Learning music

In Maple Music and Art Academy, they approached lots of music teaching method but they emphasize on Little Bear Teaching Method. Before this, I never heard of this before as I was taught in a very traditional way whereby there are less two way communication and i need to obey and agree with what my teacher said....hmmm sounds very boring, right? Therefore, after i reached grade 5 I decided to quit learning from this teacher. I explained to my mom that she didn't inspire me much and all the time I am just accepting. To be honest, I don't think it will work if I stay with this teacher as it just make my interest deteriorates day by day...How sad it is!!!

Luckily, my mom did think over thoroughly what i had suggested and voiced out. At last, I get to learn from another teacher who stay quite near to my house and instead for her to come, I will go to her house to learn.

Her first impression to me is she is another normal lady but when she played the piano. Speechless, I would say. Not only technical wise, and her expression and dynamics is so strong. You will know she is not just playing the notes, but the stories behind. Not many people can actually achieve that. It is easy to find a pianist that can play a piece really well (i.e no slips, no wrong notes and always at the right tempo) but to discover a pianist that can play perfectly (i.e no slips, no wrong notes, always at the right tempo and never forget the expression and dynamics) , is not easy though... hehe...expression doesn't come with practice only but it depends on how much you know about the composer and the background of the piece whether it is composed by Bach, Schubert,Chopin, Beethoven, Debussy, or Mozart and between what period they composed the sonata whether it is baroque, classical, romantic .20th century or contemporary.

The composer that I like the most is Beethoven. Why? I couldn't explain. He is the composer that have lots of story to tell..You can clearly notice that if you go deeper into and appreciate his music. But it is really hard to play the song he composed. There are several reasons. Firstly, he likes to create dissonant sounds in his pieces and it is so inharmonious that makes you feel like you are playing the wrong notes. Secondly, his pieces seldom have a fix tempo, rubato is common in his romantic pieces. Smart ..Smart ...Smart..It adds lots of flavor to a piece but once you interpret it wrongly, then it turns out to be NOISE which my family suffers a lot. Wuahahaha...When I started to learn a Beethoven piece, my bro will get frustrated easily and always try to distract me and ask me to watch TV with him. So sad..haha...but me myself sometimes also cannot tahan..It is not like pop song, you play, you sing, and people enjoy. Beethoven is aggresive and soft it might start of with ff , fff or sf and the next note could be pp and ppp. What a complicated man! hehe..when i choose Beethoven pieces for my grade 8 exam, my teacher and I are nervous. It can be an advantage or disadvantage by choosing the music he composed.Not many candidates will actually pick the song. They prefer classical (long piece but lots of repetition and the melody and rhythm is always harmonious. Therefore, whoever that able to deliver the Beethoven piece well will really achieve high score. So risky. Besides, it is very hard to achieve high marks if you choose classical song because lots of candidates chose the same song and during exam , the examiner have to examined so many candidates and if every candidate play the same song over and over again. Definitely it would be bored and plain boring.

Just like what my teacher said, 'It is the matter of how much you understand him and why he wrote it that way'


Interpretation is the key. But the examiner think that i played the piece like young beethoven. The reason is i still can't switch the dynamics and expression naturally. From suddenly loud to suddenly soft, and to make it sound naturally is so tough. Sometimes I might go overboard and it seems i have overdone it. Sometimes I just can't portray the whole things. Frustrated. At that time, my teacher and I will just pause for a while and just have a break..Go for scale or arpeggios ...then come back to pieces. Or we will discuss about horoscope. Both of us believe that horoscope does affect a person characteristic and personality.

Now, is my turn to nurture and not just only teach. I want them to see me as a mentor but not just another ordinary teacher. To me, there is no such things like no potential or talent. It just come from your heart, whether you like it or not. If you like it, hard work should not be a problem. What else that matters then ?


p/s: got lots of grammatical error..but i lazy to correct, just bear with me.
More to write but will save it for next post..