Btw if you're wondering... I do listen to other kinds of music. My mind is actually very open to new things and it's fun when someone sends me music that they think that I might not like, but I do. One of the reasons why I like being around my trippy (well, triplet) is that she always sends me stuff she likes without worrying if I'd like it, and as a matter of fact, I almost always like them because there is almost always something to appreciate in every kind of music. And really, what she sends me often makes me smile because it's something so new to me but yet so worthy of appreciation. Of the people/music she has sent me so far, I particularly like Kerli, and some other songs produced using Vocaloid is pretty good too. The last thing she sent was 'Suki Daisuki' which was so cute, it was funny, you know, like watching the antics of a little kid.
Speaking of little kids, I was playing with my little cousin Hazel yesterday, who is 22 months and she can already vocalise to ask for some things. How amazing :) she kept asking for jie jie (older sister) yesterday because her mom was trying to get her to have her nap but she knows that jie jie won't send her to sleep, haha :p then she kept asking me to sit on the steps with her, which I did... when I stretched out my legs they reached from one end of the staircase to the other. When she tried to do the same, she came up to less than half the same distance. The length of my legs exceeds her entire height. How fascinating, hehe. Then she kept asking for frogs because they often catch some frogs in the garden. The poor frogs probably won't be appearing any time soon though, I was told that there had just been poisonous fertiliser added to the soil. As to why fertiliser is poisonous I have not any idea. Isn't that the wrong idea? Do we not have any alternatives that are less damaging to the environment and our health? Sigh.
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Today Colin came over to my place to teach me some organ skills, so that I can become the next organist for 11am. He also gave me a copy of Breaking Bread, which is our hymnal, just that it's last year's version so they don't use it any more and he said that I could have it! Yay! :D I've always wanted to be able to record songs by both singing and playing, but doing both simultaneously has always been a challenge for me, particularly when I'm on the harp and I need to move a pedal, the intonation tends to change. If you've ever watched the video of me playing and singing the Ave Maria, you'd understand. Colin then suggested that I could use a recording device like Jonathan Wong's (not Lee) to first record the piano part and then sing over the recording. Oh well. What I'm working on is a Zoom Q3 which is pretty much good for my purposes already so I shan't complain too much. The sound is really quite good and all my videos on youtube have been made with the Q3. He taught me the 4/4 version of ballad and ballad rock which I think I've pretty much caught. He also taught me the Mass parts for the Gloria and Our Father. Reasonably straightforward. Afterwards I showed him my recordings of the hymns that I had played at ACS(I) that day and I surprised him with my chord experimentation on Amazing Grace, heh. Otherwise I was thinking that my harp improvisations so far should be directly transferrable to piano except for a few tweaks to be able to aural clues to lead the congregation.
Later on, when he was on the way out, I realised that my dad had asked my younger bro to have his tuition in his room. It didn't take me long to figure out that my dad had made that request: he had done so so as not to... ahem... Disturb us. Totally hilarious. I can just imagine the various people in the household taking bets on which guy which comes to the house is my boyfriend. The answer is, none of them, simply because I don't have a boyfriend. Pay up, all of you :P Actually after the chalet last week I had wanted to write a post about my own relationship situation (No it does not have anything to do with either Jon Lee or Colin...!), but I'm still in the process of fully articulating it. Furthermore my notes about it are in my home computer still so I have to get back to them first anyway.
Ah! The cadenza of the 3rd movement! Written by Reinecke, it sounds lovely. I'm reminded again that I have to play it next year. Not exactly my cup of tea because I like the Handel harp concerto better: even before entering the conservatory, when I had to choose a concerto to play for my audition, I chose Handel because it's just more fun, really. Hmm. I have to ask Huang Yin what concerto she played for her audition.
Gosh... just listening to Bach puts me in such a good mood. I was listening to Brandenburg 2 played by my friends and... ... ... ... wow... I couldn't stop smiling all through the whole thing. Bach is really such magic. He weaves with the lines of staves. I really have to thank Wen Rong for making a recording. It's simply... well, you can really understand why Bach is singularly the most represented person on the Voyager Golden Record, out of all the people that ever lived. I can't believe that I was never really into Bach until after learning about the intricacy of his fugues and all the stuff in the WTC. Then again, I guess it's like art people with the Mona Lisa or the statue of David... Most other people are just saying 'meh, what's the big deal with this stupid thing' but for those who really know and understand... they just appreciate the magic and pure genius behind it, more and more. Btw... WTC means Well-Tempered Clavier (Keyboard), not What The C***. Just thought I should say it xD I never realised that it could stand for something else until yesterday in the shower and I just thought.... oops. Heh. If you're interested in getting to know Bach, I highly suggest the Brandenburg Concertos, especially Nos. 2, 3 and 5, 3 being my favorite. The Prelude from Cello suite No. 1 and Prelude from Violin Partita No. 3 are also good, though for the violin partita I prefer the harp version of it, specifically Marie-Pierre Langlamet's version of it, simply because her artistry and mastery of that piece on the harp far exceeds the vast majority of violin players. She inspires me because she dares to dream what other people think is impossible on the harp. Anyway. There's also Art of Fugue but that's a bit harder to appreciate without a score. Coming to the end of the Art of Fugue though... that was the first and only time Bach made me tear up. He never managed to finish the Art of Fugue, you know... he died before he could complete it. When I heard the last notes of the unfinished last fugue, No. 14, die away, the notes incredibly full of the the promise of something beautiful, like a secret bridge to paradise... the promise unfulfilled... I felt an incredible sense of loss, not just for myself, but for all humanity.
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