Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Sofia I In D Minor

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Sofia is practising “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” on the piano. She is performing at a concert next month, on the 18th of August 2007. I love that song. She is still stumbling a bit through it now but she is getting better everyday.

“Adik, bila adik dah boleh main lagu tu smoothly, Adik play and Papa sing nak?”

“Huh? Papa sing? Papa tau nyanyi ke? Papa tau ke lagu tu?”

“What do you mean papa tau nyanyi ke? Of course Papa tau, tell me, who was the one singing that lullaby Hamsai Tu Bada to you….. when you wanted to go to sleep masa kecik2 dulu?“

Oh my Zod, she has no idea. No idea at all. Heh heh heh…. Nyanyi suke suke aje boleh lah…. I told her to practice hard, she wouldn’t want to fumble during the concert, does she? She might have to perform without the notes, she might have to play from memory. That makes it harder still.

Now that both her and Nazzim are grown up, I wonder if I remember that lullaby anymore. Well, I still do. When they were younger, both of them went to sleep listening to that lullaby. My mother taught me. I guess probably I went to sleep listening to that lullaby too.

But then Sofia has got a bigger problem than memorizing her notes or playing well. You see, she is “gemuruh”. While waiting for her first music exams a few years ago, I saw for the first time how bad it was for her. She felt like throwing up. She was so nervous that she felt like throwing up!!! So I told her that she had practiced and studied and that’s all there is to it.

“Adik takut fail….”

“Kalau fail apa nak buatkan, fail lah…”

“Tapi Papa dah bayar fees dia…, mahal kan?”

Ya, it was like RM 200 or something like that….

“Apa nak buatkan, tapi that is why Papa suruh Adik practice and study and practice and study, then mesti tak fail.”

“Kalau fail jugak?”

“No, you won’t fail.”

“Kalau?”

“No, I won’t be angry with you, I promise……”

Actually, those were the words she wanted to hear.

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