Now, learn Sa Re Ga Ma Pa online

Indians abroad are learning Indian classical music from their gurus in  India through the Internet


d_riddhi@dnaindia.net
Classical music is very popular among Indians residing abroad. There are many who are keen on learning this music form, but are faced with a big hurdle - finding a trained guru as most of the gurus of Indian classical music are based in India.

However, now they may have a solution to their problem. Though websites like soorsangam.com — Indian vocal music — and sharda.org — sitar and harmonium — Indians abroad can take music lessons online.

Suhas Vyas, a renowned vocalist who is based in Pune, teaches vocal music to two students in USA and one student in China through soorsangam.com. He says, “I was in the US to perform for a show. A few people approached me and asked me if I could teach them music. I took a few workshops in USA. And there were many others who wanted to continue learning music.”

One of his students, Vinha Godre Gore designed a software that would enable teachers to teach music online. Suhas says, “I was a little unsure about the clarity of sound on the software, but it is very good. I haven’t faced any kind of problem while teaching except for the connectivity of the Internet; that’s still a problem in India.”

And there is one more glitch – while the music classes are on, the student and the teacher on soorsangam.com can’t see each other. The software doesn’t have a provision for that.

However, Suhas is hopeful that soon even that would be possible. He and his students fix up a time and they log in the same time for the lessons.