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Home > From 0 to 13

From Zero to Thirteen ...

Hey, guys!

The following story is told from my (Lisa's) viewpoint. Now you will get described our musical life from the small squaller till today ... so let's start:

Two small, mousy, naked somethings are born, namely in a Viennese hospital on 16 June 1994. No, I can't remember anymore how it took place exactly. But the midwifes said that we had such long fingers ... pianist fingers! Now they are rather guitarist fingers ;). I have to add that we had a very smooth birth, without a Caesarean section or so.

We both dressed up for the show "The rainbow fish" from the Swiss author Marcus Pfister.

Our musical career started in a so called "musical kindergarten". There we made music with other kids once a week: either we sang songs or we drummed, danced or did something else. I cannot exactly remember, I only know that we did it - for about 1 year. On the picture you can see us in the show called "The Rainbow Fish". Weren't we cute? ;) Very soon we attended "normal" kindergarten where we also sang and danced a lot. We loved that!

At home we danced in front of the radio very often and spun around like mad - till we ran against something and finally cried. With about 5 years we took piano lessons in our neighbor city for one year. But obviously it wasn't that good and so we ceased doing that.

Then our Dad taught us clapping our hands in time. Before that we clapped every syllable but not in time. We loved clapping hands with Daddy or when he sang songs or played something to us. And we always liked to be with the musicians, our father's recording studio clients. We found the studio very fascinating, from our very early years as toddlers till now, and we were totally into trying all the buttons and switches :)

Even before elementary school we made our first CD. We were quite excited when we recorded a small birthday-CD with our Daddy in his studio. That was a great moment and our first experience in this direction.

MonaLisa playing in "School once and now"

Here we are playing in a show called "School once and now"

Then elementary school started. We always liked school. We had many friends there and a nice teacher. She studied and performed stage plays with us two or three times a year. There were always many opportunities to sing and we had lots of fun with that.

Our yearly Christmas play at elementary school. Mona left, Lisa right.

Finally we attended the school choir together with other kids of our class. A couple of times we even performed at music festivals. It was always very exciting for us and sometimes we even were given icecream vouchers. I don't want to say that the choir was very good. We didn't manage more than singing monodic. OK, it was polyphonic sometimes, but rather by accident. Well, we didn't care - the main point was that we had lots of fun with it!

The following might sound strange to you: One day we went to the cinema and watched the movie "School of Rock". About one week later we saw "Freaky Friday". And somehow it was so fascinating for us that Mona wanted to learn playing drums and I wanted to learn playing the guitar by all means. Of course, this wasn't a big problem: Our parents were delighted by this idea. And so we were allowed to try it out at a friend's house who played these instruments himself.

Elementary school passed by fast and we decided to attend Polgarstreet High School afterwards. We always liked this school most of all the surrounding schools. On their "open day" we were already sure that this would be our school. As this building was so large I got lost a few times in the beginning and some teachers had to bring me back to my class room again. That was kind of embarrassing but now such things can't happen anymore. J

On our first day at High School (5th grade) we inscribed for the two subjects "drums" (Mona) and "e-guitar" (Lisa). Right from the start we liked it very much and though we were beginners we were quite good. Anyhow we soon played at every school-concert.

The second year (6th grade) Mona took guitar lessons and I took drum lessons in addition to our main instruments. That was a very good idea because I got more familiar with rhythm and time and Mona with an instrument that is suitable for composing songs. Our Dad and my stepmother Michaela always supported us with learning. They also taught us how to learn correctly and efficiently. That saved us lots of time and hassle from elementary school till now. And we certainly wouldn't have so much time for making music if we weren't so good at school.

For our birthday celebration 2006 we studied five songs and also performed them. We built up our first "stage" with a wooden panel on some beer crates which was only a third of our today's stage though. Our repertoire consisted of following songs: Stand by me, Proud Mary, Wonderful tonight, Goodbye my lover and Smoke on the water. (The links will get you to the audio samples of our CD). Our Daddy accompanied us on his keyboard and by this means also complemented the missing instruments (e. g. the bass).

Compared to our today's ability to play it wasn't very good yet, but at least it was our first private concert. Our friends and classmates liked it and our families also enjoyed it. In the late summer we recorded these songs on a CD which we then presented our grandparents for their birthdays. The "bonus-track" was "Happy Birthday", a mixed operatic/hard rock J version.

Our grandpa was so proud of us that he had all his relatives and friends listen to our CD. As a consequence they asked for a real concert which we should play in the following year (2007). We were very delighted and we made it our aim to play a concert a year later. Of course, five songs wouldn't be enough for a real concert and so we sat down and ... but you better read that on the pages MonaLisa News/Formation of the band and Our 1st Live-Concert.

That's how it looks like at Orth a. d. Donau Music School drums lesson.

In the 3rd High School year (7th grade) Daddy and Michaela suggested that we could attend additional courses at a separate Music School. After all it was already clear to us that we both would like to become musicians one day.

Elke, who lives in our village and as a skilled opera singer runs the communal choir, recommended us the Orth a. d. Donau Music School. There we also signed in for guitar and percussion/drum lessons. The music teachers are very good there! The double lessons catapulted us a big step forward.

But the story still goes on. The next turbo-booster occured in our summer holidays 2007 between 7th and 8th grade - when we spent 4 weeks in America!!! That was brilliant in many respects. As we could not bring our own guitars from Europe and our big concert approached, we bought two cheap guitars on e-bay and practiced with them.

Our American guitar teacher John Parschauer and we in "action".

We mainly stayed in Los Angeles and also met some musicians there. One great guitarist named jOHn gave us some guitar lessons. Our Dad was allowed to video tape everything, because jOhn showed us that many in 3 double lessons which he normally would show his other students within one year. (His own words!)

He also gave us the advice to visit so called "Open Mikes" (from "open microphone"). These are venues where musicians can perform two/three songs without having to pay for or to undergo a casting first. The venue's guests would be his audience. Of course we then performed in two Open Mikes, both times with great response. You can read more about this on the page MonaLisaNews/"Open Microphone" at "Sol Grill", Newport Beach (LA). However these have been our first public performances in America and a very special experience for us.

OK, meanwhile we have reached the here and now. We already "are over" three private concerts, one (paid!) "gig" at a wedding, numerous gigs at both High and Music School and two CD-productions. And we still get more and more "jobs". Yes, sometimes it really adds up, but we have chosen it ourselves and this is what we want to do. We will continue and will work on getting better and more professional. We want to say Thank you again to our Dad, to Michaela, to our families and all our friends, to our music teachers, sponsors and our audience ... THAAAAANK YOUUUUUU!!!

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