Don’t join Eastern Fare Music Foundation!!

A huge percentage of so-called music-mongers confuse “Music" with “Cool”. It is commonly assumed that frizzy hairdos, death metal T-shirts, black nail polish, subscription to music magazines, guitars/drums and the “DUDE” lingo are what it takes to be a rocking musician. Half of the enquiries that the Eastern Fare team respond to are infuriatingly aweless towards both Music and our institute. Here are some samples-

• Is it “Western… Fear… Music something”?
• Do you teach rock music?
• How many tunes do you teach?
• Will my kid learn music in one month?
• I don’t want to learn notes and chords, just want to play for myself!
• I want my kids to learn Hindi music only, the Bollywood types.
• I want to buy guitar

Well, lets get a clear picture here; Eastern Fare Music Foundation is a coveted institute that imparts training in Guitars (Indian Classical, western Classical and Commercial courses), Keyboard and Piano. Occasionally, based on the aptitude of a student we provide training in western classical vocals as well. The name of the institution is “Eastern Fare Music Foundation” and not “Western Fear ... whatever”. That should sum up a quite a lot about the institute right now.

Coming down to the learning experience - a student or a student’s guardian always needs to remember that to specialise in any genre of music, one has to get his basics correct. In music, the notes are like letters or alphabets or script. When notes of certain frequencies are collated and played together, it forms a chord and there are over 14000 thousand chords to be learnt (if you are interested). These notes and chords form the basis, the grammar or syntax of any form of music- right from folk or Hindustani classical to thrash metal. How do one expects to write a language if he doesn’t know the letters, words and grammar?

We don’t mean any offence to any genre of music, but we do not teach rock music, pop music or Bollywood/Hindi type music (there’s apparently no such genre as Bollywood music). As mentioned earlier, we adopt a holistic teaching method and allow our students to take their own course once they have mastered the technique. Let’s say we teach you how to read and write well, whether you write prose or poetry or journals after that, is entirely your call! We also request parents and guardians to avoid pressurising their wards to take up any particular form of music. Let them develop their own interest and then make an informed decision. The point is- Music lasts really long, longer than Duracell batteries, so what’s the rush?

Our students do appear for Trinity Guildhall Grade Exams (as we encourage academic development in music) and come out with flying colours (result - click here). This however, doesn’t indicate that we have a very stern ambience within our premises. We do have our share of fun, jam sessions and outings and our students rarely miss any concert and flaunt their Metallica T-Shirts, funky hair dos and attitude with great pride and aplomb - but the difference is “They have earned it! They are rockers not posers.”

So if you want to be a part of this musical brigade called Eastern Fare Music Foundation ask yourself “Am I a rocker or poser? Can I endure the long hours of practice that takes to create a skilful musician?”

If you are still in doubt here’s our humble request “Don’t join Eastern Fare Music Foundation".

Parmita Borah