How I learned to speak with notes: Melody

A personal recounting of relative pitch: Part 1

As a 6-year old learning to sing, I was first taught the 7 basic notes of Indian classical music: Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. This roughly…

How I improved my sense of rhythm: Part 3

I went to my first music lesson when I was 4 years old. It was a guitar class after school hours in one of our classrooms at St. Patrick’s Convent. I remember struggling with maintaining awareness of both hands while my teacher constantly reminded me to…

The Sound of Water

An exploration of the music contained in water

It was when I was composing a piece on the guitar recently that I thought to include a natural source for the rhythm section instead of using a drum machine in the intro. What I had in mind…

How I learned to speak with notes: Harmony

A personal recounting of relative pitch: Part 2

Imagine a strong, powerful voice speaking. The voice is rich in overtones, it carries over a great distance and it makes an impact. What’s the easiest…

The Rhythm of Walking

How rhythm redefined the way I walk

“To be a ninja, first learn to move like a ninja.”

I was informally learning martial arts from a much older friend and those were the words he said to get a 9-year old excited…

The Shape of a Vowel

Music hidden in the vowels we speak

I’m sure many of us have covered and uncovered our phone’s (or even our radio’s) speakers in rapid succession to create a wah-wah sound. The music sounds dull and bass-filled, and then turns up the higher…

How I improved my sense of rhythm: Part 4

I had begun to write a book in my fourth year at BITS-Pilani. It was for two of my closest friends. Both were musicians. Both were vocalists. One of them, though, was terrible at rhythm. I was teaching one of them how to play the drums. Since she already…

How I use music to remember phone numbers

Quite literally.

The spoiler’s in the title so let me get right to it. I don’t have the best memory in the world by a long shot, so I’m constantly searching for ways to remember that work for me. I’ve tried a bunch of…

How I improved my sense of rhythm: Part 2

It was in my college years that I really took the plunge deep into rhythm and for that matter, music as well. Like countless other guitarists, my first song on stage was Hotel California by The Eagles. At the time though, I was really into metal music (to…

How I improved my sense of rhythm: Part 1

This story has a lot to do with singing and playing guitar together but the main lessons are about rhythm, making this accessible to a general music-learning audience. Enjoy!