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- When my life Really changed.
When my life Really changed.
I stared at the window. All white, just like the keys I was automatically pressing up and down.
And black, like the coffee by my side.
Black, like the other half of the keys, which I also pressed every now and then…
The sky was dark as a Stephen King novel. The rest was covered in snow.
I stopped for a second to look at my watch: 3:30 p.m.
Daylight was a rare luxury during Finnish winter days.
I stepped over by the window to take a look at the outdoor thermometer; smartphones weren’t around yet back then, just Nokias… -36.7 degrees celsius (-34 Fahrenheit).
Degrees on the plus side were a rare treat during Finnish wintertime.
I sat back at the piano, dried my tears with my sleeve, and entered what I can only describe as a state of "meditative surrender”.
It was then that I finally made up my mind. The decision was taken, and there was no turning back. I would give into my youthful dream and I would just go and buy the damn instrument.
My two jobs, cleaning restaurant floors and accompanying dreadful singers at the piano were so lousily paid, that after paying rent, expenses, and my daily plate of rice or spaghetti to survive, I couldn´t even afford to buy a cup of coffee at the cheapest cafeteria in town.
So, how was I going to buy a 4000€ instrument?
And where??
I was lost in a Finnish town 200 kilometers away from the capital, and not even there in Helsinki would I be able to find one.
I went down to the Conservatory’s computer room and made a Yahoo search (yes, the internet was around already but Google wasn’t leading the web yet).
After a long search, a wide exchange of e-mails, and weeks that seemed to stretch for years, I found an instrument. It was perfect.
There were only two problems.
1: I didn’t have the 4500€ it costed.
2: it was located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. 13,000 kilometers wasn’t just a hitchhike away…
Fast forward to a few months, a few extra hours of work, and a few bank loans later.
I’m at the post office, drying my tears with my sleeve. Only this time they were happy tears.
The post officer didn’t really know what to make out of me.
I couldn’t wait till I got home, so I took out my pocket knife (thank God they didn’t see that as a threat), opened the box, and glanced at the very first bandoneon I had ever seen in my life.
I was 20 years old.
A Peruvian guy, studying piano in Finland, who had never been in Argentina and who loved the bandoneon so much as to go through all that ordeal to get it.
I hadn´t the slightest idea how would I ever be able to play it. Everybody who knew something about it said it’s almost impossible to play because it´s such a difficult instrument, and I didn’t have the slightest idea where to start.
Remember, back then there were no Youtube tutorials. No YouTube at all, as a matter of fact.
I had only listened to a handful of bandoneon recordings in my whole life.
That was enough to know that I had to spend the rest of it playing this instrument.
I would either master it or die trying.
It was then that it all changed. My life changed.
My next single drew inspiration from this period in my life and it´s very special to me. It´s out this Friday. I´d appreciate it very much if you pre-save the track on the following link: Íntimo, by Claudio Constantini
Tomorrow more about this.
Have a great day!
Claudio.