Hunter Liu's Website

Music

I’m a classically trained pianist and violinist, though I’m not that good to be honest. I’m good enough to sound good to the average Joe, but not good enough to sound good to the people that are good enough to know what sounds good. But I still try, and I think that’s what matters most at the end of the day.

I love music a lot, and I deeply appreciate those with the skill and dedication to make it for the rest of us. My music taste has changed over the few years I’ve been around, and I want to be able to remember why I appreciated and loved the music I do now, even when I become a raisin and can’t even hear an elephant fart.

I’ll try to keep it to one song or recording per artist, but no promises.

If you’re intimidated by “technical” music discussion, don’t worry, you’re not alone. I remember one time I tried to get my parents to listen to Evgeny Kissin’s recording of “The Lark”, but I was in high school and just couldn’t communicate to them what I heard in the recording. I think it was frustrating for both sides: for me because I couldn’t precisely communicate what was happening in the music, and for my parents because they consequently had no clue what I was going on about.

It’s different when we’re at an art museum or out sightseeing, where fine details can be pointed out and explained with relative ease, even though none of us had any deep technical knowledge about art or architecture or history or anything. Everyone knows what it means for a certain shade of blue being vibrant. I think part of it is that we interact with most other forms of art with our eyes, which we use for every other thing as well. Our brains are familiar with colours and shapes because we’re always using those tools. But we don’t really pay attention to the chord shape of cars whizzing by on the highway, and we don’t often think about the syncopated rythm car doors’ echos make under a bridge.

Musical terms are intimidating because we don’t use them as much and we’re unfamiliar with them. Despite that, we all have a pretty good sense of the feelings that music evokes — we all know what sad songs and happy songs sound like, for instance. Terminology gives us the language we need to talk about the specifics of music: it lets us be specific about how music is structured and how it moves itself forward. Learn it please!