Saturday, 5 April 2025

音韵人生:我与音乐的若即若离

在UCSI大学音乐学院举办的钢琴演奏会上,琴声如雨,穿透心灵的旋律在空气中回荡,使我沉醉其中,也唤起我与音乐之间那段颠簸却又深刻的缘分。音乐于我而言,并非始终如影随形,却总在生命的关键节点,以最意想不到的方式悄然出现,陪我度过每一个成长的转折点。

我与音乐的邂逅始于童年。那时家中有一台父亲购买的大型卡带录音机,是我最爱的“玩具”。我记得那卷不知来源的卡带中,录有几首琅琅上口的儿歌:
“吹口哨向前行,
寻找快乐人生,
肩并肩去踏青,
野外好风景。
旭日升照当空,
太阳已无影踪,
高山流水美如画,
尽入眼帘中。”
至今仍可脱口而出。那是声音世界带来的第一个温暖记忆,它未必专业,却是最初的陶冶。尽管从现代音乐教育角度看,这些内容未必符合儿童音乐发展的系统性,但它却真实唤起了我对节奏与旋律的初步感知。

步入小学,遇上梁秉熊老师,是我正式接受音乐教学的起点。他总在钢琴前边弹边唱,为原本平凡的课堂增添无尽的生机。在善长人翁支持下,马口华小成立了小型乐队,我尝试学习吹喇叭、笛子与萧,但都因技术或嗅觉障碍无疾而终。音乐虽然一次次接近我,却也一次次离我而去。教育心理学研究指出,儿童阶段若遇到未能克服的技术困难,极易对音乐产生挫折感并导致早期退出。我正是如此,在挫败与不适之间放弃了对乐器的追求。

直到六年级,我重新站上歌咏队的队列。我们唱着《一群姑娘一群羊哟》,旋律轻快,但少年之声终究难逃变声期的挑战。喉结突起,嗓音低沉,我再次退出音乐的舞台。研究显示,男童在变声期若缺乏适当的声乐引导,极易失去自信并终止歌唱发展,我的经历再次印证这一论断。然而,音乐并未彻底离我远去,它只是以另一种方式潜伏,等待时机重返我的生命中。

中学时代,音乐变成一种消遣。我在年终假期打工时被同事带去卡拉OK,那晚我唱的是郭富城的《雨中感叹号》:“斜斜大雨倾洒窗外小马路……”歌词与旋律融合成心中不灭的记忆。此类粤语流行歌曲在1990年代承载了无数青春的感性表达,也塑造了一代人的音乐审美。那一夜,我感受到音乐是内心世界的出口,是语言无法诉尽之处的替代者。

高中时期,我身边有几位热爱音乐的学生记者朋友,聚会时常有人弹起吉他,大家一起合唱周华健的《朋友》。歌声中,我们笑谈青春,仿佛世界只剩下旋律与友情。大学时期的好友健鸿,擅长演唱动力火车的《有多少爱可以重来》,曾在周金亮开的海螺餐厅即兴演唱,风采依旧历历在目。那种无拘无束的即兴表演,体现的是青春、勇气与真诚情感的释放,是音符之外的生命律动。

后来我到英国攻读博士,在华威大学教育学院发现了一间琴房,成为我与音乐重续缘分的避风港。我常在那里弹奏哈农练习曲,一点一滴重拾技巧。学妹王晨教我用MIDI软件编曲,我便自弹自唱,用LG手机录下旋律,回琴房把它们谱写出来。音乐成为我与学术之间的桥梁,亦是情绪与灵感的载体。与同学徐丽敏达成“技能交换”——我教她开她前男友送的标致车,她则在华威艺术中心的琴房教我钢琴。尽管课程只上了几次,但那段记忆如琴键敲出的共鸣,至今未散。

如今成为博士生导师,命运又将音乐带回我身边。这些年,我陆续指导了多位音乐教育相关硕博士生:钢琴方向有杨传庆、王云、曹梓童、解玲玲、Do Hai Ngan;声乐方向有武文波、蒋河、乔潘、管兴智;舞蹈方向有李娇露、杨孟、王泽心;西洋乐器有刘颖、乔苏颖;传统乐器有卢惠、王文君、胡丹、韩菲然、刘亚普;戏剧表演方向的则有张铎。他们在各自的研究与实践中延续了音乐教育的火种,也让我继续沉浸在音乐世界之中。

与此同时,我也自学了手碟鼓(handpan),这是一种结合打击与旋律的乐器,音色空灵深邃,每一次敲击都带来内心的宁静。研究指出,手碟鼓能有效降低焦虑并提升专注力,也正好补足了我日常繁忙学术工作的节奏调节。

音乐,从未真正离开过我。它或高亢或低吟,或静默或激昂,是我生命里一首未完的旋律。即使在不同阶段以不同形式出现,它始终引领我发现自己,连接他人,安顿心灵。愿我能继续在教学、研究与创作中,将这份音韵之情传承下去,润物无声,曲尽情深。

Sunday, 4 December 2022

Managing your research

马斯克说过:

高手做管理都擅长把工作4化:

复杂的事情简单化,

简单的事情流程化,

流程化的事情标准化

标准化的事情制度化。


Complex > Simplify > Processtize > Standardize > Institutionalize 


工资是发给日常工作的人: Salary is paid to people who work on daily basis;

高薪是发给承担责任的人: High salaries go to those who take responsibility

奖金是发给做出结果的人: Bonus is given to those who produce results  

股权是发给能干忠诚的人: Equity is issued to capable and loyal people

荣誉是发给有理想抱负的人: Honor is given to those who have ideals and ambitions. 

辞退信是送给没结果,还耍个性的人

Sunday, 21 August 2022

Indexing with Clarivate

 I attended the Webinar of Former Pengarah Penerbit UTEM, Ts. Dr. Siti Nurul Mahfuzah Mohamad. 





Scholarly Books

From Thesis

Do not mix languages

Indexing for English book chapters only. 












Monday, 25 July 2022

Reading "Inventology: How we dream up things that change the world" by Pagan Kennedy

 2016: Boston - Houghton Mifflin Harcourt


Contents

Introduction

Part 1: Problem Finding

1: Martian Jet Lag

2: User-inventors

3: Someone else's shoes 

4: The future of feedback

Part 2: Discovery

5: Super-encounters

6: Data goggles

7: Building an empire out of nothing

Part 3: Prophecy

8: The Pong effect

9: The Wayne Gretzky game

10: The mind's R&D lab

11: How to time-travel

Part 4: Connecting

12: The go-betweens

13: Zones of permission

14: Holistic invention

Part 5: Empowerment

15: Paper eyes

16: Tinkering with education

Conclusion

Thursday, 21 July 2022

FAQ for proposal defence with UCSI University

Herewith the FAQ I asked my students to prepare, which I found here at https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/blog/thesis-defense-questions

1. What is your research study all about?

2. Why did you choose this study?

3. Why did you choose this particular title for your research?

4. What is the scope of your study?

5. What phenomenon were you trying to understand with this research?

6. Who will be most interested in your research?

7. Did your research questions evolve during the process? If so, how?

8. What gaps did you intend to bridge with your research?

9. Why is your research significant?

10. Why did you choose this research methodology?

11. What sources did you plan for data collection?

12. How can your research be put into practice?

13. How will your findings contribute to the related area of knowledge?

14. What sampling techniques do you plan to use?

15. What instruments do you plan to use to collect data? 

Wednesday, 29 June 2022

How to achieve what you want? By Dr Shane Murphy

8 tactics of getting what you want:
1) Actionable focus: revert outcomes (might make you worry) to objectives (concentrate on what you focus to achieve an objective)
Step 1: Put your focus on an tangible and specific action 
Step 2: Set weekly and daily objectives
Step 3: Set difficult objectives 
Step 4: Operationalize objectives to make them clear and actionable 
Step 5: Seek for feedback regularly to examine progress 

2) Innovative thinking: use your imagination to plan and achieve your objectives
Step 1: Exploit your imagination 
Step 2: Imagine how will you achieve specific objective - plan ahead, use imaginary learning, imagine problem-solving methods 
Step 3: Establish a successful self-image


3) Positive analysis: Imagine you are a winner
- Step 1: Sense your inner voice
- Step 2: Position your character in the positive side
- Step 3: Replace whatsoever negativity with positivity

4) Stay calm when under pressure
Step 1: it does not matter to be nervous 
Step 2: learn how to relax your body and mind 
Step 3: be calm when you are under pressure 1 

5) Concentrate on your performance
Step 1: Gather your concentration 
Step 2: Apply performance signals (easy, positive and your strength) 
Step 3: Seek for ways to improve performance (get a coach) 

6) Use the power of emotion
Step 1: Do not suppress emotions, change them instead 
Step 2: Reset your ignition button 
Step 3: If you are frustrated, recollect your focal point

7) Enhance your energy when you need it
Step 1: increase your mental energy 
Step 2: Always get your power bank charged (good health, sleep and nutrition) 

8) Perseverance as a preparation for success
Step 1: Develop your personal success plan 
Step 2: Retain your plan under pressure 
Step 3: Expect accidents 

Tuesday, 17 May 2022

Bengkel Penerbitan dan Penulisan Artikel Systematic Literature Review

I am attending a workshop conducted by Dr Wan Azani Wan Mustafa. 

He wrote 60 articles in 1 year for the past 4 years (H-Index 15). 

We should write for WoS articles with impact factors (Q1 and Q2), "Kita yang macam2-kan sendiri, target yang paling tinggi." 

There is no method or results in SLR paper. 

Research article: methods & results.

SLR can be done in a room, no need to collect data. 

Every scholar in Malaysia must own 3 accounts: Google Scholar, SCOPUS ID, Publons Web of Science ResearcherID 


Purpose of academic writing: KPIs, reward, satisfaction

If your research is not published in a journal, it does not exist. 


Mitos: 

1. Artikel panjang tak semestinya accept. Tak tengok panjang pendek. 


Mistake: 

Do not wait! Target 1000, can start to write when you have around 300 (as the first paper); 700 (can be another paper); 1000 (3rd paper). 

研究员(包括我)经常犯的错误,就是等到数据收集完结后才做分析,才发文章。整个数据收集过程可以分成最少三次发文章的机会:早期(pilot study paper)、中期(interim analysis paper)和后期(research paper)。如果想收集的数据总量是1000人,早期分析(100人)、中期分析(500人)和后期分析(1000人)都可以发一篇文章。

Every June, Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) will release a report on citation indexed.

Netherland: SCOPUS = 21 areas (40,000 journals)

US: Web of Science = 15,000 journals in SCOPUS 

Q in SCOPUS is not same Q in ISI 

Quartile is based on impact factor, i.e. no impact factor, no Q.  

Q1 or Q2 in Web of Science ISI are the highest in the world. 

SCOPUS adalah badan indexing. 21 criteria must be fulfilled to be indexed by SCOPUS. 

SCOPUS keluarkan listing 3 kali setahun, boleh download di website SCOPUS. March

Must check with SCOPUS listing before submission. 


SCOPUS 

- Life sciences

- Health

- Physical science 

- Social science 

Not all WoS are ISI

Bukan semua WoS ada impact factor: 

- Only SCI expanded and SSCI are indexed with impact factor. 


Comments paper = 2 pages 


40 - 50 references for Research Article  


Review article

Comprehensive / critical review on specific research topic

Typically 15+ pages (not more than 20 pages), 5+ figures (copy from reviewed papers with full citation), table of summary and 70 - 200 references. 

Tak baca, tak download pun. 

Structure of a manuscript for Review Article

  • Title 
  • Affiliation 
  • Abstract 
  • Keywords
  • 1. Introduction / Literature review
  • 2. Conclusion/s
  • Acknowledgements 
  • References 
What is a Scoping Review? 
Scoping reviews have great utility for synthesizing research evidence and are often used to ca...

Must have The selection criterion in searching (inclusion and exclusion)


1. Kriteria untuk tentukan keywords = tengok tajuk sahaja  
2. Set tema 
3.