Delhi Jazz Cats

Greetings from Ed in Delhi!

Well, the last three weeks or so have been a colourful and intense introduction to this city and its music. I am based at the Performers' Collective school in Gurgaon and am also working with the British Council., The school director, Jack, has been keeping me busy not only with the teaching, but also getting me out learning, playing and meeting musicians in the Delhi music scene which has been a fantastic and valuable experience.

First I'll talk about the teaching... I teach in the afternoons at the school and have had lots of fun, and have learnt alot during my time here. Jack and I have a lot of shared beliefs in terms of music education, which has helped me blend with the school in a really good way- for example, parents of the students are all EXTREMELY keen for their children to take grade exams to earn another qualification on their way to further education. I have always found the music examination system a slightly unnatural way to introduce music to people, so I have tried to gently push away the expectation that each lesson must revolve around the end goal of attaining marks, and rather focus on musicianship.
A key concept I have introduced to my students is the idea of connecting the ear with every part of the pianist, such as the fingers, pedalling feet, eyes, etc etc! This importance of listening is a new concept to several of the students. One technique I have used to demonstrate this focus on the ears is the simple metronome. Playing in strict time with a machine requires the student to give equal dedication to both the act of performance, and the act of listening. Most of my students haven't had much experience outside solo playing, so find it difficult to stick to a tempo, and some of the early attempts show that they find it very difficult to play and listen at the same time. However, making them play along with a metronome at very slow speeds (increasing gradually) improves this quite quickly. Though I've also had to remind them that playing with a metronome all the time isn't good practice, especially with classical music!
It has been really interesting to hear the difference once this concentrated aural awareness has been 'activated' in the students- they play with more and more sensitivity and musicality. Another benefit that this brings is that the students think less about making mistakes and negative thoughts (a classic symptom of exam based teaching) as their focus is shifted onto musicality and creativity.

Another part of time here have been keeping busy with playing, rehearsing, and learning with bands and musicians around Delhi. Alongside Performers Collective school, Jack manages professional musicians in Delhi so has given me contacts in the scene, particularly in the Indian fusion and jazz genres- one band has even asked me to do a paid tour with them in South Africa in September as their keyboard player is unavailable, which is an incredibly exciting opportunity! It's been very interesting gigging with musicians from an entirely different continent and education background. As a jazz musician growing up around London, I have had lots of opportunities to learn and listen from the best players and teachers, but in Delhi, visiting professionals are rare and teachers practically non-existent. Even if the Delhi jazz scene is fairly quiet now, many of the guys I have been playing with are the children of the 'golden era' Delhi jazz musicians in the 1960s/70s, where there were many big bands and recording sessions happening around the city, with many famous American jazz musicians making stops in Delhi after hearing about its vibrant scene. So it's really quite strange hearing the same jazz banter here that is in London and the states... 'jazz cats', 'killing solo'..amongst others! And it's been great to hang out with musicians that listen to and love the same music, but come from the other side of the world..
Many of the musicians I've played with are self-taught from records and limited books. In contrast to British jazz musicians, there is much less focus on express music with theoretical terms, which means that it takes longer to express musical concepts between musicians; however, there are lots of benefits in their way of learning, so neither can be classed best I suppose! Another thing I've found different from working in London is that there seems to be a lot more time available to rehearse for performance. This is in contrast to back at home, where as the bandleader it is a requirement for me to produce notated music charts for the musicians, as it is impossible (and not the done thing) to schedule enough time to rehearse with the band learning the songs by ear. In Delhi however, it is not a requirement for musicians on the scene to be able to read (and transcribe onto paper) music. This means that someone depping in a band on one occasion has to learn each of the songs in the set by ear, which is a massively time consuming process. In conversations with session musicians I have been told how even in the multimillion Bollywood film recording studios, the orchestras are taught their parts aurally!
Anyway, it's been interesting seeing what the Mumbai guys have been up to, talk soon! Ed xx