My Musical Journey, 2nd Movement
In Malaysia, we have Music in the primary school curriculum. At a lower level, pupils are encouraged to just enjoy music. I remember that we’d have singalong sessions, and we would write down the lyrics of the songs in our exercise books and decorate it with pictures. Because of this common learning, it’s not unusual to see Malaysians start singing songs about their kereta or nasi lemak or other such ditties that we learned way back as little chiddlers. This is apparently a common phenomenon among Malaysian students who are overseas.
At the upper level of primary school, music education takes a more formal turn with the introduction of music theory. Those of us who started piano lessons at a young age had a huge advantage over the rest of the class, because note pitches and rhythms were almost intuitive to us by now. We would actually get distressed if we scored 98 or 99 out of 100 on the written tests, because this was basic musical theory that we had mastered years ago. Also significant at this level is the introduction of an instrument - the recorder. While the little kids get to tinkle the triangles and clap the castanets, the big kids have to learn the subtleties of actually making melodies on that glorified whistle.
This was my first foray into learning an instrument other than the piano. Ok, so in Standard Three I was tasked with playing the pianica in the school band, but that’s basically just a piano with a mouthpiece. The recorder presented a whole new challenge, one that I never really mastered although I could manage a decent snake-charmer’s tune on it.
In Standard Four, the band conductor upgraded my classmates and me to playing the clarinet, which I did not enjoy. I couldn’t understand the mechanics of making a sound out of it. I seriously could not produce any notes, and when I did make a sound, it sounded like a duck being murdered.
Mercifully, they changed me to the glockenspiel in Standard Five. While the layout of the keys was still the same as that of the piano keyboard, playing it was a whole different experience. First, there was the matter of moving it. The glockenspiel is made out of solid metal bars. Looking back, it was great fun moving that behemoth around, it needed 4 of us girls to move it. Then, because I used mallets and I only have two hands, I had to be quicker at hitting the notes. Playing running notes with 2 mallets and playing the same notes with 10 fingers on the piano - totally different.
The secondary school curriculum has no time for such frivolities as music, so I left that part of myself behind, concentrating only on passing my piano exams. By this time, the technical skills demanded of me had surpassed my innate talent, so I really struggled to get through the grading exams. I had turned into a piano mugger. I very rarely played for pleasure, and I also hardly ever got any pleasure out of playing.
On the other hand, I discovered my voice. I had always enjoyed singing, but in secondary school I realised that I could really express my emotions and feel alive when I raised my voice in song. Probably the Friday fellowship meetings, where songs and games were a main focus, helped to push this realisation along. But I still never had the guts to perform on stage, or expand my musical horizons, which as we shall see, remains a huge regret of mine.
February 5th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I disapprove of talk about murdered ducks….
This music thingy in schools is part of the KPSR syllabus? I was the final ‘old system’ batch before they introduced it.