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Personal Narrative Essay

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I descended from the claustrophobic, poorly-lit stage, hands shaking, body following suit. I unequipped the instrument from around my neck, resting it on the stand beside me. I maneuvered through the sea of drunken 50-something regulars so that I might find my way to a seat. Another featured musician approached me to express his satisfaction with my performance. As per common courtesy, I extended my bloody, wet, blister-ridden paw to introduce myself properly and return the compliment. My family was visiting my extended family in Canada during New Year's, and I had never played for a crowd before. First blood being drawn, my fiendish addiction to live music faced its birth.

My grandfather was a bassist for the Jazz Loft Project. My great uncle …show more content…

My mother had bought an upright piano before I was born, though by the time I was around it was treated as furnishing. Instead, I was rather keen on video games: Nintendo games scored by Koji Kondo, to be specific. Many of Kondo''s games were those that featured the functional marriage of music and gameplay. With these mechanics enforced by Koji's strong, memorable melodies, I was swiftly convinced to rush to some medium to reproduce these sounds; the piano seemed the most accessible. After several years of fiddling around by myself, I decided to start taking piano lessons. Eagerly, I dove straight into reading, technique, harmony, and eventually composition. Subsequently, I had entered two state-wide competitions for piano, reaching second place of both. At age eleven, I dug up "Roundabout" by Yes, taken aback by the aggressive, melodic, crunchy tone of the bass; inspiration had set root. A year of relentless pestering persuaded my father to fetch an old bass guitar that he had lent to a friend years ago. Much like piano, I enthusiastically hurried to practice day and night, this time without a teacher to help. Much like piano, I expressed an obsessive need to replicate sounds I had heard elsewhere. Much like piano, I harnessed an unparallelled passion for my practice and art, fully devoted to its

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