Another week, another challenge for the dear choir team, which is a new language!
This time, it is also a hurdle for me as I have never really touched this language before, which is Tamil!
Tamil is actually one of the prominent races in Malaysia, especially Peninsular Malaysia, due to the fact they were widely taken in from India during the British colonisation after WW2. During that time, like the African American’s ancestors, they were supposed to be slaves / servants, serving the British (officer / businessman) families, and manning the rubber estates that was flourishing in the land of Malaya (before independence)
But now, after 66 years (including this August, 2023) of independence of Malaya that births Malaysia in 1963, much of the Indian population has prospered, and its descendants have called Malaysia its home. Delicacies like the famous Roti Canai (or Parata in Singapore) and Banana Leaf Rice is adopted a norm, and everyone with their own ability can thrive in Malaysia as long as they are willing to work hard.
Enough of the brief historical introduction, in the light of celebrating unity, we decided to honour one of the songs to the Tamil church Community. And our dear sister Natasha took the effort to learn harmony for the first time so that she could record snippets for us, while she took the time to teach us “Tamil made simple” so that we can pronounce the words in the song correctly.
See sister Natasha in action as I decided to record her for the choir’s reference
It was quite fun to see everyone of different nationalities learning the language together, including Indonesians who are part of the choir. We had a lot of fun seeing their confused shy reactions as never in their life they can imagine learning a new language, and now with their determination to sing the song, their children at home are exposed to a new language that they will never realise they could learn (in a foreign country)
As I knew that my dear choir flock would still be struggling with the harmonies with an additional challenge of a new language, I decided to split the harder ones into tiny little YouTube Clips so that everyone can just jump to the parts they are weak, practice as much as possible and return to the main practice track for a full run.
You Are Good snippet – Melody (Pre-Chorus)
You Are Good - Harmony (Chorus) - with Timestamp
You Are Good - Harmony (Bridge) - with Timestamp
You Are Good - Full practice - with Timestamp
All these little efforts didn’t come just me alone, but comprises a group of talented and dedicated individuals who forked out time to make things work for the whole choir.
That made my life so much easier when there’s teamwork without taking obvious credits for themselves.
And I am definitely so proud of them!
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
