Friday 16 January 2015

Story of Raagist - aka How was I bitten by the music and entreprenuership bug

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. " - Aldous Huxley.





Jokes apart, I have always been drawn to music in one or other way.


Early years - the holy city, Varanasi

Growing up in Varanasi, I learnt primitives of Indian classical music from an esteemed teacher of Banaras Gharana. I'd wait patiently for summer vacations when my grandma used to take me for music lessons. Spending hours humming a new Bandish or repeating a taught phrase, I wonder, what used to attract my child mind, so much about classical music. Barely after 3 years of this infatuation though, I was forced to break up with classical in order to survive the usual academic pressure of Indian education system. 



The usual - I want to learn Guitar ! ( every 20 something teenager has done this at some point )

It was in Mumbai, that I tried to rekindle my love for music. While finishing college and later, my musical preferences started drifting towards western music. A close friend handed me a treasure of western hits comprising everything from early sixties to late nineties. I used to relish Eric Clapton, Elvis Presley, Bon Jovi, Pink Floyd, Madonna and many more singers, for countless hours. During this time, I dabbled with guitar for few years.




London and the perfect Guru

While playing guitar, I always had difficult time, decoding the notes behind a song. This thirst to understand musical notes, shifted my interest back in Indian classical music. After spending many futile years in search of good teacher, I finally met the perfect teacher in London.
So once again, my tryst with indian classical, started five years back, under guidance of: 
Smt. Chandrima Misra, a disciple of 'Ustad Munawar Ali Khan', son of "Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan", Patiala Gharana.



Frustation with Speed

Since, I was eager to hasten the "musical enlightenment" (decoding notes in a song ;)), I was very sad with my weak grip on notes for years. I constantly sought tools, which can guide me in understanding what I sing. To my disappointment, I couldn't find any interesting free tool for speeding the learning process. Hence, I set out to create.



Puzzles on notes

My primitive approaches were more towards building a software, which will generate puzzles for recognising different notes. I assumed, this puzzle solving process, will improve my understanding of notes. So, I created this app. It helped for a while, but soon I felt I am far from being confident with this approach.



More puzzles, now on patterns

Our mind is better at remembering patterned data than unstructured. Hence, recognising a pattern, is easier problem than recognising the precise ingredients of it.
On my second attempt, I approached the problem in a different way. I created an app which will play some phrases in simple pattern and ask me which pattern is played.
However, like the first approach, I felt erratic progress with comprehension of notes. But, in the process of creating these two apps, I realised, importance of "listening" while learning music.


Finally, the RaaGist !

God has given us two ears but only one mouth. We should spend double time listening than singing in order to train our brain musically. Gradually, an idea dawned upon me, to create a product which will assemble audios of top artists in Indian classical music.
This lead to birth of Raagista platform,where one can find the information about different topics(raags) in Indian classical music and listen to them by top artists. This by far, has helped me most. I am observing a steep progress in my original quest of "deciphering the notes".



Your turn :)

Hope you liked what you read so far and find it useful, if you are in similar phase of learning. I'd love to hear "your story of music" or "what did this article made you think" :) 



17 comments:

  1. Splendid presentation you have put in

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amazing prominent presentation of the journey of music till to date. Like it every bit of it. You have already reached your pyschic energy of enlightenment only action is taking place now and its gradually and steadily immersing you to the destiny. Congrats. The pictures have well chosen to a balanced information. Very hilarious with educational message on it. Spot on like it. Buddha's picture good. I feel every word in your story because I also sail in the same boat as you. Since childhood a music concept has been building up till to date and very soon want to share with you and everyone. It has been experience without words only the cosmic nature that's all I can say. And you have that cosmic feeling via your story good. Thumps up for you. All the jigsaw puzzle is settling down at one place I can see it.perfect. lastly and most importantly your name itself puts an deeper within yourself. Great and bravo. Like every bit of it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Dilip Govindji for such kind words!! I am very glad to know that you relate so much with the story :)

      Delete
  3. Congratulations on coming this far. Wish you luck and great future ahead.

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Shruti Kierti: I became curious to know if your "grammar" is correct and therefor the question came up in my mind: Shouldn't have your blog site the name "raagista" (as feminin form) ?? smile emoticon And herewith I fell over the story behind your website... It was very interesting for me to read about your struggles between "Western music" and "Indian classics", and your troubles having with "note sheets" for your guitar learning... I will tell you later about my own "fights" I had (as I come from Western Classics / piano education and Jazz, later I tried to study Jazz Guitar) which lead me in 2004/2005 to Indian classics, lately in my life and very unexpected in 2006 I became cultural journalist, independent media producer and radio presenter for ICM (some infos here: http://www.imcradio.net/about and http://www.imcradio.net/policy ). - Do you still live in London taking lessons from Chandrima Misra ? - Keep up your important work... we have lost so heavily in Western music a natural approach to music which is described by German philosopher Max Weber (1864-1920) excellently in the first Sociology about Music ever written as "technocratisation of music" (being published by Weber's wife post-mortem as "Rational and Sociological Foundations of Music" in 1921... its worth to read it: http://www.amazon.com/The-Rational-Social-Foundations-Music/dp/1578987830 ) - Warm Greetings / LJ (from North Europe/Germany, Hanseatic City Hamburg)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shruti ! This is fabulous. I so agree that having the right guru is so important. I am still in search of one for my love of dance. Love Raagist, the story and banaras :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations Shruti!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great article Shruti! All the Best.
    ~Ashwani Omar

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello mam i wanna ask you something

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is an amazing idea !

    ReplyDelete
  10. When you run it in 60 amps, the 60% duty cycle delivers the powerful high-end performance. It can profoundly cut 5/8-inch steel in full strength without any slag. As far as concerns about the regular usage for heavy-duty tasks, this can cut on a daily basis. And it doesn’t make you experience any slugging hassle while operating with it.oscillating tool tips Projects with Oscillating Tool Oscillating Tool Tips Remove Grout with Oscillating Tool

    ReplyDelete
  11. My lucky day. I happened upon this site. We all thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I loved your article!! It has given me plenty to think about moving forward on my social media journey!
    PUBG PC Crack

    ReplyDelete