June 8, 2010

A Rainbow is a Smile (Turned Upside Down)

As a person who’s capable of absorbing a lot of complicated, convoluted music, I’m surprised by how much joy I still find in the simplest of melodies. And I mean simple. When I’m not busy composing for clients and listening to my own pieces as I edit them, you’ll likely catch me listening to “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

It’s not as creepy as it sounds. I have over twenty piano students at the moment, and the vast majority of them are beginners, so I end up listening to these kinds of tunes for a few hours everyday. Maybe it’s because I’ve been having some bad days on the composing front (long story short: I feel like I’m forsaking my soul to write music that I disagree with), but listening to children’s songs has been cheering me up.

One of my eight-year-old students today was learning a piece called, “A Rainbow is a Smile (Turned Upside Down)” composed by Nancy Faber, from the Piano Adventures series. It’s a cute melody on its own, but when I sat down beside her to play the teacher accompaniment, my heart swelled and I started getting emotional over how pretty and uplifting everything sounded. I liked it so much that I even made up some excuse for us to play it together again. (“Let’s focus on the dynamics this time!”)

I don’t care if it’s a primer level piece written for an eight-year-old. I would happily play that duet with any (and all) of my friends.

31 comments:

  1. Nothing wrong with that at all. Still a kid at heart. : )

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  2. I'm totally your friend, right Aivi? ;)

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  3. I agree. Simple melodies are so fun. Although complicated ones are fun sometimes too (figuring out harmonics, etc. Ima music nerd :) I like the space junk songs that you made!!!

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  4. P.S. my favorite is the Hello Moon one

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  5. @Dinky Dana - Hehe, I guess so! It's a good thing I'm enjoying myself, or my job would be a lot more difficult!

    @Jordan - Got a microphone and/or way to record yourself playing? ;)

    @Cody - Thanks a lot, Cody! I'm really glad you like the Space Junk pieces, and I fully support music nerdism.

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  6. Where do you live, Aivi? I'm not a stalker, I'm just curious. Honest.
    Have you picked up Super Mario Galaxy 2 yet?

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  7. Waaaah! >w<
    You're so cool, Aivi!!

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  8. How long have you been playing piano? Do you play any other instruments? BTW I started a youtube channel!
    http://www.youtube.com/user/codycraig2
    I'm working on posting a new song before I go to camp next week.

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  9. @Jordan - I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. I haven't picked up SMG2 yet, sadly; I'm waiting to play it with my sister. We're sworn starbit-buddies!

    @CheChe - Aww, I'm really not, but thank you!

    @Cody - I've been playing for... a really long time, hehe. I kind of suck for someone who's been playing for as long as I have, truth be told, and I only play piano. How about you? Congratulations on your YouTube channel! Hope you get a chance to post more videos soon, and I say yes, pick up the cello. :)

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  10. haha I love Piano adventures! I'm in the level 3 books right now.

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  11. You suck for someone who's been playing for a while?

    ...I think I suck in general...

    But that's just my lousy self-esteem, courtesy of my third grade class. : (

    I recently picked up Beauty and the Beast for piano/vocal and can play those songs very well...

    But I like piano because it's one of the things I am good at.

    Am I contradicting myself?

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  12. @ Jordan: Kinda.
    @ Aivi: I have been playing for 8 years. And today, I went and found a cello that I really like! The store was Kansas City Strings (they're so dang cool!) they make all four string instruments (the only shop in the entire U.S. to do so). So hopefully, after we get back from summer break, I'll start lessons (anyone heard of kanon wakeshima? She's amazing at cello)

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  13. Oh, and to comment on the actual subject of the post, that's not sad. I'm fourteen and I'm eagerly awaiting the premiere of Total Drama World Tour.

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  14. I've been playing for 7 years and I'm not remotely as good as you. I think you're amazing nonetheless.

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  15. Can you sight-read?

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  16. @Jordan - I've been playing for 18 years... I think my technical skill for someone who's been doing it for that long is pretty mediocre, but hopefully the other musical skills I've picked up in its place make up for it, like composing and arranging.

    @Cody - That sounds great. Good luck with the lessons!

    @Eloise - Thank you very much. And 7 years is a long time!

    @Anonymous - Yes, I'm pretty fluent at reading music. I think it's an important skill for musicians to have - it's kind of like being able to speak a language but not being able to read or write it.

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  17. Sight-reading was the first major breakthrough in my five years of playing.
    I was so excited when I figured out I was actually reading the notes...
    Then I moved almost a year ago and we can't find another piano teacher, so all I'm learning is random songs... I need a teacher really bad.

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  18. Love this song...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlxraNmZFR4
    Probably my favorite piece of music, despite its simplicity. It's also fun on the piano to play.

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  19. Ah! Your piano performances are inspirational. They're really good. (: Keep them up hun. ^ ^

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  20. Hi Aivi! :D

    i'm just a 15 year old guy; i've been taking piano lessons for two years. i was starting to lose motivation on the piano because I feel like I suck at it. other than that, mozart is driving me NUTS!!

    i just wanted to give you thanks for being such an inspiration to me! i saw your videos and that just forced me to put my lazy butt in front of the piano and start playing.

    by the way, i loved your covers on Freezeflame Galaxy and Buoy Base Galaxy. PURE EPICNESS! :D

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  21. If a rainbow is a smile turned upside down, does that mean it's a frown?

    Anyway, ain't it grand to lose your naivety? I've known a few composers who feels the same way, so I can at least say it's a very legitimate feeling. Don't lose your soul though--free expression via internet to the rescue!

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  22. The new super mario is so cool! here is a link to cool video for the super mario theme : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LE-JN7_rxtE

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  23. I love Aunt Marge's Waltz from Harry Potter 3 movie...

    It's a hilarious song.

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  24. Aivi spreads to Asia it seems. :) I found a song you might like Aivi. You might have already found it but whatever. You don't need to play it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MywEEVM7WwU I just want to share the love.

    My family actually doesn't like it when I play those songs. Because of all the movies and such. --Mary... had... a... little... (FLASH OF HORROR) But if you ask me, they're quite relaxing. I do it all the time when I'm stressed and out of luck. It reminds you of the easier days. Go Monophonies!

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  25. I saw your YouTube video of Sky Station theme on piano... do you have sheets?

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  26. @Anonymous - Thank you very much. I'm slowly getting to know Masashi Hamauzu's music, and I absolutely adore everything I hear so I appreciate the suggestion!

    @Jordan - Not yet, unfortunately! That's also why I've held out on posting the video on my blog - I wanted to have both the video and sheet music at the same time.

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  27. Those annoying spam comments are gone! Hooray!

    And I LOVE the music from the Professor Layton series... The third one comes out in English in September... I especially love this song - please listen! At least for a minute, because it starts out slow.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADpCeDf2kEo&feature=related

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  28. Just out of curiosity, do you know anything about the bass? I just started playing recently, and I find it to be very good fun so far. I've been wondering why some tabs wants me to slide up to higher fret on low string, rather than just playing lower fret on higher strings.

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  29. Hey Aivi!

    I was just wondering, how do you pronounce your name? :)

    Is it eye-vee or A-vee or ee-vee or what? Please respond!

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  30. Jordan - It sounds pretty close to "ivy" :)

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  31. Also, I'm disabling comments for this post. I can't stand all the spam and I'm sure that getting email notifications for spam bothers a lot of you guys, too! My apologies - feel free to get in touch through other posts or dropping me an email. :)

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