Dealing With Gifter – The Most Brutal Music Nazi I’ve ever Met

For the next few days, the articles I’ll be publishing will be mostly about my newfound hobby, and the new direction that I have to say, I’ll be spending the next years of my life with – music.

These past few days were challenging for me. I can't even pinpoint which one to handle first. I have been juggling emotions lately but one thing is for sure, I have become a better person to take one at a time. I'm pretty sure I'll get through these tough times.

I’ve been through a truly tough emotional setback lately, and I have to say it’s the toughest challenge I have to overcome – as a woman, as an adult, and as an average person in general. The details of this heartache I’m currently experiencing is a story for another day, so let’s just set it aside for now.

A Brutal Nazi? Maybe, Maybe Not

If you’ve read some of my previous articles, maybe you can recall that I spent a huge amount of my BCH earnings to buy my new Yamaha keyboard. Priced at around P16,000, I have to say that it’s the most expensive personal stuff I ever bought in recent years. Maybe you find that amount small, but for someone who’s been jobless for a few years, that’s huge already.

The reason why I bought such a pricey equipment was because I have to keep up with the demands of my bandmate who happens to be “the most brutal music Nazi I’ve ever met.” Well, to be honest, he’s the only serious music enthusiast I’ve ever gotten a chance to mingle with, so I guess it’s not fair to call him a ‘Nazi’ outright. He's the most meticulous person I have ever met. Next to grandma.

Why I view him as such is because he has a rather unconventional definition of perfection, albeit, musical perfection, and intense attention to detail attitude. In every recording session we have, he makes sure that every second or millisecond of imperfection gets truly ironed out.

Over the course of time, I eventually got the hang of his methods and actually started to enjoy the process of home recording. I understood that since we have nothing but his bedroom and our cheap equipment as our innovative makeshift studio, I know that my pal Gifter is just trying to achieve the way expert sound engineers do their thing.

This is the guy by the way. The dude who changed my life. Though not in the way you think. (lol)

He’s from Davao, and he left his hometown just to be with me. Sweet right? But again, it’s not the way you think. He moved his residency here in Bukidnon so we can form a musical duo, write songs, and hope to launch an album on Spotify and Youtube soon.

It started last January, though it actually started months ago, here in Read.Cash.

It was January 13, 2022, when I helped him get settled in some cheap apartment just a few blocks from where I live. The day after was the first time we had our first musical session. It was one of the scariest days of my life – We finally had our first moment of playing music together, after many months of just planning and thinking about it.

It was scary in the sense that I felt too shy and awkward playing my keyboard in front of him, knowing that he is a very experienced musician. I felt discouraged because I knew he's got some expectations from me and I was not used to yet playing along with another person.

Then again, I believed in myself that I should do my part and be serious with everything. And so I did.

For the next months, we were so busy building up our companionship, and that was how I found out how a brutal Nazi he really is if we speak of musical discipline, that is. He initially planned for us to practice every day, literally.

Eventually though, he realized that it was too much for me to bear since he acknowledged the fact that unlike him, I’m totally a novice to the whole “band-gigging thing.” We agreed to have a break every Wednesday and Sunday, and that really made me think that maybe, he wasn’t that much of a music Nazi after all.

So how did Read.cash play a part in this tandem of ours?

I hopped into this platform earlier than he did. We started commenting on each others’ articles. He often commented on my posts where I showed videos of me playing the keyboard. We then chatted through Facebook which gave me the best virtual friendship ever.

In spite of my mediocrity as a musician, he gave me constructive criticisms on how I could improve and how we could build a music school someday. Ambitious right? But that’s how we initially thought of having a tandem – teaching kids how to play music.

Months ago, there was a prominent writer here in Read.Cash, and his username was Wrabbiter. Though he got ousted from this platform due to a rift he had with one of the writers here, he didn’t let it get in the way of the tandem we built.

He stayed true to his promise that he would one day, move here to my town so we can pursue our dreams and make a career in music.

There will be more of these in the next days. Hope you’ll join me in this rough yet very exciting journey I’m currently having.

Thanks for reading.

Keep safe everyone!