For the record...

...I love my Antonio Sanchez guitar. Really, I do.

But today I came to the painful realization that what Teacher O was saying was right. Antonio Sanchez can no longer help me.

OK, I admit it, Teacher O knows his stuff when it comes to guitars. He said it 3 months ago, Teacher M said it today, and I also felt it myself since 2 weeks ago.

Now the question is what make, which style, and what strength. The sky is the limit now.

Do I want "Romantic" Spanish?

Do I want "Baroque" German?


Do I want rosewood, cedar, or mahogany?

How much am I willing to pay?

Frankly, money is the other issue now, these things ain't cheap. In fact the closest affordable kin to Antonio Sanchez costs 8 times more than 'him'.

AAAArrrrrggghhhh. I wish I was rich.

I'm going to get a cup of cocoa and strum this misery away with Antonio Sanchez.

Baby, you and I will have to make do for a while now.

It's a very hot day...

Yeah, no kidding, it's been like this for a week now, 33-37C (about 93-100F) and 100% humidity, everyday. The air is so thick and you can cut it with a knife!
This makes it really difficult to go about your routines and even try to lead a normal life. You just can't think. And this alone makes the days completely unbearable.

I'm still bummed with this. This weather makes it even worse, the heart that usually forgives finds it really hard these days. My sister will always advice that something is a big deal because we make it one, so I definitely should switch my state of mind to make it a no deal at all.

I have to say it's hard, though. The heat and humidity really isn't helping. So, last night I made a list on what 100-times-better things to do than seething in grudges:

1. Taiko drumming, of course!

Oh I am so looking forward to my taiko practice on Sunday and the Earth Celebration next week!! There is nothing in the world like drumming that never fails to pick up my mood to the 7th heaven. You can give so much to taiko and guaranteed it will give you back the equal amount of energy. It's always funny with musical instruments, you get back as much as you give them.
Not to sound melancholic or cheesy, but there was a time when I had to go through a really terrible unfortunate situation. Details unimportant, but it involved a lot of unhappiness.
The following morning after the most horrible situation took place, I went to my taiko class, thinking that beating on the drums would take my mind off it. It was one of the most intense meditative experience that I have had with the drums, I laughed when the song was joyful, cried when the song was sad, bopped around as the song went funny, cried out with ridicule when everybody made mistakes during the songs. After very intense 4 hours, I left the practice feeling deadly exhausted physically but the heart felt a great deal lighter and I was able to smile again.

Yes, taiko is my other life. Indeed it is, I feel a lot better already now thinking about it.

2. Eat chocolate cake.

I want to eat chocolate cake. I want to eat a LOT of chocolate cake. The fudge one.

3. Bake the chocolate cake so it can be eaten

I am going to cook Nigella Lawson's chocolate cake. It looks really good in her cookbook!

4. Be a couch potato in an air-conditioned room.

Watch a whole bunch of DVDs that my sister sent me on some TV series that I like, ranging from Desperate Housewives, CSI: Las Vegas season 7, Grey's Anatomy, and Ugly Betty. This will be fun

5. Piddle with Antonio Sanchez la guitarra mi corazón!

Yes, teacher M gave me a couple of homeworks that she will test on me on Monday. She said that if I could keep up until level 5 exams songs, she'll have a chat with the school's guitar orchestra and see if I can take an apprenticeship training with them. I'm giddy with joy just to have that prospect. FUN!

6. Thank goodness it's Friday!

The weekend is coming up tomorrow! YEAH! Finally, a full real weekend. I forgot what it's like to have a real weekend. How fun it is to be able to sleep in, go to the gym, or I can also NOT do anything at all whatsoever.

7. Daydream about Earth Celebration 2007

This event is my annual pilgrimage. I go and join the celebration every year and schedule all of my work in August around this event. Ah, days and nights of fun, happiness, drumming, laughing, swimming, outdoors concert, camping, road trips, foods. Words truly can't explain just how fun it is to be there at the celebration. Believe me, I've tried so many times, you just have to go there and experience it yourself!

Ah.... there are indeed many things that are 100-times-better than the thing-I-thought-about when I started this post. Better dedicate energy to those! It's now long forgotten.

Please excuse me, now I need to continue my daydream about Earth Celebration 2007.

I'm a bit mad right now

How could he do that to my dear Antonio Sanchez?

Oh, yeah, I am talking about my guitar teacher.

So, today I hailed to my 3rd guitar class. Teacher O said that my progress is impressive that I have sailed through some months worth of training in just a few classes. If only anyone would pay attention to the fact that I am not a beginner and gave me a placement test at the beginning, maybe we could save some precious time (and my money!).
This comment came with a price, though. Teacher O simply said that my guitar cannot keep up with me. That my Antonio Sanchez could not produce the sound that is meant to be produced.
In proving his point, he handed me his guitar and asked me to play a few songs with it. And... I am officially damned, because I get what he's saying.

But Antonio Sanchez is still a beautiful guitar. And the sound that it produces is also beautiful. Yes, maybe not as beautiful as Teacher O's guitar, but still beautiful.
If Teacher O is thinking that I'd ditch my beautiful guitar just because he said I should, then he must be living in some weird guitar planet and simply is out of his mind.

I'm sticking to Antonio Sanchez. If in 6 months time I feel pulled back by it, only then, we can reopen this guitar changing topic.

Hmmph! I'm a bit mad right now.

An early birthday present!

Oh, I'm so excited!!!

I know my birthday is not until next month, but I've decided on an early birthday present for myself. Yep!
I signed myself up for a guitar class!

So... I picked up the beloved instrument back late last month. Since then, whenever I'm home, I rarely find myself without Mister Antonio Sanchez in my hands. Got myself some music books, equipped with the tablatures. As an ambitious objective, I set myself up to master "Cavatina" for a small gig scheduled in September.

A month has passed and I have gone as far as 2 pages in Cavatina (the entire music is about 7 pages), and I'm nowhere near smooth in playing the parts. Looking around Youtube, the darned Xuefei Yang and Ana Vidovic sure made it look so simple and easy. I wonder how many years of training they went through to be able to spread 4 fingers across 5 frets, with different emphasis, on all different strings, too!

Again I came into the realization that I am not much of a self-teaching kind of pupil. I never was one. And doubtful I will ever be one.

So, off I went to Niibori Music School last night to see what they need me do to be able to start my education (other than money, of course).

I walked into the small classroom with 3 advanced students looking at me in their utmost bemused expression. Yeah, picture this: after finally locating their classroom in Yoyogi, I decided to rush over to the class that very evening.
I had shot them an e-mail on Monday afternoon, but they have not got back to me with a visitation schedule. I had only two nights free this week to investigate this further, one was Monday night, and the other was Tuesday night. I figured, why don't I just poke my nose in, worst case scenario would be when they turn me down until a visitation schedule is set. With that in mind, I decided to just go with the best intention to get there before 8 PM.
I cycled over with my giant gym bag in tow, unshowered, all sweaty and my hair was in complete disarray. The elevator was stuck in one of the floor and with 10 minutes to spare, I made a split second decision to run upstairs to the 5th floor where the class is located. While huff-n-puff-ing, I found the class and walked right into a class of 3 advanced guitarists. I mean, literally, right into the MIDDLE of it all. I bet they never had such a comical interruption.
Heck, how was I supposed to know if the classroom is also the reception area.

Putting that aside, and pausing the class for the 10 minutes I was there, Ogiwara-sensei went through the curriculum and explained how I could just easily ease into the system. And to my pleasant surprise: all classes will be one-on-one basis, unless I request otherwise. Heck! This is GREAT. Much better than my group class with YAMAHA years ago.

So, my trial class will be on Saturday and if I like it, I can start as early as next week.

I'm sooooooo excited!!! Can you tell?

Phenomenon

What a delicious day!

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am with the biggest smile on my face. The day was breezy, the birds were chirping and I made a decision right then that I am taking today off for a well-deserved break after a really tremulous week at work.

While thinking of what million things that I could do for this day, I looked at the stack of books on my night table and saw that it is a good time for me to start reading Alexander McCall Smith's "The Sunday Philosophy Club". With Yo-Yo Ma at the background, I recalled thinking, this is such a perfect day to stay home and relax.

After a couple of chapters, I decided to finally get up and do some activity. Looking at my VCR I was suddenly reminded that I got American Idol recorded for the Final 6 going to Final 4 (yeah, Japan is soooo delayed in airing this show, but love it still! Go Jordin Sparks!)So I sat for 2 hours watching this episode down to the result, ah the beauty of having this recorded, no need to put up wiht ProActiv's advertising and AKB48's annoying recap of the show - fast forwarded.
And then... finally I decided to continue my morning as a couch potato. I put "Eat drink man woman" on. Not only that movie was very well-made (kudos to Director Ang Lee), Master Chu's Sunday feast was extremely mouth watering and the topics in the movie were thought provoking. If you haven't seen it, do not let the title discourage you, it is worth your time and an excellent cultural exposure for the Chinese culture.

So at 2 pm I am left with the fulfilled feeling and was somewhat ready to embrace something more exciting for the day. Maybe a bit of a work out?
The easy pace I've adopted for the day discourage myself from jumping onto the bicycle to go to the gym, so the pilates video it is. Quoting Ellen Barrett, "Now I am ready to conquer the day!" I jumped into the shower and already thought about going to Ochanomizu's guitar street and get myself a guitar!

Going to Ochanomizu is one of my favorite past time. The music instruments sold on this street are mostly guitars, but the big shops like Shimokura or Kurosawa will always have a good selection of other instruments as well.
My first stop was Shimokura, the guy led me to the classical and accoustic guitar section. Yes, they had the Yamaha I was looking for, but the price seems to me a little higher than what I expected. But still, I wanted to give it a go and see if it had the sound that I wanted.

A very interesting phenomenon happened at that very moment. I was able to play again! Just out of nowhere, all old pieces that I learned some 15 years ago flew through my fingers again, as if it was only yesterday that I played those songs. It was very emotional, I nearly cried feeling very much at home holding and playing that guitar.
It made me think of a conversation I had with a friend of mine 3 years ago when I just bought the Takamine. I remembered that time completely puzzled why I feel distant from the guitar, not wanting to pick up the guitar at all times the way I used to, and why the songs just seemed to challenge me at every step of the way. I just could not understand why it was so hard doing something that I used to love so much.
My friend then said to me, "Don't worry, Tari, it will be like riding a bicycle, it will come back to you in no time."
That "no time" never arrived back to me, which resulted in me giving up trying to play the guitar again until last week. That was when I came to realization that maybe I haven't found the one! Today, that very moment when I held and played that classical guitar, I realized that I've come home at last. How silly, a classically trained guitarist trying to do the same thing on an accoustic! Of course it's not going to be the same thing.

I am not one to fret about prices when it comes to things that I feel I belong to. But somehow even after spending 20 minutes playing with the Yamaha, I still feel that something was missing.
So, I decided to leave the store to give it some thought and come back again later. I walked the entire guitar street, going into every single one of them, in search of the one. Much to my dismay, they don't have that many selections when it came to classical guitars. Until finally I went into Kurosawa's Dr. Sound. I know this shop is often recommended for their specialty in catering all custom-made string instruments, mostly violins and guitars. Thought they just might have the one. I was very pleased that they have an entire floor dedicated for the classical guitars. They have all brands that was not even mentioned in the other stores. I was hooked! I started with trying different models from Julian (reasonable), Juan Hernandez (EXPENSIVE!), Yamaha (reasonable), Antonio Lopez (EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!), and finally Antonio Sanchez (from moderate to EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!).
I spent nearly 30 minutes with one of the Antonio Sanchez's, and fell in love with the round and smooth tone that came out from the series. While I was trying the guitars, the shop guy was educating me on the differences from the wood made and proving the different vibrations that came from each wood could pro-create quite a different effect that could make such a huge difference in the sound production. And then he joined in and started jamming with me which was so much fun. I haven't jammed with anyone on the guitars in so long that it was like finding an oasis.
I finally hit home with one of the Studio models. Estudio-2 Cedar, to be very exact. Yeah, it's almost the cheapest in the collection. Heck, I haven't played regularly in nearly 15 years, I'm not about to spend an outrageous amount of money on something I bought on a whim! Maybe one day when I master the Spanish guitar skill!