The Wanderer with the Guitar (Part 1)

“Only soldiers on remote islands have one-string guitars”, only artist Viet Anh sings with a guitar…. 21 strings. I was mesmerized when a friend sent me a picture of a guy holding a very strange guitar, with 21 strings, instead of the usual 6 strings.

Kẻ lãng du với cây đàn guitar- Nghệ sĩ Việt Anh

The wanderer with the guitar - Artist Viet Anh. (Photo: MH)

A Hanoian musician told me: “This man has hung up his sword for several years now, staying at home to take care of his mother who is over 90 years old, but still makes instruments, dances, and practices “dynamic meditation” at home. Just follow Lang Hoa Lac Street to that place, that place, the house has 3 king areca trees as big as the ones in Daewoo Hotel, that’s for sure.”

A sunny winter weekend. The chill in the dry yellow sunlight easily makes romantic souls become emotional. Perhaps it was because of the nice weather that after quickly changing clothes for his mother who was lying on the hospital bed, Viet Anh enthusiastically came out to greet me with the greeting: "Enthusiastic journalist, huh?". Then he spent an hour of his precious time talking endlessly about his career, his career and his struggles with his guitar-playing career.

Childhood thirst for… guitar

Leisurely inviting me to a cup of tea on the sunny porch, artist Viet Anh's eyes fluttered as he recalled his childhood - the first days he knew and "fell in love" with the guitar until now. He said: "I was born in Hai Phong, the youngest of six siblings. When I was eight years old, whenever my older siblings' friends came to visit and played music, I would listen and "learn" the guitar by stealth, and after a short time I was able to play the songs I had overheard."

During the subsidy period, everyone knew that life was extremely difficult, lacking in every aspect. Therefore, any family that had a guitar was considered a cultured family. Viet Anh's family did not have a guitar, so he often went to his neighbor's house to help carry water so that he could have an excuse to borrow a guitar to practice.

He continued: “When I was 10 years old, I saved up some “capital” from my lucky money and asked my mother for 25 dong, which was enough to buy my first guitar for 130 dong at Hai Phong General Store. The quality of the guitar was really bad, so bad that they didn’t even file the brass frets flat. When I was happily playing, there was a note that I pressed and stroked down, and the sharp fret cut across the palm of my hand. The cut was quite big, bleeding a lot, I had to stop playing the guitar for a while. I still remember that time, looking at the new guitar, I felt sad and helpless...”.

The turning point in Viet Anh's life came when he was 12 years old. During the summer break, he applied to study drums at the Hai Phong Children's Cultural Palace. By chance, during a performance at the end of the course, Uncle Van - a vocal instructor discovered that Viet Anh could play the guitar, and immediately "grabbed" the boy into the children's band of the Cultural Palace. Very quickly after that, Viet Anh officially became the lead guitarist of this band.

Making a living with the flock

Viet Anh smiled gently: "It's a bit too much to say that I made a living playing the guitar when I was a teenager, but it was also a glorious time and marked the first time in my life that I had an income from playing the guitar." That was when Uncle Kien, an orchestration teacher and conductor with a very progressive perspective at that time, taught the band works by BoneyM and ABBA, in addition to the time practicing children's music.

Recalling this memory, Viet Anh said that Uncle Kien was very brave because at that time, if you played foreign music, you would only see people playing Soviet, Cuban music... However, thanks to playing world-famous music, Viet Anh's "kid" band became famous. "We were busy "running around" playing music, from weddings to big events in the city. "...And, from then on, I started earning my first salary by playing the guitar" - Viet Anh smiled happily.

After graduating from high school, due to his passion for music, Viet Anh decided to go to Hanoi to study in depth. “My family was very worried because at that time society did not consider art a “profession” and certainly not a career... My first girlfriend’s mother even scolded her daughter for loving “that guy who plays the flute and the two-stringed fiddle”...” – Viet Anh happily thinks back to his first love.

With a bag borrowed from his neighbor and a few clothes, he quietly took the train to Hanoi. It sounds quite adventurous, but Hanoi is not unfamiliar to this guitar-loving wanderer because there is his uncle Pham Ngu, a veteran guitarist, and his aunt who works at the Department of Music and Dance. There is also his cousin Pham Thanh Hang, a graduate of the Vocal Music Department of the National Academy of Music, and his brother Pham Hong Phuong, a guitarist and lecturer at the Hanoi University of Music and Fine Arts. With such a "backing force", what does the guitar-loving wanderer Viet Anh have to worry about?

Then again, to make a living, forget the guitar.

But life is not like a dream. When he went to Hanoi, he also lost his livelihood - his main customer in Hai Phong.

"Changing my place of residence also means I can no longer play the guitar in Hai Phong, so I have no income to live on and study.

At that time, the movement of amateur political songs was very active. I played the piano for the art troupe of Hai Ha Confectionery Factory. Luckily, I was hired as a part-time worker and was also in charge of the factory's art troupe. Thanks to that, I had a stable minimum income to live on," he said.

After working as a worker for over a year, one fine day, Viet Anh went to play the guitar to help two female singers audition for the Border Guard's professional art troupe. That day, the troupe recruited many actors, singers, musicians, dancers... Somehow, Viet Anh's guitar skills caught the ear of Lieutenant Colonel, musician Bao Chung - Head of the troupe. So without registering or submitting any application, Viet Anh was suddenly called to work officially.

Thinking back now, Viet Anh still can't understand why he loved music so much. He practiced hard day and night, overcoming all financial difficulties to survive and play. A year later, Viet Anh completed his military record with the rank of second lieutenant, was assigned to manage the music practice room and arrange music for the troupe's orchestra.

Although he was stationed in Hanoi, during his five years working with the troupe, Viet Anh was able to travel all over the country. Although it was hard, he was always proud that he had completed his mission excellently, bringing spiritual culture to each soldier, each border post, and each compatriot in remote areas... There were places that could not be reached by any means of transport, so the whole troupe marched on foot. There were some sections that had to be walked for nearly two days to reach, so far that even ethnic people could not set foot there. At the border posts on the top of towering mountains, the soldiers in the troupe still walked with their feet in the clouds, their hair playing with the mountain wind...

However, after many years of wandering, the wanderer began to worry and think about his home and children. He asked to leave the army and went to several places to make a living, but found it was not working. He returned to Hanoi, working at the Hanoi Metal Company as a diligent warehouse keeper. During his time working here, he almost cut off his relationship with music and did not interact with anyone in the Hanoi art world. During this period, he temporarily escaped poverty, bought half of an old apartment building, and even the extension was only 18 square meters.

Tác giả và nghệ sĩ Việt Anh với cây đàn ấn tượng 21 dây. (Ảnh: MH)

Author and artist Viet Anh with his impressive 21-string guitar. (Photo: MH)

“Love again from the beginning”

It seemed like the life of the wanderer had been arranged and he had completely “quit” art. But as if by fate, a vague feeling suddenly came back when he passed by the Hanoi Daewoo Hotel. He said: “At that time, I saw it was so beautiful and massive. The row of areca trees seemed to be whispering invitingly. I kept walking back and forth, looking at it, and a feeling of longing to play the guitar there burned within me. Everything happened according to the law of gravity and I was invited to play the guitar there a few months before the hotel was inaugurated. That was the first time in my life that I played the guitar and was paid in dollars,” he recalled.

However, working in a metal company during the day and playing the instrument at night was too much to bear, so Viet Anh chose to follow his heart and quit the metal company to focus on developing his music. “When I really returned to music, I wanted to delve deeper into all its issues and learn more about what I didn’t know. In 1997, it was also the first year that the National Academy of Music opened its doors to independent candidates - no need to study from elementary or intermediate level at school to be able to go to university - to take the entrance exam." As a result, he passed the entrance exam to the Conservatory of Music, majoring in theory, composition, and conducting (Ly Sang Chi) - full-time.

And from this moment, he began to learn about the breath, the origin of the guitar - that is Flamenco. Viet Anh started playing Flamenco, opening a new game and greatly influencing the following generations. In 2000, Viet Anh officially established the Lang Du band to freely indulge in his love of guitar.

Since 2000, Lang Du band has been very active and strong, quietly participating in large and small events in various fields, especially serving events for businesses. This gives the band stability to play the type of music they want and good remuneration for members to maintain.

He said: "I am struggling to find something new like I did with Flamenco, but it still has to be an authentic art, it has to be professional, it doesn't have to follow the temporary tastes of society because of difficulties."

The story leads me to his 21-string guitar – something that even an amateur like me who knows how to play a guitar and sings while playing it is surprising.