My Take On…Playing Other Musical Instruments

Whenever you are asked to write an essay for an exam or a competition, you are almost always given a couple of choices. What I gravitate mostly is towards topics like “Importance of good character in life” or “How to eat an ice-cream” or something like that. Not because I like those topics, but because I lack knowledge on topics like “Pollution”, “Deforestation”, “Education for the Differently Abled” and such.  And in school, if you have no idea of the topic, you are given zero marks, even if there was a lot of creative writing in that essay. Now I’m not saying to forget about knowing your topic, because only if you know your topic, you can actually have the authority to say something on it. For example, it’s very fair for my chemistry teacher (why am I roping him in my blog) to talk about hexamethylenediammine cyanide compounds, but it isn’t fair for me to say a word about organic chemistry as I don’t really understand it.

However, this is a blog! And many people have told me to write whatever I feel like, so I don’t really need to know the facts to write about something now, do I? Now why am I speaking about not knowing facts and knowing facts and all? It’s mainly because the topic says “My Take On…Playing Other Musical Instruments”, and I don’t know how to play other musical instruments. I just know guitar, and I still have a lot to learn! That’s the beauty of music…

“Learning music is a lifelong process, man.” – Timothy Sabu

Yep, Timothy (Timmy) Sabu. Cool guy!

For those of you who don’t know him, well…I’ll write a post on him. For those who do, Timmy is enjoying his life now by doing Sound Engineering, and hopes to make it big in his field. Man, I miss him…

So, onto the post! Yeah, even I’m shocked I haven’t started. I really ought to stop writing so much…

Hmm, where do I start? OK, Keyboards and Piano! Most kids in Chennai at least have parents who are A.R. Rahman fans. So, the kids are made to go to keyboard classes in the hope (whose hope? Don’t ask) of becoming a great musician in future. Now, I wanted to learn guitar, and so I never really learnt to play a keyboard. However, I just found out which key is used to play which note. So, to play a chord (a combination of notes hit at the same time, always used in making music), I had to search every note, and ended up hitting a chord…after 5 minutes. Now, most songs on your mp3 player take 5 minutes or less…so, I may find the first chord only after the song ends. This goes for all those people who have said “Oh, you know music? You must be a keyboard player then!” Mostly well-meaning aunties. And so, I have deep appreciation for keyboard players, as they can find those chords way too easily. And another thing, as keyboards have the programming to sound like trumpets, violins, flutes and all, there are some keyboard players who are very expressive and make it sound like there’s an accomplished trumpet/violin/flute player. That requires exceptional talent and a thorough study of even those other instruments. Amazing, isn’t it!

This is Nora the piano playing cat! Look her up on Youtube! 

And I'm serious, she really DOES play!

Now, drums. I really wish to take a minute to applaud every drummer that ever existed, from a beginner to a pro. Imagine moving both your arms AND both your legs…at wildly different times, in a rhythmic fashion. Drummers do that, and pound on those drums for 5 or so minutes, at a stretch. Some of us don’t even have the strength to open a Pepsi© bottle! I sometimes attempt to play a beat, and it sounds way too simplistic. I’m not hitting enough drums at a time! The best drummers do “independence” exercises. These require you to free your limbs so that all your limbs can do different things at different times, to combine to form a single, full-sounding beat. Mind blowing to us, but it’s just another day in a drummer’s life. I actually have trouble with just moving my two hands together on a guitar just to play some notes clearly, and they move all their limbs with precision, making the music feel less like “a combination of sounds”, and more like “a groovy vibe” that you can even dance to!

Woah, even I can't play "Ba dum tss"!

Now on to bass guitars! Some say bass guitars are for those who fail at playing electric guitars. Dumbest.Statement.Ever. Bass is something which contributes to the music even though it’s felt, rather than heard. Ever felt like dancing to music at times? Ever felt like music gets your heart pumping? It’s because you can feel the vibrations of the air (which is sound), and they feel good…Bass does that to music. And the best bass players are not the ones who can play 80000 notes a second, but those that contribute to the vibe with just one solid tastefully played note! It’s easy to play (just remove the 1^st and 2^nd string of your regular guitar and tune those strings 12 steps down, it’s somewhat like a bass), but tough to master. And if I can, it’s something I’d really like to learn. How well can I play it? Well, let’s just say I’m a beginner who checked out basic online lessons.

Abraham Laboriel, one of the best bass players in the world. 

What puzzles me here is, is he constricting his face 

because he's "feeling the music", or because he's pulling his pants? 

The right hand behind his bass guitar doesn't help, either..

There might be a million more, like the clarinet, the ukulele, the bassoon, the xylophone, the violin and what not, but let’s just say that was covered in the keyboards section. ;)

Well, this post wasn’t just to reveal I know next to nothing about most instruments, it also reveals I know those instruments only well enough to appreciate them and say  that people who know these instruments well are really worth their stuff, because they took the time out to master the instrument to the ultimate goal of making beautiful music. And as Timmy said, it’s a lifelong process, so learn it well, learn it always, or you’ll be bad for life, and not know why. So, here's to unending learning! :)

My Take On…Positive Thinking

Hmm…another post request! If you keep helping me like this by suggesting topics, this blog will surely become very large, very soon! Thank you readers! J

So I was asked to write a post on positive thinking, and I was specifically requested to “build up confidence for the teenage soul”. That’s something nice (even though it sounds like something you see on a Chicken Soup book cover) and worthwhile, using any creative outlet to evoke good feelings in its appreciators. However, there’s no use in giving someone a ‘false hope’. For example, if I told you I’d pick you up from school at 4 and so you’d wait for me without your own vehicle and without money for even a bus ticket, and I never come. I don’t want to give that type of a false hope. What I mean to say is, I badly want to encourage, but I also want that encouragement to be meaningful. More like “realistic optimism”…

So, what is positive thinking?

Just a happy thought? I don’t think so. Will thinking about a Dairy Milk silk give a girl the confidence she needs for life?

And girls think guys are disgusting. Pfft.

No, unless she’s got pure sugar in her bloodstream, and that’s diabetes.

Imagining that you are in a better position than you really are? Well, my English teacher once said that you could become better by “cheating” yourself into thinking you’re something you’re really not. But if that was true, I’d be a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands. And if that were true, you wouldn’t consider me a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, you’d prefer to call me a delusional psychopath! And another thing, if I THOUGHT I was a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, I’d ACT like a champion Olympic swimmer who could break mountains just by karate-chopping them with my bare hands, and I bet I’d be way too proud of my own ability, WHICH DOESN’T EXIST! So that wouldn’t work either…

To me, there are two aspects to positive thinking.

1) Looking at the bright side of things:

“Oh look, it’s raining, now we can’t go out.” “Look at the bright side! We needed the rain after such a hot summer!” “Oh look, now the rain has not stopped for three days and is now a bit of a hindrance to working people.” “Look at the bright side! We could have had a cyclone instead!” “Oh look, the rain was actually due to a cyclone which caused thousands of people to lose their houses and property.” “Look at the bright side! At least they hadn’t lost their life!” “Oh look, the excessive rain from the cyclone has caused a flood and now, countless people have lost their lives.” “Look at the bright si-“ “Oh will you – “

Okay, let’s leave Mr “Bright Side” to his business, and learn what we can. Everything in life has pros and cons. We can’t really say “Hmm, the Samsung© Galaxy Y has 3 flaws, while the Apple© iPhone has 4 flaws, so I’d go with the former.” But, by changing our perspective to focusing on the positivity of life, we can actually enjoy life much more than what we are expected to enjoy. College mess has tasteless food? It’s OK, your teachers are so good you’d skip meals anytime to listen to their lectures. Hate studying maths? It’s OK, you are much more privileged than many other Indians your age to actually get to study maths. My blog boring you? It’s OK, just ask and I’ll show you more interesting ones, heck, I’d even let you write on my blog! No, seriously. Buzz me if you want to do so! I’m getting lazy…

Leaving that aside, what I want to say, is that there are way too many things going in your favour that those going unfavourably. So don’t worry, be happy! Thinking that nothing good is happening in your life is a deadly thought, and it should be “killed” quickly. Besides, you’re completely wrong when you think nothing’s going right! Wanna bet? I would, because I’d always win the bet! :D

2) Faith:

“Belief is a beautiful armour, but it makes for the heaviest sword.” - John Mayer

Yeah, the many faces of one of the greatest modern philosopers...

Words of wisdom (or song lyrics) apart, faith is something I’d just like to call, THE ABSENCE OF DOUBT. Jesus said that all you’d need is faith as tiny as a mustard seed. I used to think that Jesus just simply meant it as a “baseless metaphor”, but now I realise that many of us actually don’t really have that much faith (and I totally went against 2 Timothy 3:16, but we’ll reserve that for another time, shall we? Maybe for a post entitled “The 3 (zillion) mistakes of my life”…hope ChetanBhagat could write that and guest post it for me)! Well, we need faith in our life. We need to believe that things will work out. We need to be sure of things even when everyone else is unsure. A great philosopher, whose name just slipped my mind (more like, completely slipped my mind! Or maybe, never even entered my mind…) said “If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.” Just a teensy weensy bit of faith can take you much further than all your talent, ability, skill, knowledge…in essence, faith can take you much further than you can go.

So, that’s pretty much all I can say about positive thinking (not really, I’ve been asked to shorten my writing, so I’d rather stop). I really enjoyed wrestling with my mind to write this, and I hope this inspires at least one out of the four people who actually read this blog (Fun Fact: All four of them were blackmailed into reading my blog posts!). So, keep smiling, and think positively!

“You can do!” – My Chemistry teacher. The philosopher who considered life similar to a carbon compound.  How? Don't ask me. ;)

My Take on…Jealousy

Hey peeps, so here’s something I’ve been um…well…stirred to post about. This is gonna be the first post of the “My take on…” series. Lemme tell you something about the series first…

What will I post in this series?  Whatever comes to my mind relating to a certain topic. How do you recognize them? It’ll have the heading: My take on…*topic*.  What will I post about the topic in question? Whatever I know, so even if I have absolutely no idea about the topic, I’ll say something. Do I like answering my own questions? Yes, yes I do.

Well, the topic I’ve decided to post on is Jealousy. It just popped up in my head, and I decided to type on it, so well, here goes…

Jealousy is a really tough thing, both for the jealous person and the person whom he/she is jealous of. Who’s the victim? Not one of them, but both. The jealous person however, is in a worse condition. Why do I say that? It’s because the pain a jealous person faces is…self-inflicted.

Imagine dropping a bowling ball…on your foot. You feel more pain because a) It’s a bowling ball, b) Your foot was already supporting your heavy body, c) Your foot might have been crushed and a few bones might have been broken, d) You’re looking like an idiot yelping and howling while jumping on one foot in a bowling alley and e) You’re really angry at yourself for being such a klutz and dropping a bowling ball (of all things) on your foot (of all places)!

Well, a jealous person is just that. Feeling pain because he chose to compare himself and feel that he/she should have been in a better condition than the person he/she is jealous of. There’s hurt, bitterness, anger, hatred, pride, malice and (sometimes) insanity, all tied up in a neat little package and residing in a person’s heart. No wonder it’s branded a sin. And jealous people are similar to insane people (or maybe they actually BECOME insane…I’m no psychiatrist, I can’t say). They choose to hurt people who have done nothing to them. Your friend being a little better off than you, is that wrong? That doesn’t mean God has only blessed him, and not you. God has given different blessings, in equal measure…It’s like you carrying 1 kg sand in a bag, and your friend carrying 1 kg cotton in his bag. Who has a lighter load? Neither, cause both of you are carrying the same 1 kg weight!

Basically, I’d blame the education system. “Why did you score 2^nd rank and let him take 1^st?” I’ve heard that sentence shouted at way too many people. And I’ve seen those 2^nd rankers take it extreme and blame the 1^st rankers for that scolding, and do vile things like steal the 1^st ranker’s textbooks, spoil their name in front of teachers and what not. And the 2^nd rankers become 1^st rankers, and the 1^st rankers now get scolded. I know, vicious cycle. You know how we can break that cycle? SAY NO TO COMPETITION.

I don’t believe in competition. Even God wouldn’t dare to compare us! He loves us all equally, from the worst sinner to the most devoted church pastor! And why do we brand people and make them feel second rate when God says that those people are actually the apple of his eye? (On a side note, God actually says “You are the apple of my eye”. He means it too. Turn to Him because He doesn’t care who you are but loves you anyway.) I wouldn’t dare to do that, to do something God would not. And I feel that jealous people should learn this: You are blessed. Why aspire for something someone else has? God wouldn’t give it to you because He already has something else in mind. And then, you get angry and assume life is unfair, and HATE THAT PERSON. And when you hate someone, you’d like it if he/she was destroyed. And then you proceed to destroy that person through gossip, malice, unkind words, and pure hatred, and all this time, you are destroying your own soul as well. Sad, isn’t it?

Humans were made in the image of God. Just as God only loves people, humans were made only to love other people. Hate is something which is unnatural to humans. When I teach someone how to play guitar, I tell them to keep their fingers curved, and not straight. Why? Because that way, their fingers are in the same position that a newborn baby keeps, and that type of “natural” position is extremely comfortable. And then, the process of playing guitar actually becomes a bit easier as it comes more naturally to the student. So, don’t harbour hatred or grudges, it isn’t natural to us humans as a whole.

So, this is “My Take On…Jealousy”. A bit serious, because jealousy is a serious problem that must be stopped, if we are to develop as humans. And we develop better when we are in a “natural” position, don’t you agree? ;)