TULANMEN - 4 UGAYMEN, WE R VERY TULAN

Ya ya ya… you must be thinking an error in the subject.

You may not know how Cikgu Badrul started to teach drums;
I bet you never knew Cikgu Badrul was very active in singing;
and certainly, you also don’t know Cikgu Badrul has his own dream-drumset if he were to buy one.

Well, all about the truths will be told here, all the secrets will be disclosed, and certainly all the rumours will be quashed as well.

It wasn’t easy to arrange a perfect time for both of us to sit down, have a meal, cups of drinks, and a nice and long conversation (certainly longer than we’d expected). Since Cikgu was working day time, and pacing the drum studio from evening to night.

Thank God the date was fixed finally, after all the Asian Beat rounds and after the Grand Final.

Date: 11th December 2006
Time: 6.15pm - 8.29pm
Place: Some coffee shop in Jalan Pegawai
Weather: Perfect, it’s 6pm anyway

Cikgu ate Roti Jala, I had Fried Noodles, and we ordered some popia.

Snare roll……………..tadatadatadatadatadatadatadatada

m: michael
CB: Cikgu Badrul

m ~ How long have you been teaching drums?

CB ~ Hmm… since end of 1993

m ~ That is a long time. Can you tell me approximately how many students have you taught?

CB ~ eh… banyak la…. keke… (you need calculator or not?) keke…. about 450 I guess.

m ~ Wow, that’s a lot. But we will get to that later about the ”most unforgettable” students and other stuff.

m ~  I think most of our readers or even your students, would like to know how cikgu came to teaching in Muzik Sistem.

CB ~ kekeke…. That is a long story lo, let me make a turn down to memory lane.

CB ~ Mr Ng (Muzik Sistem owner) was my school mate. After schooling, we still keep in touch and he was attached to Yamaha Music. Mr Ng used to invite me to Yamaha product (Electone, Clavinova) demo shows.
Some time later, Mr Ng suggested on setting up a music school, and he, myself and a few partners  discussed lengthy before deciding to start off Muzik Sistem. I stressed on going into pop direction, rather than doing fully classical like all the other schools have been doing.

m ~ Ah huh…. and then soon Muzik Sistem was born.

CB ~ The first thing Muzik Sistem needed to figure out was finding capable and quality instructors for its music courses

m ~ Yeah, and I remember Lily was the first drum instructor in the school right?

CB ~ kekek, michael, actually, Ah Hee taught drums before Lily took over.

m ~ haha, yes. I knew Ah Hee played drums but never knew he was the first drum instructor there.

CB ~ That’s right, then only Lily took over. Besides, cikgu also approached Cikgu Sujairi (classical guitar), Cikgu Art (Electric Guitar), Paerly also joined as Keyboard teacher. Bass instructor was Abdul Rashid.

m ~ and off course, Tang was conducting the brass (sax).

CB ~ Ya, since there were some students enquiring about saxophone course.

m ~ hohoho… so all the pieces falling into shape, but how about you yourself cikgu?

CB ~ Back then, cikgu was attached to Sri Mahkota band (MB band), and also played for LPN and MPKS. The Royal Orchestra of Kedah rang on my door and offered me a contract, if I would have taken up the deal, I must resign my job. So, cikgu recommended Lily for the orchestra instead. And, since Lily left for orchestra, then cikgu took over the magic sticks in Muzik Sistem

What was Cikgu Badrul’s first task in the music school? What was the most unforgettable event in his teaching career?
All of the above will be disclosed in Part II, stay tuned!