Archive for the 'Play Piano & Music' Category

My pop piano teacher is about 15 years younger than me, I think. The first thing she said to me when I arrived for my class is “Do you speak Mandarin?” Haha. Sorry. You can’t conduct the class in Mandarin or I would be totally lost.

I didn’t want to waste the first 1/2 hour of my class (each class is 1/2 hour long) discussing about what she was going to teach me. So I brought along my own book and played a piece for her which I had been practising for the past 2-3 weeks. Hahaha.

I discovered that pop piano is very different from classical piano. Its much easier to learn. She basically just told me to play the piece again with my right hand then she taught me an improvisation pattern for the left hand and told me to play it that way.

I played a while and very soon she was saying “Ok bye. See you next week.” Huh?! The lesson was over before I knew it. Too soon!

With pop piano, you just need to know some basics and patterns or styles and playing is entirely up to you to improvise (come up with your own style basically). In no time at all you will be able to play like a pro. No boring theory and practise pieces to play. Hehe. I like! I like!

I hope to be able to pretend to sound like a pro in a few months. That is my objective for learning. More updates later on.

I’ve always wanted to learn the piano but we didn’t have enough money so dad sent me for organ electone classes instead. It was cheaper to get an organ and it fulfilled my desire to learn some music. Dad bought the organ on hire purchase terms. It has served me very well and been with me for a long time. I’ve since sold it. I learned the organ around age 12, I think. I can’t remember!

Anyway, back to my organ. It has moved several places from Kuantan to KL to Penang and to KL again. It has been played by my cousin in Penang who loved it so much that she later took up some Clavinova lessons. It has been played by my nephews who loved it so much that they took up organ lessons of their own and got their own organ later on.

I stopped my organ lessons when we were moving around so much but took it up again when I was working. I was able to pay for my own lessons then. I studied till Grade 6. Later on I even taught a little girl till she took exams for her First Level, (that would be Grade 13 if I’m not mistaken). I was very happy to be able to achieve that.

What is this all leading to? The story of my very first pop piano lesson of course. I will save that for another post. Hehe.

 

 

In order to prevent the situation where you lament that your partner is not the same anymore sometimes its important to do a little exercise as follows.Â

Can you think back to the time when you were dating and about all the nice things you did for each other and then let your mind float back to the present and think about now. Does he/she still treat you the same? You should also ask yourself Do YOU still treat him/her the same?

I remember when I was his girlfriend and he said he wanted to have home cooked meals, I would drive home to my apartment after work, cook up a meal for the both of us then pack them nicely into a tiffin carrier before driving to wait for him at a petrol station to wait for him. Yes, thats right. I didn’t have the key to his place and he worked later than me. So I would wait for him at the petrol station with my little tiffin carrier of hot home cooked food. He would call me on his way home and we would chat on the phone while I waited for him.

Ahhhh what a sweet girlfriend. No wonder he married me. Hahaha. And what has he got now? A grouchy old lady who shouts at the kids when he gets home.

What about him? When we dating, I remember once on my birthday, he bought me shoes then told me he was taking me on a trip to walk on those new shoes. Another time, he bought me new tyres for my car and then took me on a trip on those new tyres. Haha.

Now what have I got now? For my recent birthday he surprised me with something I had wanted all my life. A piano. Then the next day he took me to the bookstore to buy a “Learn to play the piano on your own” book. And then he signed me up for piano lessons and told me that he will send me for my piano lessons and wait with the kids for the half hour lessons to finish before going home together. I’m so excited. I can’t wait for my first lesson even though I’m probably the oldest student there but who cares!

He knows that learning to play the piano is my lifetime dream so he is now making my dream come true. Now I can truly say that I married my the man of my dreams. Hahaha.

Ok. So whats the point of this exercise? Well comparing the us then and the way we treated each other then and the us now and the way we treat each other now, I think I better….. BUCK UP before my man decides to change model. Better increase those back rubs, foot massages and feeding him fruits along with the kids while he relaxes in front of the tv after dinner which he likes AND reduce the shouting at the kids. Hahaha.

What about you? Do you still treat each other the same? Care to share?

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This morning I tried to listen to my personalised internet radio station on Yahoo Music‘s Launchcast but got this message instead.

LAUNCHcast Is Off the Air – It’s a Day of Silence

My mum used to listen to beautiful harp music on her old record player. So naturally I listened along with her as a child. Its really soft soothing music and I love it.

She had this old harp record. You know those things which looks like a huge disc. If you’ve not seen one before, you must be young and not old like me. Haha. So I’ve included a picture for my young readers. The picture is sourced from http://freenet-homepage.de/plattenwechsler/ 

We used to have one like this at home. The disc will turn and then you can manually place the needle at the start or on that part of the record that you want to listen to. (But my mum always told us not to do this. She said we had to place the needle at the beggining and listen from start to end or we would spoil the record. But we kids always got impatient and tried to skip songs. Hehe.)

I couldn’t find the music of her old record in any other form so I searched the internet for some free harp music and found some links. You can listen to the full song for some of them but some have only an excerpt or part of the song. Anyway, here are the links. Have a quick 5 minute break and listen to one or two harp music pieces from the following links. They’re really relaxing. Enjoy!

Helen Radice Wedding Harpist

Alice Howe‘s Harp Music

Maui Harps Listen to Harp Music by Kristine Snyder