Aura (Part I)

I am psycho. I admit. I can sense something that no one else could.

It happens when I was only Grade 2 in piano music. I came across a word that made me sick: 'cantabile'. I pronounced it as 'can-tah-bile (you know the BILE in our body?)'. I hated it. The way of playing a song in cantabile was super cumbersome.

cantabile means 'in a singing style'. Imagine playing a piano as if the notes are singing.

Alright, it is pronounced as 'kahn-tah-bee-ley'.

But then, my brain tweaked suddenly when I was in primary 5 (I bet I've said this many times). I suddenly developed a skill which my piano teacher never taught me. A skill of a 'sliding volume'. I don't know how to describe it, but I always tell my students the term is 'falling'. Yup, the notes sound as if they were falling.

For a practical example, listen to Sarah McLachlan's 'Fallen'. Yup, that's where I got the name, because that 'falling' effect is flooding in her song.

I thought it was a simple skill. So I began to expect those 'diplomae' know it. Sorry for my stupid English, 'diplomae' is coined by my younger bro which means 'diploma students', and according to my majestic bro, it is pronounced as 'deep-plow-MAY'.

And guess what, NONE of the 'diplomae' can master the skill. So maybe I thought the result wasn't conclusive, so I went to a master from Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and Trinity's main officer.

LOL. That day was my greatest day. He said my voicing is damn good and expressive. OK, in piano terms, voicing does not mean singing, it means when there are a cluster of notes pressed down on the keyboard, only ONE must be heard while the rest must be softened, usually the voicing part is played by your baby finger or thumb.

Fantastico!

He said, usually not much people can master this kind of 'falling' skills. And, I did almost fly. Because the next week, I am teaching my piano teacher how to do that skill.

She failed.

MUAHAHA... the skill is my trademark from now on. I am not being boisterous. It's true. I taught many people, even my younger bro, who is a prodigy, could not master it properly.

And because of the skill 'falling', I learn to develop emotions towards a song, seeing a song in different colourds. Chromatography.

If a song is in G major, all I can see is green. If a song is in B minor, it's black. E minor songs make blue colour prominent. So on and so forth.

So, now, combining my younger bro's knowledge of chords progression (I tell you, he is good. He can say that chord II can link with chord VI when we all know that chord II only links with chord V) and my power of feelings and chromatograhy, our songs are unbeatable. LOL!

And hey, I got the highest stagecraft marks for every performance OK? I got my Performer's Cert for nothing!