Personal Greetings

Hi Andrew and everyone here,

It is a pleasure and honour for me to meet you on youtube and hence here.

I am so looking forward to learning more from you and meeting new friends all around the world in this learning process.

By way of introduction, I thought I'd let you guys know a little bit about myself. I was born in Vietnam and came to Australia in 1978 as a political refugee with my father, who was a junior captain trained by the Americans and was facing persecution by the Vietnamese communist.

I now am a proud Vietnamese Australian. I practise law as a Barrister (otherwise known as trial lawyer or court lawyer), specialise in Criminal Law and Migration Law. I am married with four children. I had never learnt to play piano before until Sept 2006.

I recalled around that period, I was particularly stressed. More stressed than usual owed to heavy workload. Instead of trying to reduce the increasing mountains of work awaited my attentions, I'd decided to take up piano.

My secretaries thought I was weird, kuku in the head. They actually thought I was going thru midlife crisis. I told them it is not true. I told them that I am going thru an on-going life crisis, so I must take up piano.

Two or three months down the track, while I was surfing on youtube, I stumbled into one of your videos.

Andrew, you are such a good piano teacher. I find you interesting, gentle and most of all, very knowledgeable for your age. I have read your bio and you inspired me tremendously.

I wish I had taken up piano in my early teens. I find it really difficult to learn as adult (late thirties). Though, I tend to breeze thru theory lessons. I currently practice 10 hours a week. I feel that it is not enough. I am now on grade three practical and grade five theory. Mind you in the first year, I used to practiced 15 hours a week.

My stress level has reduced tremendously. However, I have become more cynical than ever. I like minor tunes - I like that sadness - am I weird?

My first debatable proposition and actually rather philophical, for you guys here is, the side effect of playing music is that it can turn you into a cynical person? True or false? Once you are passionate about music you tend to lose interest in money or power. You become more gentle and loving like Andrew for example, but at the same you have a tendency to be depressed?

Anyway, Andrew, I took up your advice and spend a lot of my time practicing scale. I have realised the importance of playing scale.

Again, it has been nice to meet you here and I hope you are well and always be cheerful as you are now despite all the inevitable life-crisis that one has to experience.

Keep up the good work Andrew.

Sam Nguyen

Brisbane - AUSTRALIA

Hey Sam,

I can honestly say I was blown away hearing your story, it sounds amazing how you came to live in Australia! The fact that you gained theory levels so quickly is amazing! You must be a very smart guy!

When you mentioned how you found me, i felt really, happy, and somewhat proud that I could be of some help to you! I've always found your comments very enjoyable to read, and this message didn't disappoint either! I'm really looking forward to future posts from you! You've got an awesome sense of humor that is so uncommon! The way you used piano to take away the stress in your life is so wonderful! I'm VERY happy for you!

To answer your question now. I think when pianists are playing their best they're pulled all the feelings the composer felt out of the sheet music and passing them through their body into the notes which in turn effect the listener (At least that's how I picture it) That's what a GREAT pianist will do. So I think depending on what type of music you play, will sort of also impact your own life. I also think that people select the music that speaks to them the most, and that is generally music that they can relate to. So in turn you're probably drawn to the type of music that suits you the best. In otherwords it probably keeps you in touch with an innerself on a subconcous level! Who knows though, this is all my speculation! But it's an interesting topic non the less!

It is wise to consider what music we listening to and playing. The right song can put anybody in a better mood and soothe emotional turmoil. We all go through our phases, and most people will turn to certain songs to improve their moods. I love music and I use it as a tool to assist me with relaxation, concentration and focus.
I find that music has verbalize and express my feelings better than any other medium.

Kady

Greetings, Sam Nguyen! I also read your little story and it was very interesting I must say. We hope you enjoy this community!