vleronh - Tumblr blog

vleronh · 5 years

Audio

A tender heartbreak

0 notes

vleronh · 5 years

Text

My favorite time of day is twenty minutes before sunset.

Not the last few minutes when the sun is shrinking and shrinking into a tiny red dot over the earth. Not the time that the whole sky is dyed crimson by the shimmering twilight. It's the time when the clouds turn golden and and the few of the sun's rays splotch the air pink.

The atmosphere is special, almost magical, because it only lasts for five minutes. Maybe it's just because of the fact that I'm returning home on the bus and I can't peek outside so much; or maybe it's because when it happens, I never seem to be at the right place to take in the upper hemisphere of my life.

Or maybe it's the fact that I know I'll miss the particular moment standing on the apartment rooftop which I'll leave behind in less than a year and I know I will never be able to return to.

0 notes

vleronh · 5 years

Audio

칠흑처럼 어두운 밤에 장마의 끝자락에 걸친 마지막 비가 추적추적 내린다.

시원하게 퍼붓고 있음에도 마음만은 그러지 못해 속을 삭히며 책상에 엎드려 눈을 감는다. 힘들고 피로하다. 이렇다 할 만한 성과를 내지 못한 채 시간은 책상 아래로 녹아내려 버렸다. 비는 점점 거세지고 그만큼 앞으로 해야 할 일이 눈앞에 아른거리며 나를 짓눌러온다.

점점 숨이 막히고, 끄떡없을 거라 자신하던 마음 한 쪽 끝이 젖어온다.

0 notes

vleronh · 5 years

Photo

Here’s another weird thing about my harmonica.

As far as my knowledge goes, the order of the notes on a harmonica is normally different from the “ordinary” scale - instead of C, D, E, F, G, A, B and back to C, the order goes from C, D, E, F, G, A, C then B. Basically, the order of B and C are switched. And that’s in order to keep the C, E, G in line and consistent as blow notes, so it’s easier to navigate through and create the chords - I think.

The point is, my harmonica’s different - the layouts of the bottom line are exactly the same as the white keys on a piano; C, D, E, F, G, A, B and C. As a result, there are two draw notes in a row and it’s sometimes hard to play on only one of either A and B. However, it’s easier to learn to navigate through the notes when first learning, since I don’t have to care about the notes going here and there because of the B and C position change.

The short break between the A and B holes on my harmonica, I think, is to make it easier for the player to control which note to play since they’re both draw notes.

I can kind of read hiragana, and I have to guess my way through katakana, and so for the past years I’ve been thinking those breaks were there to mark where C is. I’ve thought that the immediate note after the short break was C until a few weeks ago. Yes, my dumb self didn’t even consider the notation below and above the diagram to actually distinguish each notes.

In the line above, each holes are exactly a half step sharper than the hole below. So the hole above C is C#, the one above B is B#, and so on.

Yeah, that’s my harmonica. And honestly, I’m rather relieved that I don’t have to learn a whole layout for learning a new instrument. At least I know how the notes are ordered on a piano, so learning will be hopefully easier than on other (normal) harmonicas.

0 notes

vleronh · 5 years

Text

Introducing my harmonica!

I don't even remember when I first got my hands on these. My mom had given me this years ago, saying this was a gift for her from her father(my grandfather) long ago when he came back from a trip to Japan.

I was just over ten years old or so, I think, so my childish curiosity just made me go to the extent of blowing on it a few times and stuffing it away in my "treasure box" to rot for many years... until a few months ago and my interest perked in learning new instruments.

Whenever I have a strong urge to do something, it usually wears off quite soon; a few months after at the longest, I'd think. But unlike a violin, which I need to take time and effort to open up, prepare, and play, then clean it to put it back, a harmonica is much more accessible - sure, there are some measures of preparation and cleaning that need to be taken, but I still think it's easier to approach in that sense.

So here it is: Yamaha's Alto Single Chromatic Harmonica, No. AS440 with 22 holes.

Upon research I discovered that this harp is quite different from what people may think of chromatic harmonicas - it doesn't have a slide. I'm not an expert, but I'm guessing this is what's called a slideless chromatic.

But even searching that up didn't bring up anything with holes placed this particular way; most of the slideless chromatic harps I found online consisted of piano-like holes(with white keys below and black keys above) or didn't have the 'breaks' between each octaves.

Well I suppose if my mom got it a long time ago from my grandfather, this model's pretty old. I couldn't find any pictures of this precise harmonica either, and the only traces of it were on eBay or some other instrument-selling sites, marked as out of sale.

I have a lot more research to do, and I'm not even sure if I'll find appropriate content that matches this specific kind of harmonica(or if that even matters), but I'm up for this challenge and very looking forward to learning how to play.

I just had my wisdom tooth removed this morning. The dentist told me not to suck on anything or do anything that'd make the spot bleed, so I think I'll hold back from playing too soon; meanwhile, I can start to learn about how to hold a harp.