Hats off- to the musicians of yesteryears

hi guys!!

long time , i haven't written anything. Was busy travelling for my concerts and by the time i would decide to sit and write, i would have to travel for the next destination in my concert tour. Travelling within India is a wonderful experience in itself, i dunno how many of you actually agree with this.. Nowadays, yes it is indeed an experience to travel if, if and only if you decide to enjoy the experience, come what may!! Just studying different faces among the crowd gives you so much of impetus and energy in life. The innumerable emotions on different faces teach you the different facets of human beings and their feelings towards themselves and one another.

The new India has given us- the frequent travellers, options galore like sleeper coach buses, A/C buses, hi-speed trains, and of course a huge selection of flights. Almost all of our major cities are well-connected by one of these means-of-transports. And travelling now has become much more comfortable than ever before.

You might be wondering the connection between the title of this blog and the travelling options in India. Yeah! there is a wonderful connection. Have you ever imagined how Pandit Ravishankarji would have travelled 40 years back with his sitar say from Mumbai to Trichur? Or for that matter, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi with his entire entourage of accompanists travelling from Kolkatta to Patiala for an all-night music mehfil, the following day? Take your time... think... imagine... The roads, the bus-stations, the railway stations, the toilets, the hotels, the distances, lack of proper connectivity between cities, telegram/trunk-call being the only fastest means of communication, delays in all services... OH MY GOD..!! Just these thoughts suffice for an entire blog- no words are needed to be written.

Yet, my dear friends i will continue to write a few more lines because i have to salute these maestros- for their music, for their knowledge, for their innovations, for their hard-work and most of all, for their perseverance and patience - with the entire system of yesteryear.

These musicians not only travelled these great distances in all possible ways of transport (including a bullock-cart or a tonga ride), but also managed to perform and give their best in each and every concert, time and again. I remember one such occasion when Pandit Bhimsen Joshi arrived in Dharwar, my hometown, in his car, that morning of the concert, performed in the evening for more than 3 1/2 hours non-stop, and then decided to drive back to Poona in his own car-all alone. The way he travelled, none of us might be able to do it. OK ok ok, i hear voices of dissent, well, you might be able to travel like he did if you take it as a challenge or something, I agree, BUT will you be able to perform like him? After all that travelling? Driving yourself? Eating at road-side Dhabas etc etc.

Panditji loved driving. With mostly mud roads all-over India, i wonder how he managed to drive and then perform like the way he did? His car would consist of 2 huge tanpuras, a harmonium, a set tablas and the wonderful accompanists (minimum of 4) who played these instruments. Nowadays, you see a vocalist just carrying an electronic tanpura over his shoulder and a small bag of kurtas and often complaining about his stiff neck or the A/C in the train or plane. And he wouldn't accept the concert without a plane ticket to the nearest city.

Uff!! Incredible were those maestros! Not only for their music but for their will to travel from this corner to that corner with a mission! To propagate their form of art, to propagate peace and inner beauty of music, And to propagate the idea of preserving our culture, our rich heritage, And to make sure it is passed onto the next generation safely! The very way they received it from their Gurus.

I bow my head in gratitude, HATS OFF SIRJI!!!

Now, do we hear anymore complaints about travelling in India, especially musicians? I have stopped complaining and started enjoying my journeys, as i said at the very outset of this article, because i am indeed indebted to these maestros. A small way of continuing the hard work that they undertook as their cultural responsibility.

So, Join me !! HATS OFF MAESTROS, HATS OFF!!

musically yours

pravin godkhindi

www.pravingodkhindi.in

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

Week begins with a recording and ends with....

hi guys!

phew!! I was recording at Arvind Studios for 2 days, after a long time a live-jugalbandi recording. It was a recording with Dr Mysore Manjunath, a brilliant violinist. The drums, tabla and the mridangam added the spice to our new fusion concept. Watch out for this album.

And coming to the online flute classes, my basement is getting ready for the occasion. There is an air of excitement in the industry about this relatively new concept of teaching thru the Internet. More than anybody else i'm excited, because i'll be making new friends n new disciples. Who knows, i might discover a great talent from some remote part of the world. It will be indeed satisfying if i'm able to do so.

But, on the other hand... I really hope and pray that technically it really works the way i want it to...'cos with so many constraints like power cuts, slow Internet speeds, concert commitments, and so on, i can only hope to accomplish what i am set to - "to popularize our tradition of bansuri/flute playing". You might be wondering who is OUR? Its me and my father, Pandit Venkatesh Godkhindi - my GURU.

Some other day i'll write about him maybe in my next blog. And till then wish me luck for my adventure with the online classes.

And ofcourse, wish me luck for my concert at the Ambedkar Bhavan on 13th, I am opening for none other than the Ustad himself, Ustad Zakir Hussain. Got to prepare!

bye

pravin godkhindi

www.pravingodkhindi.in

Online Hindustani Flute Classes

Hello !
Finally i am starting my own bansuri classes 17th Feb 2010 onwards. Yeah... online as well as in my house. For beginners its free online and they need to take prior appointement via email. ( pravingodkhindi@gmail.com)

I have never tried teaching thus far basicaly because i was busy fending for myself. Now that i have a house of my own with a recording studio in the basement, i am kind of relaxed about the livelihood needs and thus can concentrate on teaching. Although teaching is a full-time job i hope my students understand the fact that concerts are my first priority. So, the need to take appointement everytime, unlike most music schools where the timings and days are fixed.
In the near future, i plan to have a gurukul of my own, wherein students get the rare opportunity to stay with the teacher (thats ME -in this case), 24/7 and learn the art whenever the guru/teacher wishes. Here the students will be expected to be dedicated only to learning the flute and nothing else. But the advantage will be that they get to spend a lot of time with the guru(ME again) and thus progress faster than in the other methods.
i sincerely hope to get good students "online" as well as "offline"
wish me luck
if you r intrested in online bansuri/bamboo flute classes , than drop in an enquiry at pravingodkhindi@gmail.com
details will be updated on my website shortly.
thanks
pravin
www.pravingodkhindi.in

Dream Big

hi friends,

Phew...! Finally, i have my own blog space. I wanted to write since many years, but never actually managed to motivate myself enough to start. But today I decided, come what may and Lo! here i am...

I was invited to perform at IIM- Ahmedabad recently and also speak to the students about the above topic. Dream Big- yes i did and still do. My wife sarika said "When YOU dream it means what it says". Yeah, true.. i am Big n huge and dream a lot, maybe thats why they chose me. I was'nt even half this size when i stepped intro bangalore 13years back.
I cherished a career in the music field since my childhood and procuring an electrical engineering degree midway in my life could have altered my destiny, but for my perseverance, patience and the wholesome support of all the people around me. It was indeed a tough decision to switch streams from engg. to music but luckily for me i happened to be at the right place at the right times, i think. And then even before i realized that i had been offered jobs by companies like Motorola, i was already an established session musician in recordings and the only earning member to support a group 4 friends. Ha Ha.. Those golden days... The travel by the local buses to the studios, day in and day out, with my huge PVC pipe box full of flutes, hanging on the footboard, working for movies till late night and then without being able to afford for an autorickshaw walking back all the way to my place and still the next morning feeling quite happy... Because i was living MY DREAM.

Looking back, i often wonder what would have happened if i had listened to one of my relatives who had mentioned that music is for the HEART and not for the STOMACH, which essentially meant musicians cant make a decent living, i only have to say now that "Maybe it would'nt have changed the world a bit, if i had'nt been a musician, but it would have definitely changed my existence, and would have added one more person to the list of unhappy people who have money but the dissatisfaction of not being able to enjoy their only life. Yes , i don't have a merc or an audi right now but 2 marutis are'nt dissapointing either plus the label of 'being what you wanted to be'. It feels great when you are made to realize that you are one among the few bansuri artistes of the country than being one among a few lakh enghineers". And lets not forget the ample support of my parents, my in-laws, friends and ofcourse me wifey dear.
And this is just the beginning of a new journey, i tell that relative, its still a long way....
And now I am off to sleep and DREAM BIG...
have a great day!
Pravin Godkhindi
www.pravingodkhindi.in