Learning to listen to Good Music

Thanks to the internet, our musical sensibilities are evolving by the click, hits and subscriptions every single day. Content creators are coming up with content that finds its own market and subscriber base. Although, appreciating good music is still remains a grey area.

Many creators are actually eyeing for the kind of content, which will pre-educate our ears and sensibilities to appreciate good art and good music. 'Out of the Shruti Box' is one such spark amidst the many pearls on the internet. The channel is run by Anuja Kamat, a former scholar and researcher on classical music of India.

So, what exactly is it ~ Shruti Box is a drone musical instrument for classical singing. Reportedly, the idea behind the name is to identify oneself with the very essence of 'creating music', just like the way, Shruti Box helps in 'producing' the sound bed of the composition. The pre phrase 'out of' actually reinstates the fact that this attempt to dissect and discern classical music is both radical and non conventional.

'Music education' is done to death as a genre! If you actually hang around the Shruti Box videos. You will understand that the content on the channel is more directed to creating content which will refine the taste in classical music. So it is not essentially focussing on teaching someone how to train in a musical genre. If you still have doubts read the disclaimer right at the beginning of her videos and you will surely find substances in the experience that follow.

The credibility? Anuja has basked in the greatness of rich musical crevices and trenches which are deeper than the run of the mill popular media.

Lessons! Anuja comes up with a necessary dose of the basic and non-cryptic information on the amount of variety that the classical music in our country boasts of. The lessons range from something like the audio visual representation of the saptaswara, to something which talks greatly about the history and lineage of good music. Since, Anuja is vocally trained to a superior stage, there is a greater incidence of anecdotal and practical examples all alike. It is beautiful to know that how easily one can break into an oriental as well as western rendition of the same swaras and sounds.

Preachy? Classical music needs a lot of dedication and patience to grasp. There are different gharanas, stylisations and of course, the nuances which make it diverse and interesting. It is difficult to hold an audience who are largely mis-educated or underfed with a decent sensibility of music. Hence, Shruti also delves deep into some content which is more entertaining and less preachy. Something like picking up a song like Jhanaak jhanaak baaje payeliya and rendering it into multiple ragas. Not only is this utmost enlightening but also entertaining at the same time. The intention behind making classical music more an experience that the audience can relate to; is something that comes across all her videos.

With the host of underground revolution in hip hop music and the culture of our times. It is important we don't turn our face from the exotic beauty we already have in our hinterlands. From folk music, to classical music, the breeze of our lands have heard it all. There are ways how music has fostered and instilled hopes in our forefathers, at a time when language was still developing. It is only fair that more and more content creators like Anuja, come to our rescue and teach us how to listen to good music!