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UNAIR NEWS – It is undeniable that the music is a part of human life. No matter where they are from, people surely love music. So does a lecturer in the Department of Indonesian Literature ¶«¾©ÈÈ Mochammad Jalal, SS, M. Hum. The linguistic lecturer admitted to love music since he was a teenager.

“Actually until now music for me is just a hobby and I have never experienced it as a profession,” said Jalal.

During childhood, the lecturer addressed as Jalal grew in an environment that came into contact with music. The father, often sang him Javanese chants before sleeping.  In addition, there were also a lot of things related to the musical tones that must be memorized in the mosque environment where he used to live.

“I have a lot to memorize, such as praise, sholawatanÌý, diba ‘, and many others,” said Jalal.

The lecturer from Bojonegoro admitted, he grew up in a community environment with traditional artistic songs. Tayub and the Javanese music was music that Jalal often listened since childhood. So no wonder, his talent to play musical instruments such as flutes and guitars have been honed and self-taught early on.

“My sense of music is obviously from that environment. As a teenager, I started playing music, learning guitar, and flute by myself. In the vocal, I also began to sing by imitating the voice of singers who was interesting at that time, both from the genre of pop and dangdut, “said the man who continued his master study at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta.

It has shown great results, when he was in high school, Jalal won dangdut singing competition in Bojonegoro District.

His hobby to sing did not only stop at high school, but continued until he was a student of UNAIR in the 90’s. In fact, Jalal deliberately joined UNAIR Choir group to learn music theoretically.

“In the 1990s  choir team, I was among the core team sent at various national events and got never left behind in various festivals representing UNAIR,” he said.

To UNAIR News Jalal said, he was interested in classical singing which was considered the most difficult in the art of vocal. His passion to learn and master the music genre was paid off. In 1994, Jalal won the 1st East Java singing competition for classical category.

Creating songs

By joining PSUA since 2008, the ability of the lecturer living in Sidoarjo in arranging the voice and writing songs was improved. Moreover, now he has had a single song that has been viral on campus since it was uploaded on his YouTube account a few months ago.

When he was interviewed about his latest single titled Izin Poligami, he said that it was written only for entertainment.

“It’s fun and funny thing to do. When the issue of polygamy was talked about in the media, I wanted to make a dangdut song. Not tacky, smart, but can illustrate the issue of polygamy well, “he said.

He recorded it in a friend studio with supports from friends, the seingle was uploaded in Youtube, gone viral and become the talk in UNAIR.

Jalal said that his hobby in the world of music will never be a distraction of his activities as a lecturer. However, on the contrary, it can be synergized with various activities held at UNAIR.  Jalal was trusted to develop PSUA from 2003 to 2015. He is also the supervisor of Karawitan Sastra Jendra Community(Pakar Sajen) FIB UNAIR.

“I am often trusted to organize events related to art at UNAIR. For example in 2011 I succeeded in making Suroboyoan ludruk show by collaborating between lecturers, students, and foreign students, “he added.

Jalal claimed, though it was just a hobby, music can make money. By being a PSUA coach, he sometimes gets orders for arranging songs. The family also often rely on himself to perform traditional and modern music. In addition, through the hobby of music Jalal claimed to further add relationships and colleagues who have the same hobby.

“Yes it is clear this was originally just a hobby. I never had a desire to be truly professional. It is just for fun and doing something with music as I am now I think it is enough, “he said at the end of the conversation. (*)

Author: Ainul Fitriyah

Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh