いらっしゃいませ

It’s interesting how the lives of our generation are so intertwined with social media - many can’t imagine going a day without Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, and all of the like. 

I’m not going to lie - I love that information spreads like wildfire through all of these innovations. I’m of the opinion that an individual should be as well-versed on as many issues as possible (sadly, that’s a normative statement). Knowledge is power - (ideally,) it forms the basis of our opinions and it’s what we use to make decisions. Knowledge is the foundation that is required for innovation and improvement. There’s the issue of whether knowledge is really being shared, but that’s for another day. 

Most will agree that creativity and being able to think for yourself are two essential skills that people should have. Tumblr is all about sharing and reblogging things (food, fashion, fotos…) that you like - the appeal is that the conglomeration of everything that you reblog becomes a unique representation of who you are. 

Is it really you?

How much of the content is actually yours? How many of the pretty photos with words on them are quoting you? If you reblog a bunch of witty things, are you yourself actually witty? 

Organizations / corporations often fall into the trap of “group think”, and our entire generation is no different. Create a pie chart or write an article that looks legitimate with shocking results and it’ll catch on like wildfire. People will reblog things without stopping to question the legitimacy of the source, or to question whether the post accurately represents reality. I worry sometimes about what will happen if things keep going the way its progressing. 

I appreciate content creators. My friend Josephine is into fashion, so she’s recently decided to step up her game - I think the result it quite cool . Another friend, Steven, recently was published on the Rolling Stone. Yet another, Samuel, started a t-shirt company called Akufuncture to fill in a void in the Asian American space. 

We need more people who can think for themselves and question the status quo. We need more people who can answer the hard questions like why we are doing what we are doing. We need more than just reblogging. Take a risk, find your niche, make your mark. 

Growing up, I was a stereotypical Asian - Not spectacular at sports, but good at math and science, and played piano and violin (though never took a single private violin lesson). In college, it gets harder to keep up with music unless you’re really passionate about it, and I didn’t spend the time to keep a repertoire of songs on the ready. 

However, coming home / bumming means plenty of free time to pick up old music and relearn some pieces, and that is exactly what I’ve done. Here’s what I realized:

As a student, I was a phony. I crescendo-ed, decrescendo-ed, accelerando-ed, and ritardando-ed only because that’s what it said to do on the page (whether that meant it was printed, or written in by my teacher). I think that’s why playing piano sometimes felt like a chore; I wasn’t playing for myself. 

This time around though, without the piercing eyes of an “omniscient” teacher, I found myself getting into the music a lot more. I took time where I felt there should be time. I brought the music from pianissimo to forte as I felt the tension building in the music and in my heart, not because of the “pp” or “f” on the page. It felt right and it was real. All the tumultuous feelings, conflicts, and frustrations were coming through. My friend Pamela recently told me that she didn’t “get” me. I think listening to my interpretation of Debussy’s Deux Arabesques would have helped. 

Any good piece of art - whether it’s a film, novel, painting, or photograph - leaves room for interpretation, and each person is allowed to walk away with their own take on things. Even better - as people change, so will their interpretation of the art. Music is no different. I’ve been listening to other peoples’ recordings of songs like Fantaisie Impromptu or Clair de Lune, and while I wouldn’t play it like them, sometimes, they bring out other parts of the music that I never thought of. It’s like all of these covers of popular songs you see on YouTube. Everyone can see the song a different way, and who are you to say they’re wrong?

So to all the piano teachers out there: Maybe it’s okay that your student is playing fortissimo when the music says mezzo piano. Maybe the goal should be to get your student to make the music their own.

Of course, you’ve got to have the skills to play the piece first before you can interpret anything, but once you’re there…well, read the title again. 

Go.