Lessons from Extreme Metal musicians: a perspective from Singapore

Eugene Dairianathan

Despite the processes of learning by popular musicians at a very personal level, there is very little common knowledge or recognition of how popular musicians in general learn or of the attitudes and values they share in relation to music learning. An examination of popular music learning practices could provide insights for teaching and learning of popular music as well as to provide lessons in music creating, performing and responding.

I study two songs by Rudra, a local Death Metal group; 'Malediction' (released in 1995) and 'Ageless Conciousness I Am' (released in 2005). While 'Malediction' reveals the presence of written exiguous notation Rudra members relied on for their recording, the final recording of 'Ageless Consciousness I Am' reveals two earlier sound recordings. Rudra's exiguous notational system was later supplanted by their reliance from 2000 onwards on recorded sound files as notational systems but accrued significant benefits for the band in the early stages of their learning.

By making observations about their songs and lessons learnt when studying an approach to music learning in the practice of Extreme Metal music, I revisit epistemological foundations of in/formal learning through music.