Music, it's in my blood

I enjoy Indian classical music... no, I really enjoy it. I guess it has to do with my dad playing it non-stop while I was very young. From the vinyl records of sitarists Ravi Shankar, Vilayat Khan, to the shenai player Bismillah Khan, I have become a fanatic of this style of music. I've always wanted to play the sitar, and you know how some poeple play "air guitar"? Well, I used to play "air-sitar" :) .

I had the oppurtunity to recieve 7.5 hours of lessons (in total) from an instructor, back in 2003, but I decided that I needed to teach myself. From learning the most basic stucture of the Indian notation system, I used all my years of listening to the sitar/sarod/surbahar to formulate MY type of music. I'd have to say that I am quite impressed with myself, and most importantly, I am very happy with the music that I produce. Music is obviously tuned to everyone's own ear, and I play for myself, and no one else. I don't wish to be noticed by anyone, nor do I wish to land some record deal. My dream in life was actually to play along the boardwalk of Toronto's Queen's Quay area (where there are so many other great musicians that perform), but not to make money.. just to play something for the people. I would purposely place a sign telling people that I don't want their money, just their serious attention.



I try and play in a spiritual and contemplative mood. Each note that I strike carries emotion, as well as a feeling. The sitar I have has 6 main strings, and approximately 10 sympathetic strings below (which serve as the drone). I have taught myself to play with all five main strings (during my instruction, I was prohibited from even touching the upper main strings... the teacher wanted to take his time teaching me). I've even taught myself to tune the instrument, which in itself is a difficult thing to do, because if you are not careful, then you are bound to break the metal strings.



So far, I have made two movies of my performances, and I am going to try and condense the size of the files. Once I get an mp3 player that can record, I will try and make recordings in digital format, so that I can burn a couple of CDs for my dad.