Jun-ichi Matsumoto in concert with the electone stagea

i've just came back from an electone concert by Jun-Ichi Matsumoto(this postcard is signed)

 and i'm really grateful to mummumchops for taking me to it even though we were in a mess trying to find the venue in the rain.  

If you do not know already, i've been playing the electone ever since i was 6.  played at church when i was 12, played for some school functions in secondary school, had a mini performance at the music school at 17, but that's that.  i can't even say that i've made any mark in the music world, especially in this niche electone community where parents send kids to learn it just to learn a skill(not serious just exposure) or to train them so that there's a job to fall back upon if their kid's career don't work out(my parents).  

however it is rather unfortunate that i've only discovered how naive i was till i switched electone teachers.  i thought i was a really good musician but got slammed badly by the new teacher who taught me a lot, more than my ten years of learning at the school with my previous teacher.  I suffered because even after doing music for a decade, i've failed to master the use of the instrument.  I've failed to attend theory exams, because i wasn't told to.  I never went for concerts to expose myself to the possibilities of styles and ways of playing the electone... 

Imagine i call myself an organist, but do not know how to operate the very machine that's been with me since forever.  it's like a guitarist who can't tune his guitar, a painter who doesn't know how to use linseed oil, a graphic designer who doesn't know his photoshop, a photographer who doesn't know how to use his camera...

It's a handicap that ties you down, and causes u embarassment.  Imagine yourself at 20 and not able to count your 1,2,3 or recite the ABC.  that's how i feel. 

i told mummumchops that i don't want to only be an aspiring artist.  both art and music came into my life together.  I wanna do music too, and we can collaborate in performances.  However i can't with my handicap.  And i am handicapped also because i don't have the right instrument that i want full control of.  That is the Electone stagea over here that Jun-Ichi performed on.  

it costs near $20000.  (damn right?!)

today i learnt someththing about playing.  

1)We don't have to use the rythmn box at all.  

2)we can do a full orchestra on the organ with prerecorded parts

3)the use of sounds to build up atmosphere

you see these are all new to me because of under exposure and i am trained to just sight-read and play from the score.  And for the sounds that accompany the music, we select the 8beat rythmn box and program about 5 sets of lead sounds and the usual strings for the lower keyboard... which is very old school and uncreative.

teachers play a very impt role in learning, esp in a niche area(goes the same for printmaking).  I only realise today that singapore lacks professional musician teachers.  How many electonist actually make it in singapore?  i bet a lot of people don't even know what the electone is.  How many electone teachers are that creative and really qualified to teach the younger generation and people who are as serious as me in music and art? 

I look at myself, as an art teacher- it seems so easy to be qualified, but how good am i really?  am i really doing a good job? am i really inspiring the younger generation the right way?  

so far i've only really written two arrangements with the help of mum mum chops with the programming of drum rythms and the provision of scores.  i hope to do more in the future and come up with some originals in orchestral style, an area that i've never explored before.  

when i get my stagea, i will fiddle and experiment on it so that mum mum chops and i can do a drum and electone performance together.