The Journey to Sapt Guitar – Part-1

An Ode to Indian Classical Music – The Journey to Sapt Guitar, Part 1

Throughout my forty-five years of relationship with music, I have always felt something tugging at my heart strings. My affair with music began when I first picked up the guitar in class 9^th.  Inspired by the Hindi movie ‘Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin’, I became a hardened fan of Pancham Da (which still reflects in my music). Having grown up in rustic, charmed towns and villages in Rajasthan, I bought my first acoustic guitar through my savings while studying at Military School, Ajmer.

After graduation, I came to Delhi in 1982 and immersed myself full time into composing, singing, and playing my guitar. This period was initially a struggle, but eventually it brought me success and I did a lot of work with many record labels such as HMV and T-Series. I was also composing music for TV serials and commercial jingles, etc. During this time, I set up my own recording studio in Delhi.

In the late 90’s, my studio in Delhi was hired by a group of German music researchers who wanted to record Indian classical music using Indian instruments.

Whilst chatting with them during a recording session, I asked them about their research and was astonished to know so many facts about Indian music that were unknown to me until then. The German researchers told me about how they have demonstrated that Indian classical music has a strong positive effect on all aspects of our lives. Until then I was under the impression that jazz music was the best form of music but thereafter I realised that our own Indian music was unparalleled around the world. I was both shocked and a little embarrassed that being an Indian, I did not know about the enormous range, depth, origins and applications of our own music and that foreigners had discovered our rich cultural ‘heritage’.

This was the trigger which made me switch over from Blues/Jazz/Rock to Indian Ragas on my guitar. The first tiny step towards creating a new form of music!

This was literally my ‘Stairways to Heaven” episode. I was completely engrossed with this new style of playing Indian ragas on my Nylon string guitar

My soft practice (unplugged electric guitar) used to begin at 5 am in my bedroom, where my daughter used to sleep next to me (then six year old princess of mine). As this unbridled passion was overtaking me, I was playing and practicing, experimenting and igniting, completely overpowered by this new form of music I had discovered. One day, my daughter woke up around her usual time of 6 am and told me that while my previous music was pleasing to her, this new music was more soothing and pleasant. This reiterated my belief that the path I was on was the right one, that some power has chosen me to be the instrument for this change.

I completely detached myself from everything else in my life (except my family) and dedicated my life wholeheartedly to this beautiful journey of discovery and enlightenment.

The first steps taken in 1999 led to this twenty-one year old journey to reach my current Sapt guitar. The part 2 of this blog will conclude the creation of Sapt guitar.