Shantanu Thakur
(thakur.santanu@gmail.com)
Most people with a flair for music pick it up by ear. We all are mostly such “byheartiyas”. Admittedly, music is God’s gift and bounty: it will continue to reign without formal moorings also. But, for the professional seeker, that is incomplete, unfinished learning. It’s a vast ocean of a subject and even as a hobby needs deep delving for its full enjoyment. Like for all other things, music has its own 3Rs which must be learnt if one is to move ahead in the line. The first of these is to learn to write and read music. This is where the ‘abc’ of “Swaralipi” and “staff notations” comes in, which is best learnt early as a child. It’s quite like learning the alphabets and the numbers first in the primary school stage. Anyone who has learnt the alphabet can read a book or a newspaper in that language, even if one doesn’t digest the full meaning of the text. The musical alphabets, on the other hand, bring out the notes of a composition which can be tried and picked up on any musical instrument. Just as it is difficult to pick up a new language at a late age (leave aside reading in that script), so is it hard to learn to read and write music if one has not been initiated to it early in life.
The fresh mind of a child can pick up things like script and language far faster than an adult.
Reading and writing music is yet to pick up pace amongst our youngsters, especially in Assam. With the coming in of professional music courses from the likes of Trinity and others into our state, things in this aspect have of course improved a lot. And then there’s the new age Dronacharya of YouTube, which has made learning music so much easier and more accessible. But the ambit, scope, and dimensions of what hands-on teaching can impart in a formal institution are any day much more foundational and lasting. In the earlier days, towns had small music schools where the basics of Indian rhythm and the scales were well taught. Many later on in life built upon that. Such basic education music schools don’t seem to have prospered.
Knowing how to read music is also a great help not just to those who play music, but also to the connoisseur who enjoys listening. In Europe, England, Japan, and several other places that celebrate music, one can see the audience entering concert halls with full sheets of the composer’s creations. In some of the pilgrimage centres of Indian classical music, some of the “samajdaar” audience do the same thing, or the equivalent.
Assam and the northeastern states of the country, they say, almost float on music. Most youngsters (and why just the young, even the elderly) finger the guitar or the flute with natural ease. Many talented youth are without any formal guidance. Zubeen Garg himself was not quite very formally trained in music the institutional way, barring some home tuitions. He rose to iconic heights with his own born genius. Imagine what could have happened had he also had the benefits of a full-fledged music institution!
It is in the context of the aftermath of Zubeen’s passing away and the things that are being discussed to be done in his honour and memory that these thoughts cropped up in my mind. We must have a world-class music institution in his name that methodically teaches all aspects of music. It can also include a simultaneous subsidiary course on the basic subjects other than music. There are such institutes of excellence in many countries of the world, and we can build with similar templates and our country’s own treasure house of musical heritage. In Israel, for example, there are institutes that take in children from the age of 4/5 onwards. By age nine, they decide which instrument the child should take on assiduously. Those whose promise surfaces are later sent to other world-class institutes in different parts of the world. Those who do not make the grade pass out with general degrees to pursue other viable vocations in life, not necessarily in music alone.
One understands that for such a kind of atmosphere to prevail, society and values must also align themselves. But thinking on these lines has perhaps become necessary. Else, we will continue to have flashes in the pan and the occasional god-sent genius.