Making music more ‘humanitarian’
Published on: Sunday, September 22, 2019
By: Kan Yaw Chong
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A demo for the H.E.A.R.T Music Exam in progress, assessed by Yap Ling, played by Henokh Yedija Mawilis - a successful JPO Outreach student shown here presenting theme from William Tell overture and Jambatan Tamparuli, helped by Grace.
That was how I felt – inscrutable – at the launch of H.E.A.R.T (abbreviation for Hope, Education, Aid, Responsibility and Truth) Music Exam at the Sabah State Library Headquarters on Sept 18.
But, unique to journalists, we always record them verbatim.
As nearly always, we listen back a second time to try and get exactly what they have actually said or meant to say, in their spit-fire fast speeches.
Then I realise grasp and mastery of those technical musical imperatives is the road to music great.
Only then I understood the strategic nature of this word “humanitarian” – an active belief and practice towards the improvement of other human life through altruistic helpful assistance, to the pioneers of H.E.A.R.T Music Exam Board king pins – JPO conductor Yap Ling, Jessica Lee JPO President and H.E.A.R.T Foundation founder, Wong Siew Ngan, to get this historic project launched, in Sabah.
It is meant to serve the welfare of talented but poor children in the region.
Radical cut in exam cost
Their humanitarian understanding in practice here is to bring the music exam cost radically down to the most minimum.
By this act, it opens up certifying opportunities not just once, but a second chance, which makes everything good more possible for people in difficult circumstances.
Yap Ling and friends had spent years going into the interior teaching rural children classical music in outreach programmes.
Now KL-based Wong Siew Ngan comes into the picture doing the same stuff through her “H.E.A.R.T Foundation Music Projects” for music students.
Truth be told, Yap Ling confessed he wasn’t the “good guy” who suddenly felt one day a sense of inspiration to invent a JPO outreach programme to teach poor rural kids western classical music.
He said he got into it because, “unfortunately”, the man who started it passed away and he merely went in to fill the gap.
Zeal without a future?
As it turned out, zeal fired him up to get involved more and more because as he put it, rather than a presumptuous didactic or teachy idea that he was there to enlighten the kids, it was the kids who taught him a lot and motivated him particularly more and more when he saw with his own eyes how lives were transformed and improved among the hitherto 300 unsung country kids who had undergone the JPO Outreach programme, under his tutelage.
But then the reality question arose, where would all these poor kids honed in the finesse of classical music go from there without any paper to show?
Violin guru troubled by a ‘money’ issue
Violin guru Siew Ngan told the crowd the same burning question bothered her long ago before any outreach programme ever existed.
She said one day she was moved to ask herself: Is it humanitarian to see a talented, dedicated youngster’s earnest heart’s desire to sit for a music exam only to be crushed just because mum and dad can’t afford the high exam fee?
Siew Ngan told the story of three sisters she was teaching and one day, the mother dropped the bombshell: “This year, only Annie goes in because we have only this amount of money”.
“So, only one child out of three had a chance. But then the younger sister had always looked forward to the experience (exam).”
When ‘no money’ stops everything
Siew Ngan said that was the moment that roused her humanitarian instinct.
“She wanted to experience what others had gone through but just because of a financial constraint it stopped her dream.
Because of this, I have been thinking about it for a very long time. This (idea of launching an affordable music exam) is not just because of our outreach, this is also for the students who want it,” Siew Ngan noted.
For the people who dare, the H.E.A.R.T Music Exam was a dream come true.
Siew Ngan revealed the regional scale nature of the H.E.A.R.T Music Exam which covers all the great humanitarian values they are applying.
“This is the first time we have our own Examination Board, not only for Malaysia but also for Myanmar, Indonesia and hopefully the Philippines, mainly because we can see the main purpose is assessment at accessible prices.”
Not a necessity but a responsibility
“Many people say why do you need to set up a Music Exam Board lah… I always tell them music exam is not a necessity but a responsibility – a responsibility of all children who play music to make sure the teachers do something,” Siew Ngan noted.
“My responsibility to tell the parents who have been supporting me, hey, I fulfil my responsibility. If you fulfil your responsibility, of course, there are some opportunities.
“A lot of people ask me so many questions, so I always say graded exams are guidelines. We all went through different guidelines which indicate where we are,” she said, citing the example of Yap Ling who in his heydays started from ground zero.
He then “took grade 1, 2, 3 exams all the way up to diploma then tertiary level and now he is conductor, performer, composer, administrator, organiser and producer. He also arranges music, examiner, a judge and part-time university music lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
The same humanitarian aspirations may well be transferable to many by removing the financial obstacles radically.
“Our objectives and purpose for setting up the examination board is to provide an assessment to all outreach students at an affordable cost, ultimately to provide more recognition for tertiary level training and employment as teachers and or examiners.
“So, what we have launched is a sustainable examination board and we hope that by charging the most minimum fee to support our teachers’ work plus the examiners’ allowances etc we can make it happen,” Siew Ngan said.
The masterminds behind the H.E.A.R.T Music Exam – JPO conductor Yap Ling, JPO President Jessica Lee, violin guru Wong Siew Ngan and Sabah State Library Director Wong Vui Yin.
Dramatic cost cut saves up to RM60,000 a year
Siew Ngan unveiled a dramatic slash in music exam fees to help clear the financial roadblock for a potential larger upward qualification of musical talents.
For example, she pointed: “The average exam fee for year 2019 based on resources taken from various current music board are Grade 1: RM290; Grade 2: RM370 to RM380.”
“Let’s say you have 100 outreach students on Grade 1, the total cost is RM29,000 and Grade 2, the total is RM37,000 to RM38,000 with a grand total that adds up to RM67,000,” she noted.
“At this moment, we have 300 outreach students. I think if we were to spend it on examination and buy double bass, we can buy drums etc – a lot of good equipment.
“Look at our H.E.A.R.T exam fee. It is only RM30 for Grade 1, RM40 for Grade 2 but I must make it clear that this doesn’t mean low quality.
“The cost difference for 200 students is like a steep plunge from RM67,000 to RM7,000, so we save RM60,000 and we are not talking about one year because sometimes we need at least two exams in a year and that will cost RM120,000.”
Low cost does not mean low quality
“Yes, it doesn’t mean we Malaysians come out with more affordable fees means no quality. We have researchers who do come up with syllabuses properly. We take care of copyrights so that it will not touch major copyright issues.
“We are avoiding that. We have a bunch of youth researchers always refining on our work,” Siew Ngan assured.
To assure quality, JPO President Jessica Lee concedes that from an education stand point the syllabus is “the most difficult part” yet crucial because that’s the “content”.
“We have talked extensively about this because these are students and their education we are dealing with. We feel very responsible and cautious in the sense of making sure the syllabuses are solid before we deliver or roll them out,” Jessica said.
That’s where a string of JPO’s German, Korean, Japanese and Russian maestros friends come in, Jessica said.
High calibre maestros behind the scene
“These are high-calibre friends who came and help us behind the scene and share their talents and experience generously,” she noted.
But serving on the Examination Board are people like Yap Ling well trained on a dozen facets of the job in addition to a group of Master class Malaysian musicians in whom Siew Ngan claimed she could feel “very proud” about their credentials who have been put together “to make it work for the children,” she said.
“We are not trying to compete, just want to do something for the children. If you are a salary earner of five children it means thousands of ringgit to pay their exam fees, but, of course, you need an exam that is a true assessment,” Siew Ngan continued.
So, what is the Music Exam launch all about?
Two emphasis
“We emphasise two things: The overriding drive is to give our outreach students equal opportunity to afford a formal assessment of their classical musical training for all instruments,” Jessica said.
“The second thing is we would like to enable them with transferable and employable skills up to advanced diploma level to again enable them access to musical or non-performance employment opportunities. That’s the whole essence of what we are trying to do.
“Basically, we have put in place a legacy of the wealth of knowledge and experiences of all the maestros accumulated over decades to fill in the gaps of the existing exam systems or even in the education training systems.”
Since the avowed purpose is humanitarian, what do the candidates get from this H.E.A.R.T music exam?
The experience and a certificate count
Siew Ngan singled out the open door to an irreplaceable experience of a formal music examination by a professional examiner.
“A lot of times music exam is an experience people who don’t or can’t take exams, miss out on. It’s like a performance to the little one. It means something to a child who looks forward to it,” Siew Ngan noted.
To paraphrase her, it means somebody think about and care about what is good for them so that they would not live to feel bitter about “how come just because I don’t have the money I can’t go”.
“That’s why affordability is very important to a child,” Siew Ngan said.
“Besides the experience of a life time, he/she gets a certificate upon passing the exam which is a full assessment of 3 exam pieces, which include 1 Baroque/Classical/Romantic piece, 1 Ethnic music piece and 1 Technical Etude – technical works) including scales, arpeggios and other technical work) – Aural – Sight-reading.
Sabah State Library now the reference site for West Malaysia and other countries.
Going places with paper on hand
“One of my concerns is where do these hundreds of outreach students go after they leave school and leave the Outreach programme?” Yap Ling noted.
“By having some sort of a certification when they apply for a job or try to go to teach in any institution, the first thing people always want to see is the paper work.
“What have you achieved or done and also even like normally you want to work in an orchestra as a professional they need to see something before they even give you a chance to audition.
“So if you don’t have the paper they don’t even want to look at you,” Yap said.
Yes, affordability is the good story.
The goals matter however technical
But as Siew Ngan noted: “This is about exams,” which cannot avoid the technical part of the tests.
“Our goals involve a focus on technical works by including compulsory Etude, that is, for right hand and left hand techniques. Marks awarded in Piece 1 ad Piece 2 are based on Technical, Notation, Interpretation, overall fluency and understanding of the selected pieces by the candidate piece.
“These goals provide a purpose for the teachers and students alike during class,” she said
“Aural and Sight-reading are compulsory subjects for all candidates. This is to ensure proper ear training during class and improvement in capability of notation and musical readings within the guided syllabus,” she explained.
For exceptional achievements, High Distinction is included in this grading scheme to encourage students to aim higher.
Extra Cert for High Distinction
“High Distinction achievers will be granted an extra certificate,” Siew Ngan said.
What happened to people who fail? There is a second chance.
“Candidates are allowed to redo but not more than two sections in the next exam of he or she fails the first attempts, at a minimum fee.
“Affordability and the second chance makes everything more possible and to me it is more towards humanitarian than just music. We are not just doing music, we are doing humanitarian work and that is what makes us different from others.”
Recognition of ethnic music
One point worth mentioning is the full assessment includes one ethnic piece.
This exam requirement will definitely raise the status and standard of local ethnic songs across the region.
“We are also trying to preserve our ethnic music in Asean countries and Souteast Asia especially. We try to bring them into notation so that we get to know what is happening to like our traditional songs,” Siew Ngan noted.
“I mean children and the younger generation tend to forget about these ethnic traditional songs and so we try as much as possible by putting them into our syllabuses and also we want to encourage more special children, families and friend to have the courage to come for exams.”
But if money is the issue for poor outreach students to take music exams, it is also an issue for Heart Music Exam Board to kickstart the project.
As the saying goes, the good are drawn to the good. One anonymous Samaritan has already donated a RM25,000 grant to get the ball rolling.
In the long run, of course, that is not enough.
“But we are all musicians, if it needs be we will stage concerts to raise the money,” Siew Ngan said.
Seed money support aside, worthy of note is that the Sabah State Library has been made H.E.A.R.T Music Exam’s reference site for West Malaysia and other countries.
Active support from Director of Sabah State Library
Credit goes to Director of Sabah State Library, Wong Vui Yin, who provided the physical and moral support by letting his 8th floor Auditorium be venue for the inaugural launch last Wednesday and future activities.
So, Daily Express asked: You are supporting this?
“Obviously. I think what we are going to do is the make sure that because no one is going to be in that position for a log time, there needs to be continuity. Hopefully, when the new management comes they will see the importance of this collaboration and then maybe even enhance it,” he said.
“We are talking about the outreach programme. In Kota Kinabalu, there are so many urban poor but how many people can afford to send their kids to music exams because of cost?
“When you have a programme like this, anyone can come in and then all you need is like what Yap Ling had said – commitment.
“They have everything except money, so commitment for them to come to the library every week or fortnight will be a fantastic programme for the urban poor.”
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