The Masters of Harmonica...

Shri Gautam Choudury

An interview with Shri Gautam Choudhury...

Shri Gautam Choudhury, settled now in Holland for the last 40 years, is one of the finest
Harmonica Players from India. He was associated with Shri Salil Choudhury for a long
time in his musical journey and has done several recordings along with Salil da.
Gautamji emphasizes on learning the Basic Theory of Music to learn Harmonica.
“Internet is a ocean of knowledge on Harmonica with great stuff for Learning from the
international players”. He considers Toots Thielemans as his Guru and role model.
Watch out www.salilda.com

He suggests mastering different scales on the C harmonica would be a wonderful way

to learn. Especially the G, Gm, F, Ef , D are some of the beautiful scales he
says.......read ahead

1.    How did the passion for Harmonica begin, how did you learn to play?

I must have been about 7-8 years old at school when another school kid brought this
little strange instrument which produced heavenly sound. He refused to let me touch it. I
decided there and then that I must have one of those things. A year later my grandma
gave me some money on my birthday and with that I bought a "Wren" tremolo
harmonica. It sounded beautiful and after a couple of days I was playing "jana gana
mana" ! All by ear of course !

2.    What do you think makes the harmonica a great instrument?

Its an instrument you can take with you anywhere, play whenever you feel like and it
gives other people a lot of happiness. A great way to make friends. If you play it well
then you make even more friends and they take you seriously. Harmonica is a very
versatile and a complex instrument. It is also comparable to any other orchestral
instrument (Sax, Flute, Trumpet, Violin, Cello etc) . To play it well, you must learn
it well - then you can play wonderful music alone or with other instruments.

It is very easy to play a harmonica badly - and it is very difficult to play it well.

A friend of mine once said  "With the music in your pocket you'll have music in
your heart" !

3.    What styles of music do you play on Harmonica?

I guess all styles ! I play western music, Indian film songs, Bengali modern songs, Latin
American music, some western classical pieces etc. Basically I love good melody and
good rhythm with nice arrangement.

4.    Which way would you recommend "Learning by ear"  or "Learning by formal
method" ?
"Learning by Ear" is very tempting and I guess a lot of us prefer to use that method. But
it has severe limitations. You wouldn't like to play Bhairavi Raag in Sitaar without years
of practice and study. It also depends on how good your musical ear is and how good is
your ability to play a song exactly like the original without missing (or corrupting) a note.
Unfortunately not all of us are born with the same "musical ear" !

If you want to learn any other instrument like a Sitar, Violin, Guitar, Synthesiser etc you
go to a teacher ( Guru) and learn the theory and all the techniques to master the
instrument. So, why we do not want to learn the harmonica seriously ? You don't need a
Harmonica teacher to learn the basic concepts of music - which I think is a "Must"
before you learn the harmonica.

So, my advice would be to develop your knowledge about the harmonica, the music
theory and also develop your ear. A good player must have a good ear and must be
good at reading notes, understand various key (scale) structures, is familiar with
the basic chord progression and in general prepared to work hard to master the
instrument.
Also, listen to other International Harmonica players such as Jerry Murad, Larry Adler,
Tommy Reilly, Toots Thielemans etc (all to be found in YouTube) and study their
tone, their harmonica holding, their techniques etc.
When I started playing there was no Internet. Now, Harmonica players have access to a
huge number of resources - make use of them.

5.    What are the common problem for beginners, and what should they do to
correct it?
The most common problem is not to take the Harmonica as a serious musical
instrument and just start playing any song very badly ! My advice is to take it seriously
as a serious musical instrument. Try not to fall into the trap of playing a song and
quickly upload it to YouTube and expect people to say "Wow ! You are great !" Sadly
that is what I have seen so far ...

Be inquisitive and humble and learn/practice, learn/practice and learn/practice.

Use the Internet to increase your knowledge on Harmonica, how to maintain it, how to
repair it etc.

Once again : Listen to other International players. Sadly I can not name any Indian
player yet as a role model.
Do not start uploading songs in Youtube randomly - you are just abusing the bandwidth
and creating a bad reputation of Harmonica. This is more prevelant in India.

After playing for a while tap the harmonica hard on your palm and leave it outside
for 10 min before putting it back in the case. Clean the surface and the mouth
plate well with a clean cloth.
6.    Which brand -model harmonica is your favorite, and why do you prefer it over
others?
It doesn't matter which model one is playing. If the harmonica is in tune and is
airtight with a smooth slide action, it is good enough. A good player makes any brand
sound great. A bad player will find an excuse to blame the brand/model etc. I play
Hohner and Hering. I like the Hering because I like its mouth plate (being slightly
narrower it fits my mouth better), it is airtight (no air leakage) and it sounds wonderful.
Besides my 4-Octave Hering, I prefer the 3-Octave Hohner - not the 4-Octave Hohner
due to its slightly fatter mouth plate. But - all this is my personal preference.
I use only the C-Harmonica.
7.    What do you think is the most effective way to practice?

First you must know how to blow and draw cleanly - For example : just practice "sa re
ga ma..." up and down using short-notes/long notes  using "single notes" and
make sure each note is clean ! DO NOT try to play in "chords". You will create noise. 

You can play in "Octaves" - but it requires a lot of practice and the harmonica must be in
perfect tune.
Use variations like "sa ga pa, sa re dha, re pa ni" etc.... Write down these
sequences first. Use any vocal excercise book for this.

Learn to read notes. Use any music book (Indian books are fine) to practice your notes.
Play "sa re ga ma..." using different notes as "sa". 

You MUST learn how to play a song in a different scale than just C. So, try the
note "D" (5D) as sa for example....

My advice would be to start learning the staff notation. It is international music

language. Also it has longtime been a standard in Mumbai/Chennai Film music
world also.

8.    How do you see Harmonica as a musical instrument being perceived

in Indiaas differently from other countries ?

It is not percieved as a musical instrument in India and it is not really taken seriously.

Primarily because we, the harmonica players, do not take it seriously. We also don't
have any harmonica teaching methods/Teachers/Schools to teach harmonica. No role
models either. Unfortunately we don't have any well-known harmonica player (yet) who
plays the instrument correctly according to the International standard. In other countries
harmonica is taken a bit more seriously and nearly every harmonica player I met can
read music. They also have many brilliant players as role models. 

9.    How do you foresee the Harmonica Movement as we see in a few cities
inIndia...

The movement is very encouraging but they have no future unless the instrument is
studied seriously like any other serious instrument. There is still rampant "vamping" and
"hand vibrato" coupled with futile efforts to play Hindi Film songs incorrectly ! Nobody
even tries to better himself/herself.

10.    A few tips and advice for the Harmonica Club members …
I guess, the answers to the above questions may give you many hints. I don't want to
repeat those answers.
If you feel that my answers are not sufficient, let me know. You can also write to me or
call me.
We would also request you for
a) Your memories with peer group / people you were associated with…
To write about all my memories/peer groups would take a long time. Shortly, I knew
Larry Adler quite well. I have met Jerry Murad and his Harmonicats, Tommy Reilly,
Toots Thielemans etc. I also know many International players quite well. I am also a
member of NHL (National Harmonica League <UK) and SPAH (US). I wrote about
SPAH recently in HarmonicaIndia.
I used to have my own Harmonica Group "Bloworms" (many years ago) in Kolkata with
me playing the Chord Harmonica and my friend Parimal Dasgupta playing the lead
(Chromatic). I also played the Bass Harmonica for many years with a couple of groups
in Europe.
In the '70s we made a BBC documentary called "Playing The Thing" - dedicated to
Harmonica. Many world class players had performed in that documentary.

I have also participated in numerous Harmonica festivals and know many International
players.

b) Discography (details of the albums released, music company, any online site
where these can be purchased).

I have recorded three cassettes and two CDs so far (many years ago). One cassette
and the CD of Bengali songs of Salil Chowdhury "Durer Thikana" (1996) , one cassette
of Hindi songs of Kishore - "Tribute to Kishore" (1994), one hindi cassette of Salil
Chowdhury songs "A Tuneful Tribute to Salil Chowdhury" (1993). I don't know if HMV
still sells them ! Try the Internet. These days everything is pirated!

the latest upload of Shri Ghoudury's uploads on the net...

http://ww.smashits.com/redirect.cfm?ID=11&TrackID=81667
1........2........3.......4.......5........6.......7.......8........9.......10
Blow..........Sa#..Ga#...Pa#...Sa....Ga......Pa....Sa*..Ga*....Pa*...Sa**
Draw.........Re#...Pa#...Ni#....Re....Ma.....Dha..Ni.....Re*...Ma*...Dha* 

To represent the lower pitch I used the notation "#" (i.e on the left part of mouthorgan) ,ex dha# , ni#
etc...
To represent the higher pitch I used the notation "*" (i.e on the right part of mouthorgan), ex sa* , ni*
etc...
To represent the use of changer (or the button on the right side) of chromatic mouthorgan) ,i used
the notation "ch" . for example : dha(ch)...
As shown in the above figure, a 10 holes diatonic mouth organ consists of three sets of SARGAM ,
first the Low pitch followed by the medium pitch followed by the high pitch. out of these three the
Medium pitch is mostly used .

It must be noted that all the tones from the mouth-otgan can not be produced by just exhaling air in
the mouth-organ , but almost half of the tones are produced by inhaling the air . for example : we can
produce Sa , Ga and Pa by exhaling the air in to the mouth organ , whereas the tones Re , Ma ,Dha
and Ni are produced by inhaling the air from the mouth-organ.

Before start learning to play any song in the mouth-organ you must learn to play the SARGAM ( Sa ,
Re ,Ga ,Ma ,Pa , Dha, Ni ,Sa).The reason i want you to learn playing it because i believe that if you
are comfortable with SARGAM you can play any song on your own.

HOW TO PLAY SARGAM 

As it is clear from the above figure that that medium pitch' is starting form the 9th node which is
"Sa" , so to play SARGAM you need to start from the the 9th node i.e. "Sa" .

As shown int the figure that for playing tone :

"Sa" - you need to blow or exhale air , for
"Re" - you need to draw or inhale air , for
"Ga" - you need to blow or exhale air , for
"Ma" - you need to draw or inhale air , for
"Pa" - you need to blow or exhale air , for
"Dha" - you need to draw or inhale air , for
"Ni" - you need to draw or inhale air , for

So to play Sa , Re , Ga , Ma, Pa ,Dha , Ni , Sa in sequence, you need to blow and draw air
alternatively while moving left to right on the mouth organ. But there is a exception , it must be noted
that, to play the note "Dha" you need to draw the air and again to play "Ni" you need to draw the air.

So Playing SARGAM consists of :

.Sa.....Re.....Ga.....Ma.....Pa...Dha....Ni....Sa*
blow draw blow draw blow draw draw blow
To listen SARGAM played by me , click here

After playing this SARGAM you should also play the reverse of SARGAM in continuation of
SARGAM.. as

Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni Sa* Sa* Ni Dha Pa Ma Ga Re Sa

e.....i....e....i....e.....i....i....e....e.....i....i.....e....i....e....i....e

>Practise playing this SARGAM atleast 100 times . You should be so much comfortable with this
SARGAM that if someone play a note on the mouthorgan u must recognize which note it was.

After you are comfortable with SARGAM you should proceed to learn playing your first song ....