Influences: Classical Music

My life has been pretty musical. Growing up, my mom used to sing every morning in the kitchen whilst making breakfast. Thinking about it, it did felt like I was living in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, without the Dwarfs (of course). She had an amazing voice and would just burst into a song, while she was cutting onions. She was a hard core Elvis fan, (hence, I knew most of the Elvis's songs) until she met Al-Arqam and started listening to all their Nasyids instead. Then, I was introduced to Nadamurni and the Zikr.

When I was in my teens, I was introduced to Heavy Metal and Blues; and the Subang boys used to get amazed by how I would listen to Faith No More, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Sepultura and that genre of music. Not sure why though, perhaps because most girls at the time was into RnB and Soul music. I guess what they didn't know was before Metal, my first experience was Classical Music. 

My father loved Classical music. It was probably the only music he ever listened to, apart from Andy Williams. He had this collections of Vinyl records, of Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Vivaldi and much more. Therefore, from as far back as I can remember, Classical music was always there imprinted in my brain cells. My father was a workaholic and he hardly ever bought anything for himself except for a turntable. When he was seconded to IIUM, he hardly had time to listen to those records anymore. So, I was the one who made full use of it and would listen to all of it. When I showed interest in playing the piano, he promised he would buy me one after he returned from Hajj. At the time, I was around 7 years old. As promised, he bought me a piano after he returned and I started playing classical music instead of just listening to them. Sometimes, he would lie down on the sofa while I was practicing. Perhaps, entertained by my classical music playing. 

Then, in the early 1980s, my brother introduced me to New Wave and I fell in love with Depeche Mode and in the 1990s, I was introduced to Heavy Metal. I suppose, to me it was just another genre. I still love Classical music to this day and share this passion with my own kids. 

To me, music opens up the mind because you are not confined to one particular genre. There are so many possibilities. You can improvise, you can mix different songs together. The same piece of music can be played in so many different ways, it can be allegro or adagio; it can be different genre such as Johnny Cash's country version of Depeche's Mode Personal Jesus. 

Classical music is pretty technical. You need to play the right notes, there is the fingering, the tempo, the dynamics and everything has to be perfect. It has shaped me into the person I am today. Nowadays, I have sort of turned out a workaholic (like my dad) and hardly have time to practice the piano but I still do play sometimes, and encourage my daughter to play. Sometimes, we play together or I play, and she sings. 

Here are some of my favorites: 

Vivaldi - Storm 

Rachmoninoff's theme from Paganini in A minor Op.43 - in the movie 'Somewhere in Time'