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The pop music scene in Hong Kong has been in full swing recently, with the Government organising pop culture festivals to promote pop music throughout the territory. However, from the general public’s perspective, apart from “listening”, can pop music be “played” properly? Lincoln Lui, the founder of Sheung’s Studio Academy, has always been committed to making pop music accessible to all walks of life, and with the recent resurgence of pop music in Hong Kong, he has been teaching accompaniment lessons online to make it easier for piano lovers to learn what pop music is all about.

Looking back to the first half of 2023, the first half of the year saw a resurgence of ‘revenge entertainment’ as the Hong Kong government relaxed its restrictions on epidemic prevention and entertainment activities resumed. With the arrival of international stars such as Jay Chou, BLACKPINK and Alan Walker, and a plethora of music festivals in various districts, the Clockenflap Festival was an unprecedented sell-out event. As a result, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department organised the Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival 2023, a free pop music performance at four of its venues to showcase the vibrancy and artistic culture of the community.

To be a part of the pop music craze, one can be an ordinary listener and take on the role of “playing pop music”. The threshold is not as high as one might think. Piano lovers only need to master the essence of chord changes, add some very easy accompaniment techniques and understand the accompaniment patterns behind pop songs to play the professional pop accompaniment. Don’t think that these advanced pop accompaniment techniques are only suitable for professionals. On the contrary, as most professionals have studied classical music, they are less able to integrate and play pop music easily and effectively. For example, Lincoln, the founder of Sheung’s Studio Academy, has encountered many students with Grade 8 or above in piano, or who have graduated from tertiary education in music, who have difficulties in learning pop music because they are accustomed to applying classical music thinking to pop music, thus getting half the result with twice the effort. “I came from a classical background and was attracted to pop music,” says Lincoln, a ‘post-90s’ student. “ I met my mentor Kelvin Ngai by chance and was fortunate enough to be his third student to teach me personally. Under the guidance of my teacher, my knowledge of pop music was greatly enhanced and my musical thinking was reshaped, while I worked hard to learn different things myself and finally mastered the secrets and thinking of playing pop music.”

As a veteran, Lincoln understands the problems of learning to play pop music, but because he wanted to help people around him to experience the art of pop music, he created the four concepts of pop music and the “ARRS” system, and founded Sheung’s Studio Academy to teach pop music piano accompaniment skills, hoping to “influence lives with lives”. Reflecting on his transition from a classical music teacher to a pop music teacher, Lincoln laughs, “My first student was my secondary school classmate, and I taught him how to read music, music theory, beat techniques and so on, starting from scratch. It was then that I realised how satisfying it was to teach piano classes, and I decided to promote pop music after that. Since 2020, Lincoln has been making videos online to share his knowledge of the four concepts of pop music and the ARRS system and teaching classes offline. On his way to learning and teaching, he summarised the difficulties that most students encounter when learning pop music, including relying too much on pentatonic music, not knowing how to play the strings properly, and lacking a system when learning … In response to these common problems, Lincoln found that chord changes are the breakthrough in piano accompaniment, so he made these valuable insights into the online lessons are designed to train students to master advanced pop music skills in a short period, with the hope of breaking down geographical boundaries and enabling more people in East Asia to learn pop music quickly and achieve effective learning outcomes through constant revision and practice.

The four concepts of pop music and the “ARRS” system have filled this gap and have attracted over 3,500 students since its inception. Lincoln is delighted to see the resurgence of pop music in Hong Kong this year, and he looks forward to seeing it: “Many people are interested in learning pop music for the fun of it, but it can be turned into a sideline or a full-time job. I also intend to train more pop music instructors in the future, so that we can work together to make Hong Kong pop music shine and shine.

Media Contact
Company Name: Sheung’s Studio
Contact Person: Lincoln Lui
Email: Send Email
Phone: (852) 90825027
Country: HongKong
Website: https://sheungsstudio.click/home-page1628514691202?fbclid=PAAabUb9zBbcRg3VJvzKZWp_raKogkt_Qp92Yq4863aK3ZwZyMxaFFAfV96o8