Somebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Author:Marie Myung-Ok Lee [Lee, Marie Myung-Ok]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Contemporary, Adult
ISBN: 9780807083888
Google: kZMDAQAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 8600087
Publisher: Beacon
Published: 2005-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

SARAH

Seoul

1993

“Your hands seem to be made for playing the taegum,” Tae Sunsengnim remarked. “I have no idea why you can’t play it, then.”

Instead of glissandos and silvery notes, the flute hissed at me when I picked it up, or even looked at it. It also required reading music, adding another set of foreign sticks and signs to my already bursting brain even though Jeannie from Korean class had kindly shown me a mnemonic to help me remember the notes: E/very G/ood B/oy D/eserves F/udge.

“Your turn,” said the Other Jeannie, the Julliard know-it-all I’d dubbed “Evil Genie.” Our group was trying the last instrument, the changgo hourglass drum. So far, no one had been able to play that drum well enough to be considered for the upcoming talent show.

Tae Sunsengnim sighed in despair, seeing that it was my turn. She picked up the kaenguri and started bashing out the beat on its polished brass surface.

Chang-chang-ch-ch-ch-CHANG!

I had the drum strapped on by a cotton sling, not unlike the ones New-Agey people carried babies in. The drum was balanced on the point of my right hip, I had the two different drumsticks—one like a chopstick, the other with a ball at the end. You were supposed to sway the top half of your body back and forth while you hit both sides of the changgo, sometimes hitting as if you were playing a snare, and sometimes hitting the two sides separately, sometimes switching lightning-fast between the two. While all this was going on, your feet were supposed to move at a slower beat.

I decided the best chance I had was to just play, not think. Bang! Bang! Thump! Whump! Tok! I let my arms fly away like birds.

“Hm,” Tae Sunsengnim said, lowering the gong to watch me bang away. “Not bad.”

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