“Music Play Space”

5th May, Beijing

A random message from a random music teacher Couchsurfing host got me to a random event at the 759 art culture center located in a very random area in the Beijing city center.

All these randomness got me to a very surprising location. It’s exactly like that kinda feeling in the fairy tale where the character keep walking and walking in the depth of the forest when all of a sudden there’s a candy house appeared in front of her….(what’s that story called anyway?my memory can’t recall who the main character is).

This place is called 音樂玩家空間 direct translation “Music Play Space”, almost too good to be true. Note it’s not “Musician Space” but the Chinese is denoting an all encompassing attitude to include anyone who ‘play’ music. ‘Play’ not as in trained play with skills and technique but in the simplest sense as in playing lego, playing game.

Even before stepping inside this two stories building my jaw already dropped by peeking in the window into the many unusual instruments that’s hanging on the wall.

Finally stepped inside and the space itself took my breath away….this is my dream house- an arrays of handpan, rav drum and tongue drum in different sizes and tuning lined up on the shelf ready for its resonance to be spread all around the room.

Handmade ukulele of all sizes and shapes hung on the other side of the wall, ethnic strings instrument on the other wall, a collection of small wind instrument spread across the table, a selection of rainstick planted in a corner as decoration.

I was like a big kid who couldn’t help but to put my hands on each one of them to feel each of the unique tuning.

Suddenly awoke from my dream and remember why I am here…the 古琴 Guqin (one of the oldest Chinese strings instrument) workshop running upstairs. The space upstairs is equally inspiring-a fully equipped mini stage and a cafe/bar behind, this building would be my dream -comes-true-space one day!

The workshop is no regular one, I reckon Chinese music and musician has so much depth in it that’s not found in the Western music. She goes on not to explain how to play the instruments but the whole philosophy behind the instrument as well as the personality and the essence of it.

With my limited listening skills on Beijing accent mandarin that I can only squeeze around 30-40% of what she say, here’s my insight from the workshop:

Three sounds can be produced on the Guqin:

1. 地音 Earth sound

2. 天音 Heaven sound

3. 人音 Men sound

-Guqin music shouldn’t be a receptive listening experience, one has to play it and feel the instrument to really appreciate the beauty and true essence of it.

-Guqin allows the musician’s individuality and personality to shine. One piece played by different person at different time and on different Guqin all sound different.

-Guqin music is hypnotizing, something to do with the frequency of the specific strings that match a person’s relaxation status. Maybe she meant the frequency matching the resting brain waves that can put people into sleep.

“If the audience falls into sleep, it’s because the musician really performed well”

I can’t help thinking about all the possibilities that can happen in this Music Play Space if I manage to get my own space like this one day. Soon.

Inspiration no.1-Extraordinary Busking Experience

May 4, 2018

It’s been an absolutely inspiring evening busking at Mong Kok East station, HK with Makoto Nomura- a community musician from Japan.

Makoto, full of life and energy, this guy will inspire you within 10 mins of talking with him. This blog is a result from one of the many inspirations he has given me. Yes i’ve been writing a travel blog “More Than Music”, so why not a “Everything About Music” blog that would capture my day to day musical experiences and thoughts from my work and playing?

I haven’t been busking for a few months, the momentum has always been disrupted by my backpacking addiction going somewhere else in the world. Once that momentum is gone, it takes hard work to get myself back on track, but just a simple spark can light up the fire again.

We found our spot right outside one of the busy mtr exit, I was surprised the music took off right away the very first second we started playing. There was no warm up, no tuning, no testing and figuring out about each other’s style…we plugged straight in, this is no ordinary piece of music with a beginning, middle and the end. This is one big climax all the way from the very first second. Extraordinary.
Who says Celtic D minor is always gonna be a bit depressing? Well depending on who you’re playing with and who’s playing it and what instrument it’s on. With Makoto on melodica, me on Rav Drum and Andrew on percussions, the music has so much life in it that it keeps growing and growing and couldn’t stop for 2 hours straight.

A snippet of our music

Busking is like a social experiment where you get to observe so many things on the streets that you don’t normally see, it’s also a self reflection exercise that keeps you thinking. For today’s session, these are my findings and thoughts:

1. The general public seems to appreciate someone’s singing (regardless of the busker’s skills level on guitar/voice) rather than an instrumentalist.
   There was a group of busker a distance away from us who seems to manage to attract people to stop and listen for a prolonged time (well no one knows whether those people are their fans or friends or not)
2. Instrumental buskers seem to be for the very curious people, or for those who really know how to appreciate the instruments on our hands.
3. With no fixed crowd, does it matter if we play in the same key, the same style, the same sound for 2 hours? Not at all! Until our mind need further stimulation for a change.
4. Busking is really no fun if I’m doing it on my own…..music needs to be an interaction.
5. Playing music like this (on Rav drum and Djembe) for 2 hours is a serious physical upper body exercise…or you can play like Makoto with his full body movement and have a full intensive workout.
6. I wonder if there are actual legislation relating to busking? hmmm worth finding out as we have police came to us at 9pm with a smile on his face “Someone complains, it’s time to go.”
7. It’s time for me to pick up my melodica again, my very first musical instrument at age of 6.

Nuggets of wisdom for today: “If we could just empower those people walking pass us with our music, however short it is, be it 2 second, 10 second they heard the music, if we could just lift these people’s mood and empower them for even just a slight amount, that would be our mission.”—by Makoto Nomura, check out his website at http://www.makotonomura.net/blog/bio/