by kreese on Mon Aug 27, 2012 1:52 am
I got to take some piano lessons from my teacher's teacher, Clara Roland, who was just a grand old lady, a real character. I do remember playing the Wild Boy of Bornio, which is a fun exotic sounding piece for kids.
I think I was a bit intimidated by this lady, but overall I was with the program. I didn't mind her strictness so much I guess, I was used to it having an Asian mom.
I also got to take some private music theory lessons with her and this beautiful blonde girl from my high school, older than me, way out of my league, but in the context of this lesson I was actually better.
I guess growing up Asian and knowing some of the more well known music teachers in town, the idea of a woman teacher of an art being hard core is not strange at all. There was another old lady who taught all the best violinists in town, a town that regularly enjoyed international level players because of a university and art center. Gonzalez? I actually got to meet her and I knew lots of friends who studied with her.
Old school, European, if you wanted to be the best, you trained with her. Strict, even to little kids, but then these kids became amazing. Shit, I was almost amazing, it's just my heart wasn't into classical music.
But I think back and as a 9 or 10 year old I was able to pull of some pretty complicated pieces, I can say that I studied Bach, Mozart, Chopin, etc. In the end I do appreciate the classical education, but it became sort of not useful as I grew older and the world started changing faster and faster, but I have that experience to draw from when studying martial arts and am grateful for that.
I grew up around this kind of seriousness for classical music, as Asians tend to be, it's just it took a while until I found an art thatresonated with me. I often wonder what kind of person I'd be if I'd been introduced to jazz during high school, but then I remember that there's no point in imagining what if.
Last edited by
kreese on Mon Aug 27, 2012 1:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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