From Stuck to Sound - 'ASSETS'

Programme Description

The musician’s competency is measured by his or her ability to not only just play an instrument well, but being able to read music notation fluently, and being able to listen to a piece of music, and replicate it. Sadly, most musicians would admit that they lack either the ability to read music well, or be able to replicate a piece of music they have heard.

ASSETS is a music learning program, designed by Kenny Ngo, that attempts to bridge these learning gaps. Every musician who has gone through ASSETS have gone on to become very confident musicians; being able to play in a band, accompany singers, arrange music professionally, and be able to make a music career as a songwriter, a performer, or nail an audition for musical theatre or music project.

ASSETS also changes the musician’s mindset and habits. Most musicians are taught to sit at their instrument for hours to practise a song, starting from the beginning of the piece, and attempting to piece the whole song together. With ASSETS,  the musician is challenged to visualise the music mentally. The results have been consistent, with the musician achieving a higher accuracy rate of playing the song on the first attempt, versus a musician who adopted the traditional method of practicing a music piece.

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Key Learning Outcomes

1. Notation - Knowing the name of the note symbols, its inter-relationship, and how they are applied in the laws of Time Signature

2. Time Signature - Understanding what the numbers mean, knowing the difference and relationships between beats, divisions and subdivisions.(simple time versus compound time)

3. Rhythm sight-singing - Knowing how to read a rhythm score, listen to a rhythm sequence, and score it out (ear training component)

4. Melodic Lines - Reading a melodic score (single line) and applying rhythmic notation. Learning how listen to a melodic sequence, and score it out (ear-training component)

5. Key Signatures - Understanding different key signatures, understanding the symbols, and strategies to be able to decipher the information easily.

6. Harmony - Understanding how chords work, how to predict a chord sequence, and how to listen and decipher what chords were played.

7. The LEAD SHEET - This is the ultimate objective of the learner’s ASSETS journey, being able to apply all ASSETS components, and confidently create a professional lead sheet that incorporates an accurate melodic line, rhythm and chords.

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Benefits of ASSETS

1. The musician will be very sound in musicianship, and be able to achieve fluency  within 4 to 5 months, versus 8 years (via the ABRSM method), saving both time and money to achieve the desired qualifications.

2. Job opportunities from music teaching, being a confident music accompanist, arranger, composer, and even music director for recordings or live shows are very possible. This syllabus’ ability to carry forward this musical learning to the masses is very achievable, portable and realistically economical with extremely high benefits.

3. By practicing ASSETS, every musician is able to:

   1. Create new learning pathways like improvisation.

   2. Form and leading choirs, 

   3. Be a confident musician in both sight-reading and being able to play-by ear.

   4. Teach effective music accompaniment, and effectively churn out professional music arrangements through their own music recording software and devices, and make a viable livelihood.

ASSETS addresses the musician’s realistic level of musicianship, and improves the musician’s level by effectively using its strategies to improve what they are weak into what they become confident in.

Proposed number of sessions: 25 sessions, twice a week, 2.5 hours/session

Delivery Mode:

• Onsite/Home Learning

• ​Offsite Learning - SCAPE