Music

Music

Music Preference: Jazz – Cool, Swing, Smooth, Hot and Cuban. You name it I’d probably enjoy it. Rock and Pop music. Everyone loves a good boy-band! Don’t they? Some alternative and classical.

I started learning the piano from a very early age and soon begun a love-hate relationship with music in general. I can’t sing, but strangely I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t actually in the choir at school. Til this day, I don’t go anywhere near the piano and the only time I sing is at karaoke in the company of friends who can sing or alone in the car. Come to think of it, that’s a lie in its own, I sing on a weekly basis with my kids at work and I do it very badly.

I’ve had an appreciation for Jazz since the time we first met. (That’s a lie, because I know for sure that I had listened to some in primary school) The appreciation probably came as a result of my involvement in high school musicals and North Sydney Boys’ annual ‘Musicale’ – a night when we all got to show off to our parents, friends and family.

I never really took part in any musicals in the sense of singing and dancing, but I was part of the Stage Crew for quite a few of them and was always part of the stage crew in the annual musicales.

Til this day my fondest memory of music was not so much a concert or a live event per se, but an incident involving best mate Tim in either year seven or eight. I don’t know how Tim managed to find himself in the choir, but he was there and proudly singing the part made for girls – a soprano. Back then I think they called it “trebles” just so that their sexuality wouldn’t be called into question immediately.

So the story goes… One day the famous North Sydney Boys’ Choir entered the Ryde Eisteddfod and were almost awarded a place/trophy but unfortunately some of the judges mistook Tim’s squint as ‘face pulling’. Normally, we could have probably lodged a complaint for racial discrimination as Asians tend to have eyes that make them look like they’re squinting all the time anyway. Poor Tim was however squinting because the lights were so dam bright he couldn’t see our conductor. That’s at least what he claims anyway.

One thing I learnt there and then was that some people took music itself too seriously and so what if Tim was squinting? It didn’t take away from the quality of the music and besides music is there to be enjoyed.

I believe that music is best listened to live, but for me often it’s a matter of expression. Except for in the car, the music I listen to generally describes my mood. Why the exception? The car is where ‘happy’ or ‘sing-a-long’ music belongs. In my university days I conducted a case-study/self-experiment where I would have various types of music in my car, and I found that I would be a more aggressive driver when I listened to dance, rock and grungy types of music. Weird eh? But we all know its best not to encourage me and my crappy family sized car to speed and become a menace to society. No amount of ‘go-fast’ stickers or ‘Mugen’ power is going to make me safe.

On a tangent but still on music in general, I’ve often wondered how many people actually look at the album art within the CD that they buy. Obviously the album art isn’t going to be the deciding factor, but I guess I feel that it contributes to the package as a whole. With the advent of the internet these days, there’s probably little that you wouldn’t already know about a band that the inside cover is going to tell you.

I don’t think this area or any other areas of the site is going to provide you with any useful information. I do however hope that I will be able to find the time to scan in the album front covers of the CDs I own a long with their tracks and lyrics. I know it has all be done before, but this is more for me!

Happy browsing!