Indian Classical Music - Philosophy

On learning music

What it takes to learn music

Indian Classical Music I think that any intelligent person can learn music, given three things:

(1) The desire to learn: if you don't want it, it will never come.

(2) Dedicated practice: preferably daily, and the more you play the better you'll be. Professional musicians practice 4-8 hours daily...or more. I feel the first hour of the day is only getting you to the point you were at the day before, so it takes an hour just to break even, more to see improvement!

(3) A competent teacher (guru). A serious musician should always find the best teacher possible. A "self-taught" musician has as much chance at learning the complexities of music as a person has of learning calculus without ever having gone to math class. The rise of online colleges and their applicants will tell you this much. Private lessons will almost always be more beneficial than will group lessons.

"I'm not too musical"

I do not think people are born with musical talent. Those who are quicker to learn an instrument have likely just been exposed to more music in their life: one subconsciously learns music every time they hear it.

"I'm too old to start learning music"

I do not think anybody is "too old to learn music". If you're lucky enough to have started playing music when you were seven years old, that's great; however, when you're 60 years old, how much difference will it have made whether you started when you were 7 or 27? And if it only takes a couple years to play quality music that people enjoy, why would it be a problem to start at 60?

Your instrument

You should always have the best instrument possible, as your music will only be as good as the weakest link, which will either be your playing or the instrument. There is no reason to compromise all your hard work by having a poorly made instrument. A beginner who chooses an inexpensive "beginner's instrument" is more likely to quit solely because their music was bound to sound bad due to their poor quality instrument.

Reading music

It is imperative that any musician be able to read music. This enables you to more easily visualize the structure of the melody, and thus more thoroughly understand the intricacies of the music. It also enables you to play music at a future date, even if you had partially or entirely forgotten it, in which case it would have been lost forever.

On learning and playing Indian Classical Music

Tanpura

Always play Indian Classical Music accompanied by a tanpura. Beginners should purchase an electronic tanpura, or download some tanpura tracks here. If you have an IPhone or ITouch, I highly recommend iTablaPro, which has great sounding, fully adjustable tanpura and tabla tracks...with you at all timers.

Your sense of pitch will never develop if you do not practice with a tanpura. To begin with, work on perfecting Sa, Pa and Ma, as they are the notes for which it is most noticeable when one is incorrect.

Digital Tuner

Since we're on the topic of pitch, I strongly recommend every musician has a Korg CA-30 tuner: it's small, portable, cheap, and does everything one needs for Indian Classical Music.

Tabla Machine

Another investment one should make early on if they plan to play Indian Classical Music is a tabla machine. I use the Riyazmaster model. It allows me to play in different taals (rhythms), in different layas (tempos), and has adjustable pitch, for different flutes. A tabla machine will reduce the time it takes before you are comfortable playing with a real tabla player, and will allow you to practice tricky rhtyhms without a tabla player, thereby engraining in your head the sounds and feels of the various thekas (drum "notes" used in the taals). If you have an IPhone or ITouch, I highly recommend the ITablaPro application.

Gamak

One of the primary differences between Indian Classical Music and western music is that the former uses "gamak" or other ornamentations on virtually all notes (except during "taans", which are fast runs). A gamak is generally played by putting a grace note on the main note that's being played. This grace note usually comes from above. Thus if I wanted to play Sa Re Ga, I would put a quick (barely audible) Re connecting to the Sa, a quick Ga connecting to the Re, and a quick Ma connecting to the Ga (assuming Ma is in the scale being played; if not, I would likely use Pa): RS, GR, MG. Similarly, to play Ga Re Sa, I would precede the Ga with a quick Ma, the Re with a quick Ma, and the Sa with a quick Ga: MG, MR, GS. I use gamaks on virtually all notes other than during taans. Gamaks produce a rounded feel to each note, and essentially double the amount of notes you are playing in each phrase. Gamaks are one of the keys to Indian Classical Music.

More coming

Coming soon, some general thoughts on meend, patterns, 4's, scales, etc...