Examination

The first thing I ever failed was high school music written paper twenty-odd years ago.

Until then I'd scored well in my school examination. Summoning my knowledge (which I barely had) about musical notation and scales, I managed to score two marks – out of 50 full marks.

Hell, yeah! Two marks out of 50. A world record; everyone in my class said so. Absolutely. It's amazing for those of you who know the subject – and many do – how I can totally get lost within the five-line staff.

I then code-switched the difficult-to-comprehend musical notation into numerical figures. The way I designed my own eccentric navigation of the five-line maze reminds me the remark by Alfred Korzybski – that the map is not the territory. Yes, that was loathsome rote-learning without seeking to understand the subject. But strangely – and here was the bombshell – I passed the written paper next school term with full marks. It just isn't a good way to learn music, I know.

I received my report card with no illusions about any future with music.