On motivation with playing an instrument

Dear reader,

this has nothing to do with hypnosis, not officially anyway. I still want to share with you how I choose my instruments and get the motivation to play them. Maybe this inspires you as well to do something new.

When I was in elementary school I learned the recorder like so many other people of my generation, at least here in germany. I also tried the guitar, but it didn't work. Not because I tried (which, as you may know, implies failure), but because we were about 15 or so kids and it was too big a group for me to learn effectively. Also I think the motivation of many of us weren't quite the best maybe. One of our two principals at the school played the guitar so well, at least that's what we thought back then, that we all wished to be playing like that. So I took the course. I quit after half a year, because it made no sense to me anymore. They never quite explained to me how to find the right place for the fingers of the left hand in a way that I would understand. In my memory it was always just: "Sarah's wrong again with the fingers." And the teacher, not our principal, would come to me and place them correctly. Back then I was too shy to ask and probably felt embarrassed, too. Today I know I would ask for an explaination and orientation on the guitar. If I ever went to learn it again.

In 2008 I had several years of listening to my favourite film music composer Danny Elfman. He and also James Newton Howard have some very good soundtracks, I think. I like that their soundtracks, even without the pictures, make me feel certain emotions. They're not those huges orchestras that go for "big blockbuster sounds for a blockbuster movie". That's what Hans Zimmer does, at least in my opinion. (He's said to be the best film music composer. Danny's said to be the second best. I don't get it.) Around that time in 2008 I watched "Nightmare Before Christmas" for the first time. As with most Tim Burton movies (to date only 2 exceptions) Danny Elfman did the soundtrack. In this one he also did the singing voice of Jack Skellington, one of the main characters. Sally is a girl, who's in love with him and worries about him. There's a song she sings about this, too. I heard it and I knew I had to play it. Given the original character of the song, it had to be not the piano, but the violin. Also the violin is a small instrument and rather unusual. Plus: the violin is the instrument Danny learned first. I had to learn it. The violin is not as difficult as many think it is. Once you get a rough idea about how to handle the bow on the strings, it's quite easy actually! So I took lessons for about a good year. After half a year I bought the violin. I just had to. Then I had a stressful time in my life, which resulted in what's called "accute hearing loss" in english. Although the term is a bit confusing for what I had. I could hear all right. But I was quite sensitive to sounds of any kind. I couldn't play for three weeks and in december I quit all together. The doctor said, my hearing was fine. But my teacher corrected my playing all the time. I couldn't hear I was playing wrong. Darn! The violin was my love!

I'm hearing well again by now, mind you. At least I think. The lesson cost quite a lot in the town where I live. They want 30% extra money for people above the age of 27 (which I am now). I don't want or feel the need of taking lessons anymore anyway. I know that if I put my mind to it and just did it, I could quite easily go on alone. I could, but I don't. Playing alone in my room is no fun and up until recently I had no interesting "violin songs" to play. So I kind of stopped.

Ever since the tv series "Lie To Me" with Tim Roth started, I developped a little (little?!) crush on him. I've known him before, but this series did it for me. I recently watched other movies with him I didn't know before. Among them "The Legend of 1900", a movie about a boy, who is born on a ship, grows up on it and actually never left it. His name, the short version anyway, is 1900. Because he was born on the first month of the new century, 1900 that is. He plays the piano very well, he's a real genius with it. Then a jazz genius comes along, Jelly Roll Morton. He says about himself that he invented jazz. So he challenges 1900. I'll probably never be able to play the last piece 1900 plays during the challenge. But there's this very beautiful piece the young 1900 plays when the people on the ship realise for the first time he plays the piano. I had to play that. Not on my violin, but propperly, on a... well, keyboard. So I bought one last month. Before "The Legend of 1900" there was also a sad but very beautiful duett piece for piano from the movie "Road To Perdition". I longed to play that on my keyboard. The violin is okay with it, but it's for piano.

Finally a couple of days ago a friend of mine and I were chatting online. He told me he was watching a movie. Naturally I asked him which one. "Transformers". Mind you it's not the most brilliant plot there is for a movie. And it's a "cars movie", too. So I avoided it so far. Until he showed me a video of someone playing one of the themes of that movie. It's the theme "Arrival To Earth". There's a certain melody the string instruments play that I loved immediately. Also I knew and respected the composer Steve Jablonsky. I watched all three "Transformer" movies just for the music. I'm a freak, I know. And I'm not ashamed of it! I have the notes for "Arrival To Earth". I haven't played it so far. But I soon will be. It'll be the piece that brings me back to my violin.

Oh, I forgot to mention: I worked on playing "Sally's Song" as it's called, three weeks after my first lesson. I only played it at home. From the lessons alone, I wouldn't have been able to. We didn't get to play certain notes that would be necessary. I did it anyway. I can't play it perfectly, but well enough for me to be satisfied. That's all I need for now.

I'll keep you posted. Stay tuned!

sarah 

(original post 6 October 2011)