Fun teaching Bansuri online !

Hey guys!
long time could'nt write anything. As you all know i have started teaching flute, both the traditional way as well online (thru skype). So, was busy choosing the new students.
When i say teaching the tradittional way i meant the real gurukul system or the guru-shishya parampara way. I learnt it that way from my father Pandit Venkatesh Godkhindi. Believe me, during my childhood it was music for almost 25hours in a day!! . I remember all those beautiful moments. I have seen my father teach with great affection and concern to each one of his students. Whats sad is that some of them chose to go to another guru just because my father was'nt influential enough. I pity those souls. They would have gained more if they had stayed. I envy those other students who got to spend hours together with my father after he retired and dedicated his entire life to teaching. He still does. During my childhood he was working for AIR and so was caught between the administrative work and performances but still he gave me an environment of music throughout the day.. 25 hrs!
And the way he practisied flute during his early years is a great story in itself. Those days there were no electroni tanpuras, no cd's , no tape-recorders nothing. So all the budding musicians had to store whatever they could in their brains, after listening to a performance or a radio concert, go home and practice and perfect it. After his marriage, my father used to practice flute and my mom used to play the single reed harmonium which would generate a drone like effect. And this would go on for hours together. Imagine my mom's plight, newly married to a government employee with great hopes and this man keeps her busy in the evenings thru the night as an accompanist! But it was her generous support, that my father blossomed into a great musician that he is. Not only sitting for hours together with him she also applied various oils on his neck after these practice sessions because he would have strained them. ha ha
He literaaly pracitised flute by trial and error method. As a flautist myself i can very well imagine how difficult it is to undo or unlearn something that you've been pracitising for years. He had to unlearn many things that he had practised with lot of pain later because he would realise soon that "it might not be the way to produce this particular meend or gamak".. So again start from the scratch and try new techniques. And this process of learning and unlearning and learning again continued for a long time and quite frequently too. His way of teaching himself was simple, sing it first then try to produce the same effect in the flute. He says often "sing through the flute". That is what is our style-the Godkhindi style. The Gayaki Style of playing the Bansuri.
So with this background of learning on my back i decided to impart these rare techniques to deserving students all over the world. The different techniques people use to produce various nuances has made me richer in knowledge, i must admit. I have been trying to reach out to as many students as possible and will still keep trying. Not for the money but simply because i want most of the music loving fraternity to realise that there is so much of talent around us. lets encourage them, give oportunities to as many musicians as possible and most importantly, to impart our traditional art to the next generation.
Although i firmly believe that the traditional way of learning Indian art is the BEST way but learning it online is not harmful either. In the traditional way, apart from the music you also imbibe some energy waves from the guru, which transform you into a different league altogether.
Nevertheless, hope to see many upcoming musicians prosper under my tutelage. If nothing else i will have the satisfaction of having traind a few musicians to appreciate music in a much much better way. They sure will have a better understanding of the finer aspects of sur-laya-taal-raag and bhaava. God Willing!!
pravin godkhindi
www.pravingodkhindi.in