‘Chalo Dilli’: Harmonica Lovers’ Meet

Dilli Dilwaalon Ki- Channi Uncle plays a perfect host

On 2^nd October, harmonica lovers from different parts of the country gathered at Channi Uncle’s place in Delhi to “Breathe Harmonica”. This 59 year old gentleman has been playing the harmonica for almost 40 years. His name is Chander Parkash Chawla and he is popularly known as ‘Channi Chawla’. He is a retired government employee and is crazy for this cute little instrument. He says that playing the harmonica, listening to harmonica and discussing about harmonica makes him feel happy. He has a unique personality with a good sense of humour. He has his own distinctive style which separates him from the crowd. He loves collecting harmonicas and suspenders. No wonder, you’ll find him with the right combination of suspenders to suit his clothes. He hosted the meet at his place and made proper arrangements for boarding and lodging of the guests who were not from Delhi.

The Rendezvous- ‘Breathing Harmonica’

The harmonica lovers started arriving at Channi Uncle’s place since the morning of Gandhi Jayanti. No sooner did they arrive, than the harmonica session started and the people continued playing the harmonica seamlessly only to call it a day at 10:30 PM. It was also a memorable birthday celebration for Ramana from Hyderabad who happened to share his birthday with the father of our nation. The rendezvous lasted for almost 12 hours.

The guests of Channi Uncle included M/s Swarup Mitra from Raniganj near Kolkata (W.B.), Rameshwaram from Katni (M.P.), Ajay Vijh from Singrauli (U.P.), Ramana Ilayaraja from Hyderabad (A.P.), Keyur Shah from Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Raman Khandelwal from Jaipur (Rajasthan) and Harish Nayyar from Amritsar (Punjab). The Delhites who graced this occasion were M/s Rajeev Ranjan, Rajkumar and magician ‘Big Bhandari’. The co-hosts were harmonica lovers M/s Rakesh Chaudhry and Sandeep Tomar.

Harmonica Lovers with Arijit Mukherji

Channi Uncle and his guests visited harmonica icon Arijit Mukherji at his residence in Gurgaon. They had a good time listening to the mesmerizing renditions of his upcoming projects. Some of the songs of these projects were so soothing to listen that the guests Keyur Shah and Raman could not refrain themselves from requesting Arijit da to play one of the numbers once again on his music system. Arijit da also played some numbers on his harmonica to make the session livelier.

More info on Mr. Arijit Mukherji can be obtained at the following links.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/arijit-mukherji-noteworthy-harmonica.html

Khana Khazana: Big Bhandari hosts dinner

The harmonica lovers were invited by Mr. Ashok Bhandari for dinner. Very few people know that he is a personality with multiple talents. Needless to say that he is also a good cook. He reciprocated Channi Uncle’s gesture by inviting him and his guests to his place.

Harmonica magician Mr. Ashok Bhandari popularly addressed as Big Bhandari by our harmonica lovers gave a brief speech to harmonica lovers on the harmonica during his earlier visit. He says that he is not a harmonica player and he does not know the mathematics pertaining to music and harmonica. He just plays the harmonica with feelings. He prefers calling himself a performer. Harmonica lovers who heard Big Bhandari Live for the first time were convinced that he has the capacity to entertain and mesmerize his audience with his performance.

More info on Mr. Ashok Bhandari can be obtained at the following links

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2009/12/ashok-bhandari-magician-who-loves.html

Back to Work:

After the Delhi visit, almost all the participants had forgotten their Dil (heart) and Dimaag (Mind) in Dilli for almost a week. Information related to some of the harmonica lovers present in Delhi can be obtained at the following links.

Ajay Vijh:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2011/03/ajay-vijh-and-his-positive-vibrations.html

Swarup Mitra: harmonica tiger from West Bengal

Harmonica lovers Ramana,Vijay Konda from Hyderabad and Rameshwaram from Katni (M.P.), on their trip to Kolkata, had the previlege to meet a harmonica lover at his residence in Raniganj (West Bengal). This 40 year old teacher in a govt. primary school is lovingly addressed as 'Harmonica tiger' by Ramana and Rameshwaram. He is Swarup Mitra, a student of Milon da’s student-Saikat Mukherjee. Swarup Mitra is an excellent harmonica player. His soul is completely filled with music. He can play keyboard like a professional and can produce all the chromatic notes like a vocalist through his throat. He doesn’t need any chromatic tuner to identify any note. He has got musical ears and trains his students to play with the help of notations. He has enormous talent with multiple qualities. Above all, he is down-to-earth and friendly.

Early days as a harmonica lover:

Swarup Mitra was in 3rd or 4th standard when he fell in love with harmonica's sweet sound. He used to listen to his father's friend's son. When he asked for the harmonica, the boy scolded him but later lent him his diatonic harmonica to play. By evening, he managed to play 2-3 lines of Rabindra sangeet on his own. Very soon, he could play almost 75% of the tune in his house. His father bought him some locally made harmonicas but he opened all the harmonicas and broke them. When he was in 7th standard, his name was registered to play harmonica on Rabindra Jayanti at school. He did not have any harmonica with him for the purpose. So, he borrowed a 24 holes hero tremolo harmonica for two days from his father's student and played that song. For this, he was gifted a fountain pen by his school.

Swarup Mitra always felt that he was not getting all the missing notes on the harmonicas. In 1985, he purchased his first Hero Chromatic harmonica. From then onwards, he used to play regularly in different cultural programmes on invitation.

One interesting event he cannot forget is during his trip to Goa and Mumbai. He came across some foreigners who started dancing on listening to his harmonica. They had a good music session after which they gifted him some swiss chocolates.

In search of a harmonica Guru:

Swarup used to listen to Milon da's renditions on Vivid Bharti. He also purchased cassettes of Milon Gupta and Saikat Mukherjee. In 1987, he came across a person who used to learn from Saikat Mukherjee. When asked about the address of Saikat da, that person did not give him the address but just dropped a hint that Saikat da lived in Kamarhati area. That hint was enough for him to plan a meeting with Saikat da. It was a herculean task to find a person in the streets of Kamarhati. However, Swarup was determined to wander in that area with a Hero Chromatic harmonica and three audio cassettes of Saikat da. He thought of showing those cassettes to people in the streets and find Saikat da's address. He was lucky enough to meet a person on the road who knew the address of Saikat da.

Finally, Swarup Mitra reached Saikat da's residence. He waited for some time till Saikat da arrived. Saikat da listened to around 4-5 songs and told that he would send him (Swarup) to his guru Milon da as his guru would be able to teach better. However, Swarup insisted that he would learn from Saikat da. Saikat da agreed. Very soon, in a span of 7-8 months he became very close to the family members of Saikat da. Saikat da's wife insisted that he should stop taking fee from his student Swarup because he became just like a family member. From then onwards, Saikat da never accepted any fee from him. He also visited Swarup's house with his family and stayed there for three days.

Time for first HOHNER:

In 1988, Swarup Mitra convinced his father Shri. Kamal Kumar Mitra to buy him a Hohner Super Chromonica 270C from M.Hohner, Germany. They wrote to Hohner directly regarding their interest in purchasing a harmonica. The company agreed to ship the harmonica after receiving International Reply Coupons equivalent to the costs involved. Finally the parcel arrived. Swarup could not sleep for 4 days due to excitement.

Visiting the Mecca and Madina of Indian Harmonica:

In1990, Saikat da told Swarup Mitra that he would take him to the Mecca and Madina (holy places) of Indian harmonica. That place was none other than his Guru Milon Gupta's residence. Swarup was stunned to hear Milon da live. He was highly impressed by Milon da's style and techniques. He had the previlege to see Milon da demonstrate various techniques in front of his eyes. After a few years, when Milon da breathed his last, he cried a lot.

Career Vs Harmonica:

Very few people in India dream of pursuing a career in harmonica. Swarup Mitra once dreamt of pursuing his career in Harmonica. For this, he got support from his parents and he even quit his job at Indian Railways, Chittaranjan because he felt that the prevailing condition at Chittaranjan was not conducive for practicing harmonica. He did not get that environment which would motivate him to take his harmonica seriously.

He went to Doordarshan around 30 times just to get an audition form but failed to get one. On a sunday, he saw an amateur boy playing the harmonica on Doordarshan. Eventually, he was disappointed and decided not to approach Doordarshan any more and continue concentrating on practicing harmonica and teaching how to play this wonderful instrument to those who wish to learn from him.

His favourites:

Swarup Mitra likes listening to the renditions of Milon da, Saikat da, Karun da and some songs of Gautam da. He has special regards for his student Mukesh (a flute artist and a good harmonica player) and Ritesh Mallik without whose support he wouldn't have come across many harmonica lovers including some HaLoH members through You Tube.

Message for the beginners:

Swarup Mitra says,

1) LISTEN to the song AGAIN and AGAIN (as many times as possible) before playing it on the harmonica.

2) LEARN NOTATIONS because notation is the skeleton of the song.

3) ADD EXPRESSIONS to the song because the skeleton should be covered by a body.

4) Don't be proud that you are better than the other

Rameshwaram:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/07/harmonica-lover-of-week-rameshwaram.html

Keyur Shah:

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-experience-at-ahmedabad-atithi-devo_18.html

Happy Deepavali. Have a Blast.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Vardhman Jain visits HaLoH

Recently, harmonica lover Mr Vardhaman Jain from Vadodara visited Hyderabad on his official trip. He completed his engineering from MNIT Jaipur and joined Indian Railways. He has been playing the harmonica since his college days. Despite his hectic schedule he obliged and spared his valuable time for this brief rendezvous. Here is a tagged photograph of the Harmonica Lovers.

You can enjoy more videos from Mr Vardhman Jain at

http://www.youtube.com/user/vardhman1962

Harmonica Our Passion!

Inderjit Singh Soni: Visit to Pink City

Recently, Mr Inderjit Singh Soni visited Jaipur (Pink City) along with his family. He met our virtual member Raman Khandelwal. It was their first meeting but they felt that they knew each other for quite a long time. They spent two hours discussing about music, harmonica and had a musical session with karaoke tracks. Here’s one of those numbers played and recorded by him along with karaoke track at his home. Mr Soni, who started playing the harmonica in his childhood, says that he has been improving his harmonica skills after being associated with the harmonica lovers at HaLoH. He is also thankful to Mr Avinesh Singh for taking pains in teaching him the basics of recording.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Ashwin J. Betai: A Journey from Rangoon to Hyderabad

Our harmonica lover this week is Shri Ashwin J. Betai who was born in Rangoon (Burma) and is now settled in Hyderabad. He is a 50 yrs old Gujarati businessman with a good sense of humour. There is never a meeting at Indira park when HaLoH members do not laugh at his funny jokes. He can play many instruments like Harmonica, Flute, Mandolin, Harmonium and Keyboard.

Ashwin ji developed the love for music during his childhood at Rangoon when his father used to play the harmonica. Later, their family shifted to Kolkata where he used to observe his uncle play the Mandolin. His uncle taught him to play the Mandolin. At the age of 17 or 18, on his request, his uncle gifted him a Hero harmonica and he started performing in college stage shows. Today, after being settled in Hyderabad for almost 30 years, he still plays the Harmonica and Flute in several programmes of his community.

Though he has Hohner Larry Adler 16, he still loves to play old Hindi melodies on his Tower harmonica. His 13 yr old son Yash A. Betai is learning to play the harmonica from our own fellow member Shri B. Vinayak who was a direct student of Milon da. Mr Vinayak teaches with notations and feels that Yash is picking up harmonica skills very fast and jokes that one day he may play better than his father.

Ashwin ji has a special inclination towards the wind instruments. He feels that even a sick person becomes well after listening to the sound of harmonica and flute.

Our Second Birth Day!

Friends,

It was exactly two years ago (according to the Lunar Calender) i.e. Dushera 2009 that this blog was launched.

We had begun a journey not knowing where we were headed but I guess we are slowly finding our way, thanks to all your support, guidance and patronage.

We at HaLoH thank you all and look forward to your continued support.

A Happy Dushera to all of you.

Milon da’s son says “HaLoH Hyderabad”

Recently, HaLoH members G Raj Kumar, B Vinayak and Ramana met Shri Sanjoy Gupta, The son of harmonica legend Milon da.

It was a brief rendezvous at hotel Mercure in Hyderabad. Mr sanjoy Gupta is a free lance Cost Accountant and is settled in Mumbai.

Mr Sanjoy Gupta doesn’t play the harmonica. Never the less, He has carefully preserved almost 80% of the collection of rare EPs,LPs,Audio cassettes and harmonicas of his father. His son (Milon da’s grandson) Master Shubhayu Gupta is a music lover and has cleared his 6^th grade theory for keyboard from Trinity College of Music, London. He will be appearing for his practical examination this year.

Mr Sanjoy Gupta had discussed about harmonica, And his father’s close friends and associates settled across the globe including Karun da ( Shri Karun Chakraborty) who’s article has already been published on this blog.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2011/02/rendezvous-with-milon-das-associate.html

It was really interesting for those present there in the meeting to learn about the close associates of Milon da.

Harmonica our passion!

Big (B)handari’s version of ‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare’

Long back, our friend Kromatic Khandelwal requested Big Bhandari to record one of his favourite harmonica tunes-‘Om Jai Jagdish Hare’ which he plays often. This artee, sung in the praise of Lord Vishnu (Narayana) has been finally rendered by Shri Ashok Bhandari on his Hering 16-hole harmonica.

The recording is excellent and a track had been especially prepared for this rendition. Bhandari ji has very creatively improvised on this popular number to get a different feel. The notes in the beginning of this rendition have been impeccably bent on the harmonica to mimic the sound of a conch shell.

More details about Mr Ashok Bhandari can be seen at the following link.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/01/rendezvous-at-delhi.html

HaLoH thanks Bhandari ji for this treat.

Harmonica Our Passion!

Harmonica Lover of the week- Noteworthy harmonica player Arijit Mukherji

At his endeavor to popularize harmonica, Mr Arijit Mukherji played few tunes on harmonica for Tara TV “Experts” in 2008. More details about Arijit da can be seen at the following link.

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/04/arijit-mukherji-noteworthy-harmonica.html

We do hope you'll enjoy watching these videos

Harmonica our passion!

HaLoH weekly meeting on 22nd August-11

Shri Inderjit Singh Soni invited all HaLoH members to his residence. Hence, this week, instead of meeting at our regular venue-Indira park, Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad Vinayak, Kailashnath,Vijay Konda, A Rajkumar, Avinesh Singh, Ravibabu and Ramana assembled at Shri Soni’s residence. We had a great musical session for 2 hours blended with all kinds of tunes on harmonica followed with tasty Punjabi snacks :-P

HaLoH thanks Mr Soni for his warm reception and hospitality

Sumanta Basu-Love from the land of melody - Part 2

Visitors of this blog might remember we posted an article on Sumanta Basu -"Love from the land of melody" and his album " Those were the days"

http://harmonicahyderabad.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-from-land-of-melody.html

Now you can enjoy those videos. You will agree with us that Sumanta's recording and video editing skills are no less than that of any professional sound engineer and film editor.

Our team mate Ramana, along with Rameswram visited one of his favorite harmonica artist Sumanta Basu at his home. Sumanta played a perfect host during their visit to his home. Sumanta is not only a harmonica virtuoso but also a wonderful painter, canvas maker, photographer, composer, lyricist and a great human being. He introduced our team mates to his mother and other family members. Their meeting commenced with tasty Bengali lunch along with most tasteful discussions about harmonica. Later, they entered into the land of melody (Sumanta's music room cum home recording dash board). Sumata understood the passion of these two guys and answered all their queries with patience and passion. He showed them what he does for the creation of his music and elaborated everything step-by step explaining the nitty gritties of each step. This opened a new window of knowledge for Ramana and Rameshwaram. Sumanta promised to visit Hyderabad to meet all HaLoH members.

Sumanta's views on learning to play the harmonica:

Rather than sticking to original scale never compromise on comfort level

Play harmonica from the heart

Harmonica sounds sweeter in second octave rather than on first octave

Listen vocal version of the songs several times to know the expressions of the songs and then practice on harmonica

Playing harmonica by ear may cause flaws.

Know the basics of music and play song as per the notation.

Sukanta Ghoshal-A Chromatic Journey

We would like to express our deepest thanks to Mr Sukanta Ghoshal for his love and affection towards our team members Vijay Konda, Ramana and Rameshwaram Bhardwaj during their recent visit to Howrah. We take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about Mr Sukanta Ghoshal and his Chromatic Journey.

Sukanta Ghoshal’s musical career is a story of an enduring love towards the chromatic harmonica. Born in Shibpur, Howrah in 1970, Ghoshal was brought up in a rich musical environment. His dad being a disciple in tabla of the great Pt. Jnan Prakash Ghosh – informal musical sessions at home were common. What’s more - his aunt used to be a professor at the Rabindra Bharati University, and an aura of Rabindra Sangeet was surrounding him. These combined musical factors thus had a profound effect on Ghoshal from his childhood days as he developed a strong liking for music.

While in college, Ghoshal was inspired by a senior and took to the chromatic harmonica when he was a first year undergraduate student. He started out as a self-taught guy on a ‘Tower’ and even did a couple of shows that way! But soon he decided to learn the instrument formally, and started doing so from Premangshu Chatterjee, back in 1991.

As recollects Ghoshal, the first 6-7 months went on smoothly, and he never failed to live up to his home assignments. Harmonica by then must have captured Ghoshal’s mind completely! “It was for the first time in the song ‘Pathe Ebaar Naamo Saathi’ – that I stumbled upon some difficult note progressions.” – admits Ghoshal, smilingly!

The learning went on fine and Ghoshal got himself his first ‘Hohner Super Chromonica’ in 1992. In 1994 came an important juncture when he became a disciple of the great Milon Gupta! Unfortunately, Milon Gupta died in February 95 – Ghoshal continued learning though from his daughter Mummun Gupta. By this time, he had become quite adept at reading music on the go.

In 1995, he started learning harmonica from the great Parimal Dasgupta, considered a legendary musician, composer and arranger in the Calcutta music circuit. Dasgupta being a learned man and a scholar of music in his own right, Ghoshal started learning the technicalities and nuances of music from him and began to acquire maturity in terms of technique and theory. It was Dasgupta who also taught Ghoshal concepts of harmony and double stops in the 3^rd and the 6^th!

1995 proved to be a turning point in Ghoshal’s harmonica career in more respects! It was this year that he surpassed 65 competitors to snatch the winner’s trophy in both ‘Light Indian’ and ‘Rabindra Sangeet’ categories – in a competition organized by the IHA (Indian Harmonica Association) in memory of the Late Milon Gupta. What’s more – he was also selected as a grade artiste at the All India Radio! And Ghoshal did not have to look back ever since.

A regular performer with the AIR, Ghoshal does public shows selectively. Speaking of his memorable moments as a performer, Ghoshal fondly remembers a show in 2006 at the CCFC grounds in Kolkata where he played an unbelievable 25 songs at a stretch in a show spanning over 2 hours!

Ghoshal’s art reflects his sheer control over the technical aspects of playing a chromatic. His playing is also characterized by his mastery over speed; executing difficult and fast note progressions on a chromatic harmonica in a crisp manner that only a few can pull of! Ghoshal is also very particular about the small vocal inflections and nuances and is always on the lookout for that elusive ‘feel’ while he is at a song!

As a musician, Ghoshal has always been inspired greatly by the compositions of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore and Salil Chowdhury – and of course by the playing of the greats such as Larry Adler and Milon Gupta. “I have listened to ‘Salil Chowdhry Hits’ by Milon Gupta more than 200 times!” – chuckles Ghoshal.

Since 2000, he is also engaged in inspiring others to pick up harmonica - as a faculty at Banichakra, Kolkata – nurturing fresh minds to take the art forward!

Write up by Mr Arindam Sen, Kolkata

HaLoH meeting with Debashis Dutta

After a vacation at Mysore, on way back to Hyderabad, our member Ramana halted at Bengaluru for a few hours. He met Mr Debashis Dutta, a popular harmonica player of India at his residence. No wonder, without harmonica session, any harmonica enthusiast's vacation is incomplete. Though it was a working day, Mr Debhasis deferred his official meeting and spent about 3 hours with Ramana on discussing and enjoying harmonica session.

Mr Debashis Dutta, an Aerospace and Materials engineer by profession, is 55 years old. He is based at Bangalore where he had lived and worked for the last 30 years. He did his B.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from BHU-IT and then followed it up with an M.Tech degree each in Aerospace Engg (IIT-Madras) and Materials Engg (IISc Bangalore). He currently works in a senior engineering position for a US based aerospace MNC in Bangalore. He is a member of harmonica Club of Bangalore.

He is a self-trained mouthorgan player. He got introduced to this instrument when he was about 14/15 years old in high school by his maternal cousin Mr. Satinath Mukherjee who was an accomplished harmonica and piano professional and a contemporary of the great Milon Gupta. His cousin gifted an old Hohner mouth organ to him which he still possesses. What interests him about the instrument is that it is quite versatile, user friendly, a constant companion for every season and every place and produces music that pleases his ears along with everyone else’s ears. Moreover, anyone with an ear for music can learn the instrument on his/her own and give performances.

This is what Mr Debashis Dutta says about his harmonica playing style and preferences: “My playing style is basically single note playing but I do resort to Octave playing depending on the requirement of the song. For that matter I also resort to tongue slapping once in a while depending on whether that style would best suit the particular line of the song in a given situation. I try to get into the emotion or "feel" of the song rather than concentrating too much on accuracy of individual notes, lyrics or grammar. This approach according to me brings out the best from a harmonica or any wind instrument. I prefer playing Indian music, i.e., old meldious Hindi or Bengali songs with beautiful tunes composed by legends like Salil Chowdhury, Pancham Da, SD, Naushad, Madan Mohan etc. I prefer to play Chromatic harmonica of Suzuki and Hohner brands.”

Embedded below is a rendition by Mr Debashis Dutta.

Ajay Vijh and his positive 'VIBRATIONS'

Our harmonica lover of this week is Mr. Ajay Vijh, a regular visitor and follower of this blog. Many harmonica lovers must have listened to his yr 2008 musical album titled 'VIBRATIONS' in which he has played some popular bollywood numbers on the harmonica. He is a civil engineer by profession employed with Northern Coalfields Ltd. at a small town called Singrauli which is situated in the border of UP and MP.

Making of a harmonica lover:

It all started around 30 years ago when Ajay Vijh studying in 8th standard attended a football tournament closing ceremony in his colony and saw a gentleman playing the harmonica during that programme. He liked the sweet sound of harmonica. He was so impressed with the sound that he borrowed a double sided Hero harmonica from one of his friends and tried producing some music on it. He played that harmonica for around 2 years and later stopped because his father had got transferred to another place. Later, he came across one of his friends during his Engineering course who had a Hero single sided tremolo harmonica. He borrowed the harmonica from that friend and started playing it again. Finally, after getting a job, he purchased a Hohner Super Chromonica 270.

Harmonica collection:

After getting placed in a job, Mr Ajay Vijh added many more harmonicas to his collection which includes Hohner 270 in the keys of C, G, D, A, E & B, LARRY ADLER 16, CX-12, and some Hohner diatonic harmonicas. Though he has only Hohner harmonicas, he wishes to have the harmonicas of other make too. Though he feels that the sound of Larry Adler is quite good, he prefers Hohner 270 because its slide can be reversed. He also has a Yamaha keyboard which he plays sometimes.

Favourite harmonica players:

Ajay ji’s ideal harmonica player is Late Milon Gupta. As a student, he used to save some pocket money to buy LPs and cassettes of Milon da and listen to his harmonica renditions. Amongst the current harmonicists, he likes the playing styles of Shri Anupam Pal, Shri Ashok Bhandari also popularly referred to as Big (B)handari, Shri Saikat Mukherji, Dr. Pankaj Bose, Shri Arijit Mukherji, Shri Swarup Mitra etc. He likes the way great music director Late Shri R.D. Burman utilized this little instrument in his music. As of today, he has personally met only one harmonica lover of the above-Shri Anupam Paul face to face. "It was an enriching experience to meet Shri Anupam Pal during my Kolkata visit recently", says Ajay Vijh.

Prefered style:

Ajay ji plays Indian melodies and prefers single note playing on his chromatic harmonica. Off late, he has been practicing tongue slapping too. Nevertheless, he feels that tongue slapping does not sound good if done for the complete song. It should be preferred only at some particular intervals in a song. Sometimes, he also reverses his slide of Hohner 270 to play in C#. He feels that some songs sound beautiful if played in C# especially when one presses the button to get a semitone lower note instead of a semitone high note as in the case of a 'C' harmonica. He advises new harmonica players to first listen to a song for at least 40 to 50 times and hum the tune till it becomes quite familiar before trying to play it on the harmonica. Secondly, he advises to stick to one song and play it completely before attempting another number.

Spreading the love for music:

Ajay ji and some talented music artists started "Orchestra Swar Sangeet" which was re-christened as "Symphony Orchestra" at Singrauli. They perform in and around Singrauli area. Ajay ji also does a bit of anchoring along with harmonica playing. He has also encouraged his 11 yr old son to play the harmonica. One can see his son playing the numbers like 'Pal pal' and 'Jai Ho' on his you tube channel- 'ajayvijh'.

Embedded below is a video made on the popular hindi melody 'Piya tose naina laage re' which was played by Mr Ajay Vijh in his album 'Vibrations'. Hope this piece of music brings positive vibrations within you :)

Harmonica Our Passion!

Harmonica lover of the week: Ravibabu

Ravibabu, a harmonica lover of Hyderabad, is ex-servicemen in Indian Army and is currently working in a multinational telecom company. He is our harmonica lover of this week.

First Love for Harmonica:

When Ravibabu was studying in 9th Std at Gorakhpur (UP), his school-mate (a Nepali) used to play the harmonica. At that time he was attracted to the harmonica because of its sound and tiny size. He became desperate to feel the harmonica but it was'nt available anywhere in the surroundings. His brother used to own a guitar. He gave the guitar to that school-mate and borrowed his harmonica. That was his first experience with this instrument. Within a very short period, he picked up few numbers like "Kanchi re kanchi" and "Hai apna dil to awara".

Experience at HaLoH:

After he joined Indian army as a wireless operator, harmonica gradually disappeared from his life for about two decades. One fine day, he happened to know about HaLoH and joined our group. Now, he is a full fledged harmonica player. He has a huge list of songs which he enjoys playing on his collection of harmonicas which includes Suzuki SCX56,Suzuki SCX48 in A,G,Hohner Super hromonica in D,F,Super Chromonica Deluxe,Hohner CX-12 in C,Swan 10 holes chromatic,Suzuki pure harp diatonic, Suzuki pro-v diatonic,Hohner puck and a silver song diatonic in G. He always expresses his thanks to HaLoH members, especially Vinayak and Ramana who inspired him to use chromatics and octave playing on harmonica. He feels HaLoH has motivated him to play a wide range of songs on harmonica and is a proud Harmonica Lover of Hyderabad. HaLoH wishes Mr Ravibabu all the best in all his future endeavours in his career and passion.

Please watch Ravibabu's video. He's playing "Lakhon hain nigahon mein"

HaLoH pays tribute to the Indian harmonica legend (Late) Shri Milon Gupta

Harmonica Lovers of Hyderabad paid tribute to the Indian harmonica legend (Late) Shri Milon Gupta who breathed his last on Feb 18th in the year 1995. It was a small gathering at Rajkumar Gavvala’s residence. Milon da is the man who popularized harmonica with his melodies and taught harmonica to many harmonica lovers including Shri Vinayak B. HaLoH members M/s Vinayak, A. Rajkumar, Kailashnath, Ashwin, Mahendra Gala, Ramana attended the meeting. Shri A. Rajkumar introduced another harmonica lover to HaLoH who is Shri Shyamala Rao, Branch manager for a Govt. General Insurance company at Hyderabad. He shared his love and passion for harmonica with all of us. One of the greatest harmonica players of this country Mr Swarup Mitra called HaLoH team at the same time to pay his tribute to the harmonica legend Shri Milon Gupta whom he calls as “the Bhagwan of harmonica”. He played the tune “Aaj koi na apna” over phone. Another Milon Da’s fan from Kolkata Mr Shubmay Das Gupta sent a message to HaLoH team “I still remember that fateful evening. I was at Rabindra Sadan at that time, a stone’s throw away from Milon Da’s residence, when he passed away. I took my last class from him only on the evening before and was unaware that he was no more. Hence, could not pay my last respects." Smt. Sujata Dutta, daughter of Milon da expressed her feelings regarding the tribute paid to her late father by harmonica lovers to Shri Vinayak. Mr

Ajay Vijh(MP), Mr Ashok Kulkarni (Maharashtra), Mr Debasis Dutta (Banglore) also expressed their respects for the legend.

Let us pray for the departed soul of the gentleman musician MILON GUPTA on his 16^th death anniversary.

Rendezvous with Milon da’s associate- Shri Karun Chakraborty

Our team member Ramana along with harmonica lover Rameshwaram Bharadwaj visited Chandan Nagar, Kolkata to meet Milon da’s close associate and one of the greatest harmonica players of India. Karun Chakraborty, a resident of Chandan Nagar (West Bengal), a painter by profession, has been following his hobby of playing the harmonica for more than 50 years now. He is a member of SPAH(Society for Preservation and Advancement of Harmonica), headquartered in Michigan (USA) and was invited to perform everyday in the week long 37^th Annual convention held in Romulus, Michigan in August 2000. The renowned harmonicist of Kolkata , Late Milon Gupta was his teacher and guide.In Milon da’s absence,He used to train his(Milon Da’s) students.

Mr Chakraborty was awarded the Gold Medal in the West Bengal Youth Festival in 1965 and has been performing at many venues in India as well as overseas all through. In the US, he has performed at University of Utah, Salt Lake City in 1997 for the "Fifty years of Indian Independence Celebrations", at Hartford, Connecticut and at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut in 1988. In the same year, he was invited to become an honorary member of the Golden Age Harmonicats of Chicopee, Massachusetts which had been founded by the late Sam Sheppard, and played at several functions all over the New England area as part of the group. He is equally skilled in playing Indian tunes as well as Western tunes. Very painful to share with you- now he is visually handicapped due to macular degeneration since his early 30s. However, this hasn't discouraged him to play the harmonica which he feels is his life.
Mr Karun’s better half- Smt Dipali Chakraborty, HOD Dept of English,Shillong College(Retired), also a music lover always accompanies Mr Karun Chakraborty at all the events. She has special interest in Rabindra Sangeet and has translated around 50 songs to English and those were published in Kolkata local magazine- "KRISTI".

The couple extended a warm welcome to our team members and this meeting was one of their most memorable meetings.

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Thank you.

Meeting with celebrated Indian harmonicat- Dr Pankaj Bose

During their recent trip to Kolkata- Ramana,Vijay Konda and Rameshwaram met with the Indian harmonicat Dr Pankaj Bose at his residence. Dr Pankaj Bose is an educationist attached with University of Calcutta. He is famous for his inimitable style of playing. Over 400 tunes like modern Bengali, Hindi film songs, Rabindra sangeet, Kirtan, Raga based semi classical songs have been released by UD-Series & Raga Music. In 2001, Bangla Chalachitra Prachar Sansad ornamented him by giving “Uttam KumarAward”. He was the Vice President of Indian Harmonica Association. Manna De (The famous Indian singer) became charmed and sent him the certificate by his own handwriting. He used to take part in AIR, DDK-Kolkata & other private channels at a regular interval. Ankur Bose, son of Dr. Bose, an IT engineer as well as a shining keyboard player, has already created venture jointly with his father.

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Harmonica lover Chandrashekhar Khare visited HaLoH

Few days ago, another harmonica lover from Banglore Mr Chandrashekhar Khare visited HaLoH. The atmosphere was really graced with his presence. We enjoyed listening to the renditions by Mr Khare on his Hohner Super 64X. HaLoH members present there had played harmonica one by one.

Banglore based Mr Chandrashekhar Khare an electronics engineer by qualification is working in IT industry for the past 17 years and a core member of Bangalore Harmonica Club.

Mr Khare picked up harmonica at the age of 10, he was introduced to this instrument by some of his kid friends who bought it as a toy. But he took it more seriously and started playing songs. That is when his father bought him a Hero make harmonica. Since last 24 years Mr Khare continues to play Hohner make chromatic harmonicas.

Given below are his views and feelings about harmonica.

“This instrument is portable, sounds beautiful, and has a wonderful range in terms of the kinds of music you can play. Above all, it gives you a chance to be a solo player and allows you to come out of the shadows of the vocalist. A harmonica player will generally not be seen accompanying. Even so, then his music will stand out during performance, Till date, I have learned on my own without any formal training. My ears have been my gurus. I keep taking tips from fellow players on improving the techniques. Now with internet and youtube around, learning has become easier. In India, many players of the past generation are stuck with Bollywood and just one style of playing. They have lot of notions regarding what can not be done with Harmonica. As a result, they tend to plant these beliefs in the mind of youngsters. This approach needs to be rooted out if anything good was to happen on the harmonica scene in India. We should let the oxygen of fresh ideas flow and see the instrument evolve. The youngsters have the talent and capacity to work miracles. So help them unleash their potential”

--- Chandrashekhar Khare,Banglore.

HaLoH looks forward to meet more harmonica lovers from BHC in the days to come.

HarmonicaIndia group strives to popularise the humble harmonica-Darshan Manakkal.

As far back as 1956, when bluesmen like Sonny Boy Williamson 2 and Howlin’ Wolf were introducing American audiences to the harmonica, Badruddin Kazi, otherwise known as Johnny Walker, was seen playing it in “Yeh Hai Bombay Meri Jaan”, in the movieCID. Two decades later, Dharmendra pursed his lips around one while perilously perched on Amitabh Bachchan’s shoulders in “Yeh Dosti” in Sholay. The musician playing the harmonica in both films was Milon Gupta, a self-trained artist from Kolkata, who in turn taught and inspired an entire generation of Indian harmonica players, including RD Burman. Milonda (as he is fondly referred to by his many students) is credited with adapting the Western instrument to play Indian melodies. However, after Gupta’s death in 1995, the instrument lost favour with Bollywood composers and slipped into obscurity. Harmonica players from around the country are hoping to change that. They recently formed an online group called HarmonicaIndia to restore respect to the instrument and to remove its “picnic toy” tag. HarmonicaIndia, which now has 444 members, was formed in 2006 by the Bangalore-based purveyor of musical instruments, Abe Thomas. Thomas admitted that his motivations spring in part from his business interests – he represents the Suzuki Musical Corporation in India, which manufactures harmonicas. “It’s called market development!” he said. “We must first teach a person to drive before selling him a car. Once you get the harmonica bug, it’s very hard to shake it off.” The group, which started off as a marketing exercise for Thomas, has now grown to an exhaustive online pool of resources, where members come to discuss techniques (vibrato, head shaking, bending, tongue blocking, vamping, chording and so on), types of harmonicas (chromatic, diatonic, tremolo and the like), tablature for popular songs, and to comment on harmonica recordings by other members. Debashis Dutta, a Bangalore-based aerospace and materials engineer and a self-taught harmonica player, said he has benefited enormously from the interactions on the group. “I learnt a lot about music theory, harmonica types, playing styles, and how to play songs of different scales on a single harmonica of a particular key,” said Dutta, who was gifted his first harmonica, a Hohner, by his cousin when he was 14 years old. “From the comments by group members on my own performances, I have learnt and improved my own playing.” One person who has managed to do this without the website is Vishwananth Shirali, a 71-year-old who taught himself the harmonica. Shirali uses the internet to look for instrumental versions of popular Hindi film songs. He plays his Hohner by ear along with the music, the reed instrument standing in for the vocal parts of songs like “Raat Ke Humsafar” from An Evening In Paris. “It was very popular when I was in college, especially during The Beatles craze,” said Shirali. He moved on to playing the synthesiser and forgot about the harmonica until 2005, when saxophonist and RD Burman’s assistant Manohari Singh came to his show. “I happened to be playing the harmonica,” said Shirali. “Mr Manohari enjoyed it so much he invited me to accompany his saxophone at an RD Burman tribute where I shared the stage with musicians from Burman’s orchestra.” That performance led to more, including an OP Nayyar tribute organised by Pune’s Harmonica Club in 2009. Last year, Shirali’s harmonica was part of a song sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Kunal Ganjawala for the Kannada film Jothegara. Notwithstanding bit parts in films, the harmonica is still in danger of disappearing altogether, said Sudheendra Muralidhara, a software entrepreneur from Bangalore. He lauds the launch of HarmonicaIndia but is a little disappointed with the quality of discussions in the online forum. Unwarranted criticisms frequently mar proceedings. “I’d love to see a more open-minded learning attitude,” conceded Thomas. He is also hoping that an offline initiative he proposed, to get 60 harmonica players from around India to play the national anthem together, will take off. With inputs by Aditya Kundalkar Visit www.harmonicaindia.com for more information and to become a member.

Source : Time Out Mumbai

Megha chhaye adhee raat-Avinesh Singh