So whenever I'm stressed out or bored or upset or happy or anything, I really like to make music. That's probably why I play so many instruments: it's like increasing one's vocabulary. I have four or five instruments that I can play now. The reason it's not an exact number is that I'm not sure whether or not I should count my hands as an instrument. If you meet me, I'll show you, and you can cast your vote. So those instruments would be piano, violin, guitar, viola, and perhaps hands, if you would count that. I also like to sing.
Piano has been part of my life since I was very small. When we lived in South Africa when I was five, my mom showed me how to play a few children's tunes on the piano, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and the like. Two years later, a neighbour started giving me lessons, and then when she moved away, I took lessons at school. I kept up with lessons until tenth grade, but often felt that the times I made the most progress were the times I didn't have any teacher at all: when we moved from America to South Africa, when we moved from South Africa to Jordan (huge leap) and once I quit taking lessons. Now, I feel like I would probably benefit from lessons again, since I would like to play better but it's no longer just something I can figure out by myself, but of course I don't have time or money!! I do sit around and learn new pieces that also, like I said above, expand my vocabulary.
When I was 14, my uncle gave me a violin that has been in the family since my mom's cousin was a child (it belonged to her). So the instrument is around 50 years old. Apparently, Onkel Rolf, my uncle, had had his future told, and he was informed that one of his three daughters would become a musician. Remembering the painful sounds of learning to play violin as a child, he decided to get rid of the instrument, inflicting it upon his sister (my mom) instead, and thus gave it to me. It's a gorgeous violin, not one of the cheap violins you give to kids just starting out, and I started taking lessons when I was 16 and a half. So I've been playing for four years, now. Unfortunately, I didn't make as much progress within the last two years as I did in the first two years, after not quite two years of lessons I took the British Grade 5 exam and they gave me a distinction. But I'm probably still at that level now (if not below). Again, no time or money to continue lessons. :-(
But despite my lack of progress with piano or violin, I'm quite pleased with my guitar. So after being part of the worship team in the youth group in Jordan, I missed leading worship when I joined the CCF. It seemed that in order to be a worship leader, an ability to play guitar was a definite point in one's favour. So near the beginning of February 1999, my friend Katie Noyes showed me how to play an A on her guitar, and from that start, I borrowed my friend Matt Tiscareno's guitar one evening after the CCF meeting and stayed up until 3 am figuring out most of the other chords. Two days later, I borrowed another friend's guitar and led the South House Small Group in singing "Day By Day". I was really thrilled, and resolved to get my own guitar. Until that happened, my friend Jim Cheng very generously allowed me to borrow his guitar, so I taught myself more chords, with friends giving me advice on how not to sound awful, and other really useful tips. I've really been blessed with wonderful friends. Once I got my own guitar, I could play any time I chose, and Ellie Park gave a few of us lessons over the summer. Yay, Ellie! So, now, I can lead worship for the CCF, which I really enjoy: choosing songs that will help people focus on God, before we study His wonders in the Bible. I feel like I've found my niche.
At the end of frosh year, I asked Mrs. Bing, the Caltech Chamber Music director, if I could learn to play viola over the summer. So I obtained a Caltech-owned viola and taught myself alto clef. It's not too different from playing violin, the second time I touched the instrument I managed to play some of my Grade 5 pieces with almost okay intonation (but I still need lots of practice). The hardest part of playing viola is getting used to the new clef, but that's also do-able once you've sight-read through a few pieces and practiced some. In some ways, I almost prefer it to the violin. It's got a fuller, richer sound, and once you get used to it, good intonation is easier to achieve. I need to re-obtain the viola from Mrs. Bing, seeing as I'm back at Caltech again.
Ah, yes. Let me also tell you about my hands. I'm not all that certain if they should be classified as a musical instrument, though others insist that they should. If you cup your hands just right, and blow just right, and move your fingers to widen and narrow the aperture just right, you can make music. If I ever figure out how to include sounds on a website, I'll try to include a sample, and then maybe people can vote on whether it should count as an instrument or not. Until then, you'll just have to find me in person. Another nifty thing you can do with hands, is if you can hum at the same time as blowing, you can do harmony. This is EXTREMELY difficult, and keeping good intonation is next to impossible, but the few good sounds I can emit are quite impressive. I guess it'll just take practice. I discovered last year that it's a bad idea, when you're riding your bike around campus, to take your hands from the handlebars and try to hand-whistle "How Great Thou Art", even if you have a really good sense of balance. Just so you can learn from others' mistakes... Since they're always there, hands come in handy :) whenever I need NEED music. I arranged a Mozart piece that we sang in the YWCA choir in Jordan for hands and piano, which my brother's girlfriend and I played together at a church camp in South Africa. It was gorgeous, though I'm not sure Mozart would've approved...
But speaking of the YWCA choir, there's always singing. Frosh year I was a member of the Caltech Chamber Singers, the year before that I sang in my high school choir, before that a group of girls in our church formed our own group called "Abundant Joy", and before that I was in the YWCA choir in Jordan. Singing is lots of fun, and as long as you don't mind people staring at you, you can do it anywhere (well... not in math lecture).
Of course, if it hadn't been for the people who've encouraged me, I might not be as enthusiastic about music. In particular, I think of my high school choir teacher, Mrs. Prust. She used to let me stay after school and play her piano, and encouraged me to arrange a piece I had written earlier for the class to sing (they ended up putting the words in our graduation program), and kept on giving me encouraging notes which really made a difference. She told me not to give up music, and though I know I wouldn't have been able to stop anyway, her support has driven me to continue practicing and to keep on writing down the little bits that flit through my head.
Let me finish by sharing with you the words of the song that our high school choir class performed during the spring concert my senior year. It was arranged for four-part voices and piano, and the words were significantly modified from the original. Here they are:
When the world is a jumbled blur of confusion,
When you're losing the will to struggle on,
If you're weak and convinced that you haven't got what it takes,
Remember that you're not alone.
It may seem like there's no-one near who can help you,
Those who could understand are far away,
But no matter what happens, remember, God is still there,
And right beside you he will stay.
God is there even if the earth is crumbling,
If the mountains are tumbling in the sea,
For the one who created the heavens and the earth
Will always care for you and me.
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