Attended a free (orignal cost $10/$12) concert organised by Yamaha Music School today. What was unique about the concert was that it showcases some of the finest students Yamaha has, displaying their talent on their instrument as well as performing their own composition.

The students from JOC (Junior Original Concert) were age 9-16, with most hovering around 12-13 yrs old. I'm not sure of their musical grade in their respective instruments but they had advanced to the stage of learning composition and penning down their musical ideas.

I'm no expert in this but I do have some ideas or rather 'logical deductions' on how popular music are formed. And the music these....children create are truly something else. I was expecting a certain soul less application of "composing SOPs" applied to some motifs/tune to create something nice but predictable, like how I expect a piece of music to form if one was to apply musically theories blindly.

But what was presented was a wide variety of truly original pieces of music! And most of these are based on certain feelings or themes, which does convey them pretty well (most of them...) and will not go to wrong to use them in movie or game OSTs.

And yet, with such an impressive ensemble of young...very young, creative and talented SIngaporeans, why then are musical talent in Singapore so very rare and unknown? Think of a world or Asian known instrumentalist, perhaps it's only down to Vanessa Mae. Well known composers? The Wei Song Xi Song brothers? Composers cum singers? Tanya Chua? Maybe she can take some lessons from these youngsters. Perhaps these children will grow up to be doctors and laywers and businessman or migrants, and end their brief relationship with music in pursuit of something more 'rewarding'.

I can't help but think of the 'original music bands' and Singapore Idols wannabes and budding artists as pathetically weak...and hopeless. Even Owls, who was accompanying the 10 yr old pianist, appear 'less confident and overshadowed' by the brilliance of these blasted kids.

Not to mention those that developed a liking for music late in their age and struggle to learn an instrument i.e. me. Maybe I should stop playig the guitar and learning violin and perhaps do something in which I might has a level playing field, like racing bikes or blogging crap...