Shakuhachiiiii~~~
I can officially say that I play 3 instruments now! \o/
My lesson is on Lygon/Grattan st, in a little room of a Yoga studio (LOL). I went in and for a split second, I thought I was in Japan. There were little Japanese teacups, calligraphy brushes, kotatsu tables and little Japanese knick knacks everywhere. It was really lovely. My teacher, Andrew McGregor was really lovely as well. He is the ONLY shakuhachi teacher in Australia, so I am extremely lucky that he lives in Melbourne. His master was Tajima Tadashi, and his master was Chikuho Sakai, the creator of Chikuho school.
By looking around the room, I learned that he is a black belt in Aikido and a master of calligraphy. Pretty awesome :D
Today's lesson was a bit shocking... I was basically told that I can't use any of my flute techniques with the shakuhachi LOL. URGH. However it's not too bad, I got a hang of it pretty quickly. I can play simple tunes now. I also have to learn a new notation system... no more cbdefg or do rei mi.... now it's all in katakana, Ra, re, tsu, ro, chi.
He gave me a manual book as well, with lots of Japanese folk songs. Ahh I can't wait to learn these and play it for my grandma, she's always complaining how I don't play any Japanese folk tunes. I bet she'll give me a LOT of red pocket when I play the tunes with an actual traditional instrument fffh. I haven't even told her I'm learning it yet, I think I'll keep it as a surprise when I go back to Taiwan end of this year maybe :D
If I wasn't doing arts, then I'd say that music would have definitely been my 2nd choice in life. It was actually a dream job of mine to become a professional performer and travel the world with an orchestra, then retire as a music teacher ahahaha. Lack of discipline kind of made that dream go down the drain fffh. However I'm now considering picking up my flute again and aim for AMUS exam. Mum's always telling me to master another trade, so that if I fail in finding a job then I'd at least have a fallback. I think that's very true, so if one day I hate my job as an artist/designer I could be a flute teacher and vice versa. Or I could even do both at the same time.
It would be pretty GG if I end up hating both LOL.
My lesson is on Lygon/Grattan st, in a little room of a Yoga studio (LOL). I went in and for a split second, I thought I was in Japan. There were little Japanese teacups, calligraphy brushes, kotatsu tables and little Japanese knick knacks everywhere. It was really lovely. My teacher, Andrew McGregor was really lovely as well. He is the ONLY shakuhachi teacher in Australia, so I am extremely lucky that he lives in Melbourne. His master was Tajima Tadashi, and his master was Chikuho Sakai, the creator of Chikuho school.
By looking around the room, I learned that he is a black belt in Aikido and a master of calligraphy. Pretty awesome :D
Today's lesson was a bit shocking... I was basically told that I can't use any of my flute techniques with the shakuhachi LOL. URGH. However it's not too bad, I got a hang of it pretty quickly. I can play simple tunes now. I also have to learn a new notation system... no more cbdefg or do rei mi.... now it's all in katakana, Ra, re, tsu, ro, chi.
He gave me a manual book as well, with lots of Japanese folk songs. Ahh I can't wait to learn these and play it for my grandma, she's always complaining how I don't play any Japanese folk tunes. I bet she'll give me a LOT of red pocket when I play the tunes with an actual traditional instrument fffh. I haven't even told her I'm learning it yet, I think I'll keep it as a surprise when I go back to Taiwan end of this year maybe :D
If I wasn't doing arts, then I'd say that music would have definitely been my 2nd choice in life. It was actually a dream job of mine to become a professional performer and travel the world with an orchestra, then retire as a music teacher ahahaha. Lack of discipline kind of made that dream go down the drain fffh. However I'm now considering picking up my flute again and aim for AMUS exam. Mum's always telling me to master another trade, so that if I fail in finding a job then I'd at least have a fallback. I think that's very true, so if one day I hate my job as an artist/designer I could be a flute teacher and vice versa. Or I could even do both at the same time.
It would be pretty GG if I end up hating both LOL.