Welcome to my new blog. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Anna, I'm fourteen years old, and I'm a classical pianist and composer. I have a website called annalarsenmusic.com if you would like to see what I'm up to in terms of my musical endeavors. Meanwhile, since I love writing (journaling especially), I decided to start this blog for people who are interested in hearing more about me and my ideas about life.
Today, as an introduction, I thought I would talk a little bit about why music is so special to me. Sometimes, especially on my YouTube videos of my younger self playing the piano, I notice comments from people expressing concerns about whether my parents were doing what was best for me by "forcing" me to play piano at a young age. A lot of comments that seem to appear often under these videos are remarks such as, "Poor kid, does she even like playing piano?"
The answer to this question is, always has been, and always will be: yes. Piano, and music in general, is such an important part of my life that without it, I would probably not know where to turn. Sure, when I was really young, practicing for a few hours a day wasn't exactly my idea of fun, but as I've gotten older, I have grown to love the piano more and more. Also, my parents were always very supportive of my musical journey. They encouraged me to practice but never forced me to... Music is something I cherish within my heart and have decided to continue with for all these years out of my own accord.
So why did I decide to continue with it?
That's what I'm going to try to explain. When I was little, playing piano and composing pieces used to be something I would do simply because it was a part of my life for as long as I could remember, so it was just sort of natural to me. To put it in simpler terms, music was something I enjoyed, but I didn't necessarily love it with all of my heart. However, over the past several years, music has taken on an entirely different meaning for me.
- Music has become the best way I know how to express myself. In life, there's a lot we think and feel that simply cannot be expressed through words. I've found that if you try, anything can be expressed through music.
- Music gives us a sense of accomplishment. When we learn a piece, practice it, polish it, perform it, revisit it, et cetera, there are clear milestones that we reach along each step of the journey. This is especially true when there is something in the music that we find to be extremely difficult. We realize that when we persevere, try different methods of approach, and simply have patience/give it time, we will eventually be able to conquer the challenge, no matter how impossible it seemed at first.
- I don't know how else to say this, but I can say firsthand that music saves lives. Everyone goes through difficult times in their life - everyone. I had a particularly rough time this past year when I was going through several personal struggles, but if someone asked me what got me through it, I would definitely say piano. It was both a distraction and a way to pour out everything I felt inside of me, and it is largely because of music that I am still here.
- This leads me to my most important point: Music is a language which nearly everybody can understand, and this makes it a truly amazing way to connect with others, even people you've never met before. If there is just one person who I can relate to through my piano playing or compositions, I'll be forever grateful. Through music, I want to be able to help people who are lost to see the beauty in life, to inspire people to face their demons and overcome their struggles, and to make sure that everyone knows that they are worthy of happiness and life.
There is definitely a lot more I can think of about why music means so much to me, but those are just a few reasons. I'm going to wrap this up now so I can go work on learning new repertoire. I hope you all have a wonderful day!
Sincerely,
Anna
