am going to finish learning the song.
It took me 5 months, with at least 4
hours of practice weekly, to fulfill my goal. Around October last year, I could
finally play this piece of song. The title of the music is ‘Marriage D’ Amour’,
originally played by Richard Clayderman. It is a piece of music I came across
when I was young and my parents used to have a collection of songs played by
this pianist at home.
The five months was a superb
experience! When I realized I had finished learning the song, the degree of
satisfaction that I had cannot be put into words. It was the hard work that I’d
put in, the enthusiasm and the perseverance I had, to be determined to learn. It
was the desire to learn to play a song that sustained my passion for piano, which
led to the achievement of my goal.
After this experience, I realize piano
is not that hard to learn after all. Before I started learning piano, I thought
it would be impossible for me to learn since I have no piano background. But it’s
not. I learnt that it is very important to Plan, Take Action, and Reflect. The
outcome of a great plan plus great action would be successful; however, a great
plan plus no action taken would mean nothing and not getting anywhere. To
reflect is to think of the whole experience and to see how one can improve it.
Since I have set a goal of what I want in April 2011, I carried out the steps
as planned and I achieved it.
In conclusion, a lesson learnt from
this whole experience generally is no matter how hard something (could be a
skill, topic or anything) may seem to be, as long as I set a realistic goal, plan
well, and stick to the plan by taking action, I would somehow get to somewhere
or eventually achieve the goal. Just last month, senior pianists of Piano
Ensemble Club (SPPE) approached me and encouraged me to join their Annual Piano
Concert this year, so I have the chance to play on a grand piano on the stage,
representing the beginner students of SPPE and showcasing our talents to the
audience. Personally, I feel that the outcome of this passion is great. The
pursuit of this passion has made me want to bring piano into my life
permanently and be a talent which I can develop further. My next step is to
pursue an official certificate of Grade One pianist by continuing to learn the
basic theory of piano in SPPE.
