My First Instrument
Jan. 9, 2025
I’ve listened to music since I was a baby, but I’m not good at playing musical instruments. My quick movements are inaccurate. For the same reason, I’m not good at ball games, but I liked skiing and motorcycle trial, which require a large body movement.
Now, about my spring break homework in my first year of elementary school. The other kids had writing and math homework, but my homework was to “be able to play through a song on your harmonica.”
Musical instruments are fun. Just by hitting or blowing, they produce a beautiful and loud sound. Things that aren’t musical instruments don’t do that. Even if I can’t play a song, it’s still a fun object. And harmonica doesn’t need accurate action of fingers, so it’s nice for me. I enjoyed playing songs, regardless of whether it was homework or not. This was my first experience with a musical instrument.
By the way, my love of musical instruments is inherited from my father. He said he was in a harmonica band when he was young. The photo is my father’s harmonica, but it’s not from that time. Maybe he saw me playing the harmonica and it reminded him of old times. He bought it for himself.
My harmonica was a child’s, not a multi-reed type like this one. I was surprised at the adult harmonica made sounds very smoothly.
However, my father never taught me how to play the instrument, even though he himself loved it. He played instruments only for his own enjoyment. And the character was also inherited by me 🙂. I didn’t think about being taught, and I just played the way I wanted to.
Anyway, thanks to this homework, I started to enjoy playing instruments. In third grade, I learned to play the recorder in music class. Even though it was made of plastic, it sounded just as good as an adult instrument, so it made me feel like an adult. In fourth grade, I joined the school brass band and played the trumpet. It was a great feeling to play the fanfare at the sports day.
I also learned the xylophone at school, but it just wasn’t for me. Harmonica, recorder, trumpet. My fingers are not very accurate, so I like instruments that I play with my breath. Breath expresses my heart directly. It suits me as I try to express my emotions, regardless of how good or bad I can play the instrument.
In high school, I joined the chorus club, but I couldn’t take it seriously and quit halfway through. It was because of my troublesome character, but it led to my current musical style. I’ll write about that in the next article.