harmonium: even garfield buys dog food

A few days ago, Striker and I have come to an agreement that we’d work on a song together. Although he did remind me that I should learn how to play an instrument first before we can begin. This coming from a guy who’ve known me for almost a decade. I know how to play the piano thank you very much, though I do have to brush up on my skills as I am admittedly a little bit rusty. The last time I tried to play was in 2005 when I downloaded a piano sheet for – surprise, surprise – "We Belong Together". Unfortunately, I never got to fully learn the piece as the instrument was needed to be kept elsewhere, among with the rest of our things, for the house renovation. Excuses, excuses.

Oh and by instrument, I mean the keyboard that my aunt bought for herself which weirdly, took residence in my room ever since it was bought. So I’m claiming it as mine as of today. I did plan on buying one last year but my brother insisted on his gift (iPod) and since I’m a good sibling I gave in, with my dream of owning a fantastic keyboard put on hold.

As far as I know, my family has always been musically inclined. My mom told me that my great grandmother used to sing in our Church’s choir while my great grandfather used to play for a marching band. The latter’s musicality was apparently inherited by their sons – who at some point in their lives have had dabbled with music in some form (two of them graduated from college thanks to their scholarship from joining the school’s band). All of them know how to play musical instruments and their eldest have had an extensive experience as a band and orchestra conductor (I think he also played for the likes of Lea Salonga). He’s also the one who gave me the primer on music education and informally taught me how to read notes and play the piano, flute, violin and trumpet. A passing interest for the last three.

I’ve had formal training in playing keyboards when I was seven years old with the resident pianist of the Church. She’s a nice old lady who lives with her dog. Her kids are already in Canada and I believe she’s just waiting for her petition approval. In the meantime, she spends her free time serving the Lord and charging P450/hour for piano lessons.

Under her pamalo, I started by learning the keys to "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and "Do-Re-Mi" and then progressed to making arrangements for "A Whole New World", "Hero" (among a plethora of Mariah numbers), and "Maalala Mo Kaya". We usually hold the practices at her house which is a few blocks from ours though there are times that she’ll ask me to sit in with her at the Church so we can work on a catalog’s worth of Catholic liturgical songs (my favorite of which is "Tanging Yaman"). This proved helpful as I managed to ‘volunteer’ to play the piano during the mass celebrations at school (and being a Catholic school, we had plenty). We eventually moved on to the more complex pieces such as the "William Tell Overture" and the "Trumpeter’s Serenade". The latter was my recital piece had I attended the actual recital.

I stopped having tutorials with her when she had to leave for Canada. And I became busy with life as well, though I did play the keyboard occasionally just to please my parents. They were so proud, especially my mom whenever I play "Annie’s Song". Aw.

After ten years my piano teacher came back and invited me for an afternoon tea. She asked if I could play a few songs for her. I agreed for a discounted P495 per song.

And she thought I was kidding.