Music in My Life

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      As a lucky girl, I have no trouble listening to sounds happening around me. Therefore, I'm able to enjoy sound and music in my life including singers' voices, movie soundtracks, laughs, cries, and so on. From my viewpoint, music is made up of melodies, which can express one's feelings, emotions, attitudes, and opinions. Despite not being capable of composing, I do have various memories and experiences relevant to music since it is indispensable for people all around the world. Hence, I want to share the stories of how music affects me.

      First of all, I was a member of the school chorus from the third grade to the tenth grade, which means I have had some experiences with singing contests. During these years, I sang lots of songs in various languages including English, Chinese, Taiwanese, Magyar, and Latin, bringing me not only a sense of enjoyment but also a sense of achievement. If you ask me what's your most memorable part in the chorus life, I will definitely say it was the days when I was in the sixth grade.

      I deeply remember that the song, 幸運草, was the first time we sang a Chinese song as our free piece after I had participated in the school chorus. That was the last time that I could represent my elementary school to win first place and go to take part in the national music contest the next year. As a sixth grade student, I was deemed to be an indispensable member in the chorus. And that day, October 19, we tried our best and did it. We won first place in our area, and qualified to compete on the national stage.

      The reason why I treasure that period is not only that we finally had the opportunity to sing in the national contest. It's because there's another story during the preparation of the national chorus contest. The date we had to go to Taichung to participate in the contest was also the date I had the entrance exam of junior high. However, our chorus didn't have enough members since the people we had were already less than other choruses, and it seemed that we couldn't afford any other absence if we wanted to sing and win. The contest was in the afternoon, so the last practice and adjustment would be in the morning, when I had exams. What should I do? I mean the only approach to coping with the problem was that as soon as I finished my exams, I rushed to Taichung to take part in the contest. Even though I would not have enough time to warm up my voice completely, I still had to be there with my partners and sing our best. To my regret, we only got fourth place in the end, but it really left a memorable mark in my chorus life as I tried very hard in it. And I have to say, it was because of the experiences left during the elementary chorus that I decided to continue being in the chorus in junior and senior high and love to sing till now.

      Besides, I remember that I was afraid of watching the Harry Potter movie series before I opened the novels out of curiosity. It sounds weird, for I'm in the course related to Harry Potter, but seeing Voldemort's face on Quirrel's back head all of a sudden really shocked a seven-year-old girl. However, as I read the books, I started enjoying the world that J.K. Rowling had created. Since then, I have become a fan of the Harry Potter series, the actress Emma Watson, who has played Hermione in particular.

      After that, I often pay attention to any information about Harry Potter including co-branding clothes, events, and releases of books and TV series and share them with my family members and friends. Therefore, as soon as I knew that there would be an event called "'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' part 1 in concert", I was so excited and invited my brother to go with me. It was an orchestra performance, so I considered it to be a concert with only the orchestra playing the soundtracks in the movie.  To my surprise, it was much more interesting.

      In effect, the way this event was organized was to play the whole movie with the orchestra playing their instruments beneath the film. Thus, as the movie started, the orchestra played at the same time, which surprised me very much. I mean since I had no idea that I could watch the movie, no wonder it has become an impressive memory about music for me. My brother especially laughed at me after the movie, saying that of course there would be the film with an orchestra playing… And that's the only movie that I go watch at the National Concert Hall. Although the rest of the Harry Potter series and other movies also have the same performances there, in view of the price and time, I will not go again. However, with the summer vacation coming around, maybe it's time to have a feast for the eyes and ears.

      Last but not least, I learned to play the piano and the violin when I was five, and kept practicing and learning them until I was twelve and eleven years old respectively. I once considered that I would not learn any other musical instruments at all because it seemed like I didn't have as much time as a child to practice and spend on them. Particularly, I studied at the junior and senior high schools that cared a lot about students' grades, so it's a little bit hard to keep learning piano or violin as they are not necessary at that stage.

      However, last year, when I was preparing to apply to the university, I felt a touch of boredom sitting in the classroom and preparing not only for the files about the interview but also for the exams in summer if I failed to get into the university from the interview. I suddenly came up with an idea: why not learn to play the guzheng? My teacher at the kindergarten had knowledge of guzheng, but this fact didn't intrigue me then. When I was in elementary school or junior high, I wanted to learn to play the guzheng because I saw the animation, but I just said it and did nothing. So even I myself don't know why I had an impulse to play the guzheng last year, especially since I had no experience with it.

      I really did it, though. Went to a music classroom and learned a new way of playing the instrument. Before I started to learn to play the guzheng, I found that it would be my first time to have access to traditional instruments, to some degree, broadening my horizons. Overall, I've kept practicing and learning for a year already, and this year, I will have a performance aiming to introduce Chinese traditional music to more people, which brings a sense of achievement to me as I learn it. As for me, it was the time that I was on the verge of graduation that I had the courage to do something new and had available time to support my plan. Given the timing, location and harmony, I got excitement and various experiences during the past year. And I can say undoubtedly that thanks to myself, I gave myself a shot to learn how to play the guzheng, acted upon it as a starting point, and tried other novel things after that, making my life far more interesting.

      As I've mentioned above, music plays a main role in everyone's life, always brings profound effects on us, and brightens our world. At least, I'm one example that understands how music works in our daily lives. In addition to my own voice, hands, and ears, there are still all sorts of ways that I can experience the beauty of music. It may not change or twist my life, but knowing that music may leave some memorable, cherished pieces when I'm alive, it appears that it's the reason why we need music with us.