Living the Dream

[Music]

i have a dream

that one day i can see all the kids in

schools

learning to play the subject

i have a dream that one day

i can perform in hollywood california

in front of this grammy awards producer

i also have a dream that one day

i can go to guitar store somewhere in

japan

and i saw fender guitars

gibson guitar and there’s sapeh

made in straw

[Applause]

i fell in love with the sape exactly

nine years ago i was at the cultural

village of sarawak

i saw a supper maestro playing a four

strings traditional supper

the sound is just glorious

the music is so soothing

that person is my first impromptu

sape guru the late dung auto gun

a kenya sape master from long most rawa

i start to learn these

traditional tunes but i ended up

having this love-hate relationship with

myself

because i can’t understand the language

i can’t even understand the culture

with these limited resources

i can only learn to play traditional

tunes

by listening to old cds and some videos

in youtube so

instead of playing traditional sape

i played the modern pop songs on my

subject

just to encounter my frustration

then came a day

i met one of my talented supper friend

mr hizakaya asim

i asked him bro

how can we differentiate all these

different subpatunes

it all sounded the same to me it’s very

difficult for me to learn

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then he said sophia

sape is not just music

you need to understand its rich culture

and all of this village they have their

own version of the story

and us we need to learn

from the roots

so i

started doing research and reading all

these articles

journal thesis anything that i can find

regarding the sapi i even went

into the village in ulubaram and balaga

so i can meet the sapeh master myself

and all of this research i documented it

and i publish it in my blog

eventually my work has been noticed by

mr narawi rashidi he is the head

of culture department in sarawak culture

village

so he loved what i do

and he recommended me to be one of the

strava

traditional music expert panel

recognized by the skills of development

department of malaysia

from there

i developed syllabus for sap

i as a sapi instructor

i have thought more than

1 000 students and among them

are foreigners who still continue

playing the sap

and share our music all over the world

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the world it would be so nice if we can

perform

all around the world

if we can position the suffer as a

versatile

instrument standing in line with guitar

piano saxophone etc

i want to make surpe a great instrument

so i need to be a great

support player myself

i seek advice from great people in the

industry

and one of them is bob yusuf

he is a world class singer performer

he told me you

need to perform as good as the top

player in your field

or better than him then you think of

perform

internationally because that is the

standard

i have shoes but

however i have a very low

self-confidence

for my performance sometimes i

add on some extra moves trying to hype

everything up try to impress the

audience by my movement

thankfully i received a great advice

from one of my music teacher mr yazid

zakaria

he asked me

what makes your instrument special

the sound i said that’s it

your suffering is already special by its

own

you don’t need to make extra movement

all you need to do is just

sit and mesmerize your audience with

your beautiful music

so i spent

1 000 hours

practicing sap and 10 000 hours of

hard work practicing it and master my

instrument

while some of you guys drinking

tree laity in kopitiyam i was at home

practicing somewhere hours of hours and

some of you are

watching the late night tv drama i was

in my room

listening to supper music and

transcribed the music

and i do this every day consistently

and here i am

[Music]

performing in front of thousands

of audience from 68 different countries

i am super proud to be able to perform

the sape

in hollywood california

and it’s not just

a special performance it’s a world

championship

of performing arts and i represented

malaysia coaching bond musician

has been crowned champion of the world

instrumentalist

i beg four gold medals for

traditional classical contemporary jazz

category plus three champion of the

world awards

this is a proof that our sarawak

cultural arts

are world class standard championed by

our own people

[Applause]

ladies and gentlemen

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we can go as far as what our mind

let us do what we believe

we will achieve it i’m sophie ayman here

thank you everyone

so there’s an entertainment for you guys

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you

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[Applause]

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you