Guitar saved me
Reporter: Because of the way you play on stage professionally and passionately, I think of the tremendous, silent efforts of artists in general and guitarists in particular?
An Tran: Effort is the minimum for an artist. Just like the haunting shadow of self-doubt is always present for an artist no matter how famous he is. Doubtful thoughts about talent and about oneself can always arise from somewhere. But when it comes, I learn to accept it, see it as a part of the performance that helps me to be truly excited and sublime on stage.
An thinks that practicing hard to gain confidence is 90% of success, the rest is luck.
Reporter: Fans know the difficult time when a Vietnamese boy in America thought he had to give up his guitar dream. After all, what does the guitar mean to An's life now?
An Tran: Yes, that was the time when An went to America to study high school in a small town in Nebraska. There was no guitar teacher there, and there was no guitar in the music class. Meanwhile, looking around, the American youth team played guitar very well, and were present in all the European and world tournaments. An started to feel bored and miserable because he had to stay silent with his guitar and thought that he no longer had the chance to learn guitar, that he was not good at it…
By chance, one time when he went to Chicago to visit a friend, some new graduate students introduced him to a friend who was learning guitar, and through that, he connected with a guitar teacher named Anne Waller. She heard and assessed that An had potential, and advised him to attend a summer camp. But with the tuition fee of 2000 USD at that time, it was a problem for An. Then somehow, with the help of his parents and everyone, An was able to attend the course and realized that he was the best student among more than 10 students at the summer camp. Anne Waller also continued to teach An for free after the course.
Guitar helped An rise up in an important turning point in a foreign land.
-- AN TRAN --
Before that, during his teenage years at home, guitar was the world where An lived and sought comfort. Like many other children, An was often compared, because at school, he was mediocre in every subject. His parents even let him try many sports such as soccer, tennis..., piano, drawing, singing... but nothing stood out.
At the age of 8, An started learning guitar from a cousin and realized that he seemed to have a talent because when he practiced, it was very easy, and he could do the exercises faster than other subjects. For the first time in his life, An felt something was easy. He told his parents: I like this, I want to learn guitar. Finding something that helped him assert himself, An practiced even more. And the more he practiced, the better he got. At the age of 10, he took the entrance exam to the conservatory and got the highest score. At the age of 12, he won first prize in the national guitar competition. At this time, his parents believed that he had some ability and decided to let An follow a professional path.
Guitar and An met like that! But in the twists and turns of life, it must be said that guitar saved An.
Reporter: Now that you are a teacher, and thinking back to those stages that we often call turning points, teachers must have been important catalysts that brought guitar back to An?
An Tran: I always think that I am lucky because on my path, there are many people who have stopped by me and helped me. Among them, teachers not only gave me knowledge and skills but also gave me a way of thinking. Truly, a lost and confused teenager met a guitar teacher who complimented him: You have talent, you have ability, that opened up a path, a tremendous hope for me.
In his third year of university, An studied conducting with German teacher Tom Zelle. Every practice session during the week, teacher and student meditated together, had dinner together, and the teacher listened to An's sharing, helping An look directly at her most painful problems to overcome them. Sometimes I sweated while practicing, but if I couldn't identify and break down my obsessive thoughts, I wouldn't be able to play the instrument well.
For An, the teacher sharing with him and supporting him spiritually has a great meaning, more important than the teacher teaching An guitar.
Reporter: And does this spread to An's generations of students?
An Tran: There is nothing better than each person trying to become better every day. Because once we become better, the people we come into contact with will also have a better influence and this world can become more beautiful thanks to that. An always thinks like that, so when standing in front of students, especially students from many different countries, sometimes I become a psychotherapist before becoming a music teacher.
In fact, especially after covid-19, most of my students are teenagers who have suffered trauma from the pandemic and just talking to them is enough to feel their pain.
Not to mention that for a long time, the way of playing guitar has been influenced by stereotypes, which have invisibly become walls that prevent players from expressing themselves in creative freedom. Listening to the sound of the guitar, you can see that many students are "stuck", not only in Vietnam, but also in the US. Playing like that is always copying others, playing for others, not for yourself.
And for teachers, the important thing right now is to work with students to break down their own walls. An still tells them: "If you can't break down, you can never play for free. If you can break down, you are you, you share what you have, and what other people think, you leave it all out."
Mr. Tom Zelle taught An a different way of listening to music. And An also wanted to listen to his students' music in a different way.
Hands carrying pho, stacking books, playing the guitar
Reporter: Living in America is certainly not a simple story, and did the musicians ever have to make a living?
An Tran: An used to carry pho, but after two days… he was fired because they said “this guy can’t do it, he’s too slow” (laughs). During high school, An also participated in guitar competitions and brought home some state awards for the school, thanks to which he received some support from the school to continue his studies. In addition to teaching guitar, when he was a graduate student, An worked as a book stacker in the library. This job was not… criticized as slow and it even gave An time to relax and think about his next path.
Reporter: Hard work and practice are essential, but specifically, how does this essentiality take place? I'm curious about how to take care of the hands that dance on the strings with such high intensity?
An Tran: Hands and nails are the “voice” of a guitarist. Strong and thick nails with no scratches on the tips will make the guitar sound better and the artist will be more confident. An always carries a nail care kit with her and takes care of them every day, no less than a nail artist (laughs).
During the recording of An's second guitar album, there was a part in a song that had to be recorded over and over again until his little finger bled. And that was only the morning of the second day, while they had to record for 3 consecutive days from 9am to 12am. At that time, An had to find a tube of anesthetic to stop the bleeding so that his little finger would no longer feel the pain and continue playing the guitar.
An had to buy anesthetic and blood-clotting medicine to numb the pain in his little finger and continue playing the guitar.
Reporter: An's working day?
An Tran: The other day, I had breakfast and coffee at Hoan Kiem Lake. For the first time after 4 years in the US, returning to Hanoi, I felt like I didn't have to think about what I would do this afternoon or what time it was. A day in the US is really a series of hours and non-stop work. I wake up at 6am, take my wife to work, and I drive to teach. There is a school where I travel about 230km round trip, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening. On days when I don't have a teaching schedule, I wake up at 7am, go to the gym, and do other work. I usually don't eat breakfast. At 6-7am, I have dinner with my family and play with my kids for 1-2 hours. At 10pm, I go down to the basement and close the door to practice the piano until 2am. After each practice session, I always do two things: Write down tomorrow's tasks and put coffee in the machine so that I only have to turn it on in the morning.
Reporter: And what does family time mean to an artist?
An Tran: Sharing work with the family is obvious. An often cooks and Lucina - An's wife spends a lot of time taking care of the baby. The baby and the family bring An a new source of energy, seeing the baby makes An smile and An seems to forget about her previous life. Everything starts from here! (laughs).
Of course, family life with a baby always has challenges. But we will find a way to arrange it when the two of us understand and support each other every day in life. An still remembers that when my baby was only 2 weeks old, I had to leave home to record the second album. And since I knew there was a baby in my womb, I have thought about how to make the sound of the piano more beautiful, to bring better things to this life.
Reporter: How did the first album come about?
An Tran: 2019 is the year I thought about starting to record.
The original plan was to record classic guitar pieces, but there was always a voice of doubt in my mind… 3 months before the recording date, An was working part-time as a book stacker at the University library (average 7 hours/day). While stacking books, I was thinking about what I had to do for the world’s guitar life, instead of just playing classic songs. While stacking, I suddenly thought about why I didn’t introduce Vietnamese guitar songs to the world? So An ran home and started working on this project.
Reporter: A fan of An in Vietnam shared that she bought the album “Stay, my beloved” from An’s crowd funding project and was really impressed with the image as well as the soulful guitar sound…
An Tran: An is always grateful for listeners like that! This project initially only hoped to reach 7000 USD, but unexpectedly it reached 10,000 USD. An always thinks that if you do something you truly love, people will stand by you. “Stay, my beloved” is also a guitar album full of An’s family imprint. The cover is a photo that An’s father took in a mountainous area of Vietnam. The name of the album “Nguoi oi, nguoi o dung ve!” is also the name of the song that, according to my mother, An plays best.
The introduction pages in the shirt all have pictures of An's family and especially the drawing of the curved red The Huc bridge with its reflection in the water, which was drawn by An's wife, conveying the connection and interaction between the traditional culture from where An was born and the world where An contributed his musical voice.
Promote the composition of Vietnamese guitar music
Reporter: With such great support from family and listeners, An will surely have more albums and new guitar dreams?
An Tran: My dream is to record an album that receives high praise, like a Grammy award. For now, I have signed a contract and continue to record for Naxos. After this Vol.7 about French music, there will be a Vietnamese guitar album.
Next, An will focus on playing the pieces that Vietnamese musicians wrote specifically for him, connecting foreign funding sources directly to musicians, pushing Vietnamese guitar music to the world, creating a new guitar platform, a new music stream for the world's guitar life...
Reporter: There must be some strong concern and motivation for this great idea?
An Tran: An is always worried, the treasure trove of Vietnamese guitar arrangements is more or less available, my job is to become a bridge of cultural exchange between the world audience and Vietnamese musicians. I still remember, when I was young, An only dreamed of playing the guitar piece Thanh Giong composed by musician Nguyen The An. That 7-chapter piece can be considered a milestone of Vietnamese guitar. Therefore, to record the first album "Stay, my beloved", An was determined to practice for 3 months to bring this Vietnamese melody to the world.
Reporter: What are the current challenges facing the world of guitar?
An Tran: Classical guitar performances nowadays are usually only attended by old people. If artists do not change their teaching methods and continue to practice the same things, they will harm themselves. The loyal audience will gradually disappear. Not only will there be no listeners, but gradually there will be no students either.
The fact that an artist can play all the most difficult guitar songs in the world is just a proof that he has met such high requirements. To maintain and contribute to the development of the world guitar requires more creativity and new ways of inspiring. People are gradually realizing that teaching guitar is not just about professional qualifications, nor is playing technique everything, but more deeply, behind that is the ability to open a path, overcome limitations to help the learner's guitar sound truly rise and reach far.
To maintain and contribute to the development of the world guitar, new innovations and inspirations are needed.
-- AN TRAN --
Reporter: Back to Hanoi guitar, how meaningful is the international guitar festival to the capital's guitar community?
An Tran: Around 2012, the idea of reviving guitar in Hanoi by some Vietnamese artists attracted international artists to participate. Although 2023 is the first year An has arranged to attend an international guitar festival in Hanoi, it can be said that the formation of this playground will become the history of Hanoi guitar. Even in the US, it is not easy to create such a playground, because this activity really takes a lot of effort and money.
An still told artist Vu Duc Hien - the person who connected and created this meaningful activity - that looking at what he and the guitarists are doing, he hopes for the guitar life in Hanoi in the next 10 years. Because this type of music is quite selective of listeners, starting from now, for the young generation to rub shoulders with many world artists, then in 10 years we will have international awards. Musical activities are to satisfy the long-term, decades and thinking like that is to overcome the difficulties and limitations ahead.
Coming back to Hanoi is coming home. Arriving at the airport, smelling the scent of soap in the airport, An wanted to embrace all the colors and flavors of this land.
Coming back to Hanoi is coming home
Reporter: How do you feel about returning to Hanoi this time?
An Tran: Really, for the first time I felt like I had everything, I had the best guitars in the world, I had sponsored strings, I also partly achieved my dream of playing guitar in many international playgrounds. An now feels very peaceful…!
In particular, returning to Hanoi is returning home. Arriving at the airport, smelling the scent of soap in the airport, An wants to embrace all the colors and flavors of this land. Walking on the sidewalks of Hanoi, weaving between shops, amidst the noisy motorbikes, is still wonderful for An! Because every time I return, my heart feels so full, seeing the love and acceptance of Vietnamese audiences that I could not have imagined.
Returning with good intentions will make you always look at everything with gratitude .
-- An Tran --
The mindset of returning to good intentions will make me always look at everything with gratitude. And An will never forget the people and things that have helped me reach the peace I have today!
Reporter: Thank you An! I wish you peace and continue to reach your beautiful guitar dreams!
Publication date: January 1, 2024 Implementing organization: HONG MINH Content: HA AN Presentation: NGOC DIEP
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