Pandit RakeshKSharma Gusai-Goswami, traditional Hindustani Sangeet, Delhi Gharana.

Pandit Rakesh Kumar Sharma is a renowned music director, artist, professor, and cultural ambassador of Indian Music.  He has won numerous awards including the prestigious Common Wealth Award.  He has presented his music in numerous countries such as Afghanistan, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, and the United States.  Rakesh Pandit, as he is commonly known, is currently the Music Director at All India Radio and Door Darshan Films Division and NCERT, Delhi.  Most recently, he has been recognized by the National Council of Indian Culture of Trinidad and Tobago as an authority on Indian Music for his extensive knowledge of Indian Music and his pioneering work of expanding it beyond India.https://youtu.be/TYlh5hm2DcU?t=53

Early Life: The Making of a true Musicologist

Rakesh Pandit was born and raised in Delhi.  He hails from a lineage of highly regarded musicians and scholars of Indian music. His lineage includes great names such as Kuwar Shyamji, Goswami Bhagwat Kishoreji, Pandits Husnalalji and Bhagatramji. Panditji belongs to a Gusai-Goswami, traditional Hindustani Sangeet, Delhi Gharana. He received extensive training in Hindustani classical music from the late Goswami Shri Bhagwat Kishore Ji and the illustrious Sangeet Mahamaho Upadhya Pandit Dilip Chandra Vedi.  Also, he received advanced training in Western music and violin from Pandit Ralla Ram Sharma and tabla training under Pandit Bhanamalji and Pandit Bhagwan Dasji.  At an early age, he began performing Khayal and Ghazal Gayaki.  Today, he is a leading scholar in Vocal, Violin, Harmonium, and Tabla.

Career: A Life of Musical Achievements

Although his training encompasses several Gharanas, Panditji is mostly identified with the Agra Gharana and Delhi Gharana.  In addition to his Guru-Shisya Parampar training he holds several academic qualifications such as Sangeet Prabhakar, Sangeet Bhaskar, and Approved Music Composer Grade I for All India Radio, Doordarshan, and NCERT.  He has been associated with music faculty of Shyama Prasad Mukherji College for Women - University of Delhi for more than 30 years.  Panditji, has worked as a music director in Delhi, Mumbai, and abroad.  He has won prizes for composing music in India and abroad in the years of 1987, 1991-1994, and 1996. In addition, even with his busy schedule, Panditji has also found the time to train several of today’s leading musicians in authentic Guru-Sishya Parampar including names such as BhushanTripathi, Chitralee Goswami, Pradeep Jain, Shivannand Maharaj, Amitraj Ramkissoon, Jatin Khanna, Sumit Bhalla.  

 Advisor

Punditji advised Saaz O Aawaaz, Canada (a music school founded by Panditji’s Gurubhai, Shri Dev Bansraj Ramkissoon in Brampton, Canada).  Currently, he advises Coral Springs Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Coral Springs, Florida, and National Council of Indian Culture, Trinidad and Tobago.  His compositions have been recorded by many leading artist under several music labels....

Dev Bansraj Ramkissoon (right) with his Guru-Bhai Pt Rakesh Kumar Sharma of India at the Saaz-o-Awaaz graduation ceremony.

violin

The violin, also known as a fiddle, is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola, and the cello. The modern word is derived from the Italian word violino, literally meaning 'small viola'.The violin is first known in 16th-century Italy, with some further modifications occurring in the 18th and 19th centuries. Violinists and collectors particularly prize the instruments made by the Stradivari, Guarneri and Amati families from the 16th to the 18th century inBrescia and Cremona and by Jacob Stainer in Austria. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or equal it, though this belief is disputed. Great numbers of instruments have come from the hands of "lesser" makers, as well as still greater numbers of mass-produced commercial "trade violins" coming from cottage industries in places such as Saxony,Bohemia, and Mirecourt. Many of these trade instruments were formerly sold by Sears, Roebuck and Co. and other mass merchandisers.A person who makes or repairs violins is called a luthier.

Bansuri(Flute)

Flute has the absolute purity in its sound. A single note of flute can bring an amazing feeling to oneself. Being Lord Krishna's instrument, the Bansuri flute
music can give enormous happiness and will certainly help us on our way towards the Infinite.The word bansuri originates in the Sanskrit bans (बाँस) [bamboo] + sur (सुर) [melody]. There are two varieties of bansuri: transverse, and fipple. The fipple flute is usually played in folk music and is held at the lips like a whistle. Because it enables superior control, variations and embellishments, the transverse variety is preferred in Indian classical music.Bansuri construction is a complex art. The bamboo suitable for making a bansuri needs to possess several qualities. It must be thin walled and straight with a uniform circular cross section and long internodes. Being a natural material, it is difficult to find bamboo shafts with all these characteristics, which in turn makes good bansuris rare and expensive.

Birth of guitar

The name "guitar" comes from the ancient Sanskrit word for "string" - "tar". (This is the language from which the languages of central Asia and northern India developed.) Many stringed folk instruments exist in Central Asia to this day which have been used in almost unchanged form for several thousand years, as shown by archeological finds in the area. Many have names that end in "tar", with a prefix indicating the number of strings:Dotar
two = Sanskrit "dvi" - modern Persian "do" -
dotar, two-string instrument found in Turkestan
three = Sanskrit "tri" - modern Persian "se" -
setar, 3-string instrument, found in Persia (Iran),
(cf. sitar, India, elaborately developed, many-stringed)
four = Sanskrit "chatur" - modern Persian "char" -
chartar, 4-string instrument, Persia (most commonly known as "tar" in modern usage)
(cf. quitarra, early Spanish 4-string guitar,
modern Arabic qithara, Italian chitarra, etc)
five = Sanskrit "pancha" - modern Persian "panj" -
panchtar, 5 strings, Afghanistan
Indian SitarThe Indian sitar almost certainly took its name from the Persian setar, but over the centuries the Indians developed it into a completely new instrument, following their own aesthetic and cultural ideals.


Persian Setar

Chartar ("Tar")
Tanburs and harps spread around the ancient world with travellers, merchants and seamen. The four-stringed Persian chartar (note the narrow waist!) arrived in Spain, where it changed somewhat in form and construction, acquired pairs of unison-tuned strings instead of single strings and became known as the quitarra orchitarra.

From four-, to five-, to six-string guitar

As we have seen, the guitar's ancestors came to Europe from Egypt and Mesopotamia. These early instruments had, most often, four strings - as we have seen above, the word "guitar" is derived from the Old Persian "chartar", which, in direct translation, means "four strings". Many such instruments, and variations with from three to five strings, can be seen in mediaeval illustrated manuscripts, and carved in stone in churches and cathedrals, from Roman times through till the Middle Ages. Right: Roman "guitar", c:a 200 CE.

Mediaeval psalter, c:a 900 CE. 
Angel with guitar, St. Stephen's church, 1591.

By the beginning of the Renaissance, the four-course (4 unison-tuned pairs of strings) guitar had become dominant, at least in most of Europe. (Sometimes a single first string was used.) The earliest known music for the four-course "chitarra" was written in 16th century Spain. The five-course guitarra battente (left) first appeared in Italy at around the same time, and gradually replaced the four-course instrument. The standard tuning had already settled at A, D, G, B, E, like the top five strings of the modern guitar.
In common with lutes, early guitars seldom had necks with more than 8 frets free of the body, but as the guitar evolved, this increased first to 10 and then to 12 frets to the body.

5-course guitar by Antonio Stradivarius, 1680
A sixth course of strings was added to the Italian "guitarra battente" in the 17th century, and guitar makers all over Europe followed the trend. The six-course arrangement gradually gave way to six single strings, and again it seems that the Italians were the driving force. (The six-string guitar can thus be said to be a development of the twelve-string, rather than vice versa, as is usually assumed.)
In the transition from five courses to six single strings, it seems that at least some existing five-course instruments were modified to the new stringing pattern. This was a fairly simple task, as it only entailed replacing (or re-working) the nut and bridge, and plugging four of the tuning peg holes. An incredibly ornate guitar by the German master from Hamburg, Joakim Thielke (1641 - 1719), was altered in this way. (Note that this instrument has only 8 frets free of the body.)
 
At the beginning of the 19th century one can see the modern guitar beginning to take shape. Bodies were still fairly small and narrow-waisted.
6-string guitar by George Louis Panormo, 1832

The modern "classical" guitar took its present form when the Spanish maker Antonio Torres increased the size of the body, altered its proportions, and introduced the revolutionary "fan" top bracing pattern, in around 1850. His design radically improved the volume, tone and projection of the instrument, and very soon became the accepted construction standard. It has remained essentially unchanged, and unchallenged, to this day.
Guitar by Antonio Torres Jurado, 1859 

Steel-string and electric guitars
At around the same time that Torres started making his breakthrough fan-braced guitars in Spain, German immigrants to the USA - among them Christian Fredrich Martin - had begun making guitars with X-braced tops. Steel strings first became widely available in around 1900. Steel strings offered the promise of much louder guitars, but the increased tension was too much for the Torres-style fan-braced top. A beefed-up X-brace proved equal to the job, and quickly became the industry standard for the flat-top steel string guitar.
At the end of the 19th century Orville Gibson was building archtop guitars with oval sound holes. He married the steel-string guitar with a body constructed more like a cello, where the bridge exerts no torque on the top, only pressure straight down. This allows the top to vibrate more freely, and thus produce more volume. In the early 1920's designer Lloyd Loar joined Gibson, and refined the archtop "jazz" guitar into its now familiar form with f-holes, floating bridge and cello-type tailpiece.
The electric guitar was born when pickups were added to Hawaiian and "jazz" guitars in the late 1920's, but met with little success before 1936, when Gibson introduced the ES150 model, which Charlie Christian made famous.
With the advent of amplification it became possible to do away with the soundbox altogether. In the late 1930's and early 1940's several actors were experimenting along these lines, and controversy still exists as to whether Les Paul, Leo Fender, Paul Bigsby or O.W. Appleton constructed the very first solid-body guitar. Be that as it may, the solid-body electric guitar was here to stay.The guitar is an ancient and noble instrument, whose history can be traced back over 4000 years. Many theories have been advanced about the instrument's ancestry. It has often been claimed that the guitar is a development of the lute, or even of the ancient Greek kithara. Research done by Dr. Michael Kasha in the 1960's showed these claims to be without merit. He showed that the lute is a result of a separate line of development, sharing common ancestors with the guitar, but having had no influence on its evolution. The influence in the opposite direction is undeniable, however - the guitar's immediate forefathers were a major influence on the development of the fretted lute from the fretless oud which the Moors brought with them to to Spain.The sole "evidence" for the kithara theory is the similarity between the greek word "kithara" and the Spanish word "quitarra". It is hard to imagine how the guitar could have evolved from the kithara, which was a completely different type of instrument - namely a square-framed lap harp, or "lyre". (Right)It would also be passing strange if a square-framed seven-string lap harp had given its name to the early Spanish 4-string "quitarra". Dr. Kasha turns the question around and asks where the Greeks got the name "kithara", and points out that the earliest Greek kitharas had only 4 strings when they were introduced from abroad. He surmises that the Greeks hellenified the old Persian name for a 4-stringed instrument, "chartar". (See below.)The guitar is a plucked stringed musical instrument that probably originated in Spain early in the 16th century, deriving from the guitarra latina, a late-medieval instrument with a waisted body and four strings. The early guitar was narrower and deeper than the modern guitar, with a less pronounced waist. It was closely related to the vihuela, the guitar-shaped instrument played in Spain in place of the lute.
The guitar originally had four courses of strings, three double, the top course single, that ran from a violin-like pegbox to a tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or belly; the bridge thus sustained the direct pull of the strings. In the belly was a circular sound hole, often ornamented with a carved wooden rose. The 16th-century guitar was tuned c-f-a-d', the tuning of the centre four courses of the lute and of the vihuela.
From the 16th to the 19th century several changes occurred in the instrument. A fifth course of strings was added before 1600; by the late 18th century a sixth course was added. Before 1800 the double courses were replaced by single strings tuned E-A-d-g-b-e', still the standard tuning.
The violin-type pegbox was replaced about 1600 by a flat, slightly reflexed head with rear tuning pegs; in the 19th century, metal screws were substituted for the tuning pegs. The early tied-on gut frets were replaced by built-on ivory or metal frets in the 18th century. The fingerboard was originally flush with and ended at the belly, and several metal or ivory frets were placed directly on the belly. In the 19th century the fingerboard was raised slightly above the level of the belly and was extended across it to the edge of the sound hole. In the 19th century the guitar's body also underwent changes that resulted in increased sonority. It became broader and shallower, with an extremely thin soundboard. Internally, the transverse bars reinforcing the soundboard were replaced by radial bars that fanned out below the sound hole. The neck, formerly set into a wood block, was formed into a brace, or shoe, that projected a short distance inside the body and was glued to the back; this gave extra stability against the pull of the strings.
The 19th-century innovations were largely the work of Antonio Torres. The instrument that resulted was the classical guitar, which is strung with three gut and three metal-spun silk strings. Nylon or other plastic was later used in place of gut.
Among variant forms of the guitar are the 12-stringed, or double-course, guitar, and the Mexican jarana and the South American charango, both small five-course guitars. Lyre-shaped guitars were fashionable in 19th-century drawing rooms. Other forms of the guitar include the metal-strung guitar played with a plectrum in folk and popular music; the cello guitar, with a violin-type bridge and tailpiece; the Hawaiian, or steel, guitar, in which the strings are stopped by the pressure of a metal bar, producing a sweet, gliding tone; and the electric guitar, in which the tone depends not on body resonance but on electronic amplification.
The guitar grew in popularity during the 17th century as the lute and vihuela declined. It remained an amateur's instrument from the 17th to early 19th century. A few virtuoso guitarists, however, became known in Europe, among them Gaspar Sanz (fl. 1674), Robert de Visée (c. 1650-1725), Fernando Sor (1778-1839), and Joseph Kaspar Mertz (1806-56). Modern classical-guitar technique owes much to the Spaniard Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909), whose transcriptions of works by Bach, Mozart, and other composers formed the basis of the concert repertory.
In the 20th century, Andrés Segovia gave the guitar further prominence as a concert instrument, and composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and Manuel de Falla wrote serious works for it; others (e.g., Pierre Boulez) scored for the guitar in chamber ensembles.
The guitar is widely played in the folk and popular music of many countries. In jazz ensembles it is part of the rhythm section and is occasionally played as a solo instrument. In popular music the guitar is usually amplified, and ensembles frequently include more than one instrument, a "lead" guitar for solos, another for rhythm, and a "bass" guitar to play bass lines.

Guru-Shishya Parampara

Guru Purnima (Sanskrit: गुरु पूर्णिमा, IAST: Guru Pūrṇimā) is an Indian festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers. This festival is traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, to pay their respects to their teachers and express their gratitude. The festival is celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the month of Ashadh (June–July) of the Shaka Samvat, which is the Indian national calendar and the Hindu calendar.

“Guru Shishya Parampara” or the teacher - pupil relationship is an important part of India’s teaching tradition. In ancient India most of the knowledge was passed on from the teacher to his pupil through oral tradition, this oral tradition of passing knowledge is known as the “Guru Shishya Parampara”. Indian classical music is still largely dependent on this tradition. In the “Guru Shishya Parampara” the student lives with his guru or teacher. The student learns different aspects of the music mostly through observing his guru and by following his oral instructions. Although due to emergence of institutionalized training, now in many parts of the world Indian classical music is being taught on the basis of a particular syllabus. But still “Guru Shishya Parampara” is the preferred method.It denotes a succession of teachers and disciples in traditional Indian culture and religions such as Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. It is the tradition of spiritual relationship and mentoring where teachings are transmitted from a guru "teacher" (Sanskrit: गुरु) to a śiṣya "disciple" (Sanskrit: शिष्य) or chela. Such knowledge, whether it be Vedic, agamic, architectural, musical or spiritual, is imparted through the developing relationship between the guru and the disciple. It is considered that this relationship, based on the genuineness of the guru, and the respect, commitment, devotion and obedience of the student, is the best way for subtle or advanced knowledge to be conveyed. The student eventually masters the knowledge that the guru embodies.
Strengths and weaknesses of Guru Shishya Parampara:
Strengths:
As we know every tradition has its pros and cons and so does this tradition. The “Guru Shishya Parampara” is a very ancient teaching method and thus, in the course of its development it has evolved some unique techniques to accommodate different needs of both the teacher and the student. Let us now discuss the strengths of this tradition:

• The first thing that happens during this teaching process is the formation of a unique mental bond between the teacher and the student. This deep bonding is absolutely essential when someone is learning an art like music.
• In this teaching tradition the student gets the sole attention of the teacher. Even if there are many students studying under one teacher it is possible to impart training to each and every student separately.
• There is no particular time or format of a class. A lesson may be learnt by just observing a concert or performance of the teacher. The time of imparting a lesson is at the discretion of the guru.
• This method helps to maintain the traditional aspect of Indian classical music. A guru who belongs to a particular gharana (or school of music) will pass on the traits of this gharana to his shishya or pupil and over a period of time the shishya absorbs all the necessary traits and style of this gharana and in this way the cycle continues.
• Another striking feature of this tradition is its ability to teach spontaneity. Yes, spontaneous improvisation techniques are taught through this tradition. This is possible due to the fact that this tradition does not lay down a fixed format for teaching so; it varies from person to person, from teacher to teacher. So, improvisation is inherent in this tradition.


Weaknesses:
From the above stated facts we get a clear picture of the strengths of the “Guru Shishya Parampara”. But, there are also some serious weaknesses in this tradition which are as follows:

• The student learns only from one teacher and thus, looks at all the aspects from only one vantage point.
• Absence of a structured teaching method makes students more vulnerable to failures.
• This tradition is particularly helpful for imparting practical lessons. It does not help in learning the theoretical aspects of the subject.
• Overdependence on a single teacher. We must not forget that teachers are human beings and their strengths, weaknesses, mood swings, perception and overall personality become important factors at the time of teaching.

Present form of Guru Shishya Parampara:
The present form of “Guru Shishya Parampara” does not strictly adhere to the principles of this tradition. It rather uses some basic concepts of this tradition along with modern teaching methods and techniques.

By using a MP3 player, iPod or digital recorder a student can now acquire more details in lesser time. Youtube and other such internet mediums have opened up vast archives of Indian classical music records of the past 100 years or so through which students can simultaneously learn and enrich their knowledge base. So, the scenario has changed quite a bit and we can expect to see more changes in the coming years.

Conclusion:
“Guru Shishya Parampara” is still essential for Indian classical music. It has not lost its credibility due to the emergence of new technology or institutionalized training system. What is needed today is a fusion of “Guru Shishya Parampara” with institutional training. New technology and equipment can further increase the effectiveness of this tradition. We must not forget that this is a time tested method. With spontaneity and improvisation as its key ingredients, it is destined to play even a bigger role in shaping the future of Indian classical music.
Gurudakshina refers to the tradition of repaying one's teacher or guru after a period of study or the completion of formal education, or to spiritual guide. This tradition is one of acknowledgment, respect, and thanks. It is a form of reciprocity and exchange between student and teacher. The repayment is not exclusively monetary and may be a special task the teacher wants the student to accomplish.