My Passions In Life - Music Lover

Since I started this blog at Alive Not Dead, my entries have been about random things, as and when it occurs to me to want to blog about them. Well, in an earlier entry, I mentioned about how much music means to me. I think it's safe to say that music is easily my first love, and I'm a very passionate music lover! I have a shelf full of CDs in my room, and lots more all over the place, even a few CDs that I bring to work to listen to.

My love affair with music began as far back as I can remember. There's never been a single day that has gone by where I've NOT listened to music. And I can make that claim with certainty, because from the very first day I was brought home from the hospital as a newborn baby, my Dad welcomed me home by playing music on his hi-fi set.

My Dad is a music lover, he plays guitar and used to have his own band back in the 1960s, before Singapore even had TV sets available in our homes. He used to jam with the likes of Vernon Cornelius and the 3 Js back in the day. He used to take part in Talentime contests, and he actually won one of them and appeared on TV, or so the story goes. His band was pretty good and they almost got a recording deal, but I'm not sure what happened with that. Evidently, no recording ever took place.

My home is full of music! My Dad has an Ikea Billy Bookshelf with glass doors and it is full of CDs, not to mention the rotating CD tower at one side of the hall, and the stacks of CDs to the left and right of the TV, and more stacks of CDs on top of a plastic Toyogo box in one corner of the hall... in short, we could probably open a CD shop with all his CDs... haha!

He is mad about music, and he is an audiophile listener... which means our hi-fi set at home isn't your typical home entertainment system bought from Harvey Norman or Best Denki... my Dad's tastes will more likely than not lead him to browse around in The Adelphi... I mean, we have professional studio monitors for speakers in our home, a "brand name" power amplifier than sits on the ground, a CD player than costs a couple of thousand bucks, that kind of thing... and it's always been that way for as long as I can remember... but of course, he's also moved with the times, he used to play with records, then it was open reels, then casette tapes, then CDs.

If you need advice about setting up a hi-fi system in your home, just give my Dad a call, and tell him what's your budget and what kind of music you enjoy listening to, and he can tell you what your options are, and put together a decent hi-fi system based on what you can afford. He's done it many times before for his friends and our relatives, and they're usually not disappointed.

Coming from a home with a family background like that, I was always surrounded with music in my childhood. My Dad listens to almost any kind of music, except for classical or opera music. He rarely listens to classical or opera music, unless it's something "more bearable" like John Williams, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Josh Groban, Charlotte Church, Il Divo, Sarah Brightman, Vanessa Mae... you get my drift!

At the age of 5, I started taking music lessons. My Grandma (my Dad's mom) is also a music lover, and it was her idea to get me started with music lessons. Actually, my Grandma is even more talented than my Dad, and she could play the harmonica, piano, and accordion. She used to teach ballroom dancing too, but I will share more about that another time, since we are only talking about music today.

My Grandma got her musical talent from her Dad. My Great Grandfather was a professional violinist, and he was so dead serious about his craft that at one time, when one of my Grand-Aunts was a baby and wouldn't stop crying, he almost threw her out of the window for disturbing his violin practice session! Great Grand-Dad was also a translator in court, but other than that, I don't know that much about him.

As for me, I started playing the electronic organ at the age of 5, taking music lessons from Yamaha Music School here in Singapore. I started with group lessons, so I had classmates and so on, but by the age of 7 or 8, my teacher noticed my talent and recommended that I take individual lessons instead. That's when I started taking part in music competitions, and my teacher recommended me for a scholarship, so I became a Yamaha scholarship student. I won my first national music competition at the age of 10. It wasn't the top prize (I came in 4th), 'cos I think I lacked experience and my skills and techniques were not quite so polished then... but hey, I was happy to have at least gotten a prize!

Being a Yamaha scholarship student was an amazing experience! That was probably one of the best times of my life! Apart from the fact that my music lessons became FREE, I also had a chance to attend lessons twice a week under 2 different teachers... my regular organ teacher (who made sure I passed my grade exams), and my scholarship organ teacher (who taught me everything else there was to know).

Needless to say, I found my scholarship lessons more interesting than my regular lessons, 'cos I had the chance to explore various types of music, it was no holds barred, I could play whatever music I wanted, regardless of whatever grade music it was, and I could sing, and I could try my hand at playing different musical instruments... other than the electronic organ, I've tried playing piano, keyboards, guitar, electric bass guitar, drums, flute, accordion, and various other percussion instruments... I loved doing all of that!

Never mind that I'm not as good at the other instruments that I tried... it was good fun! Of course, being formally trained in playing a keyboard instrument, I still have a strong preference for any keyboard-like instrument, and couldn't really get the hang of string-like instruments like guitar and bass. I'm OK with percussions and drums though... after all, to quote Gloria Estefan, the rhythm is gonna get you!

As "payback", Yamaha Music School required its scholarship students to give performances regularly, so I performed twice or 3 times a week in the Yamaha showroom, and as and when there were public performances or gigs that came up, I would perform then too. The music I played was mostly pop or jazz. I've always enjoyed music with a good rhythm to it.

Because of the performances, I've been to places that others might not have a chance to go to... like I've performed at the Officers' Mess at Paya Lebar Airbase, and was given a shield by the Air Force to commemorate my performance there.

I've performed at McDonald's (the one that's near Parkway Parade). The stage was in the area where the McCafe is now, and it was a weekend, so the whole place was crowded with people stopping to listen. I still remember that one of the songs I played then was "Freedom" by Wham! Yeah, so retro now, huh!

Another memorable time was when I gave an hour-long solo lunchtime performance at Raffles City Shopping Centre. I was actually down with the flu at the time, and I had a bad cough, so it was a good thing that I didn't have to sing, just play the organ. My Dad was pretty worried about me though, 'cos he accompanied me and he placed a box of lozenges on the organ, so I could just grab one whenever I needed to. Yup! The show must go on!

The largest venue I've ever played in was the National Stadium here in Singapore. It was for a Labour Day concert on 1 May, can't remember the year though. I've also been recorded in a studio once before. That was quite an experience! I recall having to play the same song over and over and over again, which I didn't mind, since that's what I would normally do when I'm practicing for a competition anyways, so I was used to that kind of thing.

Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if I had continued with my music... who knows what I might be doing today??

I gave up my music lessons when I turned 14, 'cos by that time, I had already been playing music for 9 long years, and I was getting a little sick and tired of it... well, when you're 14, 9 years is more than half of your life-time... and when you're a kid in school, 9 years seems like an eternity! Not only that, but I had already sacrificed so much of my childhood... most of it was spent practicing in a studio, attending music lessons, practicing at home, preparing for music competitions, giving performances, travelling from one performance venue to another, where was the time to enjoy my childhood... and by the time I turned 14, I was starting to rebel against it all, so it all came to a halt.

I'm still very much a music lover. I love concerts, and having performed in public myself before, I still enjoy the whole "behind the scenes" process of a concert... from rehearsals at home or in a studio, to setting up the stage, to setting up the lights, to doing the sound test, to dressing up backstage and putting on stage make-up, and of course, eventually the actual performance itself in front of a "live" audience! What a high! What nervousness! But oh, what a thrill too! Coolness!

So yeah, whenever I go see an artist performing "live" in concert, I can truly appreciate the amount of work that goes into that show, and I can tell if a show is fabulous or just OK. It's the little things that no one notices has gone wrong, except maybe the artist who is performing, but I notice these things too... (I'm betting that some of the artists who are reading this entry now are just sweating it, knowing that someone is sitting there in the crowd noticing it when they screw up, even if it's just a tiny screw-up)... aiyah, don't worry lah! I notice these things, but I prefer to just ignore the small stuff, and keep on enjoying the bigger picture instead... so no sweat, OK? Haha!

Alright, I'm gonna stop here and give all you readers a "time-out", since this is already a pretty long entry!

Next time, I'll talk more about my musical tastes and preferences... what kind of music I enjoy, which artists I like and why I like them, and which artists I think are great to watch "live" in concert.