Differences in Music Appreciation

On the 5th of August 2009, I had a chance to practice with Melville's school band. It started after school and it was a really enjoyable experience. We played only 3 songs because they will perform next week with those songs for a concert/competition.


The thing that I learnt was how music is appreciated so well that a lot of students can play the musical instruments very well. There are just a few schools in Indonesia that still appreciate music this much. They only teach students music in primary school as an additional subject to learn and they don't even know that a lot of students are waiting for their talents to be discovered. The high school is the same and maybe worse.




The thing that I saw was actually we are not worse than they are. The composisition they played wasn't that difficult. I think the difficulty is the same as I usually play in my school orchestra, the Petra Youth Orchestra and actually I'm just learning to play my flute (the instrument that I played right now) for 1 year so I'm just an amateur. So let music heal your soul. We can do better if we're trying hard to accomplish it.

Music as Universal Languange

Music as a universal languange

On the fifth of August 2009, we went to the Indonesian Consulate. We went there with year 8 students from Melville Senior High School. The main program at the consulate was to learn how to and try to play the gamelan and angklung which are traditional music instruments of Indonesia.

Besides that, this occasion was about the Indonesian consulate staff wanting to welcome us. That was so amazing!!

We played the instruments together and we enjoyed it very much. Do you know why? Because music can connect people in its own way. Melody and harmony are things that are really beautiful and connect people from different cultures. In the Indonesian consulate we had to play the gamelan and angklung together. Students were divided into 2 mixed culture groups. The first group would play the gamelan, and the other group would play angklung. We played "Manyar Sewu" on the gamelan and "Twinkle-twinkle little star" on the angklung. So that is why I say music is a universal languange.

This excursion will never be just an excursion. This is an excursion which has connected us; the Surabayan students and Melville students. Surabaya and Perth are sister cities connecting Indonesia and Australia in friendship. So, guys! play music, enjoy music, and keep our good connection. Thank you.

Why not Surabaya ??

Why not Surabaya ??

The delagation had an excursion to the Indonesian Consulate with the students who learn Indonesian at Melville High School. We were very interested when we saw a video about Indonesian culture. There was a lot of culture shown on the video, but the Surabayan delegation felt disapointed because there was no part of the video about Surabaya. That was alright, because we were very satisfied when we played the gamelan and angklung. It was amazing to play the traditional music from Java with the students from Melville SHS .

We also had a good experience when we interviewed one of the students who learn Indonesian. We asked, " What do you know about Indonesia? and What Indonesian words can you say?". Then, he answered," I know that Indonesia has a lot of culture and it's very popular with its history. Now, I just can say Selamat pagi, Selamat siang, Selamat malam, Terima kasih and nama saya Zac." All of Indonesian people must be proud because Australian people know the history of Indonesia.Then, we asked him again," Why do you want to learn Indonesian?",He answered ," Because, it's a challenge for me to learn a cool country's language and it will help me when I grow up, because I want to stay in Indonesia someday." That was a cool and weird answer for us because actually most Indonesian people want to live in a better country than Indonesia. On the other hand, all of us felt very satisfied on this trip. We saw positive sides of Indonesia in this excursion to the consulate.