Unique amateur bands in Vinh city
(Baonghean) - Creating a playground for themselves, or bringing music closer to life, is what the current influential amateur bands of Vinh city are cherishing.
I had the opportunity to listen to Truong Xuan Thuy's Bossa band play the Besame mucho concert in the ancient citadel cafe on a rainy day. In the space murmuring with the sound of rain, there were only about 10 guests coming to enjoy the show, and they seemed to relive the feeling of youth, of the passionate youth, and in the moment of those sounds, the musician and the audience were like one, vibrating at the same frequency of sound, sharing the same flow of emotions.
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| Bose bass group performed in the charity program to support flood victims in Central Vietnam. |
When I asked Thuy if they were all music graduates from a music school, Thuy replied: “Bossa band has 4 members, all 4 members are amateurs in musical instruments, they practice together when they like. Then gradually, friends know about them and invite them to perform at events and programs to perform concerts or accompany singers who come to sing at tea rooms.”
| Among Thuy's many students are those who know him through social networks because they admire his skillful playing and want to be taught and inspired by his passion. Up to now, his students are from all 5 continents, they are overseas Vietnamese, Western students and follow his curriculum via skyblue (a device for transmitting sound and images over the internet), including Thuy's tips on how to "whisper" and "walk the tightrope" in the hope of one day "being like the teacher". Currently, Thuy's band is truly famous because these passionate amateurs have a very professional working style. So it is not surprising that at an event or a party we hear concerts that sound like a string orchestra of a professional band such as Eros rain, Autumn leaves by great composers in the world, performed by amateur musicians in Vinh city very "pleasing to the ears". |
Talking about amateur bands in Vinh city, everyone knows the young couple Hoang Son, Phuong Linh with Phuong Linh's Piano Company and the Army Pub band of her husband Hoang Son. The meeting of this couple also came from musical fate and their band also gathered members from different professions such as Canh Hoang - an architect who plays drums, Hoang Luu who just graduated from Hue University of Economics plays bass guitar, Thai Phu is a fitness trainer with a great bolerro voice.
As for Phuong Linh, a multi-talented singer in the band, she is also a singer with a mezzo-soprano voice who was a finalist in Ido 2012. She was also invited to participate in the Voice of Asia. However, she has never attended any professional music school, it is just her passion, so from a young age, her parents guided her to find the instrument so that she could express her heart by confiding in the black and white keys. Later, after graduating from a foreign language university, there was a time when Linh thought of changing direction, to only consider music as a side job "I play when I like it, I sing when I like it"...
The band Hoang Son, Phuong Linh blends into the contemporary music flow with such diverse colors, life but also extremely professional. Because in addition to the music programs that the band Arm Pub is contracted by coffee shops to perform weekly on Saturday nights, charity programs and music events without Arm Pub do not have the color of blue zazz, and the lyrical pop ballads of Arm Pub are considered unsuccessful, do not create certain effects.
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| Phuong Linh - Hoang Son couple in the music night Bien and I held at the end of July. |
There are also other non-professional bands that are performing and operating very professionally in the city such as Sonata band, Vinh University Youth Band. These bands are also the ones who try to create for themselves professional spaces, spaces where players and listeners find common emotions, and where listeners and listeners can find the most professional music listening space. However, these bands still want to have truly professional performance venues because according to them, not every coffee shop wants to sign a long-term contract, not every time of the year there is a volunteer exchange program to create a playground for them.
The music program gathering many bands such as “The Sea and I” was co-organized by journalists and music groups in the city at the end of July, which was an opportunity for music players in Vinh city to express themselves, to “compete” and the audience to be satisfied with professional sound and enjoyable music.
Hoang Son, leader of the band Arm Pub, said: “There are not many shows where the main theme is bands like “Bien va toi” in the past, so we can only make a living by playing for coffee shops or events if they invite us, or sometimes we gather together just to play for fun and praise ourselves; so we really hope to have a professional playground like in big cities.” |
According to Hoang Son, from now on, he and the band will try to create their own spaces by organizing their own stages to perform their own songs and works every week and will attract audiences with the unique features that Army Pub is building. And the group will organize a birthday celebration show just to give the band members a chance to shine, express themselves and burn out.
As for Xuan Thuy - the leader of Bossa band, his cherished dream is to have a venue, an old music space built by himself, at that time the band will have many opportunities to perform, and anyone who wants to listen to the sound of the guitar and be immersed in the old music space coming to Thuy's space will have that.
These aspirations have been realized by Sotana Cafe when they gathered many bands in the city, both professional and amateur, but the cafe itself cannot afford to gather them all. The owner Nguyen Thi Thom said: “Apart from a main band that the cafe has a long-term contract with, most of them only contract with a few famous singers or amateur singers who are influential and have good voices. If we were to gather many bands, it would be very difficult in terms of both budget and organization to “taste” the cafe’s music.”
Therefore, creating a playground for themselves, or bringing music closer to life, is what the city's current influential amateur bands are cherishing. And what they hope for is to bring the most life-like music to music lovers in Vinh.
Thanh Nga
