is it my good-old-city-no-good-for-rock or what....i cannot get it.... yesterday in the morning i was just practising on my guitar (acoustic..)...and my grandfather just came up and sat there listenin.....i thought he was impressed by my playin ..but but but....after a little while he said..'whats this tun-tun-tun u are doing .....naa toh is mein koi ganaaa nikal raha hey ...naan koi raag...blah blah..'..(and mind u i was playing holy wars .....) how pathetic, i thought,.....cant these guys figure out i how good i am or am not by seein me play.....??....most of the ppl here have no sense at all ......they dont understand what chords are...you can sit there playin chords while u sing...and they will say...'bajana naheen aata kya??..' i have numerous such incidents....today my neighbour was here(age:-32....experience:-never touched a guitar)....and i had to come up with hindi song leads which i havent even touched fer months...i had to play dhoom.. :annoyed: ....and u can see i was ..well ...it didnt go that well i guess....and that really hurt me........just cuz i never cared to play 'tunes' of songs....doesnt mean i am not good.....everyyyyy person i know is of this sort only...my mother and grand mother exxpect me to churn out bhajans on my guitar......my bro says...'u dont play the whole song....'...(and i never understood what he means...cuz i play all the guitar parts in the song...duh)......the list is endless.... why is it like this...why dont ppl understand the concept of guitar solos and other more important things......why they want us to play things on guitar which are not meant to be on the guitar....and why do they expect me to play it 'the indian way'.....should i play all that 'kitchen sink' stuff they do in our movies..huh :annoyed:
:....Your post is true...The problem is alike the problem i face everyday..:annoyed:.. :shocked:..I don't know why are we underestimated..!!..And maybbe that we can play good..But no one seems to care...They can't encourage us...All they do is--- DISCOURAGE US..!!:cry2:
Ok once what happened; my gran and her sisters told me to play some song. My guitar was untuned so I started tuning it using my Zoom 505II. And they told me, "You don't know how to play. Even we can play tun-tun-tun. Can you imagine that! But some other day I was playing Stairway To Heaven and my gran told me "good". So that matter was over.
oye taxy ... now tell me one thing ... suppose u listen to a classical carnatic or hinustani music ... what will be your reaction to it ? ... pretty much the way u describe others commenting on u ... that happens man ... coz u are living int india ... ppl expect more of indian kinda music ... the way u play guitar - u cannot satisfy them so u got two options ... like what i do: 1. refuse to play ... just say u play english songs ... LOL ... that drives em away ... most of the indians are scared of english songs - so no more bothering ... if they ask u y no hindi etc ... just scoot hem away and tell them u consider it a sinsult to your skills and the guitar as wel to play those songs ... b.t.w. u can educate them telling that hindi (esp bollywood songs ) do no required melodic instruments ... thye just require percussive instruemnts ... tell them : "sorry had i been playing banjo or tabla ui wuddve played the hindi stuff ... but not with guitar ... thats imposs" 2. play classical music sounding stuff ... ragas are nothing but scales ... some "popular in west" scales sound like ragas ... SO ... play those scales which sound like ragas ... and then if they dont like it ... just say : " what the hell is happeneing to INDIA - ppl dont like classical hindustani or carnatic music or what? " and act pissed off by the unsosphistication shown by 'em ... 3. never ever play pentatonics or blues scale ... they donot ... i repeat donot match at all with indian style of music ...
I disagree with what you've said. The people you talk about have been brought up on a different school of music from yours altogether. Aren't you as bad as them if you call movie stuff "Kitchen Sink"? That's what they label your music as because they do not understand it...Why don't you, instead, try explaining some concepts of Western Music to them? What gave you the idea that the guitar is not meant to be used in Indian Music. I'd like you to refer you to a guitarist going by the name of John McLaughlin....listen to his stuff sometime. Even western music incorporates sitar and sarod and santoor and tabla so why not vice versa? It can only broaden the horizons of music. This is what East/West fusion bands do. And why do you want to prove to them that you are good at the guitar? Do your own thing mate and stop bothering about what others think about what you're doing as long as you truly believe in it. That was the basic attitude that rock music reflects....that this attitude has been lost and replaced in a lot of places is a different issue altogether.
my dad once told ME 2 play in da church !!! and i said " NEVER "!!! from then on he alwayz used 2 think dat gud only play tunes like " DDDHHAAANNNGG DHAAANG and BBBAANNNG BANNG " and while i waz practising PINCH HARMONICS .. he comes and asks me " has HALLOWEEN come's early this season ?!!!!! ""
Very true. As far as what I can remember from my friend telling me.....Raag Bhairav is very similar to the melodic minor(or was it harmonic minor).
lol@all i am lucky in this respect .. ma dad understands what i play (well i think so cuz i often find him tellin others .."my son plays guitar very well you should have a listen") .. so i have a good repo with him .. and for ma mom ... well i play the national anthem for her evry so often and she loves that ...ma bro is a guitarist as well so he understands that i am THE BOSS lol so no tears for me ...
@bjr yea man john maclaughlin rocks. he has done serious stuff with Zakir Hussain's band, Shakti. lots better than the stuff that say, bikram ghose's doing.
The worst bit being them branding everything as "western". They think that techno and rock/metal are the same thing. When i try to play some math metal or a riff with odd time signatures, they just brand it as "music made by or made for drug addicts". I have never heard any classical music with odd time signatures except some 6/4's here and there.
Why bother trying to impress noobs and people who have no knowledge whatsoever about music? Its pointless. As a bassist i have more of a right to complain. Last night i was jamming with a friend and these two chicks were there. At the end of our little "jam", they commented..."oh jeff, those licks were cool!....Oh Ahmed, i loved that little solo" When it came to me "Oh shaun i love the way you make your hair go from side to side" the most i got about my playing was "i like it how you make those slap and pop sounds". Stop trying to impress people who have no idea about what you're doing.
Did you happen to go to Science City this 27th January for the concert with "Remember Shakti" ? I went and it was insanely awesome. If it's a yes, then I have a fun fact for you
if the know about licks and solos ..they should be knowin about the bass as well .. but anyway ....the point is to be good and know that you are good .. hell to the rest
well, i'm jst a beginner with d guitar n ppl arnd me not knowin much abt it has in fact worked 2 my advantage in a way....... anythng n everythng i play sounds AMAZING 2 them. well, i sing, so i guess that helps 2 make it sound better..... d other day i was at Barista n i picked up d guitar n started 'performing'........ sm ppl at d table next a li'l away frm me requested me 2 play it louder n were mesmerised! they actually clapped when i left d place!! i guess they could appreciate wat i was playin coz they knew d songs....... times r changing ppl!!
No, it's not times that are changing...it's just that people are different. You see, you (like me) have had a wonderful experience with people you have performed for...I have an awful voice and I sang a high pitched "Papa kehte hai" for my dad and an uncle for the first time. My voice cracked, the chords were incorrect and strummed shabbily and I forgot a few of the lyrics but when it was all over the only thing I got was praise. But then, I played for my brother and he asked me to stop saying that there were people in his college who played far better than me. You have to take the crap with the roses. It's great that you met some fine people though.
