Music is a separate world…

Alexey Prokofiev, a leading engineer of the automated production control system of the Cascade HPP, who can play seven instruments, spoke about his hobby

 

 

 

My passion for music began in the eighth grade. It all started with the lyrics of a song that I wrote and brought to a classmate. He studied at a music school. That’s when everything started to turn around. From rubbed calluses to blood on your fingers.

Music is a separate world that can soothe and can also invigorate. It’s not for nothing that in the past they always sent muzrota along with the infantry to maintain the mood and inspire victory.

As such, I can only call myself a teacher. But while I was learning to play instruments, I learned a lot of good people and wonderful teachers. We exchanged experiences and emotions. I have no musical education. Perhaps because of this, I did not build any kind of framework around myself about what music should be.

I can play different instruments: guitar, drums, violin, dombra, ukulele, cajon, triangle. But I prefer the bass guitar, it’s closer and more to my liking. Lately I’ve been playing the ukulele (ukulele) a lot. After all, it has a very good sound and is much smaller in size than a traditional guitar. This makes it easy to move around with it, and it is especially convenient when hiking. And perfect for campfire songs. And if someone also has a guitar, then together these two instruments sound very harmonious.

Ideas for creativity come from literally everywhere, from sounds on the street to strange “attacks” in your head. As A. Rosenbaum said: only God (the Almighty) knows how songs are born… Many musical phrases came into music from factories, like a machine knocking, like a saw ringing in a sawmill. One of the life hacks on how to come up with music is to translate what you heard somewhere onto a guitar or any other instrument. And depending on the style of music, the same piece of music will sound differently.

I don’t have a favorite piece of music, because I believe that where the soul is invested, and not the typical set of sounds under meaningless text, there is something unique. But we must not forget about the taste of music and preferences. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t like it and vice versa.

Now I play in two bands, one mainly for tribute evenings, the other for original songs. We play heavy music, so there are not many venues for performances in Almaty, but I try to be everywhere.

The feeling of playing in a group is filled with emotions and at the same time tiredness from the people who listen to you. Rehearsals are like a second job. No one will be interested in your work if you falsify a note or play it crookedly. You played well, people will come to listen to you again.

On average, I spend 6-8 hours a week playing instruments. This, of course, is not enough, but no one canceled work, household chores, everyday life, and cooking.

Unfortunately, to realize all your creativity you need a lot of money for good equipment. Nowadays, you won’t surprise anyone with songs recorded simply on a cassette or disk; everywhere there is a quality threshold and criteria.

I would recommend music lessons to everyone. You don’t even have to perform for someone, just for yourself. When you play an instrument, both hemispheres work at once, and this is self-development, an extraordinary approach to any problems develops. This can have a positive effect on your main job, because critical thinking will never be superfluous, and on vacation in the company you will always be in demand .