Dhwanii - Issue No. 1

Essence of Music

- Vijay Iyer

Vijay Iyer works for Reliance Infocom. He has studied Hindustani Classical Music for 8 years and is a keyboardist as well as a tabla player. He first met A.R. Rahman in 1994, who is now Vijay's friend
and mentor.

On the 25th of December, I had a music concert in the area where I live in Mumbai and the singers were all amateurs and locals (barring a few who aspired to be professionals and were talented). Of course, I was on the keyboard as expected, and the drummer, guitarist and the other percussionist were hired (700 bucks each for a 2-hour show!).

This is a ritual we follow every year and I must confess I enjoy the rehearsal sessions where we all feel we've done well and get butterflies in our stomach just one day before the show. Moreover, this also gives me an immense satisfaction and I wish I could do such shows more often and earn a living out of it, but then, that's another story.

This year a lot of mothers also suggested that I teach their kids how to play the keyboard and that time and money was not an issue with them. Encouraged by such a response, I finally got around to assembling all the enthusiastic kids today and addressed them. I told them that this was a long journey forward and that they should first of all be interested in music and be prepared to devote the time and hard work it requires. "Yes" was the unanimous response and we got started. An hour later, after the class got over, a couple of kids raised their hands and asked me the inevitable…."Vijay Bhaiya, when is the next CASIO CLASS?" and I put both my hands on my head and realised that to make them understand music better, I had to first get the "CASIO" syndrome out of their minds.

Music has become a big money spinning business across the country today. I have young cousins in other towns and cities who attend similar "Casio classes" and pay ridiculous charges as fees. The parents are happy as long as their kids can play a few songs in front of guests and relatives. What they don't realise is that the kids get limited to only what is taught in these classes and that the true essence of music always gets lost.

To me, a person can either study classical music (Indian or Western) or learn to play an instrument like the piano, which requires a lot of dedication and hard work since it involves using both the hands. However, the situation prevalent is quite contrary and we have people promising to teach "CASIO" in 30 days. Which is why most of the keyboardists in India cannot be called pianists.

I narrated this incident to a friend of mine and we had a hearty laugh. Later, he asked me if I could accompany him to the stationery store. Upon being asked why, he replied that he had to "XEROX" a few documents…. Photocopy anyone?!