My History of Music
How It All Happened
Music is my first love. I come from a family who plays the piano. My mum, grandaunt played the piano and I too wanted to learn. When I was a little girl of 6, my mum asked me whether I wanted to play the piano and I said yes. I thought it was just simply learning how to play for a few hours and that was that. Unknown to me, I had to practise everyday. So the day I started school, was the day I started learning. I was sent to a private piano tutor, the late Mrs. Chew. She was very good and very patient with me. After learning piano for the very first time, I came home to practice. I did it for a few minutes and I told my mother I had finished. But my
mum said no it's not enough. She said I had to practise 5 times each. But I didn't want to.
When I said no, she took the cane and made me practise 5 times. So it was like that through
out the years and when I did not practise enough the teacher would lecture mum.
The pieces I had to play was my three exam pieces and scales. Soon I was practising for an hour and after that it extended to two hours a day as my grades grew higher and higher. Ultimately
it all paid of and I thank my mum for that.
During my years as a student, my teacher began to train me to help the young ones on their pratical. I began to like what I was doing. Soon I was helping her but unfortunately, she
had a breakdown and most of us students had to go to other teachers. When I was in Gr 8
I went to Ms. Woon Wen Kin. I attended her class. She was a nice teacher. Under her tutelage
I passed.
The Challenges Ahead
With all that knowledge that I've learnt, I put it into good use. Initially I started giving singing
lessons in a private school when I first started working at the age of 19. As I already had a
musical background, singing was second nature. Well ...... it was a challenge for teaching in the
school where there student came from prominent families. Most of them were spoilt.
Nevertheless, I went ahead. I had to prepare my lessons too. At that time I didn't know how to
type. I chose my lessons and I had the clerks type out for me. Anyway besides teaching
music, I was also doing physical exercise with the children. It was an enjoyable time with them.
It was a good experience. I learnt things from the children.
