I had the pleasure of attending Shun Ng’s concert on 13 December 2019 at the Eagles Centre in Singapore. I was blown away by this young musician who has worked hard to overcome his learning difference to be able to achieve at the international level of music! Diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of eight, he found reading, languages and mathematics challenging and was often told he was lazy or a failure during his school days. Shun shared with his audience at the concert that he still could not read because of his dyslexia and he could not read music notes. He had taught and created for himself his own unique fingerstyle when playing on the guitar, and is a successful musician and songwriter today! Shun is a great example of why someone should not be defined by his or her dyslexia and school results but should find their calling and talent and achieve their unique potential!
During the concert performance, Shun shared his journey as a young musician with the audience, which included a number of students from DAS! From his willingness to rise to a challenge and experiment with Billie Jean (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_9OtD91BSI) to creating his own unique technique with Funky Thumb Stuff (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpmzWsOo0rY), to facing up to disappointments with Get On With It (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlexRQBwcHU) and to taking on the most difficult of songs with Bohemian Rhapsody (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkoN0uNFcYE), there are many most positive traits that our young DAS students can learn from Shun.
Shun already has many international accolades and is very well reported in the media but I am confident he will continue to grow and reach even greater heights!
Find out more about Shun at https://www.shunng.com/bio
Lee Siang is the Chief Executive Officer of the Dyslexia Association of Singapore. He regularly notes down his thoughts on the DAS Blog.