All for the art

I just watched Akihiro Tanaka in concert last night at the Asian Civilisations Museum. In true Lorraine fashion, I bought tickets to the show without a partner. I thought to myself that it was ‘all for the art’, and that even if I were the only person in the world who felt inspired by it – I would have to support it anyhow. Little did I realize a few days before the show that it’d be pretty depressing to enjoy a guitar concert without a fellow musician within reach. I would like to chat about it, ask questions about it, or ravel in it with someone who KNOWS guitars. I managed to get Marcus to go with me at the eleventh hour!

I’ve never been to a solo classical guitar performance. Tanaka started the show with cute choppy English, he introduced his translator as well. He was adorable to say the least. Strumming on his guitar, and tapping away on the wood – he reminded me of Kotaro Oshio + Tommy Emmanuel + Chet Atkins. Bottomline – he was fantastic!!! Most of his songs were original compositions that had some Japanese influence of sorts.

He also played a couple of familiar songs such as Somewhere over the Rainbow and Fly me to the moon with Rosli Mansor, a local guitarist. Right after the show, he autographed the songbook that was given at the entrance – Marcus and I made use of the opportunity to photowhore! Never in my life have I ever met a ‘celebrity’ who took photo-taking with fans so seriously!


Through sheer hard work, Tanaka learnt everything on the guitar with no formal training. He shared about how he started from piano at the age of 3 (ME TOO!) then abandoned piano for guitar (no I don’t intend to abandon the piano). Learning the guitar (or any other musical instrument) with a background in piano sure helps tremendously, especially if you can play by ear or by chords. For myself, I started playing by ear on the piano, so when I started to learn the guitar, applying the ‘chord concept’ was way easier.

Anyway, he’s got me fired up about music once again!