Ukulele to jaltaranga to various types of guitar, city youngsters rediscovered their passion for musical instruments during the pandemic. From learning new instruments to jamming together virtually, here’s how four budding instrumentalists have made most of the lockdown.

Shubhayan Dey, a second-year Economics student of Presidency University, Kolkata, breathes music. Starting with violin, from the age of four and tabla at the age of 10, this 19-year-old has explored a variety of instruments like guitar, piano, sitar, mandolin, drums, bongo, viola, and ukulele.

After participating in various school and college fests, Shubhayan, a disciple of Pandit Kumar Bose of Benaras gharana, is now focusing on understanding music and instruments.

“I consider myself a beginner and have a huge universe to explore. The best thing about the lockdown was that it gave me a lot of free time to play, practise, listen and think about music. Online music classes were a rough hurdle, but my teachers helped me tackle them smoothly,” said Shubhayan, who learns violin from violinists Deb Shankar Roy and Jyoti Shankar Roy, popularly known as the Violin Brothers.

Shubhayan’s inspirations are violinist Itzhak Perlman, Yehudi Menuhin, Niccolo Paganini, The Violin Brothers; tabla maestros like Zakir Hussain, Swapan Chaudhuri, Kumar Bose and Sabir Khan.

Shubhayan keeps shuffling between genres such as jazz, 60s’ and 70s’ pop music, blues and Indian retro. His personal favourite is Indian classical music.

“Learning both Indian and western classical helped me look at compositions as a whole --- harmonies, melodies, beats and shuffles. While some instruments taught me the beauty of the melody, others taught the intricacies of rhythm, and some taught me discipline,” said the young multi-instrumentalist.

During the lockdown, Shubhayan composed some songs which he’s yet to record, did the background score for a play Natyokarer Mrityu by Udbhab, and is currently working on a few tracks for a short film The River, The Road, and Hoodwinked Toad directed by Ankit Santra, a 2020 graduate of St. Xavier’s College in Mass Communication and Videography.

Rupak Bhattacharya created his instrument

His self-made jaltaranga grabbed headlines after he performed at the TTIS Challenge 2020 for unconventional orchestra --- Rupak Bhattacharya, a first-year Geography student of Amity University, Kolkata, loves to play with tunes and chords. Initially, he was guided by his mother Sarmila, who taught him Rabindrasangeet. His formal learning started when he was in Class VI.

“In unconventional music, people generally concentrate on the rhythm but I wanted to add some melody to it. Although I am not a student of Science, I used concepts of Physics like air column and volume mechanism to develop my jaltaranga. Different water levels produce different notes and thus a tune can be played easily,” said the 18-year-old who plays 10 instruments like the melodica, guitar, cajon, ukulele, mandolin, banjo and harmonium.

Rupak mastered two new instruments --- banjo and mandolin --- during the pandemic. The lockdown allowed him to spend four hours every day on music. He plays the keyboards and melodica for Matan, a Kolkata-based folk band.

“Keyboard is my favourite instrument and I play it professionally. I have learned different forms of music and instruments in the pandemic. I am currently a self-learner from different online sources,” said Rupak, whose dream is to become a successful musician. He has worked with folk music artist Arpita Chakraborty for her new original song Genda phool.

Abhirup Ghosh nurtures different genres of music with 13 instruments

A third-year BCom student of The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Abhirup Ghosh has been into music since birth. His parents Anuradha and Abhijit Ghosh are music teachers at The BSS School and Mahadevi Birla World Academy, respectively. He currently learns drums from his teacher, Premjit Dutta.

“Tabla, dhol and cajon have been my companions since my childhood. With them, I found new patterns in my musical taste and everything helped me express my emotions. Since music is beyond any boundaries or cultural obstacles it is always meant to connect, be it mixing tabla with drums or cajon with khanjira,” said the 22-year-old.

Abhirup spent the lockdown nurturing his skills focussing on genres like fusion rock and progressive rock. He created his compositions and recorded them to check his improvement. His dream work includes music with unconventional instruments like buckets, glass, bottle shakers, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboard and vocals that he plans to release on YouTube soon. He played the background score for Tal-Betal Puppet Theatre’s Dhol tabla directed by Subhasis Sen.

“During the pandemic, I attended several online musical workshops, played in many virtual jamming sessions. I have devoted maximum time to perfecting myself. Whenever I get some free time in between my studies, I practise,” said Abhirup, whose idols are percussionists Darshan Joshi and Sambit Chatterjee.

Nimiksha Manoj explores electric and acoustic guitar

Nimiksha Manoj, a passionate guitar player, has been playing electric and acoustic guitar for the past 13 years. “I loved guitars from a young age. My inclination is towards Western music. I learn from Saptarshi Bhattacharya. In the initial days, I was hugely inspired by musicians Slash and later with time Joe Satriani, Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, and Steve Vai inspired me and influenced my style. I have plans to explore Indian classical music,” said Nimiksha, who has completed her schooling at The BSS School in 2021 and is currently preparing for NEET.

Lockdown wasn’t easy for the 18-year-old involved in her school band. She utilised this time to improve herself. “I mostly picked up western classics to improve my technique. I’ve also begun slowly practising improvisations since that is something I’m not very strong at and just playing covers doesn’t take you quite far. It has to be original after a point,” said Nimiksha.

She has an inclination towards string instruments, both Indian and Western and looks forward to trying her hands at as many as possible. “The guitar has always helped me cope with various situations and also channel most of my emotions. Playing the guitar has become a daily habit for me. I’d like to learn classical guitar which I started working on very recently as well as the percussive-acoustic style of playing,” said the young guitarist.