Sound of Music

Sa-Ma-Ni happens to be the last name of this Keyboard player from Sion who loves his young students as much as he loves his music.

(The following was published in Mumbai Mirror Online on 30 December 2008)

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/11/2008123020081230115750641ae3a8962/Sound-of-Music?pageno=1


Following one’s heart is the stuff of movies, the cynic will say. When it comes to choosing a profession, most of us adhere to tried and tested pathways paying banal dues in exchange for comforting security. The few of us who take the leap of faith live a life full of experiences reserved only for them.

Meet Vipul Samani, a 34 year old Keyboard player based in Sion who has been making his living as a professional Keyboard teacher for the past 12 years. Having started small as a home tutor he now heads his Gurukul Music Academy which has eight teachers and around 170 students. While most of his students are school-children a few are as old as 65.

Vipul would fiddle with a mini-keyboard as a child and one day at the age of 12, after seeing a professional player at a party he decided to take up the instrument seriously. “My first teacher was based in Malad. I hadn’t even heard of the place back then!”, he exclaims. Several teachers and 22 years later the inspiration that got him going as a child shows no signs of leaving him as he treats you to an exquisite rendition of Beethoven’s Fur Elise.

“We Gujratis are very backward when it comes to music”, he says lamentingly. “If the child learns to play a few notes, we feel he knows all of music.” Being the only person in his entire family tree who has a connection with music, it wasn’t exactly the case of a rite of passage for him but rather one of having broken the mould. “Fortunately my father was very supportive. He never asked me whether I could make a career in music but only whether I wanted to do music! He is my first Guru.”

But it’s not just about playing music for Vipul, it’s teaching music to children that really drives him. “At Gurukul, we only teach one-on-one”, he declares proudly. Each student has to go through a little test in which Vipul makes sure that the child has a natural feel for tempo and key. If the child is found to be not so musically inclined, he politely says no to the parents. “Children fascinate me with their imagination”, says Vipul whose five year old son has recently started learning the drums. “Although I am their teacher here, each day I end up learning something from them.”

Vipul has been learning Indian Classical from Pandit Anupam Rai for the past three years and when asked on how he would like to shape his career as a performer, he humbly says, “I have no major aspirations as a stage artist. I just love teaching my children.