Sunday, May 17, 2009

Dream On..

I have been seriously thinking about a lot of things.

Not many people know about it, but when I was a kid I wanted to become a musician. However, growing up in India really meant that I was to focus my energy on my studies. Also, my parents never really encouraged me to learn a musical instrument (they did want me to learn classical music when I was very little, but I refused). I think one of the reasons why they did not encourage me was because they could not have afforded the lessons, the instruments and the works. And again, like I mentioned earlier, they wanted me to focus on my education. 

Since the last few days I am thinking about making my dream come true (I know it sounds very dramatic, but I am seriously thinking about it). I want to be a musician. I am not planning to be in a band and cut an album and tour and all that. I just want to learn a certain instrument very well (guitar?), get some recording gizmo, and make an MP3. That's all I am planning to do. The day I make my mp3, I will smile. My heart would smile. But now the problem is this - I know how to play the guitar, but I don't know how to play the guitar. I mean, I can strum some chords, do a little bit of picking here and there etc., but when it comes to the technicalities of it - I fail. I fail because I do not know most of the stuff associated with good guitar playing. If you ask me to tune down my guitar half a step I wouldn't know how to do it. So my plan is:

Learn to "really" play the guitar: I had ordered a set of "Learn Rock Guitar" DVDs around 8 - 9 months ago. I did do a few lessons from it but lost interest later. It's time to relearn those lessons and learn new ones.

Record stuff: I don't know how to record. I looked up recorders and mixers and stuff on musiciansfriend.com and got totally lost and confused. None of the jargon used to explain the functionalities of those gizmos made any sense to me. So I ordered this. I would learn what the things do first, and then order stuff and learn to use them.

Create MP3 and distribute it for free.

Sounds simple, no?

Another dream of mine has always been to learn photography - like really learn stuff and click amazing pictures using the technalities involved in photography, and not just click pictures with my point and shoot randomly without knowing what is really going on in those pictures. For that I would require an SLR.

I looked up some cool SLRs online today, and instantly shat my pants. Those cameras are not cheap - even the ones for beginners are around 500 bucks. I checked Amazon, and BeachCamera. And then I checked Best Buy. I had almost given up hopes of buying an SLR when a certain offer grabbed my attention on Best Buy's website - "no interest on orders of 499 and up if paid in full in 18 months."

!

So I applied for their credit card...

And got it instantly!

At that very moment I ordered the Canon Rebel XS, and went to the store to pick it up, with a smile on my face of course! I picked it up, came back home,  and opened the box only to find out that they had actually given me the Rebel XSi, and not the XS, which is a lot more expensive and has better features! I looked at my clock and realized that the store was about to close in 10 minutes. I called them to let them know of the mistake they had made, but they did not answer. I tried again. Same thing. Then I emailed the store general manager explaining the entire situation. I wrote that I want what I paid for, and that I would return it tomorrow and get the XS. The XSi is now sitting in my room inside its box, doing nothing.

But atleast I am glad that I have started chasing dream # 2. I am hoping to learn a few tricks quickly and click some nice pictures.

Oh and ofcourse, dream # 1 should hopefully see the light of the day some time soon too :-).

And yes, as of now, my parents' dream of me getting married soon can go to hell :-).

8 comments:

Heart'n'Soul said...

ahaan!! so thts wt keepin u busy... were u like sleepin with tht camera when i called n u din pick up... LOL

all i can say is, chasing ur dream and makin even 1% of it come true.... its such a high... nothin compares to tht... n i can say it based on experience.... baaki to normal life chal hi rahi hai...so well - ROCK ON!!!

oh n by the way, u mite wanna watch rock on since u talked bout music n dreams and thts exactly wt the movie is all about!

Unknown said...

I am not going to watch any crappy movie..

Unknown said...

Thank you for the suggestion though ;-)..

Harshey said...

Hey!
even i'm getting a Camera! a Nikon D60.
And even I wanted (and still do) to be a musician, and I do know a little guitar, and I'm also struggling with the lessons...talk about coincidences!

I always get confused when i read about how a certain guitarist learned it all by himself and then became a legend and all...I mean is it that easy? Or is it that you need to devote your entire efforts and time towards it? A dayjob sucks big time when you want to learn the guitar or write a movie (the latter is also one of the dreams...)
Anyway, best of luck! and do share some of your photographs on the blog

Unknown said...

Harshey my friend, we have a lot in common :-).

You are right, a day job sucks big time,and it makes it all the more difficult to devote our time to the beloved instrument. What I am doing is learning just one lesson on a certain random day, and practicing the lesson for the next four to five days till I feel comfortable. Then I move on to the next lesson.

I think what really usually frustrates us is the lack of time, and that makes us want to learn as much as possible as soon as possible. But the only problem is that you really need to practice a lot on the guitar, and that is what i am planning to do. I am in no hurry now. I will take my own sweet time to learn the instrument, and I am pretty sure that one day (target: next ten years maybe?) my skills would improve dramatically :-).

Unknown said...

Ah a movie, that sounds very very interesting!!

You know what, one big lesson that I have learnt in the US is that you are never too old to learn anything. Do what you feel like, whenever you can. Of course, our priorities change with time, but we should still pursue our interests. Ignoring them may only lead to future regrets, perhaps. Life is too short after all!

I plan to use the same approach with photography. I recently bought a book, and now I plan to read one lesson on a certain day and put the techniques to use,and then move on to the next lesson. We'll see how it goes :-).

Unknown said...

Harshey, are you on Facebook by any chance?

Anonymous said...

sucker...u got a credit card to buy a camera. you are really turning into an american! lol.