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!!!!!