Digital music: SK Bandar Uda 2 pupils wowing the audience by performing familiar Malay classics using tablet devices. — THOMAS YONG/The Star
JOHOR BARU: With heads bent over “instruments”, the SK Bandar Uda 2 pupils wowed the audience with the melody of Malay classics on stage.
However, the music is not produced from traditional gamelan instruments, but from tablets.
Merging traditional music with modern devices is one of the school’s ways of getting the kids excited about learning music, said teacher Zulaikha Zulkifle.
She said the school has been active in teaching its pupils the Malay gamelan, a multi-timbre ensemble consisting of metallophones, xylophones, flutes and gong, for years before the Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to this.
“At the same time, the previous teacher in charge of the gamelan team left to pursue her studies so the activities came to a halt.
“When I joined the school last year, I restarted its gamelan activities as I have some knowledge in the musical instrument having learnt it in university,” she said.
Zulaikha said Year Four and Year Five pupils were given the opportunity to learn and practise classic and modern folk songs using traditional gamelan instruments.
The pupils have mastered playing more than 10 songs such as Lenggang Kangkung, Dikir Puteri, Dayung Sampan, Hang Pi Mana and Timang Burung so far.
She also said some of the pupils who joined the gamelan group had no prior music experience while others had already learned different musical instruments outside of school.
“I am glad that all of them displayed keen interest in traditional music and so they were excited when the state Education Department gave our school the opportunity to work with Apple Education earlier this year, to inject modern technology into traditional music.
“After learning the techniques, the pupils started performing songs using individual tablet devices and we have also received many invitations to perform digital gamelan music at external events,” she said, adding that the performances usually attract a lot of attention from the audience.
She added that the advantages of digital gamelan include saving costs as they usually had to hire a lorry and manpower to transport the heavy gamelan instruments when they perform outside of the school.
“It is also more accessible as people can just download the app on their smartphones or devices rather than purchase the traditional musical instruments, which costs thousands of ringgit.
“This creates more awareness and exposure among the public about the beauty of gamelan music.
“That being said, my pupils often tell me that they still prefer playing the traditional gamelan instruments as they get to hold the mallets and beat the kompang with their hands, which gives them more ‘feeling’ in their performance,” said Zulaikha.
Besides gamelan, the pupils at her school are also active in other musical instruments such as the electric guitar, ukulele and brass band.
Zulaikha hopes that more schools and parents will let their children delve into music as it is not only therapeutic but helps them with their learning and growth process.
