An African Perspective on Malaysian Music Ministry
[ contact the author ]
[ view printable version ]
[ recommend this article to a friend ]
When Pastor Samuel January arrived in KL last Tuesday, I could barely believe it. We had been waiting anxiously the past few days for an opportunity to interview him, and it was beginning to seem very unlikely that the singer/prophet/evangelist hailing from South Africa would be able to find time in his busy schedule for us.
But as it happened, he decided to set aside a few precious hours in KL for us while on his way up north to Ipoh. When I got the phone call from him saying that he could make it for an interview, I was already on my way to the studio in Cheras, so I made the biggest detour of my life and headed off to KL Sentral.
It didn't take long for Pastor January to start talking about music. After loading his luggage and getting himself onto my Juara, we introduced ourselves and then he informed me of his plans for the next few hours, where he needed to be in MidValley Megamall and Puduraya. As soon as that was settled and we were on our way to Megamall, he immediately took interest in a local Christian album that was sitting on my dashboard. And from then on, there was no turning back.
“This song could use some fantasia here,” he said.
For a while I thought he was referring to the American Idol champ, but of course, he meant the keyboard effect… Thankfully I realized that before I embarrassed myself.
“This song is not suited for his voice. He's got a really 80s voice,” he added, amongst many other comments and suggestions along the way. He would strum some chords on an imaginary guitar, saying that the chorus needed this chord or that chord, or a lead passage, humming them out to me. He would hit some imaginary percussion, showing me a beat or a rhythm that he thought would really beef up the song. He would hum me a bass line, or suggest four-part harmony lines for the songs, and sing them out for me, part-by-part. He was in his element. He was enjoying himself.
So was I. And the interview hadn't even started yet. Heck, I think I'd have enjoyed it more than the interview. Here I was, in my van with this extremely talented vocalist and musical arranger who's totally FULL of ideas, and he was just spewing them out for me just as soon as the songs began.
But when we got to Megamall, I had to reluctantly turn off the stereo and end our little session. The interview proper had to be done. After he took care of some personal business and bought the items he had came for, we found a not-so-quiet little food court ordered some drinks and began our interview proper. Oh yeah, AFTER he asked for some satay, which unfortunately was unavailable…
First things first: What's your ministry like? Well I knew he was an itinerating singer, but I'm sure there's more to that.
“I'm right now in the midst of ministering to Malaysian churches not only with my singing but also with my prophetic gifts. I've been holding workshops, evangelistic concerts, singing, and also preaching.”
And your ministry back in South Africa?
“I have pastored a church back in my homeland, South Africa. But in order to answer God's call to be a missionary, I've had to slowly pass on the pastoral duties in my home church to someone else. My wife is currently back home helping out my kids with their exams.”
So I guess there really is no escaping exam fever. How's life being an itinerant music minister in Malaysia been so far?
“There are a lot of challenges we have to face independently now, such as raising funds, setting up appointments, arranging meetings, budgeting, managing my finances, traveling, and so on.”
Any difference between ministering here in Malaysia and back in South Africa?
“Malaysia is definitely much better-off financially. For example here in Malaysia, you can find food anywhere (points his finger around the food court). But back in South Africa, you have to work hard to earn every bit of food. There are no handouts. So in this sense, there definitely are different dynamics when it comes to ministry.
“When it comes to music ministry, most of the top secular artistes in South Africa are Christians who honed their talents in church and began to be noticed by the industry as church musicians. Almost all of them will tell you that they started off playing in church. So you can say that the music ministry in South Africa is doing much better than in Malaysia.”
Does this professional and secular connection most South African Christian artistes have affect their ministry negatively?
“You see, music and worship are two different things altogether. Music is a language, a form of expressing your feeling and emotion. Worship is about expressing our love and adoration to God, and so we use the language of music to worship God. So you can be a great musician but be a poor worship musician. There are just totally different dynamics to the two. With worship music, there is that added dimension of spirituality.
“South African artistes basically take only the music part of it when they are producing secular music. To them they're just using the language of music to express something, in another form, such as jazz. But when it comes to worship, they're still able to add that spiritual dimension into their music and express something else in a different form: their worship and praise to God. Once you get that right, your worship to God will not be affected negatively.”
So from your time in Malaysia, what do you think about the music ministry here?
“Well first of all, you all have great musicians. I think the standard of musicians in Malaysia is pretty high, and they are all pretty well-trained,” he said, leaving the sentence with a hint of a big “but”…
“But,” he unsurprisingly continued, “I have to say Malaysians fall very short when it comes to voicing (vocals). The backing (bands) in Malaysian churches are usually very good, but unfortunately they always lack inspiring vocalists to take the music that step further, from being simple, plain, professional music; to being powerful and inspiring.”
Agreed. So from your point of view, outside-looking-in, what do you think is the cause of this lack of inspiration amongst Malaysian vocalists?
“It could be a host of different reasons, really. I think it might be due to the Malaysian culture, where people are more like seen but not heard. They don't express themselves as much as they should vocally. Like I said earlier, music is a form of expression. To make really good music with your vocals you've got to be expressive, you've got to really feel the song and from there express that feeling with your voice.
“Now most Malaysians don't do that. If you have uninspiring vocals, you end up with uninspired songs, uninspired music and ultimately, uninspired worship. Malaysians have got to put aside some social inhibitions when they are singing, particularly when leading a congregation into worship. Because the main purpose of worship, is to create an atmosphere, where the people can offer up their praises to God. It's quite hard to create such an atmosphere when the lead vocalist isn't doing a good job.
Well, what do you think we can do to help change this?
“Malaysians definitely have to start singing in parts. In Africa, whenever we hear a gap in the harmony, we fill it up. We never just sing the melody as it is. This helps a lot to give the song a beautiful depth, and without proper harmonies the songs sound bland and boring. But with harmonies, the songs come alive.”
Harmonizing comes natural to most South Africans and Africans in general, I presume?
“Yes, it does. But I think Malaysians can be trained to do it too! The thing is, in most Malaysian churches people don't see the importance of singing in parts. I'm sure if they tried they'll be able to produce wonderful harmonies too. It's very easy: just keep the altos and sopranos on different sides and separate them by putting the tenors in the middle. Then train them, they might be back-up singers, or even the entire congregation; to start hearing for different parts they can sing.”
Other than that, you have any other technical advice to improve Malaysian vocals?
“I think it's important to take it seriously. Like me, if I have a concert coming, I'll be singing and practicing for up to 6 hours everyday! You have to be very serious and committed to be become a good vocalist. People think it's easy or that it's a natural talent that you either have or don't have, but actually it comes with a lot hard work.
‘It was said in the Bible that King David played “cunningly”, which in the original language actually means “skillfully”. This is common misconception in the church: that you don't need to be technically skillful to be a church musician. There's no way you can produce good music that creates an atmosphere of worship, with horrible music. There're many other ways to worship God without music, so those who aren't technically gifted in music but still want to play for worship, should either buck up and start working hard to improve, or not play in worship at all. Find a different form of worship.”
So do you have any warm-ups or scales or anything that you usually do to practice and keep your voice in shape?
“One thing that works for me is push-ups. I do push-ups regularly, and before performances. It strengthens your vocal chords and other muscles that helps your body to push out air more powerfully,” he says, and gives a demonstration of just how powerfully he can force air out of his diaphragm. He pursed his lips and let out a strong burst of air, which I could feel on my hands even though I was sitting across the table from him.
“I also do some neck exercises as I feel they help strengthen my vocal chords. Besides that I take a lot of time to practice different scales.”
I'm sure Malaysian food doesn't do much help in contributing to improving our vocalists…
“You guys have too much great, delicious, but oily food… Like I said, it takes a lot of hard work and discipline. In order to keep your voice in prime condition, you'll have to stay away from fried foods and oily stuff. Take lots of water and fruits, and your voice will always sound good.”
Great advice. But easier said than done for us Malaysians; especially the part about food.
© 2004 Ian Yee
Email : author@gsus.biz
http://www.gsus.biz
[ return to top ]
All articles are copyright of their respective authors. Used with permission. |
