Polina Blinova, Grade 11
UWC Maastricht
I never really considered myself anything close to a musician. I have played the piano for around seven years, and later on, I picked up a guitar and taught myself. Having said that, over the past few years, I have primarily focused on playing the guitar and completely forgot about the piano. To be honest, all my skills in that instrument have faded away pretty quickly after I stopped practicing, and I had neither had any hope nor intentions to bring them back. My family gave away my piano after I have decided to call it quits, and having had no access to such an instrument, I was pretty sure I would never play it again. That is before I came to UWCM and was introduced to a group of wonderful people who were extremely passionate about music.
We have a couple of small rooms in the music wing at our school with various instruments in them: several pianos rooms, a guitar room, and some band rooms. One day I was talking to my friend from China who mentioned that she used to play the flute but recently stopped and now wants to pick it up again. Rather similar to my experience, and without thinking twice, I suggested that the two of us should go to a music room sometime and practice. Personally, I did not take my words seriously and was not actually expecting myself to live up to what I have just said. Yes, it would surely be easier to practice together since we would be able to motivate each other, but I really doubted that we would have enough will to even start.
To my surprise, it did actually happen, and one day we went to the school building, occupied one of the band rooms, and started practicing. We did not mind the fact that neither of us had played our instrument for a couple of years, nor was it disturbing that we practiced at the same time, in the same room, while playing different pieces. It was the whole setting that made me love those evenings in the music room so much. People coming in and out to talk, listen, and play; others desperately trying to teach me music theory and me continuously resisting every single attempt; us trying to learn various duets and surprisingly succeeding at times.
I remember the first day I went to the music room very vividly. I was trying to learn a melody from Hachiko: it was rather simple, and my friend agreed to try the main part on the flute so we could play it together. But my fondest memories are from times when one of my best friends played Russian songs on the piano for me. It felt like going back to my middle school back home and entering the music classroom once again.
I did not yet manage to bring my skills up to level, but I do not really care, nor is it very important for me now. It takes me a very long time to learn one single piece, but I still enjoy the process of it a lot. And yes, I still mainly play the guitar, but trying to learn the piano again brings me closer to the music community in the school, and I appreciate the company of these people a lot.
After a while, our visits to the music room became rarer: we started getting a lot of school work, and the amount of time we could spend on our hobbies was inevitably becoming shorter. I have not been to the music room in a long time, but I sincerely hope that next year I would be able to come back to that place again; it was fun while it lasted, and I greatly cherish the memories I have from that place.
We have a couple of small rooms in the music wing at our school with various instruments in them: several pianos rooms, a guitar room, and some band rooms. One day I was talking to my friend from China who mentioned that she used to play the flute but recently stopped and now wants to pick it up again. Rather similar to my experience, and without thinking twice, I suggested that the two of us should go to a music room sometime and practice. Personally, I did not take my words seriously and was not actually expecting myself to live up to what I have just said. Yes, it would surely be easier to practice together since we would be able to motivate each other, but I really doubted that we would have enough will to even start.
To my surprise, it did actually happen, and one day we went to the school building, occupied one of the band rooms, and started practicing. We did not mind the fact that neither of us had played our instrument for a couple of years, nor was it disturbing that we practiced at the same time, in the same room, while playing different pieces. It was the whole setting that made me love those evenings in the music room so much. People coming in and out to talk, listen, and play; others desperately trying to teach me music theory and me continuously resisting every single attempt; us trying to learn various duets and surprisingly succeeding at times.
I remember the first day I went to the music room very vividly. I was trying to learn a melody from Hachiko: it was rather simple, and my friend agreed to try the main part on the flute so we could play it together. But my fondest memories are from times when one of my best friends played Russian songs on the piano for me. It felt like going back to my middle school back home and entering the music classroom once again.
I did not yet manage to bring my skills up to level, but I do not really care, nor is it very important for me now. It takes me a very long time to learn one single piece, but I still enjoy the process of it a lot. And yes, I still mainly play the guitar, but trying to learn the piano again brings me closer to the music community in the school, and I appreciate the company of these people a lot.
After a while, our visits to the music room became rarer: we started getting a lot of school work, and the amount of time we could spend on our hobbies was inevitably becoming shorter. I have not been to the music room in a long time, but I sincerely hope that next year I would be able to come back to that place again; it was fun while it lasted, and I greatly cherish the memories I have from that place.
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