Text: Lek Mei Zhen / Photos: Low Hui Ling

An entourage of local musicians and bands attended a music seminar held in Ngee Ann Polytechnic on 1st August 2012. The afternoon event saw a full house of people who were interested in local music, and Ms Teo Hui Leng, Director of School of Humanities and Social Sciences graced the event.

“Your Music Seminar” was an event brought together by the Year Two students in Chinese Media and Communication, to promote local Mandopop as well as introduce youths to local musicians and singers. In a mere period of two months, the students had organized publicity events, set up a Facebook page, searched for possible partners and sponsors and liaised with various record companies.

The first part of the seminar was kick-started by a speech from the director, and the sharing of 5 groups of young local musicians. Nelson Tan, the first speaker, shared about his composing experiences. At the young age of 22, he has already produced many music videos for the songs he wrote. He was crowned the champion of C’ING 2011 song writing competition for his song “Growing Up”. 

From left: Nelson Tan, Rao Zijie, Keely Wee, He Guo Hao and Benjamin Hum shared about how music impacted them as a whole at the seminar.

Following up was Tay Kexin, who shared about independent music. At the seminar, she performed two songs from her upcoming EP, namely <Yong Gan Zheng Ming> and <Zhuan Lie Dian>. Contestants from a local singing competition, Campus Superstar 2 also came to share their experiences. Benjamin Hum, Fun Jam Band (Rao Zijie, He Guo Hao) and Keely Wee had emphasized the importance of pursuing our dreams, as well as how they balanced their own social life while pursuing their love for music at the same time.

During the second half of the seminar, renowned lyricist Zhang Le Sheng engaged the audience by carrying out a song-writing activity with them. He then read out two song lyrics that the audience wrote and gave constructive comments. Zhang Le Sheng has written more than 300 theme songs for local drama series since 2003. Following up was Good Morning band, who shared about their feelings and thoughts on indie music. They also performed two songs that they composed, <Final Bossa> and <Zao An Ni Hao>. Both songs have clinched the top three positions in C’ING 2011 and the NEA Eco Music Challenge 2011 respectively.

Lee Wei Song took time to attend the seminar when he came back to Singapore from China.

The lead singer, Chenliang and keyboardist, Estella of Da Feng Chui sang and spoke with fervour at the seminar. They performed the song <Zui Chu De Hui Yi> from their new album, and used this song to explain to the audience on song composing and song harmonization. 

The last speaker, a veteran songwriter, Lee Wei Song, spoke about his experience in composing music for movies, and showcased his song-writing talent by producing a short piece of music on the spot. He also gave tips on how to compose songs of different genres. The seminar ended with a token presentation ceremony, accompanied with a big round of applause from the audience. 

This is the second music seminar organized by Chinese Media and Communication students from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences. The first music seminar was organized in 2010.

From left: Local musicians such as Lee Wei Song, Good Morning, Da Feng Chui, Keely Wee, Benjamin Hum, Fun Jam Band and Nelson Tan shared their experiences in the music scene at Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s “Your Music Seminar”.