Looking for a guru.

[N.Shukla]

Hello,

I am an avid listener of Indian Classical(ICM). I have unfortunately not heard as much Carnatic as Hindustani. Most of my exposure to ICM has been only the well known musicians from across India. My personal favourite instruments are the Sitar and Veena, both of which I think to be highly expressive in their sound and tonality. I have been singing a wide variety of music from a very young age. I have also been playing the guitar and bass which I picked up over the last 3-4 years to complement. I would like to believe I have an ear for music and sound in general. My interest in ICM was sparked only as recently as 5 years ago and I am now 23 years of age. I live in Indiranagar, Bangalore.

As my association with indian music has grown, my love for it has also grown exponentially. It is my deepest desire to be able to express myself musically within Indian music. I my mind there is great feeling, expression and purity in the sounds of our lands; and It upsets me deeply that I am limited in my knowledge of this. I also have lamented on several occasions in my life, the fact that people my age would rather listen to my mindless beats and shallow sounds of this day and age. Although there is varying amounts of value in all types of music, there is greater pull for me in ICM.

I am very pleased to have found this forum where people appear to be discussing enthusiastically and sharing ideas. I am therefore extremely happy to be part of this place where I can pick up on musical understanding, thought and vision.

Whereas I think of myself to be of fair ability in whatever I have learnt musically, there are numerous holes in my understanding. There is no verbalization of my understanding of music. I can understand the sound, my mind can catch onto ragas and patterns in music and my voice can replicate the ideas in sound output, but I cannot talk in music. On the guitar and bass I am less free but I have a fair idea of what is going on and can follow well. I have a distinct style on both instruments and voice but it does not satisfy me.

It is one of my deepest desires to free myself of the limitations that not being trained has imposed upon me. Over many years of seeing the musical beauty unfold to my mind within ICM, I have often felt great despair that I cannot make or even just replicate something like that. The guitar is a beautiful instrument but nowhere near as close to my heart as the sounds of Sitar that Pt. Nikhil Banerjee makes, or the vocals of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, or the beauty of the voices of M.S.Subbulakshmi and Kishori Amonkar. This is of course not an exhaustive list but just to name a few people whose work I admire. I aspire to strive for such music and not for sounds and emotions that I cannot relate to. Music more focused on the gyrations of a woman's posterior and thumping beats makes for temporary excitement and adrenaline but I do not need those things or want them at all within my vision. Whereas the depiction of lust can be more subtle and expressive, this stuff is just utter nonsense.

I am sure I said some very basic things here and nothing out of the ordinary. I am sure people have a more evolved understanding here and I wish to partake in some of these discussions to broaden my field of understanding in the future. But please humour me for a bit longer.

Having said that and expressed myself a little. Here is what I am looking for; It would be a great privilege for me to find a guru that would like to teach me from scratch, the understanding of the Sitar and Vocals. I know that ideally, students are taken at a young age to better develop their voices and talent but I assure you that I am not a novice and I have a fair understanding of things. The only problem is that I have no labels that I can use to verbalize those understandings in a language that can be understood by people other than me. I also understand that there are divisions in style and I would be willing to learn in any division; Hindustani or Carnatic, should the person teaching me find me suitable to learn that style. I also realize that it is a tougher proposition to start learning at a later age but I assure the reader that I can more than compensate with hard work and practice. It is my desire to add to the uplifting of Indian culture and art in whatever way I can and I hope that I can help sustain the ageless beauty of our culture in my life and beyond, through the music.

Having said that, I most humbly request any of you who might know of anyone, who would like to teach a willing and diligent student who has taken his time and grown to love Indian music and feels deeply for it.

Thank you.
N

[srikant1987]

Hello N,

Welcome to the forum!

You haven't told which city you live in! =)

[N.Shukla]

I actually put in an edit for the first post as soon as I realized this. I live in Bangalore, in Indiranagar.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Dear Shukla
Did u find a Guru? If so, what's the progress?

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, N.Shukla, I have been following your enthusiastic thread and the contents therein since last two months. I am a critical music-teacher of 74 years of age mostly and constantly experimenting upon the aspirants approaching me to learn music in my laboratory to learn more from them than giving them. Even though I have been utilising my very limited abilities very sparingly at this old age in shaping only selected young kids I would, at the first instance, prefer to discuss the relevant things with you face to face on Skype than writing lengthy posts in this thread which makes me feel weak in that process. Let us make a try and later, if we both feel convenient, we shall enter into the process of teaching and learning. I reside in Hyderabad and if you are interested you can contact my telephone numbers, 040-27054232 or 27051110 or mobile 9908822992 or even speak to me to my ID ‘msakella2002’ on Skype. amsharma

[adhira]

One thing you can do is give ad in newspaper about looking for a guru to teach music. Secondly, there is a site called WeGotGuru.com which is the online platform for teaching and consulting. It bring distinguished teachers and experts in the Music and other domains to the reach of interested students and clients anywhere, anytime.