Death

No, nobody close to me physically died.  Rest easy.

This tiny little corner of the internet I call Pointless Tales on the Internet is slowly dying.  Actually, it's dying really quickly.  If you follow this blog (and I know there are people who do), you know of my terrible inactivity in the last two months.  And some of you that know me in person have asked me about that.

Indeed, it's dying.  But not because of lack of things to write about.  I could use the "I don't have time" excuse... But I can't really say that when the first draft of each post is usually written at 2 a.m. Deep down, I know that answer lies in my recent apathy and lack of initiative towards anything.  I lost track of myself somewhere in this test called life, and everything from giant deep thoughts to simple tasks like taking out the trash kind of fell off into a hole.  I know that I said that I would start writing again in the previous post... But with what's going on right now, that doesn't seem entirely possible.  I'm blatantly lost.  I would further go into detail, but that'd take a while... I'll just say that thinking is a lot harder than it used to be.
Just this post took a lot more effort than it really should have.  I'm not even bothering with editing; I'm just writing the first things that come to mind.  It probably doesn't sound very good.

So I need to figure things out.  Until then, I'm signing off.

-Austin

October SOTW 1 - A Turtle's Heart

Mili recently released their first album opening with a new original: A Turtle's Heart.  At first I just simply liked the song for it's musical elements.  Not to mention Mili is currently my favorite group.
The thing with music by Mili is that the lyrics usually are not set to have a form that people are used to hearing in modern pop music.  The tunes are usually through-composed (no repeating verses or chorus) and the lyrics are not set to necessarily rhyme.  The composers are Japanese, so even though English pronunciation is good, the melody may sound strange for the words to most people.  Only hearing it a couple times, I just simply enjoyed what I could hear and interpret.  But then... I recently looked up the lyrics.  And decided that I should start posting again.  Now that I know what is being said, this song means so much more to me.  After my short period of silence, this song made me decide to keep posting.

I couldn't find the song just by itself, so here's the whole album.  (yay)

The Relatable Musician 8

If there is an ignorant thought that annoys me a lot, it's the fact that people think that guitar is the easiest instrument to learn.

Ignorant people think "Oh, if I just put my fingers in these places on the fretboard and strum, I'll magically make music!  It's so simple!"  

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.  A guitar is actually pretty complicated to learn notes on as a beginner.  It takes a while to memorize the note names of all the frets... and then there's alternate tuning of the strings, and the use of capos.  Granted, you can easily learn a basic E minor and A major chord in ten minutes.  But to be able to play more than that, it takes quite a bit of work.

Typical piano used for note names

The instrument always used for visualizing notes in the music world is the piano.  Why?  It's easy to see the notes on the keys of a piano.  No one is going to teach basic theory to beginning musicians using saxophone fingerings.  That's just too complicated.  The piano has the note names in ascending and linear order.  And to us, that is the simplest way of visualizing notes.   

The good thing about guitars is that it's practically the same concept.  If you play a string, it plays one note.  If you press your finger down somewhere on the string and strum, it plays a different note.  And the closer you move the placement of your finger to your picking hand, the higher the note.  Similar to a piano.  However, the hard part is that there are five other strings using the same concept, and they all don't start on the same note.  When you strum a chord on a guitar, you are playing six notes that fit in the key you're playing in.  You strum six individual notes that harmonize together for that lovely sound that everyone wants to hear around the campfire.  If you want to play a G, you have to place your fingers in such a way so you play G, B, D, G, D, G (In that order).  But of course not not a lot of people know that.  They just put their hands in a shape of what they are taught is a chord, and strum.  No more thought given.

 That's why a lot of people decide to pick up the guitar and put it down after a while.  They don't know how complicated it gets after learning all the easy chords in the key of G.  They learn that there are actually inversions of a chord, and that bar chording is pretty hard on the hand.  

So to all of you who are thinking of learning an instrument: don't pick one because it's simply easy.  Granted, there are some instruments that you can pick up the basics faster.  But to become good at an instrument takes a lot of work.  Even if it seems simple, like guitar or percussion (trust me, percussion has some tough rudiments).  Whatever you pick, make sure it appeals to you.  And once you learn all the basics, stick with it!  

The Relatable Musician 7

Folk music.  Everyone claps on the downbeat. 
*claps* 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and...
But did you know that the drummer is hitting his snare drum on the "and" of every beat? 
*claps* 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and...
But noooo everyone has to clap on the downbeat.  *rolls eyes over-dramatically*

September SOTW 1 - END THEME

I've been playing a certain song over and over again lately over the past week, so I thought I should post it.

This song is beautiful.  If you've watched the movie 5 Centimetres per Second, you would know that the context in which this piece is played is quite powerful and moving.  It perfectly sums up the emotional state and being of the main character.

I find that this piece is extremely easy for me to express myself with.  Emotions that I can't get out in words or paper come out through playing this song.   When I sit at a piano with nobody around, this is what I play.  No one hears, but that's fine with me.  Sometimes it's better to say what you want to say when nobody hears.

August SOTW 5 - Oracion

This is the first time I've done five Song of the Weeks in a month!  This apparently isn't going to happen until May next year.  It's something really small and trivial, but I for some strange reason look forward to it.

Lately I've taken a deep liking to this song, for a couple reasons.
-It's the end theme of my favorite anime, No Game No Life
-I love this style of Japanese rock
-The key changes are a little strange but still work effectively
-Whispering is seldom done in music, and they nailed it's use in this song... it perfectly suits Shiro's character
-I really love the lyrics, they mean a lot to me (translation here)
-Shiro is adorable
-Shiro is adorable
-Shiro is REALLY TABLE-FLIPPING ADORABLE   (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

The Ghibli Manuscripts

Recently I went on a trip to Japan (yay)!  Being a fan of anime and Japanese culture in general, I quite enjoyed myself.  I experienced a whole bunch of stuff like different food, tea ceremony, ryokans (and their public baths!), shrines, and even taiko drumming!  I had a lot of fun with drumming :3

A robot soldier from Laputa Castle in the Sky.

While we were in Tokyo, I went to the Ghibli animation museum.  You're not allowed to take pictures inside, but you're allowed to photograph the robot soldier statue on the roof of the museum.  It was a little overcast and I didn't have time to get a good photo, but if you click the link above, they have better photos.

On the second floor of the museum, it's full of desks with work scattered across the rooms.  It looks the like filmmakers just left their desks for a break when we walked in.  But my favorite room... was a small room that people frequently walked in and out of.  Compared to the other rooms, there was barely anything in there.  It was just a table with some books (with abnormally large pages), and a small wooden chair tucked in the corner of the room.  Seeing this room unusually plain in comparison to the others, I decided to look around a little more carefully (not that I wasn't already).  I picked up one of the eight thick, large books sitting on the table.  I looked at the title... When Marnie Was There.   I opened up the book.
It was a manuscript of the animated drawings.  Like a framework of what the movie should look like.  The reason the pages where so large was because each page had about five drawings in it... each showing the next shot in the movie, yet to be brought to life.  To the right of each drawing was room for notes.  Surprisingly, there was enough English for me to guess what they were saying.
I began reading.  It was a little like a manga, but a lot more open ended for plot.  After a half hour, I realized I was enjoying myself.  A lot.  Which was a little strange for me.

The frustrating thing for me with books is that I can't read them through once.  For every sentence I read, I need to pay attention and process it to understand what's happening.  However, my brain can't do that while keeping up with my reading speed. So I end up reading a page or even a paragraph, stop, and realize I need to read it again since I had no idea what just happened in the last 5 lines or so.
Books with tonnes of detail are hard for me to read leisurely.  I need study every sentence hard to comprehend everything.  My mind kind of blanks and then I keep thinking: "Okay, what's happening here? Maybe this? and this and this?".  And then I realize I'm still reading and I have no idea what just happened in the plot.
However, being a visual learner, manuscripts give a general idea of what I'm supposed to be looking at, but still leave a lot of freedom for me to imagine whatever I like.  And in a way, it's more fun that way.  It might not be the actual story that the writer might have wanted to tell but it makes me feel creative...

I haven't seen When Marnie Was There yet.  But in a way, I have seen it.  I may not know the actual story that is told in the movie, but I do know that I had a lot of fun imagining my own story without having to worry if I've comprehended the provided image.
If I had a library of manuscripts, I could spend forever there.