My experiments with music

My sister attended dance classes when she was a little girl. My mum, being an equal opportunity mother, wanted me to pursue a vocation. The result was a gorgeous Givson box guitar and guitar classes with one of the boarding school's brothers - saintly men with a ghastly sense of discipline. However, the class timings clashed with my playtime and I made every excuse to make him sit by himself at the class. He also tried to teach me tunes from film songs; which my unmusical self thought was not the way to learn music. So spiders used my guitar as their nesting ground.

In the meantime, our 'band' was placed second at the inter-school light music competition. Now, I will tell you how to win a second place at an inter-school light music competition. First, the competition has to be held in your own school. Second, your school must be fighting for an overall points position and your event should make or break your school's chances of clenching the trophy. Third, you must have one good musician and singer in your band. Fourth and the most important, you must have the innate ability to sync your lips to what your lead musician sang. The second place is yours.

I took my box guitar every time I went to college after the holidays. It did not create the kind of impression I was pushing for with the girls. Every year, The Don strung the same few Tamizh tunes he learnt when he was a kid and Kattu Pulla strummed the only two lines he knew from Metallica. And then the guitar disappeared.

It was years before my musical quest resurfaced again recently. One of my colleagues suggested I browse ebay to find bicycle deals. One search led to another and before long I had purchased an 3X2 feet India flag, The Satanic Verses and an Electronic keyboard. I also decided that I must take the bus and abandon my bicycle persuits.

Currently, like a true patriot in a foreign land, I have hung the flag in my room. The novel; I will not do injustice to the four other novels I had bought before this one. So it will have to wait.

How can you learn to play the keyboard without an instructor? And my last instructor was not very good. My housemate, who is a teacher, advised me that 'those who can do, do. And those who can't, teach.' I believed in him and in my new distrust towards teachers, bought an online course module to teach myself.

This is an expensive keyboard. And I have to make the most of it. Or atleast I have to let other people know that I own an expensive keyboard. So I buzzed one of my friends on Skype video and showed him my new sleek gadget.

Though he knew my musical history, he insisted I play him a tune or two. People. You can not play a music instrument without being trained. It is worse than some people ask 'So; you learnt French as your second language in classes 11 and 12! Why don't you say something in French?' 'Le F@#$ O^&'

But.

Lessons for life No: 0470: Never let other people know what you can not do.
Lessons for life No: 553: Know where the Demo button is on the keyboard.

And so I secretly pressed the demo button and pretended to play while he immersed himself in the joys of music.