Mentoring musically

A kid with a notebook in his tiny hands, sitting down in eagerness of what he would learn that day, discovering the difference between a nice sounding shruti and a bad sounding one, moving his fingers over the lines of the song on his notebook while singing even though he hardly knows how to read, relating what he has learnt to cartoon characters and the great Indian stories, correcting himself to stay in taalam and layam, laughing when he knows he isn’t getting the pronunciations right, clapping in joy after finally getting it on the keyboard, touching my feet before leaving (after demanding a chocolate!) and humming the tune all along his way back home- Ah! One of life’s most satisfying experiences has been teaching music to a 5 year old kid.

If music was a science, it would be about pitch, timbre and harmonics and I would have required extensive theoretical and practical sessions to get the funda across. If music was only about creativity then any creative child would have acquired and mastered it all by himself. If it was just an abstract concept, it would require ages to cognize what the soul of music was. It’s amazing how any skill is a beautiful confluence of god-giftedness, training, upbringing and observation which ought to be passed on and cherished in the process!

Talent can only be enhanced by spreading, by having the humility of knowing that the ocean of knowledge is boundless, by maintaining the spark of curiosity on with passing years and by keeping the ears open to let any fresh new tune in! Try mentoring a child, teach anything that you know, instill skill and ethics with the additional benefit of being able to stay a child forever! Act as a value adding nutrient to this sapling that will eventually grow into a big tree and hold the soil of this world!