I like to take this opportunity to give a tribute to my late teacher, who had just been cremated earlier on. She was the one that first exposed me to music and music education. She cultivated my love and interest in music, and exposed me to the different genres. She always gave me the hardest songs to play, lead roles in all the concerts and performances, and really stretched me to the fullest.
Because of her, I am able to play songs which I never thought I could; able to be involved in national performances which I never thought I could qualify; able to have my song composition selected as a teaching piece – something I never ever thought possible in my life.
Right now, I cannot imagine my life without music. My life has been so much more enriched ever since I discovered music, all those more than twenty years ago, when my mum first enrolled me into the Junior Music Course in one of the big music schools for keyboard lessons. Since then, I began a long journey of music playing and performing which had followed me all the way through right into my adulthood.
Ironically, I started playing music long before singing and dancing, yet through the years, I stop playing music that intensively, and concentrated on singing, and soon to be dancing as well. Now I think I should have continued playing. I cannot play as well anymore due to the very long sabbatical.
I find playing the piano really soothing and relaxing, especially in those stressful school years when I wanted to indulge in nice music and forget all my frustrations and stress. Playing the piano helps to bang all my stress away by running my fingers up and down the keys. And I always found it a challenge to try songs which are a level higher.
Playing the electronic organ (or electone) is much easier compared to the piano, except the feet are involved due to the pedals. An organ piece does not have as many running notes or block chords as a piano piece, nor are the organ keys as hard as the piano keys. Playing the organ is a good way of having a solo mini-concert, and swaying away to the rhythm, beat and sounds of the song is such a nice feeling. Those pop songs can really be brought to life in an organ piece!
I stumbled into singing quite by accident. I enjoyed those nursery rhymes and children’s songs which I used to sing in kindergarten, but I did not really like singing until Primary Three when we had to choose a school curricular activity. I did not know which one to choose out of so many choices.
In the end, I decided on violin. But my parents did not wish to buy me a violin on the basis that it is very expensive, and I have enough music lessons outside of school. So in the end, I was the only one in my class left without a school activity.
The week before all the curricular activities started, the teacher in charge came to my class and said another teacher wanted to see me on that Saturday about my curricular activity. I knew that teacher as the one in charge of choir, so I went to see her. And she told me that her choir needed people, and since I did not have an activity, she asked if I would like to join.
I did not even know what a choir was then, but since I needed a curricular activity, I agreed. And the next thing I knew, she took me to the music room, put me in front, and started the warm-ups, before distributing the songs we were supposed to sing.
At first it was just for fun, since the songs we were singing were lively and nice, and I could finally tell my form teacher that I, too, had a curricular activity. Then the following year, we were involved in the school’s anniversary concert at the Singapore Conference Hall auditorium. It was my first public choir performance.
No doubt before that I have performed in various concerts organized by the music school which my teacher sent me for, but the first public performance for the choir made me realise I never wanted to do anything else after that because I found it so fun to perform, and hearing applause after applause after you have performed was really lifting.
After this, the choir performed in Kallang Theatre, Victoria Theatre, Victoria Concert Hall, mostly as part of the National Day Sing Singapore competitions, but also sometimes as the Singapore Youth Festival’s Choral component. Subsequently, all the other choirs I joined were also heavily involved in performance, be it for the school’s Book and Music Week, or the Singapore Youth Festival’s Choral component, or International Choral Festivals, although I have never been chosen to perform overseas. :-(
I started performing more and more as well for my music school. Once in a while, there would be promotions at various shopping malls, and my teacher would always sign me up as one of the solo performers. She would also put me up for auditions and performances for the Singapore Electone Festival, or the Piano Festival, and she would also ask me to perform for her graduating classes as a promotion to the parents how continuing music education would be like.
My love for music really started due to the various stage exposures. After the first choral performance, I wanted to do it seriously, so I started being more serious in my music classes and more involved in the music activities of my school. Plus, all the music involvement could give me time off from studying all the time.
All the way until lower secondary, the only form of music I was exposed to was the music taught in school, the classical pieces and a bit of the pop songs from the music school, songs which my parents listened to, and songs from musicals like “
Sound of Music”.
When “
Les Miserables” and “
Phantom of the Opera” performed here, I started to like the songs from the musical genre, which later enabled me convince my Principal in the school I was teaching in to organise a students’ outing to watch “
Oliver!” and “
Forbidden City”. And my parents know about my interest in musicals, so treated me to "
Mamma Mia!" for my birthday in 2004.
Initially I could not relate to my secondary school peers on the songs they listened to, because my parents forbade any form of radio listening at home so I could concentrate on studying. Then when my dad gave me his old Walkman after buying a new one, I started to tune in to Perfect Ten and got to know the type of songs which my friends were all listening to at that period of time.
And I found that listening to music while studying actually improved my focus, concentration and mind. At least I was more alert to absorb what I was studying and able to do my homework better and faster, with lesser mistakes.
My classmates used to dedicate songs to each other on Perfect Ten. The then-deejay was Mark Richmond, everyone’s favourite deejay at that moment in time. I almost always laughed at his antics. I started to learn more about teenage life like dating (I was so sheltered that I had to resort to radio and conversations between my classmates to really know what was going on!), boyfriend dedicating songs to girlfriend and vice versa, expressing their feelings for each other, ex-boyfriend apologising over the radio to ex-girlfriend and requesting for another chance. I started to really live a life, instead of being so non-exposed, restricted and sheltered.
When I was finally able to watch movies with my friends, I got more exposed to the various movie music and soundtracks, some which have become my favourites of all time, and some which I did not really like. Through the years, I developed my own likes and dislikes to music. My musical tastes differ in the different stages of my life, through various influences. There are certain types of music which I like, and certain types which I will never listen to.
Throughout university, I listened to Class 95 and Gold 90.5. I started liking oldies more than modern rap or pop. I find slow rock, classical, folk songs, jazz, new age, alternative, and soothing movie soundtracks more my cup of tea than hard rock or disco pop.
My ex-boyfriends and I used to dedicate songs to each other through Class 95. We would tune in to the late-night programme, where there would be four hours of Class 95 Love Songs, then send a message via mobile to the deejay and dedicate whichever song was on the list, together with a short message on why we loved each other. Quite corny now, come to think of it, but those days were really good.
Now I have my own favourite genres of music. I listen to as many songs as possible, but there are some songs that I will listen to more. Music really enriches my mind, body and soul, and I cannot imagine how to survive without it.
All because of one person who exposed me to music and cultivated my interest in it. I went back to performing partly because of her. When I heard about her illness, I felt I had to do something to pay her back for what she had taught me.
So hence, although a bit too late, but I still want to dedicate this
song to her. It is one of my ultimate favourite songs, which always brings tears to my eyes whenever I hear the song. The song touches me, heart and soul, and I hope the song will touch her too, wherever she is right now.
