Living the Dream
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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
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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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do
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you