Music is my main T&H. I love music - playing it, writing it, dancing to it, listening to it, singing with/humming to it, et cetera (there's rarely a time when I'm not doing at least one of those things). It's something I truly can't live without: two of my greatest personal fears are screwing up my hands (which would mean no more playing music) and going deaf - which is not an unreasonable fear, as I have ear problems way too often for my peace of mind.

making music:

piano:

In music, the piano is my first love, my darling baby. :p If anyone's to blame for my love of music and the piano, it's my mother. She's the one who signed me up for piano lessons when I was seven, who taught me how to play from various "adult" teaching books before I even started lessons, and who was always reminding me to practice.

My first lesson was on New Year's Day of 1987. At first, I was agreeable to playing the piano - it was fun, I was good at it, and the two teachers I had were truly wonderful to me, as I can see now in retrospect. When I quit lessons late in 1989 (my brother was about to be born and my mom wouldn't have time to take me to lessons for a while), I truly regretted it.

I didn't take lessons for a year, but then I went to this woman named Sylvia Simonian to take lessons again. She was intimidating: she was a short woman, but I was only around her height at the time, and her bulk made her that much more imposing. She worked her students hard in nothing but scales, Hanon's exercises, and classical music, and maybe some "Romantic" pieces if she felt like it.

I usually played well for her, but because I played too well she kept pushing me too hard, giving me material that would take me three months to master. And all the material was so DULL. (I still detest Haydn to this day.) Needless to say, I soon got sick of both the stuff I had to play as well as the woman's personality and manners. (If the phone rang during a lesson, she'd leave and talk for however long she wanted to, and then come back whenever she was good and ready. Oh yeah, and she made me groom her cat if I showed up early and had to wait till the person before me finished their lesson.)

The worst was when Simonian started yelling at me during one lesson for not playing well enough - I was so upset that after the lesson I got into my mom's car and started bawling. *L* My mom left the car and went inside Simonian's house, and she must have been pretty bitchy cause the teacher came out to the car to apologize and she treated me sweetly in subsequent lessons.

However, that incident told my mom I needed a new teacher, so we told Simonian a month later that we were going on a three-week trip to Korea, which was true, and we said that we'd call her about resuming lessons after we got back... which wasn't true. *L*

After that, I took lessons nearly a year later with the sweetest old lady, Beth Brown. I basically recuperated with her and rebuilt my skills - she let me play whatever I wanted and progress at my own pace (which was faster than the rest of her students at any rate), and she was the only teacher I had who did lots of aural training with me. Sometimes she gave me pieces that insulted my ability, but to keep it challenging she made me pay strict attention to every detail, every accent mark, note value, et cetera. I didn't stay with her very long (maybe half a year) cause she said I had advanced beyond what she could teach, but though the time was short I'm very grateful to her - because of Simonian, I had begun to take an intense dislike to the piano, but after lessons with Ms. Brown I was in love with the piano again.

Ms. Brown is also responsible for recommending me to Sumiko Nagasawa, my last and best piano teacher. Sumi was a tiny, bird-thin Japanese woman with such vitality/charisma/enthusiasm. She made me play classical pieces but she also made me play modern pieces, which is the kind of balance I like, and she pushed me hard, but not so hard that I was struggling ridiculously or getting discouraged or put off. With her teaching I was doing so well and improving so quickly that (and please, allow me to brag here for a little bit *g*) in 1994 I aced the Certificate of Merit competition Level VI and in 1995 I had skipped to Level X, the highest level. Mind you, I was fifteen at the time and in the eleventh grade; most people did Level X when they were eighteen or in twelfth grade. :p

(In 1994 I did well enough in Certificate of Merit to get to play at the state convention, and in 1995 I was the only one in my region to qualify for the panel audition.)

I haven't taken any lessons with Sumi since 1996, and I really miss her and her teaching. The piano remains my first love though, and I play it as often as I can.

flute and saxophone:

I first picked up the flute in 1989, and this time it was because I wanted to play it, not because my mother signed me up for a lesson. :p My mother thought that the flute was a girly instrument (most people thought this back then - a lot of people still do, unfortunately), but she wanted to promote my interest in music, so she got me a flute and I started taking lessons at school, after class. I loved it: it was shiny, silver, and made the prettiest noises. *g* Good enough for me.

I soon got a flute teacher outside of school, Howard Dudune. Mr. Dudune was great as a teacher, always joking around yet at the same time serious about his students' learning. He taught clarinet, flute, and saxophone (and was awesome at all of them), and he gave me both classical and jazz music to learn. Mr. Dudune was also part of a local jazz group that went around getting "gigs" at fancy restaurants and the like in our area; Sumi, my piano teacher, had even heard about him.

In 1992 I started taking lessons on the alto saxophone AND the flute with Mr. Dudune - basically my mom had said to me: "Hey, want to try the saxophone?" and I had said: "Okay!" *g* When I started high school in the fall of that year, I played the flute in our school's band; the year after that I played the flute and the saxophone, and the year after that I did just the saxophone (I wasn't in the band in my last year, because the scheduling didn't work out). Around that time I stopped taking lessons with Mr. Dudune, as I no longer had the time for that AND piano lessons.

My time devoted to the flute and sax is considerably less than what I devote to the piano nowadays, especially since I'm not in any band, and so I must admit that I'm probably not as good on them as I used to be, but I still love to play them whenever I get the itching to; in particular I love figuring out songs on my CDs by playing along to the various parts with my flute.

vocal cords:

(Here's a .wav file of me singing "Kono Sekai no Dokokade" - a cheesy-yet-pretty song. The .wav is 4.39MB in size, by the way - sorry about that. *g*)

The summer after ninth grade, I took a math class and a chorus class at a local city college, for fun (I was a total nerd :p). I liked the chorus class enough to join my school's chorus when classes started, and I was in it for just that one year. Actually, I auditioned to be in the school's "honors" chorus the following year, and I got in just fine: my voice has a limited range, but it's pretty within that range, and I can sightread any melody. However, scheduling problems messed me up my eleventh and twelfth grade years, and so I couldn't be in either the regular or honors chorus. *sniff*

My voice range is that of a "dramatic tenor." *rofl* How cheesy-sounding that term is... but hey, that's what this voice teacher called me. *g* Apparently what she meant by "dramatic tenor" is that I can go as low as a baritone, but in the higher registers my voice doesn't break into falsetto as early as a baritone's would; in other words I can go as high as a tenor without my voice breaking into that falsetto. So basically my voice range is pretty much both tenor and baritone (or you could say that I'm right in the crack between those two ranges), so that makes me a "dramatic tenor." *rofl*

other instruments I dabble in:

Recorders and wooden flutes (panpipe-type stuff :p), and the acoustic guitar.

writing music:

So far, I haven't written that many completed pieces of music. Four vocal songs with piano accompaniment (two of them I love; the other two I detest), and various instrumental pieces, plus a whole bunch of songs that are "on hold" or in "rough draft" form until I can meet a violinist and drummer that I can collaborate with. It's very frustrating to have ideas for music and not be able to *complete* things because you don't have the people to play all the parts when they're supposed to be played.

In my experience, my lyrics are very banal when I try to fit words into music that I've already written or when I try to write music and words together at the same time. Therefore, I now write the lyrics first and then write the music around them; I love the results I get that way, even if it's much more difficult to set words to music than the other way around (that's how it is for me, at least).

I hope to release a CD (or a cheapo demo tape :P) some time in the future. If I do, it would have to be independently, as I don't think I'm "good enough" for a major label (not that I relish the idea of releasing any of my work on a major label anyway :p).

experiencing music:

I love listening to music, and though I don't really have a favorite genre (I just have favorite musicians and groups), there are genres I like on a consistent basis, which are: classical, "oldies" (ABBA! Beatles! Motown! :p), jazz, and anime/J-pop (Japanese pop). Genres I dislike are country, rap, sugar-pop, and heavy metal. It might seem odd that someone who likes music so much dislikes entire genres, but that's the way I am. Some music just rubs me the wrong way. :p

My favorite (not-so-)classical composers are Chopin, Ravel, Grieg, and Debussy.

favorite singers/groups/musicians: (in order from most favorite to least favorite)

Ani DiFranco:
An amazingly talented guitarist, lyricist, poet, and political activist whose music is usually described as a melding of folk and punk. I've seen her live twice, and her work on the guitar always leaves everyone's jaw hanging open. She's also the only musician whose songs' lyrics and poetry have made me cry, whether or not I was feeling depressed to begin with. :p Favorite songs: almost all of them, cause Ani's so damn good. (my Ani DiFranco site)

Joni Mitchell:
Before hacks like Jewel and Joan Osborne and the nascence of pianist-poetesses like Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, there was Joni Mitchell. Think of her as a 1970's version of Ani, but with a much greater leaning toward the pop/folk music sound, toward more "artsy" lyrics, and toward the use of a piano in addition to the guitar. Joni's voice and piano work are especially gorgeous, and although her style is quite different from Ani's, they both have the same honesty in their art and a similar poetic bite. Favorite songs: practically all of them, but especially Conversation, Woodstock, All I Want, The Last Time I Saw Richard, Banquet, Electricity, You Turn Me on I'm a Radio, Judgment of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune), Love or Money, The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

Cibo Matto:
East meets West meets funk meets R&B meets jazz meets ska. J-pop and fusion at its best. (Sean Lennon is in this band. :p) All the songs on their first CD was themed off of food/drink/cooking imagery, and there is a band out there called Shounen Knife whom a lot of people compare Cibo Matto to (since Shounen Knife also has rebel type :p Japanese girls singing food-oriented lyrics), but Cibo Matto is SO much better. Cibo Matto's lyrics are actually quite intelligent, while Shounen Knife gives you stuff like, "Cookie Day, Cookie Day, I'm so glad for Cookie Day." XP Favorite songs: Spoon, Flowers, Sci-Fi Wasabi.

Sakamoto Ryuichi:
Highly talented composer and pianist (that's pi-an-is-t xp). Hard to categorize really, since the three CDs I have of his work are so different. The first CD, 1996, is filled with nothing but piano/violin/cello pieces written by Sakamoto, all of which are SO pretty (the sound is too interesting and daring to be called classical, but it's too "formal" to be called anything else either). The next CD, Smoochy, is best described as fusion meets lounge act meets orchestral, while Cinemage is a collection of gorgeous soundtrack-type music Sakamoto wrote for various projects - like I said, Sakamoto is hard to categorize. Favorite songs: Rain, Bibou no Aozora, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. (Sakamoto Ryuichi biography)

Chanticleer:
All-male (and 50% gay :p) chorus group, whose repertoire ranges from the medieval, to old German hymns, to new arrangements of Christmas carols, to jazz. Their sound is so clear and in tune (they have awesome countertenors and their bass is just... wow) that just listening to any song by them is orgasmic. :p They're the first a capella group to tour internationally, and their signature piece (Franz Biebl's arrangement of the Ave Maria) is heartbreakingly pretty. Favorite songs: Ave Maria, Riu Riu Chiu, In Dulci Jubilo, Noel Canon, In the Bleak Mid-Winter, Es ist ein Ros Entsprungen.

Björk:
Singer with a gorgeous "voice bending" sound, and master of "futuristic pop." Favorite songs: Venus as a Boy, Big-Time Sensuality, There's More to Life than This, I Miss You, Hyperballad, Isobel, Army of Me, Unravel, Jöga.

Cocteau Twins:
Acid rock meets funk and pop. Ethereal vocals add to the mix (a lot of times the "lyrics" are just a series of syllables repeated over and over), and though the general sound is constant, the songs are ever-changing and different with each separate album. Favorite songs: the entire Heaven or Las Vegas album.

Sinéad O'Connor:
I don't care if she ripped up a picture of the Pope (an action I applaud, actually, considering the motives for it), she's a damn good musician. She's like Ani, with a softer pop sound, and a softer way of getting her message across. Highly recommended is her first album, the lion and the cobra - it's rather unknown, as it was produced three years before Sinéad became really popular with that "nothing compares 2 U" song. Favorite songs: Mandinka, Troy, I Want Your (Hands on Me), Drink Before the War, You Cause as Much Sorrow, Am I Not Your Girl?

They Might Be Giants:
Happy/bouncy/cheery meets the surreal (or, caffeine meets LSD :p). Lyrics are amazingly clever and deceptively profound; music is way too infectious. Favorite songs: the entire Flood album.

Me'Shell Ndegéocello:
Creates "intelligent" R&B, with funk and alternative mixed in; addresses subjects like religion and homosexuality. Favorite songs: The Way, Ecclesiastes: Free My Heart, Who Is He and What Is He to You, Bittersweet.

The Beatles:
Sure, their stuff sounds overused and corny to us now, but that's only because nearly every musician has been borrowing from or been influenced by their work since the 1960's. Not to mention that many of their songs are classics that get overplayed ad nauseam. :p Favorite songs: lots, but favorite album is Revolver. (my Paul McCartney site)

Finally - I'm done blabbing. :p