no such thing as a wrong sound

Last Friday, I attended a concert by Yo-Yo Ma and his Silk Road Ensemble at the esplanade. I went without expecting anything much really, as I simply knew that that Yo-Yo Ma is the world's most famous cellist and it'd be cool to check him out. I wanted to hear him play some virtuosic tunes and be impressed. However, it turned out that the concert was nothing about him, and more about his ensemble with him as a whole. Nonetheless, I was far from disappointed.

In front of a packed concert hall, the ensemble opened with the Silk Road Suite... it is unlike anything i have heard before. the one thing that intrigued me the most was that they weren't really in tune. however, that made the music sound better actually! it was truly befitting to it's title, sounding like a melting pot of different cultures and nationalities. Oh, did i forget to mention that the ensemble is made of chinese instruments like pipa and sheng, western instruments like the cello and bass, japanese instruments like the shakahuchi and various other indian and other asian instruments.

And somehow, the part about the instruments not being totally in tune made me think alot. You see, and i don't mean to brag, i've been taught by many music teachers before, and a half of them are mediocre i dare say. And in the process of being taught by some of them, every single mistake i made was taken apart and analysed thoroughly, and in the process, the lesson became kinda boring and not much different from a math tuition. And when i make mistakes, they would say stuff like, that's the wrong sound, and it should sound like this or that... I wonder what would they say about the silk road ensemble's intonation then... were they making the 'wrong sound'?

Over the past year, i've been very thankful to be learning from my current piano teacher... one of the things she has taught me that there is never such a thing as a wrong sound... whenever i make a mistake, she'll point out where i should improve but she would then emphasise that what i played wasn't wrong, because they are different sounds for different kinds of music.

Looking back, while learning the trumpet, though largely an enjoyable process, it was often frustrating because my teachers were forcing their ideas upon me, saying that my lip position was wrong, my sound was wrong because it was too bright, etc...

And through this whole process of thinking, I come to realise that when learning music becomes something that is black and white, right or wrong, the joy is taken away from the student. So to all you musicians out there, if you are studying under a teacher right now, don't be too discouraged by your teachers when they say sth like your playing is wrong. And if you are a teacher, don't force your ideas on to your students, but allow them to explore music freely!