Onkyo Braille Essay Contest 2006 -- Japanese Section ĄSpecial Award "Me and the Piano" Mr. Yuuki Fujinawa (12) 1st Year at Toyama School for the Blind |
The piano is a very important thing for me. I've been told that I used to play with a keyboard when I was a child and that when I played a tune on this keyboard for the first time, my mother was so surprised she was brought to tears. They tell me that around the time of my last year of kindergarten, I used to listen to my father's albums of piano music. I liked them so much that every day I would hold my ear to a speaker and listen raptly to the music. After hearing the tunes countless times, I began to remember them and was eventually able to play them on the piano. Whenever I encountered music I liked, I would think, "Wow, this is nice," and I would listen to it over and over again. That's how I've been able to remember and play this music. Now I've learned almost a hundred different tunes. At some point I discovered that concert piano performances were being staged in the Niigawa Cultural Hall. I applied immediately and had my first experience of playing a concert piano in a large hall. The piano was a Bosendorfer. It was very big, and when I heard someone playing on it, it produced a mellow sound that I liked straight away. But when I had my first chance to play on it, it didn't have the same resonance--I couldn't get used to it, even after playing it for an hour. But I enjoyed having the opportunity to play on such a piano. Nowadays, whenever I have the chance to play piano at the Niigawa Cultural Hall, I think carefully about what tunes to play. I listen to a variety of CDs many times, so I can memorize the music. To create something like a mini-concert, I always play 12 or 13 tunes at my one-hour performances. I get someone to record these performances onto CD, so I can enjoy listening to myself again when I get back home. My whole family sits together to listen and to check whether or not I missed a note here or played well there. After two years, I now have 13 CDs. I'll try to perform lots of new music this year and keep adding to my stack of CDs. I like the piano very much. I really enjoy playing it and I feel happy when my listeners say to me, "You played well," "You were great," "It was nice," "I was moved," or "Your piano playing puts my mind at ease." Above all, I'm thrilled when I receive a big round of applause. For me, the piano is a precious tool through which I can describe a lot of things. Through the piano, I can express happiness, sadness, anger and the feelings of the different seasons. Playing the piano has also helped me to meet a lot of people. I played and studied with the children of Fujinoki Primary School for six years, and with the children at Kamiichi-Chuo Primary School for three and a half years. We sang together in music class and I showed them my piano playing--it was a very nice experience. At the school for the blind, I have lots of classes alone and feel a bit lonely. That's why I felt a little scared and uncomfortable the first time I was in the music classroom with lots of other people. Eventually, though, I started to enjoy the classes very much by listening to everyone else's sounds and noticing if they played well or whether or not I felt I could play better. In my junior high school, I don't have such interactions any more, but I hope some day to again have a conversation with my fellow students through music. My aim from now on is to become a professional piano player, create a lot of music and have many people come and listen to my concerts. In order to achieve this, I'll keep practicing more and try hard to improve my playing. |
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