BY YUNJIA LIU
The Melbourne guitarist, composer, singer, and amateur photographer tells us about her journey from studying medicine in Beijing to expressing herself through music.
Born in China, I have always been a big fan of singing. I started to study accordion, piano, and music theory at the age of four. I didn’t find where the real passion was in music until I picked up the guitar for the first time at the age of 15. I started from steel-string guitar and singing folk songs. I could hold one music book and play guitar for the whole day, going through the songs one by one, and singing with the guitar. It creates a fascinating world and it is always the best company for me!
I formed my first band in high school and had a lot of fun rehearsing our favourite songs and performing in school. Later on, when the study was getting more and more intense, I sadly spent less and less time playing guitar. In Chinese culture, especially in a non-music family where I am from, music in general is taken more as a hobby rather than something that should be studied seriously in university. Therefore, I went to Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and started my seven-year Bachelor/Master combined degree. After all, pursuing a secure life was considered the most important thing at that time.
The best time of that period was the first two years, when I went on exchange study in Nankai University in Tianjin. The students are very active and the university culture is vibrant. There, I met my best music friends in the guitar club, and we formed a band named Element Kr. The first song we rehearsed together was Hotel California, the unplugged version by The Eagles. I remember that we spent a lot of time practising and rehearsing, and once when we recorded our own rehearsal and listened back, we all smiled like blooming flowers! We felt that our life was burning into a glorious flame! Then we performed all around different faculties in the university and the students loved us! Later on, we started to write our original songs. We had our tours around China in 2011 and 2012. However, the music industry in China is not very well developed. It is very difficult for an original band to make a way out. All the other band members now have non-music-related, full-time jobs; and are playing music occasionally in their spare time.
When we recorded our own rehearsal and listened back, we all smiled like blooming flowers!
I started to play finger-style guitar when I went back to Beijing after I finished my exchange study. This style is to play guitar solo pieces with steel string guitar, so it is more similar to what we play with classical guitar. I felt that the technical problems I had limited the possibilities of expressing myself on guitar, and that was when I decided to study classical guitar systematically with a private teacher in Beijing.
Studying medicine required a lot of time commitment. However, for me, the passion is always about how to spend more time with my guitar. The calling in my mind was getting stronger and stronger – ‘stop studying medicine and go to study music in university’! People thought I was crazy, because medicine is ‘such an amazing major’ and it leads to a successful and respectful career. Music is not taken as a good career at all, especially as my family is not rich and we don’t know any big names in the music world. But I always feel the ‘calling’, and I was very frustrated by not having sufficient time to play, and not having enough knowledge to describe the images in my mind with guitar and music. I’d been negotiating with my parents so many times, and finally they agreed to support me to study music abroad if I could finish the medicine degree.
The real turning point started in 2013, when I first stepped onto the land of Australia.
Finally, I became a music student, and playing guitar was no longer ‘a waste of time’ and ‘the distraction of study’. I was like a thirsty plant, trying to absorb everything from the university. I met my mentor Mx Tonié Field in the University of Melbourne, who has given me so much encouragement and support. At the start, I was not confident at all as a late-comer. The whole course is in my second language, with a lot of English terms I have never heard of. The students around me have had music training for so many years. It did take me quite a while to understand that, as a musician – or I should say, as an artist – the value is to create, not to compare with others. Everybody is unique and every pathway helps create unique characteristics. I’ve learnt so much in the university – guitar techniques, music theory, history, composition, software editing, etc.. My toolbox is getting bigger all the time! I start to think about music differently, and compose music more creatively, which is very exciting!
At the start of 2016, I went to University of Birmingham, England for a six-month exchange study. I met a lot of interesting people there, and experienced various life styles in different parts of the world. I travelled quite a lot in England and Europe. I’ve met a lot of inspiring musicians and artists. We talked a lot, and they are very nice and generous. The highlights were in Finland and Germany, where I was immersed in a big guitar family and gave living-room concerts in my friends’ places. They helped me invite audiences, provided food and wine, and I played guitar and told them music stories. I’ve been told that, earlier on, the culture was that people – including musicians (instrumentalists, composers, etc.) – used to get together, talking, eating, drinking, and playing music. Then some inspiration came, and the composer might write something for their friends. They did it on a regular base, but now the culture is somehow fading. I really love the idea of being in a ‘community’, because music is about ‘playing’; about ‘having fun’. So now I’m trying to organise something similar now I’m back in Melbourne.
Playing guitar was no longer ‘a waste of time’ and ‘the distraction of study’.
I am going to finish my Bachelor’s study in December this year. At the moment, I am preparing for my graduation concert in late November, and I have three pieces commissioned for this concert. Two of them are from the Chinese guitarist-composer You Yue and one from Italian composer Federico Favali. The fun part of journey is to meet people and discover creative artists, then collaborate and get inspirations from each other. I’m currently talking to an illustrator, and she is very interested in drawing illustrations for some of my compositions and the pieces I’m playing. It is wonderful to combine music with images, lighting, costume, etc.; it opens a new world and we can be so free in it!
Find out more about Yunjia Liu’s story on her website. See ‘无’ (Wu) – Yunjia Liu’s Graduation Recital – Classical Guitar at 7.30pm, November 26, Cecil St Studio, 66 Cecil St, Fitzroy. Find tickets online and more info on Facebook.
Images supplied.
