The Guitar story

Guitar- the first thing that anyone who knows me relate me with. I call her my "first-wife" - never ever passionately loved something like my guitar. The story of how I drifted into striking the six-stings is quite interesting. Here it goes...(its a looong one... plead you not to yawn mid-way)

How I got into it:
Dating back to 1992, we were in a cozy rental home at Madurai. My parents made friends with a mallu family who just moved into the opposite block. I loved going to their place 'coz I was crazy bout their 2 sweet kids- Rahul n Roshini. During one such visit, uncle casually asked me if I would like to join him on his guitar classes that he was planning to join. Having no idea of what's a guitar(!!), I went with him and joined the class.

The Classes:
I got myself an acoustic guitar (Made in Cochin) from my guru, Mr.Born Singh. The guitar was so huge that it eclipsed my body frame and my 7 year old puny fingers! To be frank, the beginner's guitar lessons are an ultimate bore. You even sometimes even start to feel that guitar isn't all that a great instrument! Things got interesting when we were made to play songs. To tell you the truth, during that period, 9 out of 10 guitar instructors start with the following:

• Happy birthday to you
• Twinkle twinkle little star
  
• Papa kehte hain
• Escape

Deriving a sense of satisfaction after completing each song, I moved on and used to bug my instructor to write down the notes for the next song. Day by day, I grew better playing leads - my all-time favorites being Ilaya Nila and Good, Bad and the Ugly. But when the chords lessons started, little fingers couldn't make considerable contact with more than 2 strings simultaneously.

Not being able to absorb the fact that I was awkward at playing the chords, I slowly started bunking classes, lost interest and all the more developed hatred on my guitar sir since he raised the fee from 75 a month, to 100(I still dunno how this can create hatred in a person). My debut LIVE performance came up in Jan 1993, when I played for Roshini's birthday party. Yeah,, what other song could one play in a b'day party - its Happy Birthday to you !!! I discontinued my guitar classes in the subsequent year. The guitar was idle, except when some guests turned up home, and my proud father always wanted his son to play Ilaya Nila before all strangers. Sometimes, it gets too embarrassing!

Turning-point:
Tragedy struck when I placed my guitar at a wrong angle against the corner of the wall; she slipped and broke her neck (the tuning part where are the strings are fastened), thus earning her a place in the loft. I almost forgot that I had a guitar until the cable TV was disconnected by my parents during my higher secondary. My dad realized that I was getting too bored and irritated 'coz all that I got to do at home is only to study. He pulled down the guitar from the loft and succeeded in putting it all in one-piece by hammering a few nails and using "quick-fix". We went down to my guitar guru and got new strings fixed and tuned. It started here... With no guitar notes from my instructor, I began to sharpen my ears by attempting to play any song that I hear. That's when I became acquainted to the sounds produced on each fret and fingers started moving automatically while playing a new song. Probably, this is the point when any instrumentalist matures and the volume of confidence that one gains after crossing this phase is immense.

In my 11th std, our batch was asked to take responsibility for the annual day celebrations. One of my friends came up with the idea of performing as a band - We had 2 trumpet players, a trombone, 2 keyboards - one worked and the other doesnt have a power adapter (unplugged!). The practise sessions were funny; we wrote notes for the song "Mustafa Mustafa". Everyone played leads for the song (!) , no chords ('coz I know none..hehe), but it was a big hit! (Thank god, none of u guys were there..)

College:
During the first year, me n my roomies went to the performance by our college band. Those guys were hard metal. The guitarist played so ferociously that he was literally digging his feet into the stage! I instantly knew that I dint belong there. I got my break during my second year since all these metal guys graduated and there was no band. Two seniors recruited me and insisted on forming a new band. One was a keyboardist (John Sr.) and the other was one who aspiring to become a drummer, and used to play good beats on plastic buckets(Madhan Sr.) On the day of my audition, the seniors pointed at 2 guitar cases in the room and asked me to play a song of my choice. On one of them, I found a guitar with only 4 strings. Smiling to myself that the guitar was missing 2 stings, I went on to pick the other which was intact with 6 strings and played a few numbers. It took me 2 months to know that there is something called a BASS GUITAR which has 4 bulky strings!! Me n Madhan used sweat our weekends sitting near street side orchestra performances to understand how they work - rhythm pad settings, guitar processors used, mic handling etc. Memorable days.

John Sr. graduated out and we badly needed a keyboardist. Thats when I met another John from my batch. He plays the keys in the churches around. He was my second Guru, the person who spurred me into imbibing the beauty of chords. During the inital days, I used to complain to John that I couldn't differntiate between a G major and a G minor, the differnece being just one note. Gradually, things changed and we marched forward by establishing a full fledged band("Music Mantra") of 14. Performed at IIT Saarang, interviewed by a popular journal, sharing stage with Benny Dayal (was a student MCC then), NIT Trichy, PSG Tech Coimbatore, SUN TV Sapthawarangal etc. All along this journey, I learned the differnce between majors and minors, their usage, short-cuts in remembering finger positions for various chords, strumming patterns and harmonies. Once I remember John asking me if someone in my bloodline was musically inclined. The obvious answer was a NO. But he said that music is in the genes, and it cannot be read n learnt. (There is still no scientific proof for this!)

Now:
Lucky to find work for my guitar even after college, I was auditioned for TCS music band- "Infinite Loop". From thereon, it was a roller coster ride- flashing on TVs, corporate shows, befriending celebrities, played guitar for a kannada movie(sang a line too.. hehe). Nowadays, work is too tasking and there is not much attention to her. But the urge to skii high is always there. Mission -ARR! Lets wait and see...

Hey, I guess I was too boring! But, I had to write all this somewhere!! thnx for ur patience and do share your comments.