Caresse de la Brise;: Learn the Rules... & Break Them!

"You need to learn the rules so that you can break them intelligently."

"你需要學會規則才能夠聰明的打破它." (或許翻得不是很好..)

This was taken from one of Matt's favorite quotations - coming from a Design History professor.
(Who is it, Matt? :D)

This lingering concept of the day traced back to one of my long memories...

My mom supported and encouraged me to learn piano since a young age, she thought having some musical inspirations for a child is never a bad thing. In Taiwanese/Chinese concepts, childhood is the best time for learning anything... not only it will inspire a child's interests, learning the piano may also become one of my many interests as well as for self-entertainment (even if I dropped the trainings).

So since kindergarten, I've been attending music courses of the Japanese YAMAHA system (more of a Japanese and Asian (?) scope musical system and tests compared to other ones such as the ABRSM, a more international recognized music and theory exam. (I'm not sure if this one is more known for American society, actually xD - but hopefully Christina Tarn, my musical mentor will find time to explain more as she is one of the participants who earned distinction level!) Nevertheless, YAHAMA's musical education was the basis of my musical journey and pretty much how I came to be the music appreciator I am today.

My piano learning journey wasn't a smooth one, because I'm definately not a very initiating student; most of all, not a good daughter who seem to cherish her opportunities and cultivation from parents.

I remembered how I would always be reminded to practice, practice and practice...

My dad would always say "practice makes perfect", with a grand expectation hoping I would go and be a diligent player..

Of course, besides his encouraging aspects, he would certainly get disappointed and frustrated by my laziness and irritated attitude from not wanting to even 'touch' my piano/keyboard (of earlier times).

I've been beaten out of love. A lot of love... that stems the frustration, disappointment, anger, and expectation from my parents... All of this made sense as I am a 19 year-old by now. Certainly I understood their point of view as parents. Taiwanese parents... whose values and views are rooted from Chinese culture and thoughts, they "want their sons to be dragons, want their daughter to be phoenixes" (望子成龍, 望女成鳳)

But I don't care. I simply didn't like or have the want to touch my keyboard/piano that time.

There wasn't much joy I really got out of it. But based on my progress and potential to keep playing until I can enjoy it, I continued.

During these times, I worked on passing YAMAHA piano exams from grade 9 all the way to 6...(YAMAHA system starts from Grade 9 and counts down to grade 3 or 2, the best record/performing level yet) while preparing for those, my piano teacher trained me with classical based pieces and music scores as fundamental works, as well as practicing scales... to keep it interesting and melodic, at times some pieces from another book of scores.

But even that bored me. By passing grade 7's sight reading with tears, I passed the line. But I knew grade 6 would be problematic. Since failing the grade 6 exam in the YAMAHA system around middle school, my piano teacher only found me more interesting pop scores to play. Yet I was reaching a limit of not wanting to do any of it.

Due to my fluctuating emotions and limit, I stopped - I really resisted having any more things to do with the piano and scores... because I felt trapped.

Trapped by those fingerings I'm adviced to follow that'll make playing easier (supposedly), trapped by classical techniques that seem so crucial to my piano learning (even if I knew it was essential and the MUST of learning)... I rather play "freely".

What do I mean by freely, though? Jam the keys?

Well, I felt frustrated enough several times that I did bang on them... but that's not "free", it's just pure frustration exerted :) .

The freedom only came to me occasionally: I would listen to Taiwanese pop songs and play the melodies by ear on piano keys - to be more exact, it's more like "testing the key and notes". During YAMAHA piano exams, I usually did do better with the aural and play sections anyway; completely out balancing my sight reading skills. Doing this, playing more "freely" according to my wishes in fact did bring me a greater sense of happiness. At least, it makes me dwell on it for hours if the melodies in my mind kept reminding me of songs I can "try" on the piano.

I used to be so distraught while learning piano, abiding the rules, fingerings... all the necessary things that seemed to tie me up like a shapeless rope - but they were also the basis (somewhat) of my freedom when successfully "playing" the pop songs. I suppose rhythm and theory-wise I did break many rules, whether intelligently or not - rules are inseparably necessary in learning; most of all, in need to break free in order to innovate.

Tracing from art history, isn't that what most artists did that led to their fame?