Musical Autobiography

Being born and raised in the Philippines, Western Art music wasn’t the first type of music I was exposed to. My first introduction to non-Western music dated back to when I was still a baby. My mother used to cradle me in her arms while humming “Uyayis” (Filipino Lullabies). Some of them were entitled, “Ugoy ng Duyan”, “Ili-Ili Tulog Anay” and “Dandansoy”. According to my mom, every time she sang one of the familiar tunes, I knew that it was time for me to sleep already. It always worked!

When I got a bit older (probably around 2 years old), I wouldn’t sleep without background music. And, whenever someone turned the cassette player off, I would wake-up and cry. One odd thing though was my music preference. It wasn’t a lullaby I liked listening to. It was rock music! My father would always laugh whenever he tells me this story.

It wasn’t long until I was taught how to sing Tagalog, Ilocano and English nursery rhymes. I was also taught how to sing some Filipino folksongs namely, “Bahay-kubo”, “Leron Leron Sinta”, “Tong, Tong, Tong”, “Magtanim ay ‘Di Biro”, “Paru-Parong Bukid” and many more.

When I was 3 years old, we moved near my grandparent’s house. Everyday, my brother and I always visited them. My grandfather loved old songs, and that was whene I began listening to music by Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Kenny Rogers. Up to now, whenever their songs are played on the radio, I could still sing to them.

I was 10 years old when I started learning the piano. Since then, I seriously played Western Classical music. I became extremely inclined to it that I decided it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I entered an arts high school. One interesting thing regarding that high school was that we actually had subjects like Rondalla, Ethnic Music, and Art Studies. In Rondalla, we were taught how to play folk dance music using Rondalla instruments – Banduria, Laud, Octavina, Guitara, and Double Bass. Then, every term we always had a culmination activity with our resident folk dancers. We accompanied them while they danced. In Ethnic Music, we studied the different ethno linguistic groups of the Philippines, their music and their instruments. We also studied how to play the instruments and do improvisations on them. It was an enriching experience. In a class called Art Studies, some of the topics were about Greek music, Indian music, Western Art music, Chinese music, Japanese music, and Anime soundtracks. We were able to listen to a lot of selections.

In my High School, I lived in a dormitory. Whenever I had free time, I enjoyed watching Hollywood, Bollywood, Japanese, Korean, and Filipino movies. As a musician, I became aware on how distinct each movie was film scored.
I think I have been exposed to a lot of non-Western Art music that this list could go on and on and on and on. But I’ll stop here now. My brain is already exhausted and I need to rest. Bye!