JEFF RAMOS --
INTERESTED IN
PIANO-GUITAR LESSONS
My wife Flor Miranda-Hernandez and I have a 22-day vacation from June 02-23, 2015 that we spent mostly in Hagonoy, Bulacan my home province. Flor’s cousin Tess Alvarez, also known as “Bunini” as her nickname, invited us for a reunion with their relatives in Imus, Cavite. They haven’t seen each other for more than 30 years.
We rented a van for 3,000.00 pesos ($30.00) and we picked-up Flor’s sister Marivic and her son Harold Kyle on our way to the secured house. It looks like an ordinary house but inside one of the rooms are very expensive furniture and fixtures that almost all of us inspected the rooms and have photo session while inside.
I and Welhem Ramos Belgar stayed in the garage where the food is prepared and we are just talking. Later after a sumptuous lunch, Jeff Ramos had a conversation with me regarding teaching him piano and guitar. I gave him my card earlier and he saw that I teach privately piano, keyboard, guitar and chess. I told him that we are just on a 22-day vacation. Because of the distance of his place and my province, it’s impractical to teach him even once a week.
I remember teaching the 2 daughters of my cousin Celerina “Ka Rina” Dionisio Jumaquio in mid-80’s once a week, the distance is not that much because I can teach them in the same day and I can have a short 2 or 3 days visit to my parents, which reside just a few meters away from their house. At that time, Ka Rina and her husband Rading are in Japan as entertainers (duo). They’ve been there more than a dozen times in the same hotel.
They told me once that they earned more than their salary doing extra job in the kitchen of the hotel. When I was in Japan with First Quarter Band in April 04-Sept. 28, 1982, I also earned extra by playing the Yamaha grand piano on Monday evenings, the day off of our band and the lady pianist of Celestial Bar at Hayashida Hotel in Kagoshima City, Japan. Our daily schedule there with Jane Ramas, our singer, Matt (bass guitar), Toto (drums) and Frankie Ganalon (lead guitar) is 12:00nn-12:30 (half hour break) and 1:00-1:30pm. At nighttime, it’s 7-7:30; 8-8:30 and 9-9:30.
My schedule at the Celestial Piano Bar is the same as our evening schedule. During breaks, when my band members are having karaoke singing and drinking at bars nearby, I will go there and socialize/drink with them and go back 5 minutes before my playing time. I will stay with them after my final set. One night at Celestial, a guest requested Italian song “Volare” and put a music note of that song at the piano stand. I was not able to play it because I’m not a sight reader—or a musician that can play musical notes on the spot.
When I was in Bahrain, that song is also popular there and I was able to get the lyrics of that song listening many times to cassette tape that I recorded in following the radio program every Friday afternoon-- “Million Sellers” where they broadcast the records (45 RPM) that made a sale of a million copies from 1920-1980. Now in Palau for 25 years, I can sing and play that song without looking at the notes.
Sources: Chess Mate by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
December 29, 2002 -- September 09, 2017
Chess and Music (Perfect Combination)
The Beginning of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
Soon to be published as a book
Music and Me by Roberto Hernandez
Tia Belau Newspaper
March 15, 2012 -- April 18, 2013
http://palau-chess.blogspot.com
April 25, 2013 -- September 09, 2017
The History of Chess in Palau
By Roberto Hernandez
June 09, 2002 -- September 09, 2017
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