Resolutions?? What Resolutions??

I have never typed down any of my New Year resolutions and I am never doing so. I never really did see the point in listing down stuff that you wish or need to do or achieve and striking them off when you have completed it because most of the time, most goals are rarely attained.

For example, in terms of losing weight. Sure everyone wants to shed those fats. And it's good to hear that you've finally done so and scratched that off your list. But what happens when you gain those pounds back?? Are you going to un-scratch it?? If that is the case, the cycle will keep repeating itself in motion. But to each his own.

*ahem* Swimming this Saturday at noon, Bunny??

Anywayz, I'm not going to talk about what I'm aiming to do this year because I have none. But I did have something in mind when I was inspired by a certain musical genius by the name of Gary Barlow and his band. Whatever band they may be.

I watched one of Take That's live comeback shows that didn't air on the telly here. They performed back in the midyear but I only found the clips in December. And one of the songs they performed was a true hit from 1993. It was a ballad called Back For Good. And as I watched mesmerized by Gary's fingers caressing the ebony baby grand and I thought to myself, dang, if only I had the piano score to that song.

Because it is such a good song!! I'm not being bias or anything. Okay, maybe I am but that's not the point. I was also thinking about it as being a good song to jam on the piano. So as a short-term resolution, I had it in my mind to master the piece and do Gary proud.

Research took me all of ten minutes before I gave up all on hope on actually sourcing for the full score. Do you know how damn difficult it is to find a full piano score without having to pay at least ten bucks?? Sure, guitar is free and you can get it anywhere in the world. But for piano...huh, piano books don't cost above $25 for nothing. It's frustrating.

So I threw down my pen bitterly disgusted, in true musician's fashion and thought, fuck it. This can't go on. I can't play like this!!

But I wasn't bitter for long and remained optimistic because I was determined to play the damn song. I rewatched Part 5 of the For The Record documentary and replayed the scene where Gary was playing a few bars of Back For Good and his two children entered the room. Somewhere in that section, a B Flat materialized and immediately I knew the major he was playing in.

I was one yaya papaya pianist who thought she could create something just by ear after probably a year or so of not ever touching the smooth keys of her piano and just start banging the chords. According to Mr. Barlow, he thought it would be great to be able to create a song just based on four simple chords and make it a hit.

Fine, let me try. And not surprisingly enough, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Just like Gary said. No, scratch that. It was hard. The chords for the left hand was a challenge. But the melody for the right hand was popcorn chicken because probably because the tune was already stuck in my head. And so I started playing. I played like I hadn't left the piano bench at all and of course it's a bitch at the beginning when you're trying to match the chords with the melody but as they say, practice makes perfect.

When they say practice makes perfect, I never believed them. It's never true!! It's either you get it or you don't.

One of the elements that I felt was an accomplishment itself was for my four sisters to get hooked by the song without me even trying to persuade them to listen. So I was surprised when they chanted, "Want you back, want you back, want you back for good."

I nearly cried.

Like hello, Adlyn wasn't even born when the song topped the charts. Fartz was still a newborn probably. I don't even need to touch on the younger two.

In a way, playing a song without a score and needing to remember the whole thing was an effort done not too bad. It's not as near perfect as the original version and not as flowy as how Gary plays it live, but its made for sing-a-longs. I'm still in the midst of slowly reshaping it so it doesn't sound too boring.

I had fun messing with it, though. Fartz backed me up with her acoustic guitar so it sounded more wholesome in some ways, I guess. The other girls didn't sing because they didn't know the lyrics so I'm still in need of three members.

Now then, who wants to come over and pretend to be Jason, Howard and Mark with me acoustic-style, ehh??

Laterz...
Lenny