Music Fiesta with Cadenza Music, Surabaya

Dateline: Saturday, 15 November 2008

This is our second day in Surabaya, Indonesia and I am now here with Wilson Quah. We will be having a seris of workshops and recitals which will be carried out throughout several states in Indonesia. Right now at this moment we have not started yet but just to let you see what Surabaya is all about, this is the hotel reception where we are staying.

The venue of our activity is Pro Steak Manyar Ketoarjo and in this pic you will see our host Mr. Heintjie Gunawan with none other than Wilson Quah. It is really a nice and cosy place.

At this moment, that is all we have for now and until the activities start, I will try to keep posting as soon as I can get pics or also to get to a wi-fi access.

Keep checking this site for more updates soon.

This is Michael and Wilson, reporting live from Surabaya. Over and out.

Music Appreciation with Interlude

09 September 2007

I know I am behind in my time but it's not my fault coz' I just received these photos and I would like to share them with you.

One thing I would like to say about Indonesians. They take their photos really seriously. Just have a look at the following pic. You can see that all their pics are labelled very carefully.

Ok, the lady next to me is not a student but a teacher and incidentally she was also my translator. And I must say, she did a very good job of translating and keeping up with me, considering the fact that sometimes people say that I talk too much and too fast....... remember?? "The Fast and Furious" ....

Talk about some exercise to get the blood going again. Well, this is not a therapy session but since there were parents around, so why not have some fun, since music was not supposed to be boring and dull. At least we managed to let parents feel that music is also about rhythm and I mean the body movement type...... and not the Rhythm MP kind of rhythm.

If you noticed by now, there are some paintings on the wall. Well this building was actually rented by Sidhi Olik and Lana (Sidhi's wife) and it is a sort of art display and the paintings are all painted by local artists. Incidentally, the paintings are also for sale. That is why the photo looks like an art auction.......

And here is the rest of the gang. These are the teachers from Interlude. That's me (third from the right, if you are facing the photo). Do you know which is the guitar teacher? No, not the blue shirt one but actually the brown checked shirt (third from the left). Everyone always thinks he's the guitar teacher. Is it the hair????

Music Appreciation with Cendana Muzik

21 September 2008

This is my first trip to a place which is approximately 90km south-east of Surabaya called Probolingo. The trip there took me past a town called Porong (23km south of Surabaya) which has been flooded with mud flow coming out of the ground for the last three years or more. That is why travellers to Probolingo will be able to see stone walls as high as 5 to 6 meters, which were built to keep the mud flow out of the highway. I get this funny feeling that those walls will eventually become another historical monument of East Java.

At Probolingo, I was introduced to Hartanti, one of the owners of Cendana Muzik wh arranged a session of music appreciation for her school students. This is one of the many activities of Indonesia where the venue is actually a restuarant that is designed in a very traditional manner.

It was a beautiful setting for a wonderful evening of fun and music with the students from Cendana Muzik. So much so I will be back there again to do a series of MPA activities with the students from Cendana Muzik. Any way, when evening came, we got down to doing all kinds of fun activities working on rhythm, pitch and best of all a parent forum with the parents form that school.

I love parent forums best of all as it always helps to bridge the gap between teachers understanding the needs of their students and also we get to discuss on how parents can help to provide support and inspiration for their children. what I also like about parents in Indonesia, you can never be short of participation. Whenever you ask if they have something on their minds, you will be able to see lots of hands in the air.

Eventually, after the parent forum was over, all of us adjourned for dinner at the restaurant itself. There was no way dinner was late coz' it was Puasa Month!!!! You can be sure that food always came on time during puasa month.

After dinner, we adjourned back to Cendana Muzik for a full discussion about the how the sessions went and what parents expected from music teachers for their children.

Keep a look out for further posts on our activities from Indonesia.

Music Appreciation in EduArt, Indonesia

Very often, children and parents will find themselves in a situation where they do not understand the full benefits of what music education cna provide their children or how this education is to be used. At Rhythm MP, we have always believed that music is to be enjoyed and appreciated and thus we always strive to provide the right information to parents and their children on the benefits of music education wherever they may be.

This was one of my earlier visits to Indonesia where Rhythm MP was working with one of our music outlets, EduArt.

EduArt is located at this township called Kelapa Gading. Incidentally, Kelapa Gading is also a shopping haven for shopaholics with malls like Artha Gading, Kelapa Gading Mall and recently Kelapa Gading Square (if I am not mistaken) and these malls ARE HUGE!!!!!

MPA at Sweet Harmony

Location: Penang
Date: Friday, 30 May 2008

Rhythm MP would like to congratulate the following children for participating in our Music Performance and Appreciation activity:

1. Chau Keen Zhi, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


2. Lim Jingmin, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


3. Yeoh Zhi Ying, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


4. Wong Weng Yee, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


5. Chee Tsu Ling, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


6. Agnes Chen, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


7. Jonathan Tham Yao Ming, MPA-PLME1 Level 1


8. Lim Chun Huan, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


9. Loh Long Xiang, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


10. Chuah Wen Shi, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


11. Chuah Ri Faye, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


12. Vanessa Tan Li Tse, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


13. Wong Tek Loong, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


14. Ng Hei Min, MPA-PLME2 Level 2


15. Loh Long Zheng, MPA-PLME3 Level 3


16. Oh Chia Yee, MPA-PLME3 Level 3


17. Yip Wen Xuan, MPA-PLME3 Level 3


18. Wong Weng Yean, MPA-PLME3 Level 3


19. Lim Chun Kai, MPA-PLME3 Level 3


20. Chin Zheng Lam, MPA-SBSPC1 Step1


21. Cray Ch'ng Kai-Ian, MPA-SBSPC2 Step2


22. Chin Zheng Yee, MPA-SBSPC3 Step3

Music Performance and Appreciation helps children to explore the various aspects of the music learning journey and also grooms and moulds children into better performing musicians. In this session, all the students performed a piece and some pointers were given as to how they could improve on their presentation.

If you can see, that's me in the green tee-shirt sharing a light moment with the kids. Sometimes you can never know what is going to happen and the kind of answers kids can give you. You never know!

Anyway, it was a very fun time for the kids although it did not start that way. When we started, you could see that there were some scared faces, like going for an exam!!! And incidentally, when you say, "prepare a piece for a recital", why is it that everybody always thinks it's going to be like an exam????? Can't you just have some fun? Sometimes we just need to chill out and enjoy our music. Please, please enjoy your music and your life will change.......