45 - Musical Memories
Have you seen this video? It warms my heart every time, but also fascinates me - the combined power of music and memory! A dementia patient is activated and energised just by listening to the music of their youth - marvellously heart-warming.
I don't have a great memory. I think I may have talked about it before. It's starkly illustrated when after every post, your sister emails you all the details you forgot (thanks Steph!). Although in another way, it's sweet because I've outsourced some of my memory to the people around me?
Steph's always been the one who remembers stuff in the family: Where's the blender? Where would I have put the recipe book? What did we do in Sydney? We went to Sydney? Do you know where Mum hid the Christmas presents this year?!
I just remember really trivial things like...well...things that are perfect for trivia. I'm really good at Trivia Murder Party. Come at me bro.
Regardless, shall we take a walk down memory lane?
Easy Listening
He says, "Son, can you play me a memory
I'm not really sure how it goes
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes"
- Billy Joel, Piano Man
When we were young, my parents would play some AM radio - 1377 Easy Listening - where I listened to music from the 50's/60's/70's - a lot of crooners and ballads that focussed on lyrics and singing and voice. Elvis Presley, The Temptations, The Beegees, Billy Joel, Nat King Cole, Fleetwood Mac - all the hits were imprinted into my brain from a young age.
I spent a lot of time sitting in our old, blue Ford Telstar on weekends, shuttling between Chinese school, shopping with my parents in the loud and fluorescent Asian markets of Box Hill, and home, listening to these beautiful songs seep into my ears. I practiced my singing in the car, hearing songs over and over again (since they didn't really have any new ones...) and luckily my parents didn't mind (that much).
I sang in the shower, I sang in choirs, I sang everywhere I could. It was a bit embarrassing when I got caught singing too loudly though...like any time Mum would hear my belting in the shower, or the weird looks I'd get from people in assembly when I was singing the National Anthem too loudly. Relatedly, I got banned from whistling in the primary school library because I loved music that much.
Violinist Extraordinaire
"There is no worse sound in the world than someone who cannot play the violin but insists on doing so anyway.” Lemony Snicket, The Austere Academy
I, like many other Asian kids, learned violin. I actually learnt piano (well, keyboard) for a year or two, but gave up my dreams of piano stardom to focus on becoming a violin extraordinaire. I was kind of unco-ordinated on the piano - I still am - because my brain just can't work out how to play two hands independently. It's just too hard!
I played a bit of cello for a year in Year 2, but I was a li'l midget of a boy so I gave that up quickly haha. Absolutely comical scenes of a child trying to lug around a cello nearly his whole height. Just imagine.
I got to a pretty high level on violin though - not penthouse level, but a few levels below that still has a nice view of the city skyline. By the time I got to Year 12, I was finally performing AMus pieces, which are essentially concertos - solo pieces of music where you show off how good you are. When you get to that level, it's a marvellous experience to hear yourself make those sounds (as long as you don't screw up). It's the flow state of mastery, which unfortunately for me has been lost to the fading notes of time.
A radio switch
I never knew the pop songs of the moment. I didn't listen to FM Radio like the Fox or anything like that. I literally thought Britney Spears was Australian because everyone was talking about her incessantly. I was like 'Why did she go back to...America? That's weird'. Also I never understood the 'Frank Walker from National Tiles' ad that the kids at school would joke about. I didn't know any of the #coolmemes of my youth - neither hip, nor with it.
The first time my sister asked if we could switch from 1377 to the Fox in our car was the most shocking request I had ever experienced in my life. How could she dare to ask our parents to change it? To FM?! As the eldest son I was outraged on my parents behalf!
"Sure, no worries"
And then my parents got obsessed with Matt Tilley's Gotcha calls on the Fox.
The world changes, eh?
It...kind of helped? I still didn't really understand the music of the day. It was just something else that othered me - I never really recognised the melodies people were humming, or the songs they sang. I just had to smile and nod, and pick it up from them second-hand instead...(and then from the Fox once Steph had changed our LIVES).
I had a bad memory as well, so I couldn't really talk about the bands or singers or songs I liked. Oh well. It helped me learn how to like what I like, and not care about what others thought, and adopt the attitude of my favourite XKCD comic...welcome to Today's 10,000.
New Sounds
I couldn't understand indie music for the longest time. I was waiting for the lyrics, and didn't catch the vibe. I mean, you go from these wonderfully lyrical, singer-driven songs, to what sounded to me at the time like random noise and chaos. When Steph again switched us to Triple J, it was torture. I'd just got into the Fox!! Now there's a NEW RADIO STATION to get used to?!!
It took me a long time, as well as infinite patience from a really good friend (thanks Alex!) trying to slowly break me into it, to finally understand it. The pleasure isn't in the lyrics, it's all of the noises together, in harmony, in cacophony, together - every instrument plays a part, and the voice is just another firework in the show. It's still a bit weird to me but I think I'm getting there?
A blast from the past
Early 2000's YouTube was full of new singers and cover artists. AJ Rafael, Jason Chen, Gabe Bondoc, Kina Grannis, Kurt Hugo Schneider - I loved listening to covers, remixes of new tunes, a plethora of different and creative new voices. It actually introduced me to all those songs I'd missed from the 90s because I was listening to AM radio.
I know it's still around on YouTube but...where did it all go? It seems a lot less popular than it once was...blasted YouTube algorithm.
I had to find ways to download YouTube videos and convert them into mp3's to put on my iPod. Otherwise, I would try to find those tracks on Limewire or Kazaa, which, at the time, were still around. (Oh to be young again and download Limewire Pro through Limewire, hoping you weren't downloading viruses on to your computer and getting in trouble for it. A GOLDEN AGE.)
I had one of those first generation iPod mini's I think - it had like 60GB and was chunky as hell. I put a mix of YouTube music, old music and classical music on it...but never really got into making playlists. I was used to the radio pulling out random songs at any time - that's one of the features I actually love about Spotify today - being able to put on a radio of similar tracks and discovering new music. The recommendations are just swell.
Karaoke life
As you can tell, a lot of the songs I love are old. In The Voice audition I had initially gone with 4 really old songs...but it told me I had to put in some new, popular songs as well. Yikes! At least I'd gone to karaoke enough to learn the songs from there, so I chose some that I thought would show my raaaaaaaaange.
Which is another fun memory - trying to stack 20+ people into one room for karaoke to save costs. The humidity was terrifying but incredibly fun to experience. What a time to be alive - being in the same room with other people in a confined space? We were absolutely spoiled.
I learned a lot of songs through watching and listening to other people sing at karaoke. One of my friends would start with Phantom of the Opera by Nightwish every time we went, and it was an incredibly...loud experience.
But the interesting thing I found was that it was the only place I knew, where other people would also know all the old songs I liked! What had happened?! Had I just found all the other people who had been forced by their parenets to listen to 1377 AM radio when they were young too?!
I learned R&B songs, Chinese songs, Broadway songs, ballads, raps, Cantonese songs, Japanese songs, Disney songs - all from karaoke. My musical training helped to pick up melodies and sing them quickly, so now I know how to sing a bunch of songs I've never heard the original of. It's one of my favourite things to do (mostly because I love singing), and I can't wait to get back to it once this quarantine is over :)
Memory recall over. Alexa, play Despacito.
Chat soon :)
✔️ Real Life Recommendations
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Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks - if you want to read more about this, this book is quite good. I read through half of it before I had to return it (can't remember how long ago) - it was great! I'll have to find it again.
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Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major - this is one of my favourite violin concertos - it's got an extremely joyous riff of double stops that I love. Having it being played by Itzhak Perlman, world famous violinist, makes it even better :)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
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Kanye Deconstructed: The Voice as a Musical Instrument - I got really into Kanye two years or so ago, and I couldn't understand why - but I think this is one of the reasons! Though he's been pretty unstable on the public stage, there's no doubting that he has a genius way with music and production, and it's a joy to listen to some of his music.
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Cozy - Lo-Fi Game Music - a few months ago while working from home I found this youtuber who was making some really chill lo-fi videos based on games. There are Final Fantasy ones, Kingdom Hearts, Avatar, Animal Crossing, Pokemon - you name it, the channel's probably done it!
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Test your Musical IQ - A Harvard study is doing a quiz on music - seeing how good people are at picking off-notes, off-melodies and off-beats. Have fun!
🌱 The Calathea Corner
Last few majestic pictures before I retire this segment - any ideas on what should replace it? :)
