MUSIC♪♬

I thought that it would be a great idea if I post the videos of my own on the blog! I actually recorded them about a month ago, but I had to stop in the middle, because my blisters popped while I was playing Kayagum, and it hurt a lot. (The blisters I got…—->)I finished the rest of the song a few days ago, and it took me a long time to find out how to post videos.

The song I am playing on this video is called “Chun-Seol (Spring Snow)” made by Byung-Ki Hwang. It’s pretty long, but I hope you will enjoy!

*The sound is a little bit slower than the video.

When I was doing this blog posting, I was wondering why I like Gayageum so much. At first, it was only for fun. Then, it got me interested, and I had a dream to be a musician with this instrument. When I just started learning how to play it when I was 8 years old, I honestly hated it. I always whined why I had to carry around the instrument that was taller and heavier than me. And I couldn’t stand the pain on my fingers. I got scared when I got the first blisters in my life; I thought I was going to die. I was about to give up with playing this instrument. But afterwards, I was attracted by the graceful sound that the instrument could make and the position they were sitting with it when some professional musicians were having a performance. Frankly, I was fascinated by their costumes more. Gayageum sounds like guitar and harp. The melody rings beautifully. It can make chords by plucking many strings with both hands. You also can vibrate the left side of the string, and it also can make higher pitch by pressing it. Let me compare this instrument to piano. The similarity is that you can make chords. But unlike piano, the sound rings in an area longer, and you can make any note by pressing with your left hand. Doesn’t this sound great to you? I think it is one of the most interesting instruments. There was another reason I wanted to start studying about this instrument. I was extremely frustrated that people were only interested in the modern music. I understand that it is boring for them, but they didn’t even know what the traditional instruments were called! That just sounded terrible to me that people didn’t care about their own nation’s history or ancestors daily lives. I had a dream of making people more interested in traditional music and make them to realize how beautiful it is more than they think. I know that I am not able to do that anymore since I left Korea and stopped studying about it. But I would like to help people who work for it when I grow up.

I guess Korean traditional music could be classic music to you. Even my friends in Korea do not like to listen to it. They think it is slow, boring, and old-fashioned. But I do not agree with them. I think it is extremely interesting to see how people celebrated special events and enjoyed their spare time by playing their instruments centuries ago. I started playing Gayageum, a guitar-like and harp-like traditional instrument, since I was 8. I had after school class for it 2 or 3 days per week. I used to be in a special school called the National Middle School of Korean Traditional Music before I moved to Costa Rica. Gayageum was my instrument that I chose in school, and I loved learning and playing it. I loved I had to pass a huge examination to go to that school. It was even more competitive, because they only accepted 105 people per grade, and only about 20 people for the class of my instrument. It was on si-chang and cheung-eum, which was to test my musical talent. For si-chang, I had to sing the notes that were on a score that they had made up without any accompaniment of piano.  Cheung-eum was another exam to test my musical ability. I had to write down the notes on a blank score while I was listening to the sound. They repeated only for two times, so I really had to be attentive. And I also had to have good grades in school. I felt sick before I was taking the exam, because I was so nervous. But after about a month, they told me that I passed the examination, and I was literally jumping. That happened when I was only 11. I first entered into the school in March with my new uniform. I honestly thought our uniform was one of the ugliest ones in the world. For winter, we had to wear a long white blouse, a vest and a long skirt that came up to my knees with reddish brown cross stripes, and an indigo colored jacket. I didn’t like the uniform very much, but I liked wearing it, because I felt proud of my school. But not everything being in that school was good. I was stressed out more than my friends in normal school, because I had to study regularly as the others did, and I had to practice my instrument for the finals, too. So I could sleep only for about 4 or 5 hours per day. It was extremely stressing. But I thought I couldn’t blame it on someone else, because it was a “step” to fulfill my dream, which was to be a performer of Gayageum. I still feel proud that I was in that school. I was really sad when I was told that I had to move to Costa Rica. Because I put so much effort to enter that school, and it felt like everything was for nothing. However, my parents told me that it was one of the best experiences that I would ever had in my life. I am still playing the Gayageum once in a while in Costa Rica. It gives me blisters on my fingers, because I should be playing it constantly to make my fingertip hard. It hurts really badly. I just got two on the second and the third fingers when I was video taping of myself playing the instrument. I stopped in the middle, because one of the blisters had popped. So I will have to continue as soon as it gets better. I will upload videos of myself next time. :]

 This is one of my favourite videos. I like it because they used the Korean traditional instrument called Gayageum. And I love the combination of modern beat boxing and use of the traditional instrument. It is definitely something new.