you
[Music]
you
[Music]
a very very very good evening to all of
you present here my name is Vinay kasha
and I'm a guitar player
now I'm usually onstage about two nights
a week sometimes more sometimes less so
I'm no stranger to being in the
limelight talking to an audience this
size however is a tad bit new to me so I
won't pretend that I'm not a little
nervous but I have brought my best
friend along to keep you guys
entertained in case I falter along the
way now let me tell you something about
guitar players and I know that each and
every one of you present here has that
one over-enthusiastic guitarist friend
this one guy who was just at it he's
he's just he's just always on his
instrument noodling that's the term he's
constantly noodling on the instrument a
series of unrelated notes just flying by
at full speed it almost sounds like
there's a mosquito now you know your
your that you just can't get your hands
on you know what I mean
something like this maybe the truth is
we guitarists we are in a weird
constantly in this state of intense
musical exploration trying to achieve
these unimaginable heights of
Awesomeness right to become guitar gods
basically in in fact that the term
noodling is so popular that it's almost
embarrassing that our that our wizardry
on the instrument has any slightest
connection with a packet of Maggi or top
ramen speaking of noodling my my wife
came up with a really good one the other
day what does it take to get a guitar
player to stop his new link being
invited to a TEDx talk
but okay so when I was invited to talk
here today I was I was thrilled ecstatic
about the idea until I read the theme
for the event something to do with the
word die relax
now let me come clean right here and now
I'm no scientist I had to google the
word right away not only did I learn a
new word that sounds incredibly cool by
the way parallax I'm pretty sure my next
album is gonna be titled parallax please
look out for that one
but it also got me thinking about
various lessons I've learned in life
through music that can be applied to
life as a whole and I'd like to share
these stories with you today starting
with lesson number one your mother's
always right I grew up right here in
Pune with a mother who plays the sitar
and plays it really well
my earliest musical memories are the
sounds of this incredible incredible
instrument jumping to my teens and the
world of rock and roll opened up and I
picked up the guitar and I got decently
good at it rather quickly I was that
popular boy in school who could strum
the chords of summer of 69
[Music]
people egged me on and I kept playing
exploring Pink Floyd - Pearl Jam and
somewhere along the way my mother said
hey you know what Vinay it might not
hurt for you to learn some Indian
classical music - as you might have
guessed no I didn't I didn't pay much
heed to her rock and roll and all of
that you know that whole teenage thing
that you feel right but luckily for me
it turns out that being in a certain
environment conditions you without you
even knowing it I had all these
impressions of Indian music being made
on me all through my childhood now in
2012 I went off to the United States of
America to study music musicians
Institute in Los Angeles bang in the
middle of Hollywood oh what a place to
be now here I was surrounded by all
these incredible guitar players these
guys who have had a couple of guitars
lying around their houses as they grew
up probably learning to noodle on them
before they could even talk you know
guys who grew up listening to the blues
and playing the blues maybe something
like this
[Music]
and me a boy from Pune who picked up the
guitar in his teens
[Music]
so yeah it was a little intimidating but
it turns out that listening to all that
classical music had somehow seeped into
my playing just a little bit all my
classmates they loved my sound they
thought I sounded incredibly cool I
sounded Eastern which for them was very
very hard to replicate I had my own
unique sound one of my professors joked
about it by saying that my guitar spoke
with a stronger Indian accent than even
I did and then you know things just kind
of fell into place I was more
comfortable in my shoes and that year
turned out to be one of the most one of
the best years of my life full of
learning performing and soul-searching
it makes me think back to if I had just
paid a little more heed to what my dear
mother said I wonder how much better I'd
be so the moral of the story oh yes you
already know it moving on to when I was
you know just back from music school I
was staying in Mumbai trying to do any
and every gig that came my way
you know what the rents in Mumbai are
like right and generally I was trying to
figure my way out as a professional
musician by now I was a big fan of the
Blues and had also studied the genre
right I got called for a very very very
peculiar gig there was a famous American
blues singer coming down to perform in
an auditorium backed by some of the
finest musicians from Bombay I was gonna
play too just not in the auditorium but
in the foyer outside before the main
performance and during the intermission
now here I was straight out of music
school dressed super sharp and playing
my heart out man in a corner though
right while the who's who of the city
were on the other side chatting over a
cup of coffee nobody really cared about
what I was doing or at least that's how
I saw it I felt pretty terrible but the
show must go on about half an hour later
the doors to the auditorium were opened
and people rushed in to grab their seats
for the
performance they had paid to watch I had
a full hour to kill before the
intermission which was my second set and
I kept thinking and overthinking the
whole thing and by the time you know it
was time for my second set I was
positively depressed I was wondering
what another 20 minutes of the same
humiliation would do to me
turns out I had never been so wrong I
had about 50 people come up and talk to
me tell me how much they enjoyed my
playing many people took photos and
videos I handed out about 30 business
cards so that's a successful gig right
there a charming old lady went to the
extent of even saying that hey you
should have been there on that stage
instead of those guys a big takeaway for
me from this experience was that people
who enjoyed my playing a lot more than I
thought they did which is true in life
right people enjoy and appreciate you
lot more than you think they do
speaking of appreciation I have many
many friends who constantly complaining
to me about their nine-to-five they say
hey VIN I'm you're so lucky to do
whatever you want whenever you want
since you don't have a day job
how weekend's is the only time they get
to you know hang out with their friends
and let loose a little bit now the funny
thing is that while I really really love
my job on a day to day basis
hey I miss my weekends too I'm working
around the clock despite what day of the
week it is I rarely get two days off in
a row
forget about Saturdays and Sundays
because I'm usually playing the guitar
on stage on those days and these kind of
conversations always ended in a deadlock
until a rather wise friend of mine
pointed this out to me and you might
want to brace yourself for this one I
get to work because of the people who
have the weekends and the guys who have
the weekends can enjoy it because of my
work isn't that amazing
[Music]
okay Lesson four and I'm gonna read this
one out to you the ups in life are ups
because there are the downs intense now
thank you thank you in music this
context this concept exists in terms of
consonance and dissonance consonants
being the harmony between two notes that
makes you feel good you know comfortable
elated and dissonance is kind of the
opposite the lack of the same harmony
that makes you feel a little stressed
out a little not at ease right and I'd
like to show you exactly this what is
brilliant though is that without one
there would never have been another I'd
like you all to close your eyes just for
a minute so you can focus on the sound
let's start with consonants you know the
feel good stuff please close your eyes
[Music]
feels good right happy light dissonance
is kind of just the opposite dissonance
[Music]
so now what's amazing is that without
without consonants there would have been
no dissonance and likewise what we let
you in on a little secret
what we composers do is we use both
these concepts together to you know
change the mood up highlight the other
one more like to highlight consonants
you play a lot of dissonance and then go
to consonants and stuff like that and
generally to keep you guys interested in
the whole whole piece of music I'm gonna
exaggerate this just a little bit to
show you the stark difference between
the two I request you all to close your
eyes again
[Music]
you see what I mean two sides of the
same thing that wouldn't exist without
one another it's it's very very similar
in life you can't have known any
happiness if you haven't known some
degree of sadness at some point of time
in your life right to code the great
Carl Jung the word happiness would lose
its meaning if it didn't if it wasn't
balanced out with sadness unquote now if
you wrap your head around those things
and embrace it you can you know achieve
something great
and speaking of greatness in our quest
to become guitar gods what we end up
doing is we play very very fast you know
guitar players you know them everybody
who knows them constantly playing and
the thing is it is so important to pause
to slow down now music is made up of
three main ingredients rhythm melody and
silence you probably like your favorite
song because it has these three
ingredients in the perfect Midlands
rhythm and melody are simple enough to
understand but silence let's talk about
that for a second what is silence
silence in this context is maybe the
pause in a song like between two verses
or it could also mean the little little
pauses that exist in a melody something
we call phrasing I'm going to play you a
string of notes without the pauses see
if you can recognize what this is and if
you can how you feel about it okay
[Music]
now I'm gonna bring bring those pauses
right back in check it out
[Music]
Pink Panther right the Pink Panther
theme thank you but you saw what how big
a difference that made right just the
pause is coming in this melody suddenly
breathing and dancing around because
because the great composer Henry Mancini
put those pauses in just the right
places great phrasing for for us
musicians I feel like it's very very
similar in life it doesn't hurt to take
a moment to collect your thoughts in a
in a conversation or generally to take a
step back and ponder things over to cut
a long story short take that holiday
that you want to take basically to sum
it up just like you need both your eyes
to perceive something on the horizon you
need a good set of notes a few
experiences and a whole lot of feelings
to make a song unraveling the parallax
is the theme for today and I hope that
music will always help us set aside our
biases and see the bigger picture I'd
like to end this wonderful wonderful
experience at TEDx vit tunay by playing
you a piece of music that I wrote which
I think draws from all these experiences
the ups and downs the consonance and
dissonance the pauses please welcome my
good good friend and a specialist shreya
sangar on stage for this one we present
you naked on a train
[Music]
[Applause]