WARNING: A HEAVY EPISODE OF FAN-GIRLING COMING UP AHEAD. PLEASE SKIP THIS SECTION IF YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO BE TRANSPORTED BACK TO ONE OF THOSE HIGH SCHOOL CELEBRITY CRUSH FAN-GIRLING SESSIONS.
It’s quite a shame really, I’ve always had this thing to discover my favourite bands/musicians/singers way after they’ve just started out. Some, to some extent, are only discovered way after they’ve become famous. Shallow, I know. But I haven’t been the one known to scout around for good music and be one of the first few who actually liked them before they became famous and well liked by millions of others across the world. So anyway, long story cut short, I’ve found a new figure to fan-girl around!! =D
Not that I usually have a chance to fan-girl my favourite bands/musicians with my friends, due to, well, my rather different choice of music. I listen to all kinds of genre, but my preference still remains at gothic rock and piano ballads. They’re they type of music I can listen to any time, no matter what mood I am in. Though I must confess, I spent the entire night last night listening to mushy songs like ‘I Swear’ from All For One. I was watching Just Friends and that song came up and from then onwards I started listening to cheesy songs the whole night. Hehe.
And then…I had this sudden craving for piano ballads and thought about YIRUMA!! So I started listening to his pieces and my love for him grew deeper and deeper. I’ve loved him the moment I listened to ‘River Flows in You’ a couple of months ago, it was love at first sight!! Err, well, I wouldn’t say that considering I don’t believe in love at first sight, so love at first beat maybe? Hehe. And…I found out that he sings too!!! It’s a bonus!!! *Giggles* He doesn’t sing that much though, only on special occasions, but still, a wonderful composer/pianist who can also sing??? How much more can you ask for?? =D
This does not affect Maksim’s status and position! Maksim will always be one of my favourite musicians of all time. He’s so gifted and will always be my idol. His case was another “love at first beat”. I remember being an uncool 14-year old (not that I’m cool now, just maybe slightly cooler? XD) who had to come earlier to school for the much hated sports practice (I was in the afternoon session then), and had to wait for another 3 hours before school started. If it wasn’t for the TV in the Laman Ilmu (Knowledge Zone? XD) which actually had satellite TV on, I’d be bored to death.
So there I was watching something on the Discovery Channel (Okay, I made that up. I can’t remember what I was watching!) and was about to turn away when I heard the first beat. I turned back to the TV with eyes wide open and saw his fingers flying up and down across the keyboard, you almost can’t see his fingers at all! The song was ‘Flight of the Bumble Bee’ and it’s been buzzing in my ears since then.
Somehow I’m quite glad that I’ve managed to find out about Maksim. That was the point of time when I hated playing music so much, and that actually made me choose to do art instead of music during the first 3 years of high school. But Maksim changed it all, I started liking music and strated playing some of his =). I used to take up electone lessons since I was six, but I finally quit when I was 17. Sometimes I wished my parents had sent me for piano lessons instead of electone. There’s not much difference between them, to be honest, and if you’re good, you can play on both flawlessly.
Unfortunately for me, I am not good. I can’t play the piano. It’s terrible! I love the piano so much, to the extent that I’d like my dream boyfriend to be a pianist. Okay, I’ll stop here and keep the fantasies to myself XD. Hehe. Anyway, it’s horrible for someone who loves the piano so much, but can’t play it without sounding like someone who’s never touched the piano keys her whole life when she’s been playing something similar for almost 15 years T.T. I guess I have no one to blame but myself. I should have practiced more, I should be more patient and do my takes on the pieces slowly, part by part until I can finally play them slowly, and then increase the speed little by little.
But one has no patience for that! I can play many songs, but most of them only half way through because I usually give up when the keys start to change. One of my favourite pieces from Maksim, ‘Croation Rhapsody’, has five flats in the second verse. Five flats!! I used to struggle with just two flats! >.<. To make matters worse, I haven't been playing the electone for almost nine months now. I hope I can still play it >.<. My dad actually wanted to sell it off without even aking me! Thank God my mum actually thought of asking me if I still wanted to play it; if she hadn't asked, I would have gone home only to find an empty space (or some furniture, depending on their mood) instead of my familar black electone >.<.
Wait a second, wasn’t this post supposed to be some fan-girl post about Yiruma? Hehe. I guess I’m still inexperienced when it comes to fan-girling. Heck, I don't even know his last name! I don’t know anything about Yiruma besides the fact that he’s born in South Korea, grew up in London, won a couple of piano competitions, won several awards thingy, and is happily married. I have no idea how many albums he’s made, when is his new release and his tour dates. But don’t worry, google is always there to help me!! =)

This is the Electone Stagea. It has a touch-LCD screen!! Gosh how the electons have evolved over time! It's a good thing too. I was wondering when they'd eventually come up with models that could acually support CDs (that was four years ago and we were still using diskettes =.='), and recently I was wondering if they'd come up with a USB port. It seems like they've skipped CDs and jumped straight to USBs. Lol. Thank God my mum never got the EL-500 I used to pester her to get me. It's one of the high-scale models only teachers would use and we only had one of them in each room. It's also the model we'd use for our exams. But it could only support a diskette. =D
This is Yamaha's El-25. It's similar to the one I'm using at home, the El-27. Sadly, I have no pictures of it =(. The only difference is that an El-27 has a diskette slot on the right, next to the switch button. I used to record some of my songs into the diskette and thought it was so cool. Until I found out that when I tried putting it into my computer, it won't recognise the file >.<. The good thing is, when I'm lazy and don't feel like playing the electone, I'll just pop my diskette into the its diskette slot and listen to my own recordings. Some were awful, honestly, but I just did that to amuse myself. Gosh, I had no life. Haha

This picture is from his third album, quite an old picture. His latest pictures are a bit...erm...well, I shall not mention it here. Mentioning it will only show that I've finally agreed with my friends' accusation about him all these years. But no matter, I'll always luvvvv him!! ^___^
Ahh..Yiruma. He plays a completely different kind of music as compared to Maksim. However, I am in no position to judge any of them considering my lack of experience in the music world. I enjoy his music very much, and if I'm not to broke from all the shopping sprees I've promised with my friends when I go home, I'll probably get his album. Teehee =)River Flows In You - Yiruma
I luvvv this piece. Too bad I can't play it, I don't think I can ever play it like this ='(
Hope you like it too =)