Tag: instruments

Learning is a marathon, not a sprint

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Remember when you were a kid and wanted to learn quickly? You wanted things to go smoothly, and you had no patience at all. Learning is a marathon, not a sprint. Most of us want to learn and expect to be experts at once. But life doesn’t work that way. You need to take time to learn, and that’s what’s so fascinating about life. You live and learn all the time and don’t graduate from life.

I love learning new things and even things I already know. There is no harm in repeating what you learned in the past because people have different teaching styles and opinions. You might even get excited again about something you didn’t like when you were younger. In 3rd grade, we had to learn to play the fipple flute (also called recorder). I wasn’t excited to learn the instrument then. But when I got older, I took it up again. I taught myself to play music notes, and now I can play songs by heart. I even learned to play ‘Soft Kitty‘ (the song Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory sang). I just played with the flute some tunes, and then suddenly there the song was. I can play a tune by listening to the sound, and there’s a song. The instrument is easier to play than the piano. I’ve learned the easier music notes, and on the Duolingo app, you can learn music notes on the piano. I’m also learning Norwegian there. It sounds like Swedish but is spelled differently, so it isn’t so hard to learn for me.

I’ve been learning social media marketing lately, which is why I haven’t blogged as often recently. Writing in Finnish has been challenging because I’ve been writing in English so much. I get more written in English than in Finnish. I’m better at writing fiction than about real life. I’m like that little kid who wants to learn, but the results take ages. It feels like I’m wasting my time trying to write something and not getting anything in return. It makes me doubt that I will ever make it as an entrepreneur or that I can’t do anything right. Or that I’m too dull and no one cares. Learning to be patient and not giving up despite feeling disappointed. You also need some luck to make it. But the most important thing is that you learn things you want to learn and not what others want you to. Life is much more fun when you do.

Repost: What is a cause you’re passionate about and why?

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What are you passionate about?

Daily Writing Prompt

Day 16. I’m not really passionate about anything. The word sounds like you’re mad and do crazy things. I prefer to call it things I like to do. I enjoy writing, but I wouldn’t call it passion. I like taking photographs, but I’m still not passionate about it. I can do without it. Recently I’ve taken photos with my mobile. I thought about becoming a professional photographer once, but then I realised it takes the fun out of photography. I wasn’t taking my camera everywhere like most photographers do. I could take photos if it was part of something, but I wouldn’t do it full-time. I like changes, so sticking to one thing would bore me.

Maybe my passion is watching movies. I saw my first movie when I was 3 years old. It was the 1937 animated version of Snow White. I still remember how scared I was when I saw the dark forest scene. I couldn’t watch any creepy stuff after that. I still can’t watch scary movies. The first time I saw Lord of the Rings- Fellowship of the Ring, I looked away when the orcs were shown. I belonged to a movie club when I was 10, where they showed children’s movies. I went there with my mother. I’ve seen a lot of movies in the theatre and on TV. I always watch them until the end. I can’t understand why people are in a hurry to get out. I’ve paid for the ticket, so why not stay. I also own several DVDs and Blu-rays. I just never seem to have the time to watch them. I’ve seen them more than once, but I also have discs I still haven’t watched. I’ve also studied writing movie scripts. I have experience in movie making. We wrote a scene, and then we shot them. It was hard work but fun. It would be nice to volunteer for an actual project one day.

Another possible passion is music. I listen to it every day on Spotify. I also have the radio on from time to time. Music has helped me a lot. It’s very therapeutic. I listen to it no matter the mood I’m in. I like all kinds of music. It depends on what I feel that day. Music helped me get through my mother’s death. Sometimes I play an instrument. I own at least 3. I only use one, though. In 3rd grade, I played the recorder, but I didn’t like it. Only when I became an adult did I learn to play it. Another instrument I can play is the synthesiser with one hand. I took classes when I was 6, but I only went once. My parents were displeased because they had bought me the instrument and everything. I have played it after that, too, but now one key doesn’t work. Now it’s at home collecting dust. I also own a harmonica but can only play randomly by ear. Without music, life would be dull.

Passionate or liking things, it’s the same, it gives pleasure. That’s better than doing something you don’t like, right?

Originally posted on January 16, 2022

My few concert experiences

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I wanted to go to a concert when I was a teenager in the 1990s, but my mother didn’t let me. At the time, foreign bands didn’t come to Finland that often. You had to travel to Stockholm, Sweden. But sometimes, they did, which was great. The American boyband, New kids on the block, was the first band I wanted to see live in concert. Perhaps the tickets were expensive, so my mother didn’t want to pay for them. The same with the British boyband, Take That. They haven’t been here since then. I’ve only seen their concert on TV and once in a movie theatre. But it’s not the same. They’re still around, but they succeed more in their own country. I haven’t heard their songs on the radio anymore. But thanks to Spotify, I can listen to them.

I have never been into festivals. I think I have only been in one, but that was a free one. I have no memory of it, but I’m sure I have been into one. There are always some bands or artists I can’t stand at festivals. Concerts are more my kind of events. It took until 2017 that I got the courage to go to a concert. Before that, I didn’t like big crowds and didn’t have the money to go, either. The first concert was by Robbie Williams. That was the moment I got the going to concerts- bug. It was such a great experience. It’s the atmosphere and feeling of seeing your favourite artist in real life. You’re there with other people who have the same favourite as yours. The best part of a concert is when the audience sings along to the songs. The performer loves the feeling too.

This year, as you might know, I went to two other concerts. The one I really looked forward to seeing was Duran Duran. (FYI, today it’s Duran Duran Appreciation Day) You can read about the concert from the link to the band’s name in this paragraph, so I don’t need to repeat it. It was worth waiting for. Who knows if they will come back to Finland again. I can’t afford to travel aboard to see concerts, so they better get here instead.

I don’t usually do things without thinking, but when the American band Toto would come to my city, I didn’t think twice about it to go. I’m not that familiar with their music, but I know their hits. They’ve been around since 1977, with different line-ups since then. I listened to their other songs before I went to the concert. They composed most of the soundtrack to the original movie, Dune, in 1984, so they’ve also done songs without words. In the concert, there were awesome different instrument solos. I’ve always been fascinated by how some people can play instruments so well. I can hardly play easy songs.

In concerts, the volume is so loud, so sometimes you don’t hear what a band is playing or saying between songs. No wonder they have earplugs in their ears when they perform. Loud noises are not suitable for your hearing in the long run. I haven’t used earplugs. It’s a bit scary to put them inside my ears. My hearing is still great, anyway. The concerts should be heard as intended, loud and live. It’s only for a short period anyway. It can take years before I go to concerts again. If only that Elton John concert wouldn’t have been cancelled. It would have been next year. Oh, well that’s how it goes sometimes. You can’t always get what you want. Not even in concerts.