The Fruits of an Elite Music Education | Masaru Tomita (Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies)
2006.06.08
My father is a composer, so as a child, I was forced into an intense, elite music education. I started learning piano and violin at age three and was made to study solfège (writing down music by ear) at age five. I imagine my parents' expectations were quite high, but in the end, my talent never blossomed.
I believe the reason for this failure lies in the fact that they had me learn classical piano. With classical piano, improvisation is not allowed; you must faithfully play exactly as written on the sheet music. The score is filled with instructions for every little thing, like "play this part forcefully," "gradually get faster," or "play with emotion." It was all so restrictive. If only they had let me learn the Electone or jazz piano first, where improvisation is allowed, I'm sure I could have stimulated my free creativity and blossomed my talent while having fun (or so I believe). However, I didn't have the courage to betray my parents' expectations and endured classical piano. But at the age of ten, I finally couldn't take it anymore, and my elite education came to an end.
Not to say that all these efforts were a complete waste. Ten years later, during my student days, my ability to improvise guitar and piano accompaniments made me quite popular. In those days, when karaoke didn't exist, I was a valuable asset at parties, a "human accompaniment machine." I was also good at singing and playing songs by Yosui Inoue and Masashi Sada. But then, an unprecedented karaoke boom swept the nation, and there was no longer any stage for these special skills.
In my lab, holding a large karaoke competition (with about a hundred people) at the year-end party is an annual event. The limit is one song per person, but I am specially allowed to sing up to three. And whenever I sing my heart out at karaoke, those bittersweet memories from my childhood and student days always cross my mind.
(Date of publication: 2006/06/08)