Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Dance in A

This song brought tears to our eyes! So simple, yet beautiful.

Monday, February 3, 2014

How Bryan Started with Violin

It started with that fortuitous encounter with the children's string performance at Robertson Quay 2 christmases ago, when Bryan just finished playing at the indoor playground, and he was stopped in his tracks by the enchanting music delivered by the children of Wolfgang Violin studio. He was riveted, neither the lure of dinner after a completely exhausting run at Pollywogs, nor the insistent tugging of his mates to go run around the courtyard could unroot him from where he stood. He just gazed in amazement at the rendition of silent night as the harmonic sounds of mini violins just filled the courtyard, or at least to him they did.

That was a one-off event, Ade and I thought to myself, but months later, Bryan tried, "Mummy i want to buy a violin", and we thought, hmmm, the violin is a difficult instrument to master, one which probably requires lots of focus and commitment to pick up. We were apprehensive, for Bryan does have a record of having a short attention span to his toys, and we knew that the violin was quite a big commitment in terms of time and money, and not an anyhow 'masak - masak' kind of venture.

November last year, it was on the streets of Taiwan when Bryan chanced upon someone basking for school fees with his violin, and again, he grew roots to the ground, mouth gaping, eyes wide with wonder at the music emanating from the guy's instrument. When we came back to Singapore, Bryan asked Ade "mummy, it is already year end right?  I thought you said I can go for violin trial class if I asked at the end of the year?  Can?" And that was it, the next time he asked, we decided to bring him for a trial, just to test water. Straightaway the magic of last years christmas children violin performance floated into the cloud of our memory and we thought why not lets just bring him to the school that produced such child talents.

During Trial class, Bryan touched his first ever violin, and was guided by Mrs Annie Lee to produce beautify sounds from it. Raw, but melodious. Full notes, without the expected first time squeak which just rang of mucho mucho potential. We thought that it is only the duty of a parent not to vanquish the desire of a child to learn an instrument, but Bryan did more than that, he exhibited hunger at wanting to play it more, hence we bought the violin right away, and signed him up!

Now, this violin is an interesting piece. It wasn't brand new, but it was the very same violin he carried in to trial class, the violin which bowed up such beautiful sound, that one could have said that it chose him as much as he chose it. They were made for each other to begin this musical journey of his.


Our Little Cheeky Monkey :)