I have some songs stuck in my head for decades. Nowadays, you can immediately google something you casually find and quench the curiosity right away. We didnt have that kind of luxury.

The Lonely Man
Old TV series have very definite and distinctive soundtracks. Mostly they really came out with a bang in the opening title. If I am not mistaken, some today’s series omit the opening title completely. Anyway, the soundtrack that’s stuck in my head is the closing credits from The incredible Hulk series, a piano ballad, The Lonely Man. Hearing the piece with seeing Dr. Banner back on the road trying to hitch a ride is surely a difficult thing to forget.

Weather Forecast
Do you guys remember Dunia dalam Berita? I still remember waiting eagerly for the news from Seoul 88 just to find that the Olympic was over. The main attractions for me were sport news and weather forecast. I didnt really understand about sport, I just liked seeing the athletes giving their best to win. As for the weather forecast, I thought it was kinda cool graphic, showing towns around the world with pictures of cloud, sun and so on. That was probably the earliest geography lesson I got.

What does weather forecast have to do with this topic you might say. One thing I particularly remembered is they put some soothing memorable songs in the background. These songs were almost forgotten, until somewhere in the 90s, a Jackie Chan classic made me remember. I heard some songs in The Snake in The Eagle Shadow, a Jackie Chan’s movie. My interest on those long lost songs were back. About a year ago, I watched a movie, The Rain Man. I am not sure but I think one of its soundtrack (by Hans Zimmer) was also played in weather forecast.

The songs are Oxygène Part II and IV by Jean Michel Jarre and Magic Fly by Space. They’re all in the Jackie Chan’s movie but I dont know whether all of them were played back then in weather forecast (but I am kinda sure that Part IV was). I seems like TVRI used a lot of these French, ambient, trance, whatever music in their programs so every time I hear them, I get the feeling that I’ve heard them before (like Part II and Magic Fly).

That being said, the search is not over. I am still looking for this one song, the song that I most remember. It is definitely in the same genre.

Wow just wow…

Not so long ago I talked about my instrument-less condition. And just today I received a very interesting offer.

A friend of mine, a fellow musician, wants to sold one of his axe. After taking a look at it, I felt the urge of consumerism. I, with that overflowing feeling, made the deal with him that I’m gonna buy it next month. For some time, I felt really excited. The instrument looks great and I think, of course this is just a subjective opinion, it would look great on me too. And the best part is I don’t have to deal or make transaction with some dealers.

In a few minutes, I finally regained my consciousness. I imagined if I buy an electric instrument like that, can I really take care of it? Looking at how miserable my previous guitars ended, it was not hard to answer that. This is a kind of thing that constantly require your love and care. This is not a toy for a carefree person. Added to that, it is an electric one. That means it requires extra works to set it up perfectly as you wish. And I never had previous experience with it. To make it worse, I don’t think I have much skill (I never did anyway) and passion to play it anymore.

The doubt had taken over. I apologized to him and canceled the deal. So now he can offer the gear to someone else while I am rethinking about this

It’s been a very long time  since I broke my guitar. If I take my inactivity, it’s probably years since I played guitar passionately. After some vacuum, I decided, ‘Hey, maybe it’s time for me to pick another instrument’. But which instrument? I always have a thing for keyboard instruments. You don’t need a motor skill coordination on both hands when producing a note. But being a guitar player, I found the keyboard’s composition was so…”unfair” to accidentals. I like the way the tones spread over a fretboard better than over a keyboard. I thought I want something more traditional and more exotic to be my instrument of choice…

After asking around, I finally found one of my friends who was gonna go ‘mudik’. That was how I get the instrument. However, purchasing a non-modern instrument, in my opinion, requires the buyer to purchase it directly. You won’t find any clear how-tos on the internet, so you have to ask the vendor how to play it properly. Did my friend ask? Yes. Was he capable to show me? No. These are the instruments.

The small one is just a mere traditional version of a recorder. The big one (approx. 60 centimeters) is the one I wanted. All that left is just learning the instrument. However there are a lot of things that make the quest almost impossible.

1. The forgotten factor of a wind instrument. You need a motor skill coordination on several fingers when producing a note.
2. How to play. I don’t have any slightest idea to play (the big one). I feel like blowing a water pipe. You have to blow it in the right angel, that’s my friend’s wisdom. After mimicking some guys at youtube, I finally can make some almost decent sound coming out of it. It’s been over a month, and I can only made a quality sound once…by accident. The internet told me that you need at least a year just to learn how to blow it properly.
3. Continuous sound. This is the biggest obstacle. The instrument is meant to be played continuously and it comes without some airbag mechanism (like Scottish bagpipe). It would take a very long time just to gain a circular breathing ability.

Well I think it’s extremely hard to play it at a decent level, even when you do not count #3. So I have to resort to something else.

After hearing Stephen Sondheim’s contrapuntal compositions (these are awesome), I thought ‘Hey, maybe I can try to sing it’. You know, I feel closer with the notes produced with my own voice than any other instruments. I am not a natural singer. I have to put a lot of my concentration just to reach a correct pitch and maintain it (if it’s a long note). So no matter how bad my voice is, I feel a great sense of achievement producing some tones. I feel kinda tired if I try to sing an entire song properly and with decent pronounciation. So for the time being, until I buy another instrument,I am gonna just use my voice to indulge my musical needs. I will sing any genre. Don’t worry I’ll keep it as private as possible so you won’t be disturbed.