One afternoon by the piano

Around a week ago, I, together with my sister and a friend, was in a mall and by the new wing of restaurants where there was a piano, to play some songs while it was vacant. You see, the area would be usually flooded with music enthusiasts and pianists since it was the only public piano in that mall, so while we were there we chanced upon the place while not much people were around. That time, we met a man, probably on his late 50s (since he told me through our course of conversation that he was already retiring). He saw our tiny 'jamming' session and approached us, noticing that we weren't using the piano chair. We explained that it was starting to break so we decided not to use it instead, and this was where our conversation started.



He was an enthusiastic Brazilian, jazz, and improvisational pianist, as I observed. He talked to me about a few things, like how playing the piano was a hobby for him, his music interests, some experiences on how he gets to play with professional artists, different kinds of music styles and certain jazz artists I should try listening to, and how easy (compared to before) it was to learn new songs and other styles of playing because of the convenience and accessibility of YouTube. He also mentioned about how he frequented the area and how he observed other fellow oldies spending their time in the new wing to either play or listen to other music oldies play some music.

At this point, he made a comment saying that those who stuck to playing old music, kundiman*, and the like wouldn't prosper. Though I asked him why he thought that, I couldn't seem to get a clear answer from him. To add, when we shifted to another topic about playing jazz, he remarked that it was very hard to look for fellow bandmates to play the genre. He claimed, as far as I remember, that you can't get a rock music player (at this time he referred to the bassist as an example), because he can't exactly play jazz and mix well.

Though he can be correct about how rock musicians might not be able to play jazz as easy and well as jazz players, considering their difference in style, it wasn't exactly right of him to generalize that rock players won't work out with jazz players. Maybe in most cases, it could happen, but there is such thing as musicians being open to other music styles (to stray a bit, the friend I was with was in fact, a jazz and rock player). I'd say it depends on the person, whether to be open to different music and playing styles or not, and it is in his choice if he wants to learn and adapt to something new.

As for the 'old music', you also can't generalize that people who stick to playing 'old music' won't prosper. If it were so, why is it that there are still people stopping by to listen to the "old timers" who play music of their generation? Probably, if you would be referring to pop culture, you could put it that way since music nowadays is dictated by the standards of media. Plus, the new generations always want something new and different. But in another perspective, to generalize that musicians of "old genres" (and music genres in general) would not "prosper" is somehow being close-minded and not fully understanding the quality of other kinds of music. To put it that way would be as if music's quality is based on what people want it to be and how they want it to sound like according to their preferences.

Maybe, if we in general weren't too subjective and would try to understand what other music styles have to offer, no matter how "outdated" or "old" they seem to be, we may be able to realize and appreciate the diversity and dynamic element of music from whatever genre and music age we might be aware of.

Music is music after all, and it is meant to be enjoyed by everyone.

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*Kundiman is a type of love song usually used for serenading. In Philippine tradition (back in the 1800s perhaps), men would go to the houses of the ladies and would sing kundimans as a way of courtship. Usually, the ladies would be watching from their windows while the men sing from outside of the house. As far as I could remember, my grandfather did this to court our grandmother during WWII. I'm not so sure if there are still people practicing this tradition today. It'd be pretty cool if there were, though.