Music

So last night, Leeteuk, Heechul, Yesung, and Eunhyuk of Super Junior appeared on Radio Star. As idols who debuted in 2005, they have literally seen how the K-pop scene has changed over the years. One of the most recent change in the last 5 years is the emergence of Tiktok dance challenges, which started when Zico randomly danced to his song Any Song with Hwasa. What started as a random fun thing between friends has become into a K-pop promotional necessity.

In clip from the show, Leeteuk talked about how crazy it has gotten. To film in the famous Music Bank spot by the stairs, idols must apparently 1) use the speakers placed in that area, 2) only use a cellphone and not professional cameras, and 3) make a reservation for a time slot with ticketing numbers. WILD. He also mentioned that something similar also happens for Music Core, wherein an idol who is slated to perform on the show in the afternoon had to arrive at 8am and wait for their turn to film their dance challenge by the famous fuchsia/magenta(?) wall.

No wonder you have some of the veteran idols hiding in their waiting rooms so they won't be asked by hoobaes to film dance challenges with them.

I just had my "aha" moment where everything clicked and I just had to say something!!!

Tl;Dr: Bite the bullet and memorize the notes by sight. It's worth it 100%.

I've been "playing" guitar for like 14 years on and off so in a way I'm not a "newbie", but for many years I've just been stagnant. Over the years I've learned how to play and sing and play some passable campfire guitar and covers but I eventually realized that I was tired of copying other musicians and really yearned to express my own inner music and soul and jam with other musicians. I knew I was never going to get there playing covers so I decided it was time to learn how to improvise!

So I did what I imagine most people do and found the pentatonic shapes and basically wasted like 4 years doing that just noodling around and randomly playing notes hoping it would sound good. And I did get a bit better over time but I never felt that I was doing anything more than just chaotic rolling of the dice and repeating the same boring lines over and over.

I tried watching Youtube videos from all these guitarists explaining their little tricks and tips and hacks and shortcuts and stuff but it just never got me anywhere. It just got more and more frustrating to the point where I got so depressed like half a year ago I was laying on the ground in my room staring at the mirror closet in the corner of the room and crying. It was pretty pathetic. I decided that I needed to learn this instrument or die trying.

So I finally sat down and started to memorize the notes on the guitar. Like, point at any random note and be able to name it instinctively on sight without referencing anywhere else on the guitar. Just the fret itself.

Fast forward to tonight and I just had a moment where I'm pretty sure it was 9 PM like two seconds ago because I got totally lost in the flow of just jamming and playing music and lost track of time for hours.

I'm not great at guitar but what happened is I finally had that moment where scales, arpeggios, CAGED system, chords, numerical system - everything just came together and I got a glimpse of the big picture. I can see and feel and sense the patterns and the logic of the fretboard and I'm absolutely floored by the infinite possibilities ahead of me that I have yet to practice and learn.

Tonight I felt like a newbie all over again. Like that kid that discovered the guitar all over again and I'm so lost in the excitement and wonder of what's possible. I feel humbled and am really looking forward to the very long journey ahead of me in continuing to learn and grow with this instrument for the rest of my life.