I had my Sitar class on Saturday this week. My deliverable for this week was to play the earlier Malkauns composition  + Taans. Today morning, my dad gave me a reality check of my Sitar practice. My dad worked in a bank but before I came in to his life, he had ample time and hence took up Hindustani classical singing. Life’s responsibilities took over him and he kept music aside as the daily travel and work did not leave any time for him. He sacrificed his life so that I could have a good education and life.

Today morning I was completely silent as my dad gave me a massive shock treatment. I needed that. I had been playing Malkauns for close to 15 weeks and I was still struggling to perform 10 minutes. I was able to create taans, play a bit of meand. But that was it. I could not play Malkauns for not more than a few minutes uninterruptedly. How should I go about improving my practice ? How should I improve my thinking skills ? All these are open questions that I need to figure out in my life.

Sir came in at about 12:30 PM and I played Malkauns – sthai  + manjhaa + 7 taans. He said that the piece was very ordinary and was disappointed with my skill level. Given that I have to perform in front of an audience at guru poornima that is a few months away, Sir started teaching me a new composition

  • The composition starts on 9th beat and is played on Teentaal

  • I could quickly learn the sthai but I struggled with Manjhaa.

  • Requested sir to write down the Manjhaa

I plan to practice this composition. Tomorrow M, another of my Sitar Sir’s disciples, is coming down to my place for practice. I think I should practice with M, the following aspects :

  • Play some alankars

  • Practice Meand -  I play a phrase and M plays it back. M playes a phrase and I play it back

  • Practice Some Taans  - Ask M to play Yaman and then try to quickly make some taans

  • Practice Malkauns – Play the old composition so that M can play it back

Hopefully tomorrow’s joint practice will be a nice learning experience for me.