Now, some background about my experience with musical instruments might be a good point of departure.
My mother played piano, so there was always a piano in the house. From my earliest memories it was a baby grand. It was at this piano I started learning French horn at age 10, which is when I learned where middle C was on the piano. My French horn days ended when I moved to a new school district and the horn they had was unsuitable.
In my early teens, I started learning piano out of a desire to emulate my prog-rock heroes Keith Emerson & Rick Wakeman. I kept at it and got fairly proficient. After graduating high school, I managed to buy a Hohner Clavinet, Crumar organ, & Micro-Moog synth. After a couple of years romance with these, I sold them to a musician friend.
Fast-forward to the latter part of my mid-20 in the late '80s, when I first encountered the sitar. So enamored was I with this instrument that a month later I was in Varanasi, India taking lessons and having a sitar made for me by Nitai Chandranath, the top maker there, who subsequently made me several more instruments.
I stuck with the sitar, practicing for a minimum of 3 hours per day and regularly for 6-8 hours. After a couple of years, I found a good teacher who broke me of bad habits. This was Amit Roy, the disciple of the late Nikhil Banerjee, one of the greatest sitarists of his generation. At length, I traveled to Calcutta to have my teacher's brothers make me a sitar, which is how I came to have my Hiren Roy & Sons concert grand, which represents the pinnacle.
Unlike piano or guitar & similar western instruments, there are no chords on sitar, but rather melody played over a drone. The entire instrument is tuned to one key, which is generally C#. Many people wanted to accompany me with guitar, but were baffled when I asked them to play in C#. ( A jazz guitarist was the only guitarist who could successfully jam with me.)
The inherent limitation of sitar to Indian music led me to learn guitar. I started with a Yamaha classical guitar with nylon strings, learning from an excellent & comprehensive book on guitar. I found it easy & intuitive, and progressed quickly. I then purchased my first steel-string guitar, and Alvarez 6-string, and then soon after, the Alvarez Yairi 12-string I still have.
My focus changed, and I didn't play any of my instruments from the late '90s until this year. In retrospect, I regret this, but now that I'm back to the guitar in this newfangled internet age, I find that the practice habits I acquired learning sitar stand me in good stead for learning guitar. I have a high tolerance for long, tedious hours playing scales & exercises and finger pain. And so it is that I've progressed beyond what I'd achieved on the guitar decades ago, largely thanks to Justin's excellent lessons.
Well, that was long-winded!
Topic: Twin Six's Road Case (Read 3286 times)
