CONCEPT OF MUSIC

I thank all the members of The Harmonica Club Of Gujarat for giving me this golden opportunity of sharing my rudimentary knowledge in music to one & all. My special thanks to Mr Nachiketa Desai & Mr Tapan Bhat for having a lot of confidence in me towards the successful implementation of these efforts .

As all of us know MUSIC is one of the important streams of Fine arts, which soothes the heart & gives total relaxation to the body & mind. As far as Science is concerned Music is the combination of certain sound frequencies set up in a particular order, which is very soothing & pleasing to the ears.And as far as Arts is concerned Music is DIVINE which is something beyond explanation.

Let us take a travel towards the Science Of Music, try to understand the rudiments, practice it & finally let us feel that we are blessed by Mother Saraswati to be successful in our efforts.

Finally let us utilise our scientific knowledge in Music to glorify this FINE ART.

Teach yourself Harmonica

We are pleased to announce that veteran harmonica player Ramakrishna Sabnavees from Hyderabad has kindly agreed to guide the visitors to this blog on how to learn to play this tiny musical instrument, a long-felt demand expressed by hundreds of music enthusiasts.

Sabnavees, an engineer by profession, is also a self-taught harmonica player and has painstakingly learned the theory and put it in practice over the last five years. He used to play harmonica during his college days but had given it up because of the compulsion of his profession only to pick up after a long gap. Once he decided to take up harmonica he plunged himself into both theory and practice. The result is today he has become a guru who inspires young harmonica players.

Guru-shishya parampara

When three years ago the Harmonica Club of Gujarat was formed, there were only six 'middle-aged' men who got together with the mission to popularize this small musical instrument which was fast becoming extinct because of the advent of electronic keyboard.

Today the HCG has over 30 members, half a dozen of them school children in the age group of 10-15 years. The man who deserves credit for attracting the generation next is Paresh Bhatia, who turned 50 last Septmber 11. Bhatia had not only introduced harmonica in his music class in a leading public school of Ahmedabad, but also gave personal tuition to anyone and everyone who wished to learn how to play this instrument.

It is Bhatia Sir's efforts which have given the music world child prodigies like Devansh, Aditya, Mihir and Pratham who have not just learned the 'Sa, Re, Ga, Ma' but can today play popular tunes from olden days, decades before they were born.

The result of this Guru-Shishya parampara was witnessed at a public performance of the Harmonica Club of Gujarat at Ahmedabad's premier Rajpath Club on September 10, 2011 where the kids outshone the veterans in presenting scintillating and romantic numbers.

We present here a few of the numbers played by the child prodigies.

Jara Haule Haule Chalo

Sirishbhai is humility personified. Despite my repeated appeal to him to post his videos on the Harmonica blog, he has not obliged me. "You have made me a co-author of the blog, how can I even think of posting my own video," he said.

But, how can his humility deprive our music lovers from listening to this excellent rendition? So, I am using my prerogative to post Sirishbhai's video here.

An Evening with magician mouth organist Ashok Bhandari

Ashok Bhandari, popularly known as Jadugar Bhandari, took the trouble of driving down from Janakpuri, Delhi, to Vaishali in Gaziabad, to spend an evening with me. These days, he is busy in the greening of Delhi campaign, organizing tree plantation events all across the national capital. His events management company was involved in building the brand 'Experience Delhi' during the commonwealth games. The brand building campaign involved specially designed T-shirts, wrist band, socks, keychain, mugs etc.

"I have not been playing harmonica for almost an year," he said when I asked him which were the latest numbers he played. I requested him to play a number which he has yet to upload on youtube. Here is the number:

Wah Taj - Madhur Bhatia comes calling

Madhur Bhatia was inducted into the Harmonica Club of Gujarat last Saturday as an honorary lifetime member. He had come all the way from Agra, his home town, to meet the members of HCG which held a get together at Bansibhai Gajjar's home. We were regaled by Mr. Bhatia's excellent rendition of old Hindi film numbers.

Mr. Bhatia has been playing harmonica since he was seven-year-old. "My father, who played violin, encouraged me and gifted me my first harmonica," he says. Since then, Mr. Bhatia has been playing the instrument. He plays by ears, without having any formal training in music. One wonders how he is able to follow all the minute details of a song, including the prelude and interlude background music.

We present here some of the songs he played on Saturday night:

Chhupa Rustom comes out his closet

Nachiketa ji namaskar
I m sorry I m late in my reply & hope u will excuse me. I belong to Distt Poonch of J&K state now settled at Jammu city. So far as my journey of music is concerned it is in my veins nerves & blood from my childhood. I was lucky enough to have a company of good highly talented friends. Our teachers always encouraged us & we used to sing in school, national as well as religious functions esp. during navratri when we used to manage a small orchestra & I used to play harmonium & banjo for the ramleela & continued till my graduation. when I was in 10+2 during 1967 that one of my friends gifted me a small ordinary harmonica (Kohinoor) where from my harmonica journey started & soon I was able to play in various functions. I did B.Sc. from govt degree college Poonch & came to Jammu where I started learning violin from a teacher but due to my immediate selection as Range Forest Officer in J&K Govt State Forest Deptt during 1971 was deputed to forest research instt Dehra Dun to undergo 2 years rigorous training in the northern forest rangers college. The busy schedule didn't allow me to carry on my violin practice. I was very lucky to have my batch mates from north eastern states highly talented persons & very experts in flute violin guitar etc. we framed a college orchestra & performed in college as well as outside functions & got applause. After completing the training I came back to my state where my hectic busy schedule started. Our work starts from where road connectivity & inhabitation ceases so harmonica became my passion, best friend & used to play under the snow clad mountains in the lush green pine forests on the bank of a milky stream with the melodies of 50s-70s. Can't explain how enjoyable it was. I retired as D F O (DY Conservator OF Forests) during 2005 & leading a retired relaxed life. I joined YouTube during 2009 where in I came in contact with highly talented persons. I have two sons the elder one a doctor & excellent guitar player & the younger an engineer who always insisted & encouraged me to do some thing with my harmonica. It is a matter of great pleasure & fun of proud for me that great persons like you & the harmonica fraternity have encouraged me with generous comments liking my uploads exhilarating, elating & invigorating me.
Thanks& regards
Sincerely yours
Jagjit Singh Isher
157 sector-1 lane-9 Nanak Nagar Jammu
(J&K)_180004
Mob 09419106747

A Chhupa Rustom: Jagjit Singh Isher

I stumbled upon three videos of Jagjit Singh Isher on youtube the other day to discover this Chhupa Rustom. Unfortunately, I don't know much about him. My request for his details has not yet elicited a response. However, for the benefit of harmonica lovers, I am presenting here these videos.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

I am uploading this to inspire the fellow members to do something like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HL6c8JIRzY