Ask Ryan is Born

I had the idea to start an FAQ sort of section to the blog recently but I completely forgot about it until Alex’s comment to my non-update. Don’t worry–you haven’t been missing out on this section for very long (recently in this case means the past couple of days). I’ll answer the two questions Alex posed in her comment, ignoring the rest of the comment so as to not wear this section out on its first post.

Question 1: Why you stopped wearing your fedora.

The first time I read this I must’ve added a word and a question mark because I honestly thought this was a question. Anyway, I stopped wearing my fedora for primarily three reasons:

• the hat was very dusty, and not easily cleaned, after improperly storing it over the summer;
• the feather went missing during the first season I wore it; and
• I was dissatisfied with the shape of the brim of the hat, again after improperly storing it over the summer.

I would definitely own another one. If I wasn’t so tired I would write about how I came to get my fedora.

Question 2: If you could play a musicial instrument what would you play and why?

The Piano. I think that I would find wind instruments to be a bit stressful, especially in the beginning: the majority of your energy is used in moving air into the instrument. And I do not enjoy playing string instruments: the feel is distracting, and the indiscrete nature of strings scares me. The piano is an instrument that I know I can enjoy playing, and play relaxed.

I had a musical keyboard (I guess you’d call it) as a young fellow. Whilst I wasn’t very skillful with it, I was able to play your typical children’s songs and I enjoyed doing so (rather than playing with the weird sound effects). This keyboard was a gift from my grandmother whom I don’t see often (as she lives in Nova Scotia), so it also held meaning to me. So I think the piano is more comfortable for me at a subconcious level because of this connection.

Chopin, who was a pianist, is one of my favourite classical artists. I am not at all a conossiuer of classical music but I can honestly say that what I’ve heard from Chopin has topped the list for me.

And finally I would have to say that, recently, Taylor Hanson has added more inspiration for me with regards to playing the piano. I can remember watching the Late Show with David Letterman when Hanson was on to perform Thinking of You to promote 3 Car Garage. I had heard Thinking of You many times before but this performance was the first time I really noticed the piano solo. It’s not at all a difficult or very impressive solo but I did, and still do, really enjoy it. Even more recently, I think the piano work in Crazy Beautiful is also very great and very inspiring.

I guess that ends the first installment of Ask Ryan. Future questions can be passed along via comments or e-mail.