Old Post: Why I Don't Want to Learn Playing Musical Instruments

I found these old posts from my no-longer-existing-blog when I was cleaning my hard drive. I thought it would be interesting to post them again and add some commentaries.

Playing music has always been interesting for me. I like watching people generate beautiful sounds. But I've never been too keen on learning how to do it.

Because I believe if I did, I would destroy its beauty.

Learning to play music means you have to go through different stages until you master it. And I fear if I do that, I will be all used to the sound of my instrument. So fed up with it, that when I hear a nice song, I will only hear the instrument I've mastered. Not only that, instead of simply listening to it, I will imagine how the instrument is played. Turning something beautiful to something technical.

Ridiculous? May be.
I have two analogies though.

First time I heard the song "If I Am" by Nine Days, I loved it. I could hear all the instruments played in the background.
But, after I studied the lyrics, all I could hear was the vocalist. My mind kept following the words, verses after verses. All the musical instruments played in the background that made the song beautiful was just gone. Sometimes I wished I had never studied the lyrics.

And the second analogy involves my neighbor. I have a neighbor who can't read at all, and he's about 60 years old. I wonder what he sees in a writing. If there is something beautiful in it, I bet he will see it better and faster from all of us. If I see a writing, I will just, simply, read it. I don't care too much about its shape, color, or whatever. But, for a person who can't read, perhaps it's like a painting. Maybe a boulevard filled with ads and offers looks like a big parade of colorful shapes.

I believe sometimes the less you know about something, the more beautiful it becomes.

And that's why I don't want to learn playing musical instruments.

COMMENT
The second sentence from the bottom has a different meaning to me now.