It’s music to the Pink City’s ears

A growing number of youngsters from the city are taking up western music and what���s more, seven toppers of the Trinity Guild Hall exams this year are from Jaipur, and they will perform at the Trinity Toppers Concert in Delhi soon
At a time when A R Rahman is taking Bollywood music to the world stage and gaining recognition from Hollywood, miles away from the glitz and glamour, youngsters of Jaipur have started taking up western music lessons, as much for the fun as also with an effort to make the world their stage.In fact, teachers in Jaipur say that in the last few years the number of students enrolling for western classical music has gone up hugely. ���Initially when I started teaching western music, I had some real tough time and had to try hard to survive. However, from the past few years, the situation has changed a great deal and now parents as well as students have started showing great interest in learning western classical music,��� says Pradeep Chaturvedi, a city based music teacher. And interest they have taken for sure, or how else would one justify the fact that a lady learnt to ride the scooty only to ensure that she would be able to drop her son to the music class. ���The passion is so much that students are ready to travel for more than 20 kilometers from the remotest corners of the city as well as the suburban areas to learn western music and their parents don���t mind accompanying them either,��� adds Chaturvedi.
In fact the growing interest among students has prompted some schools to introduce western music as an optional subject as well. And what���s even more interesting is that most students feel that the music has helped them to bring more discipline in their lives. ���When I started learning music my parents and tutor used to constantly pester me to practice for at least one or two hours a day, but now I���ve realised that the music helps me de-stress and it has become a regular exercise. This has also made my life more disciplined,��� says Vipul Gupta, a class 12 student.
���Also learning music doesn���t hamper my studies and in order to concentrate on tough subjects I keep studying and practicing music alternatively as it becomes a rhythmic exercise and helps me learn my lessons quickly,��� adds Ruchika Jain, another student. And all the effort of the students and teachers has shown great results too. ���Recently seven students from Jaipur have topped the annual examination conducted by Trinity Guild Hall, UK, from north zone and now they are going to perform at the Trinity Toppers Concert to be held at New Delhi, in April this year,��� informs Chaturvedi.