I'm street drumming - Rejoicing the past :)

Last week, I got an invitation from a friend, my classmate who was an active member of Persatuan Kesenian Islam to perform. He invited me to play with the 'street drummers' in a percussion performance. The performance was held as a 'cultural exchange' from other UiTM campuses who visited our campus. I told him, I haven't played for years. YEARS. I only played other musical instruments during my leisure time, but not percussion. Somehow percussion was a bit rare here in Penang and anywhere. Not as much as guitar and keyboard. After days of forcing, he managed to persuade me to join the team. In the team, there's an ikhwah who was a very active and leading member of PKI. He was on another team though. A nasyid team.

They invited me to join their practice, and I only came at the last practice session as I was too busssssyyyy with my schedule. Still, it was a relief. After years so long I've left the field, when I sat with them and heard them practicing I was so happy. It made me remembered my old days (Ceh, macam tua sangat). The technicality of the voice, the harmony, the happy-go-lucky surrounding, and the feeling of enjoying the situation. And this group had all what they needed, from guitar players to percussionists to vocalists. As far as I'm concern, I love musics. And I always talked to my friends when we were jamming, that I cannot imagine how beautiful would musics in Jannah would be.

I regard music as one of the beautiful natural occurrences in our world. The beauty is so captivating. MasyaAllah.. One could not help but to remember his God when hearing or listening to such beauty.

Darbuka

Oh..before I forgot, I played Darbuka in our street drumming performance. The nature of this instrument is to 'goreng'(I don't know the professional term), mainly using fingers. There's even a technique called finger splitting technique. You can watch it on Youtube.

So the night came. My schedule was so tight, the performance was due in the middle of an IKRAM Siswa meeting. I attended the meeting. I presented my report and responded to inquiries. There were representatives from other institutions too aside from UiTMPP, so the Q&A session was a bit long. I told my friend to text me when the time was near. And somehow, the text arrived after I finished presented my material to the perwakilan yang hadir. Alhamdulillah.

I immediately went to the hotel where we performed. To my surprise, the nature of the night was very undesirable for me. The hall was full with women with very tight clothings, hedonistic environment, and many more things I care not to mention here. It saddened me a bit though. Music and arts were supposed to remind us to God. Not vice versa. Where the ikhtilat was completely way out of control. Men with women laughed together here and there, bertepuk bertampar, and many more.

The performances were even more surprising. Even what we usually called 'tarian gelek' was up there on the stage. I quickly went out of the hall. And stayed out there until our turn came. From what I saw, people just clapped and cheered when the dancers went 'sexy', or guys touched girls, or when a hot girl grabbed the mic and sang. To really measure the quality of the music (I don't know much about plays), it's not good at all. Except for one performance from YMC(Youth Music Club). Where they performed Adele's Someone Like You. It was very good. For other performances, I saw the crowd just talked with each other in front of their plates(susunan meja macam dinner's) without really paying attention. It's good to see some of the guys were lowering their gazes when girls gone wild on the stage. But, I'd rather choose to be outside.

And at last, our turn came. Our performance started with two nasyids; Lagu Cinta and Hikmah Kembara. You can listen to the song on Youtube - Lagu Cinta by Varianz. The song was good. And masyaAllah, from what I saw, the nasyid team performed really well. I could see the crowd started to come forward. I was proud somehow, although I was not part of the nasyid team. They started their performance with Salam, they kept their adab, and performed with quality. And then we, the street drummers performed. We played three different 'rentak', Santana, Plena, and Calypso.

Djembe




Cajon







Conga



The instruments played were a cajon, a djembe, a darbuka, a set of bonggo, two sets of conga - lead and bass, tamborine, shaker and a chyme. Aside from the players, we have a conductor to lead us, when to stop and play, and when to speed up or slow. While we were playing, the crowd were all focusing at us. Those who sat in the back were standing. The performance went so well, they asked us for an encore. My friends and I played so lively, I haven't felt that for so long. It ended well, and the MC said it was the most lively performance that night. He said although we were from a nasyid background, our performance was of outstanding quality and modern.



Bongo



I was proud. I wanted people to know, you don't need to be 'unislamic' to be good in what you do. Master the rules, and synthesize your own identity. A musician or artist who heeds to his religion, respects his prayer's time, lower his gaze, and brave enough to say NO to element that is not in accordance with Islam. And that night, I think we did it better than anyone else. Alhamdulillah. After the performance, I quickly rushed to the meeting place. The meeting had ended. And it's 11.30 already. And to my surprise, my fingers were swelling and and turned 'blue' at the sendi-sendi. Perhaps I played too hard and excited, I forgot the pain. Haha. The next day I saw my friend's palms who was playing conga also swelled. We enjoyed it really well though. He invited me for another street drumming performance. I explained to him my priorities, and if nothing clashes, will join. Macam seronok lah pulak. Tapi kena pakai plaster lepas ni. Nanti lebam lagi jari.



Moga musik menjadi alat untuk aku ingat pada Allah. Jauh dari lirik-lirik mengarut, jauh dari lalai, jauh dari menjadi hamba kepada ciptaanMu ini.

That's all :)

P/s Ada seorang anak usrah yang tinggal sama-sama di rumah sewa. Almost every night, he will recite Quran with me, and I will correct him. Minggu lepas seminggu tak tidur rumah sewa sebab ada hal. Just balik untuk ambil buku dan baju. Jadi tak sempat nak duduk dengan dia untuk Quran. Semalam, masa solat tolak dia jadi imam. Masa dia baca alFatihah, I smiled. Senyum punya sampai nampak gigi. Hati gembira sangat sebab recitation dia has improved gila-gila. Sepatutnya masa solat takut dan harap, ini senyum. Moga Allah ampun. Terlalu gembira masa itu.

P/s I'm home! Rindu semua orang. Baiti Jannati :)

P/s I'm in agony. Berjuta ringgit just for 8minutes of PSY's. What a waste.