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Melody during vacation

LEISURE Kids are heavily into music lessons in summer

Photo: Mohammed Yousuf

SMALL BEGINNINGS Music has the power to motivate children and give expression to their aspirations

For children, the 65-day summer vacation is about playing in grounds and street corners, swimming, playing cricket and taking up courses to prepare them for IIT and CET. But it is also about another kind of learning — to play musical instruments.

Children are experimenting with the likes of harmonica, synthesiser, guitar, khanjira, sitar, piano — in short, the works.

Classes galore

One of the main centres imparting the training is the Sandesha Lalitha Kala Mahavidyalaya where nearly 300 children have enrolled for a number of courses including Bharatanatya, art, eastern and western musical instruments, personality development and many others. The Director of the Mahavidyalaya, Denis D'Sa says children in the city increasingly like to spend their vacation productively and are keen to learn new things. Many of his students have picked up guitar and keyboards very quickly for instance. Fr. D'Sa himself is an accomplished guitarist and singer and says every child should learn to play at least one musical instrument. "Music has the power to motivate children and give expression to their aspirations. There are children who have been coming to the summer courses for the last two three years and they have shown tremendous progress."

Raghuram Acharya, art teacher at the Mahavidyalaya, says children who have had a first stint of learning here come back for advanced courses. "Some have shown exceptional results, while some have improved on the training they have already received."

A music store at Balmatta, Weltha's Music Shop, trains children in the guitar and keyboards. The store has many children coming to learn. The owner, Oscar Weltha, who plays keyboards for the Balmatta Music Association (BMA), says sustained practice is the only one way to become a good musician. Pointing out that there are people with disabilities who have been exemplary musicians, he says: "Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles are visually impaired. Despite this, they are now all-time greats and have mesmerised the world with their music. So those who have no such disabilities can do very well with first-class training and instruments of extraordinary quality that are available in the market."

Prashanth Shenoy, one of the parents, himself a musician who comes to drop his little girl, says: "In my family, there are two musicians other than myself. My mother Kanthi Shenoy and wife Aruna Shenoy. Both are Hindustani vocalists and bhajan singers. As for me, I play western instruments such as keyboards and harmonica. No day passes without me listening to country stars such as Don Williams, Kenny Rogers, Tanya Tucker and a host of other country musicians. But my little girl Chandana shows keen interest in Hindustani. I have decided that I shall not impose my kind of music on my daughter and let her do her own things."

With more summer vacation music schools coming up in the city, the day is not far off when Mangalore will produce an artiste who will angle for international fame. Let's not forget that Bollywood's Sandeep Chowta is very much from this coastal city.

M. RAGHURAM

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