Clarence Chua reports on Song Writing Workshop at the ARK by song writer Wah Lok

Past the yellow gate, the first bungalow on the right, directed by Adeline, an assistant at the ark over the phone. That was precisely what I did on a rainy Saturday night. A shimmering light greeted me as I moved closer to the former colonial enclave in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. The eerie but beautiful houses erected for the pleasures of our past British masters were like a scene from a different dimension. 

The present patrons of the Ark were locals who use its premises to impart their musical ideas during weekends. Being almost half an hour late for my appointment, I alighted hastily from the car. In the mean time, composer Wah Lok had already begun his lecture on writing songs.

As a novice drummer in the four man band that toured endlessly around studios in Petaling Jaya and the residence of tolerant friends and families, I knew that song writing and banging drums were opposite ends of the (drum)stick. We are not talking about John Bonham’s instrumental Moby Dick here, but the real thing: verse, chorus, melody lines, lyrics – basically the whole enchilada.

With the exception of a few, namely Dave Grohl, Matt Cameron, Phil Collins and Don Henley, drummers rarely cross-pollinate between drumming and song writing. I too was trying to be an exception.

When his workshop ended, I finally got Ng’s attention. He was anxious to impart without any reservations his precious knowledge of song writing to a wider audience. Contrary to popular belief, he explained that great songs are not the result of some great divine intervention but the culmination of hard work. “Its only 10% inspiration and 90% of hard work,” he said. Song writing is a chore. No pain no gain.

So the next question on my mind was the chicken and egg conundrum: “What comes first ? The lyrics or the melody ?” He answered: “For me, the music should come first. However the initial melody should come with an interesting phrase and a theme for the song. You know what the song is about when you compose the melody. Once you have got the tunes, you can take your time to write the lyrics. If your tunes are no good, throw it away. Don’t bother writing lyrics for them. If your tunes are good, work hard of them to write good lyrics” he said. 

Like all other things in life, he said the best melodies are like passing clouds. A song writer must catch then before they fade from memory. “I find that some of my best melodies come by inspiration when I play spontaneously on the piano or the guitar or while driving. Once you leave your instrument, you will forget your melody almost immediately. When you get a good melody, record it immediately. It is good to keep all these melodies. When you are free, you can listen to them again and perhaps get inspiration to write some lyrics,” he said. “Some of my lyrics were written months or years after the melodies were developed.”

On actually penning the lyrics, Ng’s advice was fairly simple: “Keep the chorus simple !”. He said, “ If you are writing a song which you want people to sing along with, keep the chorus simple. Some of the best songs have very simple choruses. You can put more content in the verses and the bridge. Most people can’s sing along during the verses. Tell your stories in the verses but keep your chorus simple.”He names Stevie Wonder’s I just called to say I love you and his own Every Time I Pray as examples which had very simple, catchy repetitive choruses.

“It would be good if you could capture the emotions of an experience. Emotional songs are the most powerful,”. And again he made reference to his own Every Time I Pray written in 1981 and was supposedly big in Taiwan.

In April last year, Ng finally fulfilled his dream of releasing his debut album that was entitled Every Time I Pray. Ng is passionate about song writing and over the past 20 years he has written over 70 songs, most of which are used for worship in his home church.

“Once the song is ready, you have reached the editing stage. Search the thesaurus for better words. Keep thinking. New ideas and words may come to replace the old ones. Invest in resources like thesaurus and collections of poetry. You can get lots of ideas from there. If you are stuck with a word, a thesaurus is a great tool to search for an alternative word.” 

“Write a song you can link to an event or experience. Listen extensively to different styles of music. Write on a variety of themes. As we listen and appreciate melodies, they get into our subconscious mind. There are certain styles of music we like and listen to most. Often a phrase in your song would sound like a phrase in another song. This is common in most songs. When a writer writes a hit song, you will usually find he will write another song that will be very similar”. An example he gave was Michael Learns to Rock.

“After a song is finally completed, share it with a friend. Usually you can tell whether it is a good song when you listen to it the first time. Get a friend who is good in music and he will tell you the truth. Get some ideas from your friend and if it is really bad, don’t bother to improve it. Write a completely new song”.

Teaching Malaysian how to write is one thing; changing their psyche to attempt the feat is another. Ng is a strong believer in training Malaysian song writers to be the next John Lennon. Trained as a Mechanical Engineer from University of Malaya, he quit his job to be Principal at the Tung Ling Seminary in Subang Jaya three years ago at age 39. He now teaches and conducts “Music and Worship” seminars at the Seminary.

Malaysian, he said are generally talented and our songs comparable to many popular songs. But we seemingly suffer from the “I’m not good enough” syndrome. This is especially true when it comes to writing English songs. 

“There seems to be a mental block among us, we think that a local work is inferior to western ones. With no local support and no proper training in song writing , people get discouraged. It doesn’t matter if some words are not sung properly. As long as the song is beautiful, you can always find singers to sing it for you,” he said.

Malaysians and the rest of the world may ask who Wah Lok is. He may not stand on the same podium with Eric Clapton at the Grammies, but he is a talented song writer in his own right. What he taught me and 40 other freeloaders at the ARK that night may not turn overnight international sensations on the same level as David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Alicia Keys or even the Backstreet boys, but maybe, just maybe our children’s children may one day be the next John Lennon.

So far now I will pen those lyrics I had been meaning to write for years knowing that even if I fail, I know, “I planned each charted course…and more, much more than this, I did it my way.”