April is ending or you can say that let’s welcome May instead. Yup, it’s been a busy month for me. However, I need to celebrate 2 big accomplishments. One, I completed 2 full day guitar course. I never, officially, learn how to play musical instruments before. Despite I’m so skeptical that I’ll be able to play just by attending 2-days course, I decided to enroll anyway.
My class was on 7 and 14. I think I mentioned it briefly how the teacher engaged us, pushed us, by giving us practical tips and his famous line is, if you don’t do anything, so be content with status quo or who you are right now. Anyway, back to the story. I chose “Big Bang – Bad Boy” as a song I want to play. I thought the teacher would told me to change song, since I’m not really familiar with the lyrics. I can sing-a-long partially, but there are lots of parts where I “twisted” my tongue.
But maybe my determination to sing this song is so deep because I can’t mention any other songs passionately when he asked me what are the songs I’m familiar with. So, as the saying that when there is a will, there will be a way. I did some research, and found out that some sites give you the simplified version of the lyrics. It means it’s written in plain romanization, instead of written with proper Hangul pronunciation.
During the first 1-to-1 coaching session, the teacher identified some issues that I have and how to address it. Put it simple, I break it down into 3 key areas:
- To get familiar with the lyrics, I need to be able to sing it fluently.
- To get familiar with the chords, I need to be able to engage and play the right one.
- To know the tempo, I need to play consistently.
What I did was humming the lyrics whenever I was on commute, practice with my guitar as soon as I reach home. I never felt like this before, recently. After some practice, I’m able to solve the 2nd and 3rd issue. Then a new challenge comes, on sing and play at the same time. (I really salute to the musicians who can play and sing at the same time)
I finally able to make it to the, so called, graduation performance. And it’s marking a new journey for me, even though it’s the end of the course. Quoting one of my eldest classmates, never too old to learn things that you like. We should keep the passion alive.
Second achievement is I’m able to jog regularly every Sunday, for at least 2.4 km, throughout April. And I was able to run at least 4 km for the last 3 runs I had. I’m the type of person who hates to run not in a circuit. But somehow circuit running doesn’t really motivates me to run, even before I ran for 1 lap I always a thought, I can’t run any further.
Out of curiosity, I decided to explore new route. I didn’t plan to jog that day; let’s just walk I told myself. After finding the “track” I want to run to, somehow my body told me that I’m ready. I started some warming up and I ran, for 4km.
So the question after this is, “Kartika, will you be able to keep this performance or increase it?”
