finally, the homework for this week is done. Yesterday was a horrible day having to spent nearly 12 hours finishing concepts and 217. i'm slow i must admit but at least i learn it the hard way.



I've not touched the piano for more than a month. Last time I played was after the calculus final exam at mudge. the piano there seems to be better than the ones for practice in the college of fine arts. mudge's close for the summer.



i remembered my mum sending me for my first piano lesson at 5. Mrs. Wong was a very gentle teacher and charges lower fees than other music teachers in town. When I first took her lessons, it was in a shophouse in town. 2 years later she moved her school to her home which is a proper semi-d house.



i'm not really sure why mum made me take piano lessons. probably because other parents were sending their kids for music lessons but i know for sure that my dad wants me to have at least some inclination towards music. my father's youth revolved around the guitar and even until now it still does. he was fresh from law school and was just starting his own firm so he couldn't afford a proper upright piano and instead got me a Roland KR-33 keyboard that had 12 different sounds and barely the touch of an acoustic piano. 5 years later, he bought us a proper upright. a reconditioned Yamaha U-1 that i think has better sound than any other uprights I've played so far. my dad bragged that he was so lucky to get that one for 7k and it still sounded superior. a brand new would cost nearly 20k.



i'm glad i had a formal and a rather classical training. as usual, we kids started off with scales. two octaves and at a moderate pace which i used to dislike at first. many would agree as well but to those who think that scales are useless, they actually miss a great training for improvisation. being proficient in the scales mean that you're proficient in pressing the right key to produce an acceptable, audible melody.



my dad has always been a big encouragement for me to take music seriously though not to level of making a living out of it. he believes that one who's trained solely on classical pieces is hardly a musician. i believe that one who plays music just by trying to playing other music exactly note by note is missing 99% of the beauty of music playing. dad told me to developed my listening skills at a very early age. he would accompany me with his guitar. on the other hand, i'm very poor in my sightreading since i quite dislike playing from music sheets. but i think they are useful to learn other players technique.



i quit taking music lessons when i was form 1 after 7 years of tutorship under Mrs. Wong. she's my longest teacher that I've ever had. most school teachers will only teach me for no more than 2 years. i left at Grade 5, a grade to me i think is the grade where most boys leave music lessons. zunliang left because his parents promised him than he can stop taking lessons after grade 5. on the ABRSM exams, i merely make the passing grade which saves my parents from another year of expensive fees. generally, girls do better than boys in the piano exams and that explains why many of them made it to the 8th grade. priscilla, tracy, florence, kerry, etc. counting the guy friends of mine: .... none.



i quit because learning 3 pieces for a year just to be tested by an Englishman for half an hour. it gets more and more tense as the exam day gets nearer. my sister, during one year, failed to show up for her exam because she having a really bad fever. she had to wait for another year to pass her current grade. in short, she took 2 years complete her third grade all because of being terribly ill during the exam day.



on the other hand, the classical music training taught me how to play properly. the scales that i learned are so useful that i still can play any of them today. from that, i learned the proper fingering. since it's my parents 21st wedding anniversary (yes, i'm the eldest) tomorrow, i'd like thank them for spending a significant portion of their monthly salary on an opportunity that not every child will have.