No One Understands My Music

Hipster problem #1. You try to get people into your music, but it just doesn't work. They don't appreciate the thoughtful sweet lyrics, or the cool dance moves, or the way the words roll of the tongues of the singers. No one understands your taste in music, and they give you weird glances when you are caught (attempting) to sing along to lyrics that you cannot pronounce even remotely correctly, confirming your belief.

Perhaps I am. Then again, who isn't, anyway.

I've been branching out with my kpop recently, I used to only listen to Super Junior and Exo, and I've discovered there are a lot of other good bands out there. Here are two of my currently favorites:

Sometimes I wish I hadn't discovered Ring Ding Dong, it's continually stuck in my head.
I've also started to get into indie Korean music, which I really enjoy, it's so chill.

Anyway, that's all for today.

Magic!

I got to see Magic! live in concert Saturday night! They were so fun. I thought I'd share the pictures I took with you guys. I couldn't format them correctly, so they are all kind of randomly on the page.

Self Confidence, or the Lack Of

So, hello, I am no longer a music major. I am officially a Computer and Information science major. It's funny that I'm in the mathematical sciences department and I absolutely hate math. I suppose I should explain this random extreme change in degree choices. So here goes.

It was that one class. 

So all the music majors have to take a class called "Keyboarding" which is preparation for the Piano proficiency test that all music majors have to pass. Me, being a piano major, was put in the Advanced Keyboarding Class. Advanced? Joke of the semester.

I do not know scales, or key signatures. Or the circle of 5th's. Or intervals. Everyone else in that class did. Here's the catch - I was going to have to learn all of them by the end of the month so I could pass the exam. Needless to say, I was freaking out. How does one do that anyway - I had never really taken theory and my old piano teacher never taught me scales. It was beginning to really stress me out. I was going to have to play in juries, and one of my voice classes required a solo. It was entirely too much pressure, especially for a first-year in college and someone who had never been in a classroom setting.

That aside, I was only a B.A in music, not education or performance. Job? No.

That class planted the seed of doubt in myself I had had been playing with for a while. I listened to all the other piano majors practicing - they even messed up pretty (if at all...while practicing). 

So, after a lot of tears (and I mean a lot, and in front of my advisor), I changed my major to CIS and I'm now minoring in music. I think I made the right decision, but I failed to note some things about my self that were very important - I had completely no self-confidence.

1. I was the only first-year piano major

Those piano majors in the practice rooms? All upperclassmen. So I was comparing myself to upperclassmen. Yeah, probably shouldn't have done that.

2. I DID pass the audition.

Yeah, what happened to that? In a teary conversation with my advisor, she told me that I had auditioned very well and she thought I had a lot of talent. She told me I didn't give myself enough credit.

3. Just because I'm a CIS major doesn't mean I can't pursue piano.

Contrary to popular belief, you DO NOT have to major in what you love the most. Sure, I actually really love technology, but I also really love piano. (they wouldn't let me double major.) Also, my piano teacher/advisor told me she still considers me a piano major, and is going to have me learn all the same things the piano majors are learning. So, basically, piano major with out the degree certificate. 

So basically, I lacked self-confidence, and I got scared. I started to switch my major for the wrong reasons. However, now I feel like I made the right decision in the long run for my future - now I can pursue music without all the pressure.

So anyways, I guess the point of this post was have self-confidence?

My next post will be on K-Pop...

Guitar Awesome That Is Sungha Jung

Well here goes another music post...

A few months ago I discovered a young guitar player named Sungha Jung. (Actually my mom had mentioned him to me earlier - I just hadn't listened to any of his stuff until recently.) Anyway, he is fantastic - I think he's 16 or 17 and he is just a genius at finger picking guitar. I know alot of people aren't really into this kind of music, but since I play guitar I thought it was extremely cool. Here's one of my favorites. You really have to just watch and listen to see what I mean - it's not enough to explain.

I wish I could play like this...enjoy.

No Music No Life

Ok yeah, I made a really bad anime pun.

 (This in itself is a pun because its a music anime hahahahahahaha)
Uta no Prince Sama

I really love discovering new music. It's like opening a present. You find this random song, and you're just like WOW THIS IS AMAZING and then you proceed to look up every recording ever made by the artist on the internet. But even when you listen to all of their music, the one song you found is still WAY better than all the others.

Music gives me life. To me, when worshiping God together with other Christians, it's the music that leaves the biggest impact on me. I've always loved music more than anything else. It's hard for me to be at work and resist the urge to sing "Titanium" at the top of my voice while bagging groceries.

Anyway, so I found this singer/songwriter called Jason Chen (I mentioned him in my previous post) and his songs are so fantastic (well most of them) and I spent all Sunday afternoon listening to him while cleaning my room. Here's a music video of the best one (in my opinion):

You can download his music for free on Itvemn...but I'm not sure if it's legal so I used iTunes. But his songs are on Spotify as well.

Well I just wanted to share that little random part of my life.

On Christmas Music and Desktop Wallpaper

Now don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, and Christmas music. However, all things in moderation. Like I really follow that. Ever. Especially when it comes to Doctor Who. Anyway, I am sitting in Sheetz again today, and guess what? They are NOT playing Christmas music. Kudos to Sheetz.

I love Christmas music, but it gets annoying after a while. I realize that the majority of the population in the United States probably opposes my opinion. But to walk into Sheetz and have it pretty much be the only place not playing Xmas music really made my day. It was even more awesome because the music that plays in Sheetz is basically the same as my Pandora station, which makes my life amazing. I get to listen to Coldplay, Of Monsters and Men and Colbie Collait all day long.

So yeah, Sheetz gets the medal of fantasticness today.

On a completely different note...
The Time of the Doctor promo pic came out! (at least a better one than before) This was really great because I was looking and looking for a good DW pic to change my desktop wallpaper on my school computer. I am really not supposed to change it, but I do anyway. (Who wants to stare at the Microsoft logo all the time.)

Finding a good wallpaper for my computer is something of a task for me. Due to my OCD (I think), I have to have a wallpaper that is at least a quarter larger in resolution for me to be satisfied. The subject of the wallpaper must be centered and have the perfect pose etc. So it takes me a while to find a wallpaper that I REALLY like, and when I do, I'm like, no. I don't know anyone else who does this, but having a perfect desktop screen is essential to my life. Seriously. I organize my desktop icons like twice a day.

Anyway, that's all. Back to schoolwork.

 

If you want to download the full res version, here: http://i.imgur.com/vFU9DRP.jpg

Science and Faith

I really enjoy listening to music while I work on various art projects, it inspires different themes for my artwork. I usually set up my kindle on the table where I work and listen to Pandora. I really like Coldplay, the Script, One Republic and Maroon 5 (some songs are sketchy, I "thumb down" those ones.)
I found a song that I really like by the Script called Science and Faith. It explores the idea that love and faith cannot be explained by science. Although the Script is most likely not a band with Christian members, the song's message had an element of truth. Whether people like to admit it or not, science is not the answer to everything. True, alot of things can be explained by science, but since God is the creator of everything, the essence of everything cannot be explained without him in the picture. I was reminded of this during a conversation at the dinner table about astronomy. I really love astronomy, and have taken it as a school subject for about two years now. It fascinates me. (This may have something to do with Doctor Who) But alot of the theories in my textbook are very Big Bang focused and not Creator focused. When I said this to my mother, she pointed out that God could have used the Big Bang to create the Earth and the universe and such, but not in the way scientists believe it happened. Personally I lean more towards 7-day creation, but what she said is true. A lot of parts of the Bible were not intended to be taken literally. None of us were there when creation happened, so none of us really know how exactly the Earth and the universe were created. We only know that God created it. It says somewhere in Hebrews, I believe, that a thousand years is like a day to God. If we took that passage completely literally, then when it says in Genesis that God created the universe in seven days, that could mean 7000 years. So who knows? No one will know the exact answer until we reach heaven. But it doesn't really matter how God created the Earth, does it? Just the fact that He created it and what He created is ridiculously amazing.