Jugalbandi - Another Milestone in our Musical Journey...

Last Friday [12th May], myself and my daughter Pratibha presented a Jugalbandi of Sitar and Bansuri at the historically important and famous 'Sree Krishna Temple' at Udupi in Karnataka.  It was a memorable day for us and a major milestone in our musical journey.

Almost about 3 years back, we never thought that either Pratibha or me will ever perform music on a stage.  After learning Sitar for few months, we have to give up her learning, as she couldn't move beyond playing plain notes, and couldn't find a teacher.  The stem cell therapy that she underwent has considerably enhanced her fine motor control and sensory integration skills along with many cognitive and behavioural improvements.  That has immensely helped Pratibha in her musical journey, by improving her: sense of rhythm; ability to grasp, ability to learn and remember musical compositions; alertness and attention span. 

After her stem cell therapy, I took the onus on me to teach Pratibha Sitar, with my limited knowledge in Hindustani Classical Music and Sitar, based on my two years of learning Sitar.  The way how Pratibha was taking interest and showing progress, has encouraged me to push her further.  Though I started learning Bansuri, hardly found quality time for practice.  Pratibha started getting stages for performance, and I focussed on preparing her for performing, as she was gaining confidence after each stage performance.   Finding a teacher to teach Pratibha Sitar was a great relief, as that helped me to start focussing on my Bansuri practice.  

"Tarang" is a music initiative that I drive, where developmentally disabled individuals sing as well as play instruments.  When we planned a one hour stage performance by Tarang members, it was decided to make it "inclusive", in order to emphasise that the developmentally disabled individuals too are part of community, just like any others.  To give an emphasis to 'inclusion' Pratibha's individual performance with Sitar was planned as a Jugalbandi with me performing Bansuri with her.  Learning, planning, practicing and performing the Jugalbandi with Pratibha was an awesome experience for me.  

This is a major milestone in our musical journey.  It was not easy for both of us. Whenever the rhythm drags, I could give clues to Pratibha through Bansuri.  We had combinations of repeating taans alternatively on Sitar and Bansuri, sharing taans by doing parts, playing Bansuri in different octave than what is played on Sitar to give better effects etc.  I was very happy to see how alert Pratibha was to wait for me to complete and then join for playing together, at the right beat on the rhythm.   Yes, there were slippages and scope for lots of improvements.  We are working on that. 

Thanks to our gurus, Smt Aparna Deodhar, Pratibha's Sitar guru and Sri Himanshu Nanda, my Bansuri Guru, for their whole-hearted support and encouragement.  

In a span of one month, we performed the Jugalbandi on three stages, two for Tarang, and the last one at the historically famous Sreekrishna temple complex, in Udupi, Karnataka.  Both of us immensely enjoyed performing.  Considering the situation 3 years back, the feeling of 'we performing together' is yet to sink in.  Yes, it is a dream come true...   

Here is the video recording of our performance in Udupi.

We discovered many areas of improvement for both of us.  We are practicing and striving to improve quality of our music.  

Progression of "Fine Motor Skill" and "Sensory Integration", that made Pratibha's Sitar playing melodious...

My daughter Pratibha has been playing Sitar for little more than 2 years now.  I do feel that music has been one of her passions and might be a ‘purpose in life’ for her.  I want to touch up on one consideration in this post, that helped Pratibha’s musical journey a reality.

The terms ’Fine Motor Skill’ and ‘Sensory Integration’ are frequently heard when you deal with children having developmental disabilities.   Let us first look at the definitions of these terms.  As per Wikipedia, ’Fine Motor Skill’ is the coordination of small muscles, in movements - usually involving the synchronisation of hands and fingers - with the eyes.  The complex levels of manual dexterity that humans exhibit can be attributed to and demonstrated in tasks controlled by nervous system.  Fine motor skills aid in growth of intelligence and develop continuously throughout the stages of human development.  Lack of this skill manifests into issues such as cutting shapes out of paper, draw or trace over vertical lines, button their cloths, pick up objects, sorting and manipulating geometric shapes, making patterns, playing musical instruments etc.  ‘Sensory Integration’ is the process by which we receive information through our senses, organise this information, and use it.   

The three basic actions of playing sitar are:  (1) Pulling and positioning strings, (2) Moving and keeping fingers on the strings & frets, and (3) Synchronising the actions of left hand fingers (moving and positioning on strings, and pulling strings to the right position) and right hand fingers (Plucking the right string).  ‘Fine Motor Skill’ and ‘Sensory Integration’  are very critical for these actions and the quality of music will depend on how accurately and precisely they are done. 

We have been observing the fine motor skills of Pratibha, and found that she was fairly ok in most cases dealing with day-to-day activities, though its development was delayed.  When Pratibha started learning Sitar (about 9 years back), she could play only plain notes.  Pulling strings to create melodious notes was almost impossible for her.  There was not much improvement in this even after learning and practicing for an year.  Repeated attempts to make her try pulling string to generate melodious sound did not yield meaningful results.  Also, her sense of rhythm was not up to the mark, leading to poorer quality of rendering music on Sitar.

After the stem cell therapy she underwent at Neurogen Brain & Spine Institute, we resumed her Sitar practice, after a gap of 6 years, with the hope that therapy would have done its work.  In about 3 months, we could see noticeable improvement in her ability to pull string and hold the string at a particular note for longer.  That was a wow moment for us!  That encouraged us to put more focussed efforts.  Yes, it is the improvement in her fine motor skill made this possible.  Now she is able to do something, which she was unable to even attempt  previously.  Focussed practice led to continuous improvement of the fine-fine motor skill resulted in her playing melodious patterns on Sitar.  

On Sitar, playing second string generates notes of lower octave, which is played while accompanying singer with lower pitch, and while playing aalaap.  Playing notes on both strings in combination, is not that easy.  I started trying this out with Pratibha.  She was finding it difficult, due to many reasons.  (1) The strings are not visible to the performer, (2) When a string is plucked with the right hand, the fingers in the left hand has to be placed on / pull that string.  This requires high level of sensory integration.  The performer has to sense the string, and move the fingers to that string, without the strings being visible.  I could sense that, Pratibha was able to pluck both the strings, but getting sense of which string being plucked and synchronising the fingers of left hand was tough for her.  This required very high level of fine motor skill with sensory integration.  Focussed training helped her get a hang of playing two strings as required.  Still long way to go.

Here are two short videos that demonstrates what is mentioned above. First video shows the control of fingers in left hand, where fingers keep moving from first to second string, and vice versa, based on which string is plucked using right hand finger.   The second video shows plucking of strings with right hand fingers, again switching from 1st to 2nd strings and vice versa, as per what is being played.

I believe, such level of improvement in “fine motor skill” with “sensory integration”, is achieved only because of the Stem Cell Therapy that she underwent at Neurogen.  Along with many other improvements, this aspect made it possible for her to play Sitar and perform on stage.  The Stem Cell Therapy has done the fundamental physical change in her brain, that led to considerable improvement in ‘fine motor skill’ and ‘sensory integration’ resulted in improved quality of Sitar playing.  The intense music training carried out after the Stem Cell Therapy, helped in training the new neurons generated in the brain, resulting in these improvements.   Thanks to the team of doctors at Neurogen, who are realising dreams of many developmentally disabled individuals, and bringing smiles on people around them.