it's almost been a year since i first bought my Ibanez Gio guitar and started picking up music. at my current state, there's still lots of room for improvement, and i wish i had picked up music a lot earlier in my life, as it can be such an enjoyable thing. gloomy early mornings can be spiced up playing a bit of the blues.. hot lazy afternoons spent playing along with some reggae and surf music.. and quiet nights, to the horror of my neighbours, is the time for rock and metal!
i've still got a long way to go though, and the journey is never-ending. there's always something new to learn, be it picking up a new technique, a new style of music, a new song perhaps. i really should have gotten started earlier, back then when my mom used to tell me how my grand dad could pick up just about any instrument and learn it on his own, unlike now when we have the internet - an infinite source of information. it still eludes me how he did it though.. the guitar, the accordion, the saxophone, the harmonica, and some others that i can't remember now.
and then there was my dad, who picked up the guitar, and also learnt how to play it on his own. listening to any song, he could tell what key it was in, and he could play it by ear. he later joined my grand dad in forming a small band back in their little kampung town in Malaysia, where everyone knew everyone. they would play on stage and the people, being just simple folk, would throw stuff like sweets and flowers onto the stage in appreciation and applause. they were truely a hit. my grand dad later gave us the accordion, as some sort of present, and probably hoping that his grand sons would one day take up music instead of joining the fast growing hobby of spending countless hours playing video games and watching TV.
my dad later came here to Singapore to find work, and joined the Air Force, where he would also form a band with his colleagues. they called it the fitting name of Air Force One. they would soon become just about one of the best bands the SAF had seen, winning multiple awards and prizes at Family Day events and the like. there was once when their band was instantly disqualified at an event because, in the judges' words, "you're all too good."
now, it is my turn, and like i said, it has been almost a year since i bought my first guitar. now, i'm into my second - the Fender Stratocaster. looking back on when i just started, i think i have come a long way, but there is still a lot more that i hope to achieve. i remember my first day with my guitar, attempting to do the chromatic scale with little success.. now it is nothing but a simple warm up for the fingers before i go into the practice propers. guitar solos performed by Ritchie Blackmore formerly of Deep Purple, Rainbow, and now Blackmore's Night are slowly getting easier to perform, and where music theory is concerned, progressions and notes are starting to get very easy to identify.
i should have taken this up a lot earlier. my dad has since stopped playing in any band, but picks up his acoustic very occasionally to just play something simple but still, pleasing to the ear. maybe one day i might have the same honour he had, of playing alongside my own dad.
