SUNRISE Февраль_веб | Page 50

MUSIC Nothing but Music Valeriy Stanislavskiy Lyceum BSPU, Blagoveshchensk (Russia) My music path began at the age of 8, when my parents got me into the branch of Central children's art school at the school No. 9, which I had attended before entering the Lyceum. Now there is no such a thing, but that time the music teachers worked several days a week at ordinary schools, teaching the elementary schoolchildren musical basics and selecting the best of them to study directly at the Central children's art school. It turned out that a button accordion teacher came to school that year and therefore I was assigned to learn to play this instrument. That decision was also influenced by the fact that after my great-grandfather`s death, who I never had a chance to meet, there had been a small button accordion “Ogonyok” left. My great- grandfather liked to play his button accordion and he usually came out to sit on zavalinka in front of his house on summer evenings, and almost the entire village used to gather around and listen (later, I tried to do the same, but with less success – unfortunately, there had already been less people in the village). The “Ogonyok” was exactly my first musical instrument to begin the whole thing with. But first, I had to put it in order: clean out the dust, polish the valves, seal the holes in the fur ... 50 SUNRISE The first year of study turned out to be rather contradictory: in December, the teacher went to hospital for half a year because of a head injury, so I had to urgently look for a replacement. After some time, Irina Gennadyevna Kalita started to work at the school, and she managed to see talent in me and offered to enter Central children's art school . She has been teaching me for the last ten years, being exactly the person who I owe for all the success, awards and achievements. The following years were very tough, since I had to learn hard, to play the instrument for several hours per session, practicing to play the same parts or measures for many times. However, as the years passed, it became easier and easier; I got the ability to improvise and even play various melodies by ear. Thanks to music and constant live performances, I learned to control my excitement, to be more logical and reasonable. Also, as you get older it becomes clear that introduction to the Rudiments of Music and the art of performance helps to develop memory skills and to be better educated and more erudite compared to those who are not involved in music. Now I am studying in the 10th grade of Central children's art school and this is probably my last year of learning to play the button accordion, but I'm not at all going to stop with music, because, as we know, there is no such a thing as an ex- musician. February 2019 №2