[Students at Bukit Panjang Government High are taught how to download third-party music software from the Apple App Store onto their iPod Touch gizmos - provided for their use during class - and make their own melodies with them.]

by Stephanie Gwee

IF THERE is one thing in the music world that music ace Alex Kapranos detests, it is the lack of creativity in music lessons offered by schools.

The frontman of Billboard-topping band Franz Ferdinand, Alex is known for this quip, as quoted in Guardian in April 2004: "None of us had particularly positive experiences of music in education as children.

"We were taught that music was written by an anonymous person from the past, to be regurgitated without feeling by you, the child."

Students like Chloe Lim of Naval Base Secondary would tell him otherwise.

The 13-year-old, who learnt how to create music using Apple's GarageBand software, says: "It is satisfying to unleash my creativity and compose my own pop tunes. This is much more exciting than simply playing someone else's composition."

She numbers among the scores of students here who have been taught to tap technology to jazz up an original tune.

In 1968, music was made a compulsory non-examination subject in all schools. Elements of digital media started appearing in the Ministry of Education's General Music Programme from 2002.

Currently, primary school students learn how to pick out the bits of digital media in a piece of music by differentiating between the rich sounds of instruments and the slightly metallic sounds of computer-churned audio.

In secondary school, they learn to compose and arrange original music pieces using digital tools like Windows Music Player and GarageBand (see other story on facing page).

A spokesman from the Ministry of Education (MOE) noted that these changes in the music curricula were a result of the "pervasive use of technology in music", and that the MOE wants to ensure that the learning experience of students is "up to date".

The Ministry declined to say how many schools are offering such digital music classes.

Still, the step up the musical ladder strikes the right note with engineer Cynthia Tay, whose 10-year-old daughter is enrolled in Nanyang Primary School's digital music classes.

"This new method of teaching is much more interactive and creative than what my generation had in the 1980s.

"Now, whenever we play songs on the radio, my daughter will excitedly tell us which sections in a song are created digitally."

stephg@sph.com.sg

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