My musical profile

Fortunately I was exposed to music at the callow age of 10. I played the flute for one year in the 4th grade and didn’t really like it as much as I thought I would. I wanted out and so I got out. Instead, at the time, I was influenced by the harmonic voices of Nsync and the Backstreet Boys. I joined chorus at the pressings of an old friend, Nina. I was nervous at first because that would obviously mean I would have to sing. But fickle I was and I stayed on that road ever since – or at least until I was a senior in high school. Overall, I was in chorus from 5th grade to 12th grade. I can say that my singing has gotten significantly better – but then that would have to be my last lie for today. I guess I can spend it on this. No, I was an average singer, if not, less than average. I didn’t mind this at all, throughout the years. I just liked the atmosphere and the people in my chorus class. It was very friendly and encouraging. After a while, if someone made a mistake, others don’t make fun of him or her, they just acknowledge that mistake and move on because we all know each other already. Kind of like a big family working a boat using singing harmonies for communication. The teachers were the captains. And everyone loved the captains. Anyway, from the plethora of chorus classes and singing in harmony with the tenor, bass, soprano (and sometimes soprano 2s) and alto, I learned the basics of chords (triads) in solfege (using do re mi). I transferred and translated what I learned in chorus class, on the piano using my Dad’s fun machine – an organ piano that also plays a rather representative selection of different music styles (like ballroom dance music) with the middle c key not working (forever it will stubbornly remain silent!). I remember trying to play songs from my chorus class by ear because when I was in 8th grade, I still didn’t really know how to sight read. I would spend hours in the basement trying to learn some songs, struggling controlling my left hand and my right hand as separate parts of a whole – that is the song. My dad noticed this minor obsession I’ve been having in the basement and decided, when I was in 9th or 10th grade, to buy me a keyboard for $200 from Guitar Center. What was cool about it was that one of the main features of it was that it sounded like a real grand piano and had a sustain foot pedal. It was during my high school years that I produced some of my best works (in my opinion) using simple chords and rhythm patterns. I also recorded them, but they are now gone and I can’t remember them. I won’t point the finger because then I would just get heated again like the first time I found out I had lost them.

So the piano was the first instrument that I truly got into. Alongside with the piano, in high school was my interest in the drums. I first fell in love with the drums when I heard Keane’s album, Hope and Fears. I used my bed and turned it into a drum kit. The bass drum would be my bed, I would use a leather address book as the snare drum and a plastic bag tucked under a heavy book was a cymbal. The simplicity of this whole ordeal was and is evident but the ambitious passion was driving it all. And so it sounded good enough. Just as I struggled controlling my left hand separately from my right hand, I had the same issue with the drums. I listened to the same song over and over again – the first one being “Somewhere Only We Know”- concentrating on the drums part. I tried to listen to different parts of the drum and noticed that some parts were consistent while others followed a pattern. By the time I had been practicing this on my humble makeshift drum set for a year, I got used to it and started to play different drum sequences that I heard most frequently in different songs of Keane. I actually got excited to do homework in my room on my desk, because I knew that if I got bored, I could just turn to my drumming for a song or two. The piano would have been in the basement where it was often too cold for my liking.

The guitar was one of the more recent instruments that I decided to pick up. And I picked it up chiefly because of Jason Mraz. The youtube video of him in Dachkhammer and Rotterdam were the powder kegs that started my goal of learning the guitar. Of course, I’m still in the learning process of it, having been playing it for only 6 months now. I’d like to thank my dad for teaching me the basic chords and Kuya for giving me tips and answering my questions. One of the most helpful pieces of advice would have to be the one where Kuya told me to try to learn a lot of songs.

The most recent instrument that I chose is the djembe drum – also picked up because of Jason Mraz. From him, I found out about Toca Rivera, his back up singer and loyal friend who has an exceptional skill of harmonizing and djembe drumming. I started getting into the djembe drum, in my first year of college, I think. Just as I made a drum set out of my bed and other household items, I made a small djembe drum out of an empty can of peanuts. The first song I attempted was Jason’s “Tonight, not again.” Since the song on the CD doesn’t really have a djembe drum section (at least I don’t think; not until the end), I made up my own pattern that I applied. I would come home from school at around 1:30 because I chose to have all morning classes. Steph would be in school and Ate Sherry would still be in school in Stony Brook. Kuya lived in the city and my Dad still had work in the city and my Mom would go to work at around 2:30. Faced with a whole day to accomplish homework, I first turned my attention to Jason’s CD, Waiting for my Rocket to Come. I would play the drums for some of his songs like “Too Much Food” and then I would play the djembe drum for “Tonight, not again.” Then one night, I found out about the song, “Zero Percent.” That’s my favorite song of all time. It took me a year and a half to finally understand the djembe drum pattern for that song. I still didn’t get the middle part though. Eventually and ineluctably word got out about my playing on a peanut can. Rather, my parents heard me playing on it late at night when I was supposed to be sleeping. Then came my 20th birthday. I asked for a djembe drum and Kuya bought one for me. I did my research about different kinds and kept emailing my Dad and Kuya different ones that I would prefer, form ebay.com during my free time in school. In fact, after my WRI101 class from 8:20 to 9:40 in the morning, I would go to the library and look up information about djembe drums and how to play it. Thank you Kuya, for my first djembe drum. Just as I transferred and translated what I learned from chorus class to the piano, I translated and transferred what I’ve been practicing on the peanut can onto that djembe drum. It was a 6’’ djembe. I had to play it with my pointer fingers instead of my thumbs (which I used with my peanut can). Up until now, I’ve been trying to master “Zero Percent.” I was itching for a bigger djembe drum so that I can play “Zero Percent” at a lower pitch like the real song. Therefore, with hindsight, I see that practicing on the smaller djembe drum helped me learn valuable skills for the 10’’ djembe drum that I just bought a couple of weeks ago. This one was an advanced birthday present from my parents because it’s on sale right now and probably won’t be come next November. At first when I bought it, I was honest to goodness scared because I didn’t know how to really hit it or if the way I was hitting it was correct or not. I even had regrets. But I told myself that I was tired of having regrets – some more personal than others – and I wanted to master this one. I stuck with it and every time I practiced it, a new revelation opened up right before my eyes. I learned by instinct which sound sounded right and which ones didn't. Oh yeah, did I mention how I learned how to tune a djembe drum from my first one. Well one of the first things I did with the new, bigger one was tuning it. That helped a lot. The sounds were more concrete and focused. As of right now, I’m practicing a difficult feat with the djembe: a muffled slap. I would have to deftly place one of my hands on the center quietly while I slap the side of it.

The djembe drum and The Killers (who I started listening to since last winter) turned me back to drumming. I had learned how to do the bass drum with the same hand that does the snare drum, but I know that that is incorrect and limiting (and easy!). I should use a foot pedal, which is really hard because I’d have to be well coordinated. Only now am I practicing using a foot pedal. For this reason, I respect any drummer who is average or above. I’ll give more respect for those who are not quite there but have the passion for smahin’.

If there’s one thing that I’m grateful for, it’s for the gift of music. Both my music and (more importantly) the music I listen to and am influenced by. I’m grateful for my Dad and Kuya and Steph as well as other family members for encouraging me to continue in my musical pursuits and putting up with my sounds late at night. I’d like to thank Mrs. Rahmani and Mrs. Frankonis for inspiring me to learn music – not just the notes on the page, but also the literary aspect of it. I don’t think anyone will know how surprised I am at how far I’ve come in my musical world, by my humble standards. And I’m thankful for it. I’ll take what I have so far and hopefully improve and enhance it so that I may share it somehow. My next goals are to have piano lessons and a drum set. We'll see what happens.