My Music Room

This is where my music room is - at the heart of Agape Centre, Malacca. Sis Lee Hua is the founder and owner of AC (short for Agape Centre). It's amazing how God met both of us together, the timing and the occurence of happenings that led me to be part of AC ministry as well. We know things don't occur merely by coincidence but all have been planned and arranged by the Almighty One, all thanks and praises be given unto Him !

The music room is located upstairs of AC. We have the cafe and gift corner downstairs. Just a simple room that's furnished with the apple green and white colour, this is AC's colour theme which happens to be my wedding colour theme years ago ;)

There're 2 pianos - 23 year old Petrof accoustic piano which I've grown up with and have brought across the sea from Sarawak. Mum suggested that I bring it over since nobody's playing it now, and I've grown up with the piano. It brings much sentimental value to me, as it has seen me through the years of learning till I attained my diploma. I got myself a new Korg digital piano - mainly for performance and composing/arrangement purposes as it's portable and can be connected to PC and amplifier.



This is me :)


An outside night view of Agape Centre



This is where we are :

No.33, Jalan TAKH 15,
Taman Ayer Keroh Heights 1,
75450 Melaka
(next to IPK Bukit Beruang police station)

11&12 Dec 09 Musical Events @ Agape Centre

Just a short trip down memory lane to a month ago when we had our first musical events at Agape Centre. Sis Lee Hua just blogged on this yesterday, and seeing the pictures brought me back to the good times we had then.

We had a few groups who came to perform and bless us with their musical talents; namely William Kok, the African students and Wesley Merlimau team.

The Music Maker, William Kok and his wife travelled all the way down from KL to play for the musical event. He's really a down-to-earth, gentle and patient chap. A gifted guitar teacher who can play the complete musical arrangement (consisting of both hands) using his guitar. He also provides online guitar lessons (http://williamkok.inc.md/). He shared his valuable experiences and gave advice on music teaching. Len and I have been blessed by him.




Next is the African students from MMU. They come from different parts of Africa - Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria to name a few. I came to know them through my godfather who's in the same church as them at SBC, and liaised with Ola (I call him 'Will Smith' cos I thought he does resemble him, haha). Ola was the one to coordinate with the group, they had a choir who sang in 4 parts, and trust me, these people are all gifted with beautiful heavenly voices. Their voices just sound so natural and and they can do wonders with acapella. Besides the choir, Ola, Masako, Cowey and Kenny (in pics) also sang some love songs. My favourite is still Amazing Grace - My Chains Are Gone (Chris Tomlin's version) where piano duet with the peeps. It sounded awesome!






Then we have the team from Wesley Merlimau too - Bro Eric, Sis Wendy and her gang. Wendy (the Indian girl) is the team leader and she speaks fluent Mandarin! Haha, I couldn't have imagined she's non Chinese till we met the first time at Agape. Anyway the young team is gifted with musical talents. They compose their own songs, sing and play beautifully. We're blessed by the team spirit and great support from their peers who came.






It was a wonderful time we had those 2 days, and we endeavor to organize more events as such in future. For more details, please refer to Agape Centre's blog(http://agapecentre-malacca.blogspot.com)

First Blog Of The Year

Happy New Year 2010! Have made some changes to the blog template which looks more appropriate in terms of the theme and colour. This is my first blog of the year, have wanted to blog since last week but was tied up with errands to run for and the starting off for couple of new students. Also went for a getaway to Bali over the weekend for my birthday celebration, or rather, 2nd honeymoon, hehe.

So I'm back, and ready to continue the musical journey ;) I've got a few more new students coming in, 2 this month and 4 more next month. Thank God for His provision! As for now I'm having evening classes on weekdays, and more classes on Saturdays. Daytime is free, hence I utilize the time to do some research for my side.

My focus now is to work out some approaches to the younger children ie. 5-6 years old as I'll be teaching a handful of them. Having taught 2 students for the past weeks, I realize they have short concentration span, and require most of my attention. It will be quite unfair to the older sibling or student who attends the class with them. Hence I plan to spend more 'quality' time with them to help instill their interests. So parents, please bear with me as I try out different things with your children as I hope to find the most effective and enjoyable way to help them learn to play piano. For children of this age range, the last thing to do is to push them for exam and force them to play. They should really be playing with the piano, not letting the piano examine them :)

Have a blessed day folks!

Goodbye & Welcome

Goodbye 2009 & engineering...Welcome 2010 & music

Today is a remarkable day in my life. It's my last working day in Infineon, also my last working day as an engineer, and it's the last day of year 2009 as well. From tomorrow onwards, I'll be fulltime into music. It's altogether a different path to journey, yet there're some skills learnt during engineering days that can be imparted. I have 10 confirmed students to date, thank God for His provision. Most supports come from friends, and you know who you are, dear ones, thanks! :)

It's my desire to look into each of these students' needs, identify their strengths and weaknesses and build them up from there. Music should be something one enjoys learning, not merely a task he or she is forced into. In fact, doing something that one has personal interest in, it just frees up one's mind to different approaches and insights in that area. That's what I'm experiencing now with this musical art, and I'm open to flexibility and customization pertaining to individual needs.

So one step at a time, and enjoy the journey! As we close the curtain for this year 2009, I wish all my dear family and friends the best in their undertakings - abundant blessings, good health, smooth paths, joy, peace and love. Cheers!

Welcome to my blog

Thanks for spending your time to visit this blog. Finally, I've managed to create a blog, meant to share with and keep readers posted of my music ministry updates. This is just the beginning, a new beginning of a new journey that I'm very much looking forward to.

It took me 5 years to take the step of faith forward to go fulltime into music. It was through a series of incidents, the more-than-merely-coincidences that really convict me to take the first step and move on. I will share the details in time to come.

So what's in store for this music ministry? For a start, I'll be providing piano lessons for both contemporary and classical music. There're other future plans also inline with music, these I'll need time to study and work on. I always adapt the 'one step at a time' principle, and let God lead each step as this is the ministry He has called me into.

To date, I have 7 confirmed students, this is a perfect number to begin with! Task now is to get to know the students better, understand their needs and fine tune the teach-and-learn method :)