Today I read an article in Lianhe Zaobao, whereby the reporter interviewed former SSO Music Director Choo Hoey about youngsters showing a lack of love towards music. Even the great Choo Hoey has noted that parents force or cajole their kids to learn music, but not to love it. I was shocked to read one anonymous youngster comment: “When I finish Grade 8 I will SET FIRE TO MY PIANO.”

Not his fault, even if he demonstrates violence towards a musical instrument. Blame the parents.

Choo Hoey laments that parents send their children for music lessons and graded examinations because they will then have something to show off to their friends and relatives. That’s really not surprising. It happens in academics as well. Singaporeans can really be alacritous when it comes to showing off, but they’re real stingy when asked to make donations to charity. What an ugly, shameful scene. I remember my orthodontist told me, “Yah, I learned piano as well. I finished my grade 7 exams, then I decided I had enough.” What a shame.

We are all wasting our time trying to promote the arts. When the arts groups and the government try so hard to get more Singaporeans interested, these parents kill the dream instead. They literally force their kids at their instruments and exams so much that obviously the kid hates it. Bear in mind that the pieces these young people are exposed to are a minute minority of the entire repertoire of works spanning from the time Western music was first notated. They hate this few, they stereotype music and they come to reject the others. It has happened when I try to introduce, or coax some friends to listen to a “serious” work - something exciting, say, by the Russian Five, only to be rejected because they are afraid of “falling asleep” (as most people would associate serious music), even if the music like that in Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” is brash and colourful and makes one’s hair stand up when listening to it. Perhaps that is why pop music gains, because they’re just simple and cheap (there are a few worthy pop songs with meaningful lyrics and/or beautifully-crafted tunes) and you don’t have to pay so much attention to them in terms of dynamics and phrasing and articulation. Serious music only seems to be accepted after they are “defaced” by people like Vanessa Mae and Bond. I bet few people know the theme of “Red Hot” is really from the Overture to the Barber of Seville.

Another disgusting fact is that parents would force the kid of learn music at a young age, and when the kid grows to love it, he is discouraged from the subject because, as far as any parent would say, it is almost impossible to make a living out of music in Singapore. To me, yes, I can survive with music, but I won’t live in a condominium or drive a Mercedes. That belongs to the pop stars, like the boy bands in Taiwan and USA. It’s really a matter of being happy, no matter how tough the going gets. And once the kid has the love for music, the parent shouldn’t try to kill it. If they do so, it proves that there was an ulterior motive for learning music in the first place. The motive was to benefit the parent, definitely not the child. The parents never taught the child to love music; either he/she learned it himself/herself, or a teacher generated that love. And I think the love of music is cultivated through the listening of music, than merely playing exam pieces and such. Because the music world is so wide; it is so varied that you may never finish listening to everything in your life.

I think would-be parents should go for music appreciation courses themselves, so they can genuinely teach their children to love music rather than merely playing for the sake of qualifications.  ¶ 3/07/2004 04:39:00 pm