Instant Ramen

I’ve mentioned before that one of my hobbies is (was) playing the piano. Well, it’s more like “sitting in front of a piano and slamming the keys to see if something rhymes” ^^; since I’m seriously très terrible at it.

Anyway, wanted to share with you guys my 2005 recording of Clair De Lune from Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque, a masterpiece from the Romantic period.

To play, simply click on the link, a cute embedded player will appear ^o^:

Clair De Lune – by Hao

Initially, was going to share my (sad?) story about how I always wanted to learn how to play the piano but only got one at an old age (17), but it’s a really long story and most of you will get bored =)

Anyway, I got inspiration for this post by fellow Otaku JBlogger Mimi, who is an overly virtuoso piano performer and is currently looking for an axe and reviving Debussy from the dead to chop me into little pieces. Here’s her performance of Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata, for the Youtube Orchestra Audition:

Not sure if it got selected but I think she’s also trying to apply for Carnegie Mellon, anyway, good luck on that!

Back on track, after studying piano for one year, people thought I was talented — including me. But it wasn’t that way, I just had an unfair advantage against real newbies, because I had been practicing on a small Casio keyboard all my life, and my right hand (I’m left-handed btw) was fast. Anyway, the more I stepped up in the ladder, the more I found out that others had much more talent and I just couldn’t handle it. I’ve learned many times in my life that talent is exponential: The more you improve, the more people you’ll find with much more talent than you.

Here’s a nice piano recording of Utada Hikaru’s First Love, I’m studying it (not too challenging, but fun):

I didn’t care about talent or age, and my motto was “only fear can block the way”. I went from simple Beatles songs to Brahms’ Waltz in A-flat, Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca, Bach’s Inventions and Canons, and so on, and finally crash-landed in Chopin’s Minute Waltz. After one year of trying seriously hard and stepping through many levels, my hands started to take the toll: my hands are small, and my pinky (5th) finger is particularly small, and it’s bent in an unnatural way (maybe you can spot in in the picture above), probably because of the strength needed to make octave strokes on my hard Hyundai piano (yes, I too was surprised that my piano had a car’s brand on it!).

Initially, I thought I quit because my fingers hurt, but what was actually hurting was my ego. My piano sensei, who was always very supportive,  kept me going and going until one day I decided to go back and play simple and popular songs (I love classic music), because I thought that would make me happy. I learned a few songs from Amélie (great movie!) but quickly got bored, and after a few failed attempts, about one year and a half later, I officially stopped slamming my piano. My Brazilian+German friend who was my piano partner for all that time headed back to Brazil, and left my duets empty, so I didn’t have any motivation left. I miss her ^^;

Anyway, for a special occasion, a year later (2005), I decided to open my piano again and record Clair De Lune. I had been learning it slowly, but one month before the deadline I took the thing seriously. Fortunately, was able to finish it but I couldn’t polish it, I’m practicing it now and sounds a tad better.

Sorry for the blurriness, above picture is NHK’s (Japan’s Public TV and radio broadcaster) Steinway Grand piano. A famous Japanese Jazz pianist was performing live on Japanese TV (forgot her name -_-), and photographs were strictly forbidden, so I couldn’t take a better one. I was lucky enough to touch it (the pian0!), I don’t have words that can explain how it sounded — especially compared to my vertical piano that needs some serious tuning! Probably the most expensive piano I will ever touch in my whole life ^^;

Anyway, I’ve been doing small moves with my piano and looks like we can be friends again. I’m back with Mozart’s Sonata XI, Utada’s First Love, and on the long run, I want to play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance # 5, got through 1/3 of it slowly.

One of my dreams is to buy a Yamaha baby Grand Piano. When I was younger, I thought it would be impossible economic-wise, but it’s not like that at all. However, it would be unfair for a bad performer like me to own such a good piano. Until I can play Brahms’ Hungarian Dance and Chopin’s Minute Waltz, I won’t buy it. Beethoven’s Pathétique would be a plus, too. Don’t think I’ll make it though!

Anyway, sorry for the random rant, I feel a bit better now. Another of my hobbies is drawing and I was also hired as a pixel artist a while back before starting my own video game company, so I’ll dig up through my older stuff and show it to you guys later this week. Weightlifting is also one of my hobbies, wrote about it and video taped me lifting 300 pounds.

Also, I’d prefer to avoid criticism on my piano skills, I’m very aware of my own level and I recorded this song for a special person, not because I thought it was good ^^

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