Showing posts with label Music Gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music Gear. Show all posts

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Is it too late for me to start learning a musical instrument ?

First of all, apologies for writing after such a long while. I was way too distracted with a bunch of things which included re-organization of the venture(s), operations, teaching and in the midst of all this chaos, releasing another single and a full album. Phew! But the learning has been fun.

While wondering about what to write, especially after a long break, I thought this would be a good topic. We keep getting asked this by a number of people who we get to meet at RaGa. Typically, when they come to inquire about music classes for their children! In many cases, these are folks who have even made an attempt to start learning a few years' ago and then their work pressures caught up or they lost hope.

I'd say, it is never too late to learn anything. Well, almost anything - I'm turning 50 soon and I don't think I am in a position to get into some adventure sport, especially given my current fitness levels! I have a friend, who is probably 60+, so passionate about fitness that he might have a different opinion. Well, let's focus on music. Answer is no, never too late! All you need is - desire, some amount of conviction that you can do it and a little time to devote to practise. Practise is the key and the patience to not expect results overnight.

Over the years' I've noticed that the ability to learn is not really linked to one's age. I've had students who are school-going but struggling to come to terms with learning to play the guitar while a 40+ working professional has put them to shame both in terms of time taken and ability to play. Yes, as we get older we tend to become more analytical. It helps if one avoids getting into too much detail in terms of hand positions, type of pick, type of instrument, body posture and so on. Reminds me of a quote which I think was by 'Ugly' from the movie 'Good Bad and Ugly' - "When you want to shoot, shoot. Don't talk"! So just get down to playing and practising for God's sake! Optimization of movement, posture and so on can happen over time. If you are a software professional, you probably heard the term, Agile. Follow that model, and it helps in motivating you to keep going further.

That's it for now. Oh by the way, I've also picked up a bit on video editing and using the knowledge to create some simple videos for my music to post on youtube. See! The learning never stops. Only your will to do or not to. All the best!

You can check out the promo for the latest album from Instrumental Conversations (yeah, the father-son band which is my son Rahul and I). The album, Nature and Places, has tracks inspired by different places which we've had the opportunity to visit.

Nature and Places - Promo

Ravi

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Now on Facebook!

Happy to announce that we've now opened a Facebook page. Hopefully, we'll get to see increased interaction and sharing!

http://www.facebook.com/RaGaSchoolOfMusicBangalore

Cheers,
Team RaGa

Friday, March 30, 2012

Launch of Music Gear in new location

We are happy to announce the opening of our music store, Music Gear, in a new location on Sunday the 1st of April. The new facility will include a showroom, jam room for rehearsals as well as a recording studio.


Location: 637, 2nd floor, 1st Cross, RBI Layout, JP Nagar 7th phase, B'lore-78. (Opposite exit gate of Elita Promenade, above Tablets & Tonics, near Brigade Millenium signal).


Time: 11 am


The opening will be done by Vidwan Shri B G Srinivasa, renowned flautist and disciple of Padmashree  T R Mahalingam.


We look forward to all RaGa School Students (present and past) to visit with their families!


Sincerely,


Ravi & Gayathri

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Check out the new page we added!

We've added a page (under Information for Students) with links to guitar tabs. These we hope will help students who have been trying to locate tabs for their favorite songs and enhance their learning.

While we continue to add links to this page, we are also in the process of doing something similar in the case of keyboard/piano.

We encourage all students to try and play the music of their choice apart from practicing your regular lessons. This is essential if you want to achieve higher levels of success!

All the best!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Composition on a keyboard/piano

Check out this composition (Mindscape - Piano Instrumental) by a friend, Kalyan Sabareeshan. Done using a Casio CTK-6000. Sharing this from a post in Facebook.

http://soundcloud.com/kalyan_sabareeshan

Monday, January 9, 2012

Introduction of levels in curriculum

After months' of reviewing and thinking (triggered by review of last 3 yrs' of work and suggestions coming from students) we're happy to announce some changes to our teaching approach. Whilst the overall approach continues to be focused on 'learn as quickly as you can', the introduction to levels, we hope, will help students in setting short-term goals and assess themselves at each stage.

To know more, please discuss with your respective teachers for Guitar, Keyboard and Tabla.

All said and done, there is no substitute for practice!

Team RaGa


Saturday, April 16, 2011

First junior keyboard batch completes it's course!


Another satisfying moment ... the first ever set of kids (age group of 6 to 8) completed its keyboard course. Meant to be a primer/introduction to playing the keyboard, the focus was on getting these enthusiastic kids to channelize their energy into playing some music. Tough ask, considering that they are not used to sitting in one place for more than a few minutes!

So on this eventful day, the participants got an opportunity to perform in front of their parents. While little fingers belted out Twinkle Twinkle, Humpty Dumpty, London Bridge, Waving Flag, Kal Ho Na Ho ... one was left reflecting on the potential in today's children. Wonder how many future A R Rahmans and Stephen Devasys we got to see today :)

Big thanks to my friend and important member of RaGa School, Jinto, who showed a lot of patience in guiding these kids to this stage.


Until the next batch which kicks off in June ....

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

RaGaJam III on 20-Feb

All - Thanks for your presence, participation, and encouragement. 49 performances covering Bharatanatyam (students of Smt. Ramaa Venugopalan, Lakshmi Kalaalayam), Veena, Bhavageethe, Keyboards and Guitars, WOW!!! To completely close the loop as part of the learning process, requesting all students (those who performed as well as those who came to listen and observe) to talk to their respective teachers during their next class. A small discussion will help exchange notes and get a better understanding of areas that worked well and areas of improvement.

Would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers without whose help an event of this magnitude could never have been put together. Highly grateful to our friendly neighbourhood AXIS BANK, RBI Layout (as Mr Jayanth rightly put it when he addressed the gathering during the break!) for co-sponsoring this event with Music Gear.

A special thanks to all those who stayed on (even after their performances) to cheer and support the others. For all those who have upcoming examinations, wishing you all the Very Best. Show the same passion for preparing for your exams as you did for for this event. This would be our way of acknowleding Prof. Vinod Kumar's (www.motivocean.org) views on how to work on being the best in whatever we set out to do. Thanks Prof, for your time and enthusiastic presence till we all packed up!

Hope to post some links to videos & pics as we receive them ...

Thanks - RaGa Team

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Re-surfacing!

Well, after another period of silence ... here I am again. The last few weeks' have been quite hectic to say the least. Finally found a seperate home for 'MusicGear' ... same building first floor. Check it out if you haven't already. Long way to go ... but am happy that there's space to put up some instruments on display at last!
Also, made a visit to Mumbai in between ... got to meet up with some interesting folks ... Ehsaan, Loy, BruceLee Mani, Shivamani, Stephen Devassy ... not sure where I uploaded some pics ... guess it must be on Facebook ...
BTW: Am on the look out for someone who can work part-time, to help out at the music store and the school ... probably a 4pm to 8pm kind of slot. Aptitude for music, pleasant manners and ability to role up the sleeves and work are I hope, not too much to expect! Might have to do some local travel within Bangalore on occassion.