My husband Ray's birthday will be coming very soon !
So I made a cake today.
and we purchased an electric guitar which he had been wanting for his birthday present this year.
Because it was limited quantities and we were afraid it may all sold out before his birthday, so we bought it last week.
He has been working hard, so he deserved to get it.
It's gorgeous !
I love the color. It looks like a shining beautiful gemstone !
I knew nothing about guitar but I've never seen such a beautiful electric guitar except for The Alfee's Toshihiko Takamizawa's special custom order guitar.
If it's beautiful, anything is great to me.
We have a keyboard which Ray purchased a long time ago, but we haven't used it for a long time.
Since he started practicing to play guitar and making music, I also started practicing the piano / keyboard for about one hour a day in my free time.
I choose the sound of grand piano while playing.
Someday, I want to get a real piano but I realized that the keyboard ( electric piano ) is in some ways very convenient.
I can play it with head phones anytime even in the night time, while a real piano can not play night time because neighbors .
also for keyboard, we can change to many kinds of sounds and we also don't need to set up the piano strings .
I have learned to play piano when I was a kid but only finished beginner level.
Me ( with red ribbon ) playing ”Invitation to the dance” by Weber and "Arabesques No.1 " by Debussy at the piano recital , when I was 11 years old.
I remember how to play piano until when I was a high school student.
I have played a piano in the school chorus recital because there was no one who could play a piano in my class.
Since then I haven't even touched a piano until now.
So, I'm starting from the very beginning, from the basic.
It's fun !
I want to improve and want to be able to play Chopin and Liszt and any music I want.
I feel like all the people who can play piano looks amazing.
Also all the band musicians who can play music and also can sing at the same time look like geniuses.
I knew they are all amazing but I didn't realize it that much until now I myself started doing the musical instrument .
In my generation, when I was a middle school student, there were many boys who were challenging to play electric guitar or acoustic guitar.
They admired guitar virtuosos like Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page.
My husband's guitar heroes since he was in high school till now are Brian May, Tommy Shaw and Alex Lifeson.
He also admires Ritchie Blackmore and Jimmy Page as well.
I think in my generation, there were some incredible musicians like them who could play musical instruments even though they were young age.
But since 1990s, I feel not much young people are challenging to get musical instrument skills.
Young people will always look up to their older generations especially around 20s - 30s people.
I don't even know who is called the genius guitarist in the present generation.
Their idols are DJ's who arrange sounds and beats .
Now a days, it's even more a digital generation which people care only for whether something is practical or not.
This may be why amazing musicians are decreasing ?
1960s to 1980s, and mainly 1970s , there were many genius guitarists.
IMO, DJ is good for dancing in a night club ( in my generation, it was called disco ), but I love to go to live concert where there are real musicians who can play their original music, playing on musical instruments.
Fortunately, there are always classical music fans in every generation, even though it's not popular, there are amazing pianists nowadays, and my husband says there are still amazing guitarists too.
I feel virtuoso musicians are incredible, whether they are " popular " or " trendy " or not.
I feel music can even heal the illness, and have heard stories about it.
I'm doing the piano for many reasons, for fun, for my health and for my self improvement.