~Aim for the Stars~
I'm back once again. Sorry LJ I keep neglecting you :(
I am officially on Christmas break now! The beginning of December was incredibly stressful with all the work that was assigned but I managed to pull through. I had a HUGE essay to work on these past few weeks and I finally got it done on Wednesday. As my "reward" for finishing it, I bought myself an early Christmas present: NEWS's World Quest single(s) ---> Yep I bought all three ^^
Can't wait to open them up when they arrive :D
Speaking of Christmas (and NEWS), I have a little story to share....
A couple of weeks ago, I had my annual Christmas piano recital. It was a small recital held at my piano teacher's house. Every year she hosts this Christmas recital where only her students come and perform in front of each other. Each student is placed in a group based on their age. I was in the "high school" group which had only about 12 students.
A month before the recital, I was trying to find a good song to play for the event but I just couldn't find one that I really liked and that I could learn in a month. My teacher suggested a few to me but I didn't really want to play them. The real reason was because I really wanted to play a piece that I had been working on for a long time. It wasn't really a Christmas piece and I hesitated to play it at first, but in the end it was the best choice.
So the piece I ended up playing was......Hoshi wo Mezashite!
I had learned this piece on my own and had been practicing it since the end of June and I really wanted to play it. I thought that maybe people would enjoy it and be curious about it, leading them to the discovery of NEWS. The first time I played it for my teacher, I was actually nervous. I didn't know what she would think of it and if she would accept it for the recital. After I played it, she said she was impressed and then she asked me what the song was called. I wasn't sure whether to say the actual title or not so in the end I said that it was called "Aim for the Stars" which is basically the English translation. Then she asked me who it was composed by and that's when I started talking about NEWS. I told her everything from how they went from 9 members to 8 and then to 6, which is when I explained that this song was their first comeback song, and then finally to 4. She actually seemed interested in NEWS and wanted to know more. That's when I decided to play her another one of their songs, Anata ga Tonari ni Iru Dake de. She liked that one too but she said that the other one (HWM) would be better for the recital since it had a more Christmassy feel to it. I was so happy she liked it and I had fun telling her about NEWS :)
Then the day of the recital came. I was so nervous. I had been practicing this piece that whole week, trying to perfect it. I wanted to do it justice and make people like it. I was one of the last people to play. My hands were cold and sweaty (the worst combo) so I tried my best to dry and warm them up before I played. I bowed and took a seat at the piano, taking a moment to prepare myself. I wanted this to be the most memorable song of the night. I took a deep breath then placed my hands gently on the keys. I had that one tiny moment of forgetting the notes but that went away as soon as I played the intro. It went pretty smoothly and soon after, I was completely lost in the song. I was putting everything into it. Sure there were a few mistakes but I was able to recover each time. I just kept going and I was really enjoying it. I even felt like singing at one point lol. Finally, the piece ended and my mind came back to earth as everyone clapped. Then I got up, took a bow and went back to my seat. I was so happy after that! I couldn't stop smiling. I played the best I could and in the end, I think I did a good job. I hope NEWS would be proud ^_^
A week later, I went back to my piano teacher's house for my piano lesson. As soon as I sat at the piano, she told me everything that her students had said about my piece. Apparently, they loved it and were really impressed. A couple of students said they especially liked the way I played it and how it looked like I was enjoying it. This made me happy :)
Also, apparently two students were curious about the piece and wanted to learn it. Surprisingly, these two students were boys. I would have expected girls to like it more but nope. Only the boys were the ones truly interested in Hoshi wo Mezashite. Apparently, my teacher even told them about NEWS and then they said that they would want to hear more of their songs. This literally made me go ---> O_O
I was sooooooooooooooooooooo happy after hearing all this. First of all because they liked how I played the piece, but second because they were now interested in NEWS!!!!!! Even my teacher is interested now. I feel like my goal was reached.
After doing this recital, I now appreciate NEWS's music more than ever. I've started learning more of their songs and I hope to play them one day at another recital or event. It would be great if I can get more people to know about NEWS through my piano playing. I must say that NEWS has also made me love piano even more. At one time this year, as I was preparing for my grade 8 piano exam, I started losing my love for piano and even started hating it, but then when I started learning NEWS songs, my love for it came back stronger than ever. Now everyday I must play for at least an hour or else I'll feel sad haha.
It's funny how this band keeps inspiring me and pushing me forward. I never thought that a boyband could actually help you in life. NEWS is forever special and I feel like I owe them a lot. I could go on to say how much NEWS has changed my life but that would make this post even longer than it already is lol. So i'm going to stop before this gets too long but I will definitely write about that another time. Plus, I promise I'll keep updating my LJ more often from now o even though probably nobody reads it.
Thanks to anyone who actually read the whole thing :)