Inspiring Journey of Hitesh Modak

2017-06-27

Recently, one of my favorite YouTube channels, SudeepAudio published an interview with music producer and composer Hitesh Modak. Here's an excerpt I wrote elsewhere.

His dad was an auto-rickshaw driver, whose auto got stolen. As a kid he delivered milk, newspaper, before school and worked at a PCO and as a Watchman after school. And ended up playing harmonium in the train while begging.
Hitesh Modak started from there to become one of the very successful producers in the industry (Received National award for Yeh Moh Moh Ke Dhaage).
Now being the partner-in-crime for everything that's produced by India's best jazz drummer, Ranjit Barot, having played with Zakir Hussain, and touring all over the world, this is one of the most inspiring life stories of a musician I've ever heard. A rare story that you can connect from playing harmonium in local train to John Coltrane and Miles Davis!
I hope his story is made into a film, it'll change the definition of struggle.

Part 1: Early days, childhood, formative years, The Struggle. (See above)

Part 2: The passion, drive and shaping of a musician



Part 3: Here's a peek into his work, the music production. This makes me think, in the current scenario, the music producers almost get no credit (its either the singer or the music composer), while the heavy lifting is actually done by the producers. The sound we fall in love, the interludes, be it played by live musicians or samples, are all done by them. Recently, Mikey McCleary's produced song Nashe si Chadh Gayi became the most watched Bollywood song of YouTube. When I hear the sound, the groove, effects, there's little trace of Vishal-Shekhar (Not taking away the credit of catchy tune composed by the composer). It is the genius of Mikey! But how many do really know of him?



Earlier I had also posted an MTV Unplugged Session with Neeti Mohan and Benny Dayal. The entire music was produced by Hitesh Modak and Ranjit Barot.

By far one of the most enjoyable @unplugged_mtv shows I have seen, you have to watch the session featuring @neetimohan18 and @bennydayalofficial, produced by granddaddy of 'em all, @ranjitbarot! The power sisters 👭 @dey_bass and @esani_dey are a treat to watch. @ashwinflute played some soul stirring flute, so did #HiteshModak some obscure chords on piano 🎹. #Rhys on Sax 🎷was amazing as well. Even the backup lineup, esp #Digvijay sounded so cool. The extra #percussion had #trashcan #timpanis too! Special mention of the beatboxer dude and the rapper on #megaphone, #Vishwesh. What an amazing production! Some may have been fixated at Benny's move on groove, but there's so much beyond that! Seen it a dozen times, yet can't get 'nuff! #mtvunplugged #neetimohan #bennydayal

A post shared by Guitar🎸 Bollywood (@guitarbollywood) on Feb 2, 2017 at 7:10pm PST

You can watch the entire episode here on voot.com.

What tips would you like to give to someone who started learning guitar?

2017-06-25

This was a Quora question by the same title that I answered yesterday. Thought I would share my answer here as well

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Persistence, persistence, persistence!

Congrats! You have started playing the guitar, one of the most versatile and popular instruments. The journey begins now. If you follow a simple but persistent practice regimen, the end result will be fantastic. Think of you coming from work, tired, bored, then pick up your guitar and play a couple of tunes. Its the best way to de-stress! Or you’re at a gathering with friends, you pick a guitar and either sing and play or accompany someone who sings. Thats life of a party.

Now to the details!

There are plenty online resources. There are YouTube lessons, courses on Udemy. All these in case you don’t have access to a teacher. But having a real teacher works the best!

Consistency of practice is a must. I teach guitar as well, and I tell my students to put in at least 20mins and at least 5 times a week. More the better, and faster you learn. But more than playing once a week for 2 hrs, its so much better to practice a little more frequently.

Learn to tune the guitar properly. Most of us now have access to a smart phone or a tablet, and there are plenty of (free) apps to tune a guitar. Never play a guitar thats not tuned. Learn to do absolute and relative tuning.

Work on chords. Simple chords, open chords, major, minor and seventh shapes will take you far. Make sure they sound clear.

Play to a rhythm. Playing a chord sequence without a proper rhythm is pointless. Its essential to pick up a few simple rhythm patterns. Once again, a metronome app, or a drum machine app, helps keeping time.

Playing clean is more important that playing fast. When you play anything, a song, or a chord sequence, its important to sound clean than playing fast. Make sure the strings ring out clearly. No dead tones, no muted sound (unless you intend to play muted). Once you get used to a tune, or a chord progression, or a rhythm pattern, playing fast automatically develops.

Playing guitar is a combination of many things. Left hand (also called the fretting hand), and right hand (picking hand), playing on beats, playing in tune, playing and singing (if you’re a singer as well)! To begin with focus on developing one thing at a time. If you’re working on chord transitions, then focus on smooth transitions in your left hand. If you’re working on plucking individual strings, focus on right hand, and so on. Slowly it all comes together.

Let your natural instinct drive you. This one is important. IMHO, guitar is a very personal instrument. Its an extension of who you are. The same song can be played by two guitarists, because they interpret it differently. And you want to develop your personal style, tone! This is one reason, why you see the most famous guitarists have their own style. In some cases, you can hear a guitar played by a famous guitarist for 10 secs, and can exactly tell who it is. Let that be part of you as well. Always look out to re-interpret. Obviously it takes certain level of proficiency to get into that zone. But it should be a goal. Not to copy-paste a song exactly as the record, but play it in your style. There are literally so many variables in guitar playing, fingerstyle, pick picking, electric, acoustic, plucking, playing distortion, chords, melody, percussive style (on an acoustic guitar) and so on, any song can be played in many diff styles. And that, frankly, is the most exciting part of being a guitarist.

Hope this helps many aspiring guitarists.

#Learn2Play ★★ “Ik Vaari Aa” (Raabta) chords – Guitar Bollywood Lesson

2017-06-23

Ik Vaari Aa (Raabta) is intoxicating ... it grows on you. And once you're addicted, you can't easily get out. It'll loop in your head 24x7, for several days. The song has a techno dance rhythm to it, yet Arijit Singh sings so soulfully! The man can put soul into any kinda song. Music is by Pritam. To play the song on guitar, try to incorporate the feel of the dance beat by the upstrokes. The chords are super simple, hence two-star rating.

Credits:
Song: Ik Vaari Aa
Singer: Arijit Singh
Music Director: Pritam
Lyrics: Amitabh Bhattacharya
Sound Design- Sunny M.R, Dj Phukan

Ease of playing: ★★☆☆☆ (1: Easiest, 5: Toughest)

Do help us by sharing, liking, subscribing, commenting (and even correcting) the video. For other chord lesson videos, pls check out YouTube or Facebook channel.

#Learn2Play ★★ “Tu Jo Mila” (Bajrangi Bhaijaan) chords – Guitar Bollywood Lesson

2017-06-18

Check http://GuitarBollywood.com for more such lessons.

Happy Fathers Day (2017)!

While this song doesn't depict a father-child relationship, yet it comes close. Sung by ever melodious K.K., and music by Pritam. The song has simple yet nice chord sequence.

Credits:
Song: Tu Jo Mila
Singer: K.K.
Music: Pritam
Film: Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Ease of playing: ★★☆☆☆ (1: Easiest, 5: Toughest)

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO4ICvkDGp4&feature=youtu.be

Do help us by sharing, liking, subscribing, commenting (and even correcting) the video. For other chord lesson videos, pls check out YouTube or Facebook channel.

Panel Discussion with Leading Female Singers

2017-06-14

A must watch interview! Throws a lot of insight into the industry, the plight of female singers, and in general, the survival instincts of being an artist in the industry. They are four singers of the current generation, Jonita Gandhi, Neeti Mohan, Aditi Singh Sharma, Neha Bhasin, rage in live circuit, rage in Internet and social media as well, performers par-excellence. They have their unique styles too. They came to industry via diff path, some got early success like Neha Bhasin, who shot to fame during Viva,  the Indian Spice Girls, some built their huge fan following via YouTube, like Jonita Gandhi.

Best part, they take their destiny in their own hand. Very much like running their own startups. They work day in day out establishing their own brand, engage and leverage their own fan-base via various social media outlets, do strike a balance between live gigs and studio sessions!

The worst, when they have to be yet another voice for the same song. Its the age of too many singers, instead of music directors having one singer in mind, they do trial with many singers. And maybe one version (sometimes two, and it leads to much controversy). I think the same happens to male singers as well.

There is much talk about why Arijit may sing 2 lines, yet he is credited way bigger than them! I think there is a 'flavour of the season', that keeps changing. Arijit is the current flavour. I am sure someone else will replace him. Sanu, Abhijeet, have been there, done that. Unfortunately, even other male singers feel the pain. Recently, came across a diff version of Ik Vaari Aa (brilliant song from Raabta), by Jubin Nautiyal. (embedded below). Earlier the song released in Arijit's voice. And if you see the comment section, the Arijit fanboys destroyed Jubin's attempt saying, But Arijit sang it..., No one like Arijit...,! I think as listeners, and as a country, we should first unlearn to Compare! Comparison kills! Fixation is terrible.  



Once again, talking of giving credits where its due, here are two examples in line of the conversation. The Manwa Laage song belongs entirely to Shreya Ghoshal, yet the title doesn't even mention her name. So is The Breakup Song, which totally belongs to Jonita Gandhi, has Arijit's name in the title (for both). See below.

 

The other point, raised by Neha Bhasin was the term Playback! The problem with the word Back. I think the problem goes beyond male or female singers. The problem is of too close connection between film industry, and music industry. Hence the music industry is always playing the second fiddle to the film industry. So many times, I have noticed a brilliant music doesn't get the airplay because the film sank without a trace. The music and music will never shine on its own merit unless this cord is cut. Indies will never see the light of the day. Music stars will always have to seek the blessings of unworthy Bollywood stars.

Lastly, on a positive note, aren't we glad that live scene is on rise? Here's tweet from one of my fav singers, Nikhil D'Souza!  

Amazed and happy to see the live scene revival in mumbai. There's a gig of some sort almost every night now. #yay

— Nikhil D'Souza (@NikhilDsouza5) May 9, 2017

I follow the music industry closely and have seen many of these artists in the live circuit. The venues have opened up. College fests, corporate gigs, and even birthday and wedding parties are now inviting A-list and B-list artists from the music industry to perform. So many musicians are also touring heavily along with the musicians. Overall, I think its a great time for the music industry, whether you are a male, female singer or a musician. If you are good, there is a demand. Meritocracy rules!

#Learn2Play ★★★ “Jaane Jaan” (Jawani Diwani) chords – Guitar Bollywood Lesson

2017-06-12

A few of you asked for covering some old classics as well as the new ones. Here, I took one of the most fav compositions of 70s. Jaane Jaan is a R.D. Burman classic, and fun song to play on guitar. The song original scale is C#m. Certainly you can capo on 2nd fret, and play it like Bm (life will become very easy). But here, I intentionally kept it without capo, so as to give a solid practice of the bar chords. I give it a 3★ just for that.

The song has a bassline to die for, but thats a separate topic. In my views, none of the older music directors understood and utilized bass guitar as much as RDB did. This is most likely played by Tony Vaz (correct me if I am wrong).

Credits:
Song: Jaane Jaan
Singers: Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle
Film: Jawani Diwani
Music: R.D. Burman

Ease of playing: ★★★☆☆ (1: Easiest, 5: Toughest)

YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LSJbI5AKX4

Do help us by sharing, liking, subscribing, commenting (and even correcting) the video. For other chord lesson videos, pls check out YouTube or Facebook channel.

Play music with your kids

2017-06-01

As a parent, I can tell you, if you are a musician or a singer, there's simply no bigger joy than seeing your child be a better singer or musician than you. If they have the music in themselves, as much as you do, how do you nurture it? Identifying their inclination to music is one thing, and moulding them to become a musician is another. There is no right age to start them. Its never too young to start music. The research have shown that music registers to kids' developing brain when they are in mother's wombs. (hence doctors advise, be careful about the music you're playing around a pregnant lady).

How young do you want start them? Here's one of my most favourite guitarist, Warren Mendonsa, aka Blackstratblues, starting his daughter Nia, who's merely few months old. You may possess so, but I don't have the ability to stop watching this beautiful clip. Not only his daughter listens to marvellous guitar playing with so much patience, she even smiles at places! I can't stop thinking how she is growing surrounded by music, instruments and musicians! Compare that to the first time I touched a guitar was at the age of 17. God bless the super-dad Warren!



Earlier I shared a few more similar clips on my Instagram channel too. Here's the famous little kid singing Don't let me down on the top of his voice, with his dad playing the guitar and him strumming a mini guitar. This one has been breaking the internet ever since it surfaced.

A post shared by Guitar🎸 Bollywood (@guitarbollywood) on Mar 13, 2017 at 11:57pm PDT

Few months ago too, this video of 4yr old Claire Ryann appeared on YouTube, singing while her dad playing amazing acoustic guitar and singing. Bless the dad!

A post shared by Guitar🎸 Bollywood (@guitarbollywood) on Feb 8, 2017 at 1:04pm PST

Many of us think the Indian classical music and ragas take a lifetime to master. Or even identify. Hold your breath and be amazed. Here's 20months old Aniruddha identifying all Carnatic ragas correctly. The ragas are sung by his mother. While he seems engrossed in a jigsaw puzzle, but his ears are as sharp as ever, identifying the ragas.

Today, Warren again posted a second video on the series, (Should I call it Noodling with Nia), and once again, I cannot get enough of it. I am waiting for a day when she joins Warren on playing the bassline. As such she is already grabbing the bass strings, while biting the guitar!

A post shared by Warren Mendonsa (@blackstratblues) on May 31, 2017 at 12:35pm PDT

I cannot stress enough the importance of music in kids' lives. Its one thing that bonds parents with kids, and stays with them for a lifetime. Just one bit of caution though, its not necessary if the parents are into certain kind of music, or even one particular instrument, the kid may pick up interest in completely diff instrument or even in singing. So their individual interest needs to be identified and nurtured.