Anish Nadh’s Blog

Guitar lessons with Ebi had to stop, as dad did not want to pay for it. So I asked Ebi, if I could teach at his music school sanctuary. In exchange he agreed to teach me for free. He also paid me ₹500 that time, it was a huge sum of money for a 16 year old. This was how I made some extra money to buy the signature guitar, a guitar bag and strings.  I taught the basics and learnt from Ebi all that I could. I learnt all the cool gospel open chords and more! Ebi also had a lot of guitars! He played Steve Vai’s guitar and also had a Taylor! I only taught here for a few months, I felt I was getting stuck in a rut and I was not paid enough compared to what I was bringing in. So I called it quits and went to Along and Satem after Joshi took me to them. 

 I had a year to prepare for my supplementary exam, but I somehow convinced my parents to buy me a guitar! I went to Chickpet and I got a Signature guitar. I used this guitar for my lessons with Ebi, Along and Satem. My Gibtone guitar now had a lot of cracks and it was fixed with araldite and glue.  The signature guitar was easy to play and I realised what a good guitar can do to your playing! I learnt fingerstyle guitar on this and it was easy to play compared to the Gibtone. I improved steadily, still remember playing send amazing chords and composing music.  Many many years later, a student borrowed this guitar and disappeared with it. That was the end of my signature guitar. 

 My dad was posted in St James, we moved to Kammanahalli. This was the place where I learnt music a bit more seriously. Joshi was round the corner, he introduced me to Ebi, and I started learning fingerstyle with him. I also was quite active with the church, teaching everyone to play the guitar there. Kammanahalli had a lot of Christian population, I heard guitars around the neighborhood, round the clock, suspended chords and singing Open the eyes and Light of the world! I wanted to learn it all!  I had flunked pu college and this was a blessing in disguise! I had all the time in the world! I practiced guitar almost for 8 hours everyday, I also played a lot of Diablo and enjoyed the music theme. 

 Cathedral PU college was where I honed my craft, I played in a few bands, attended concerts, a typical day for me e we would begin early. I almost always went to college with my guitar with one notebook inside the case. I didn’t enjoy the lessons learnt in class, I waited for the band practise to begin, I bunked with attendance. I lost interest in studies because I did not have strong basics in math and science subjects.  At cathedrals, I was exposed to amazing music, bands, concerts I even played a few! I tasted the rockstar cookie there. After I graduated, all this suddenly came to a halt! I began looking for new adventure. 

 Joey named our band Breed Species ADas the Joseph’s Christian fest required us to not reveal the college name. Joey didn’t feel like any popular gospel song was worth covering, so he wrote one, taught me the bass part, that was groovy! I practiced till my fingers went red and purple and during the show, I played with blisters on my fingers!  The show ended with a duet, the most feared acoustic duet, that won all the competitions. Alex on vocals and Joey making all the guitarists there feel worthless. Needless to say, we won that competition and my college test scores lost!

Thermal and a Quarter was launching their album, Jupiter Cafe, and were playing a gig at music world. So Joey and I walked down to Brigade Road. I did not understand the Bangalore rock vibe back then. But I remember them to be very groovy and not Metallica or Maiden like!  What made me love the band was the vocalist Bruce, played complex guitar parts and sang at the same time! I didn’t expect that level of musicianship! I was thrilled when I heard the band was named after Three malayalees and a quarter malayalee.  After the show, I met the then guitarist Rajesh, who refused to sign the autograph and years later I was quite happy he was not in this band anymore. I bought their album “This is it” years later when I could afford the album. I think of them as the best band Bangalore has ever produced! 

Joshy was another friend from Cathedrals, my junior! He was a huge fan of Joey! (who isn’t) We bonded over our common language Malayalam! He loved music and never seemed to get the rhythm right, but he worked his ass off practising 5 hours a day, filling his books with notes and tabs.  He took lessons with Ebi and was suddenly playing finger style. Joey never really taught me how to play finger style, but Joshy was willing to share. He even introduced me to his teachers, Ebi, Along and Satem. I learnt music from all of them! They helped me get my techniques and theory in place.  Ebi taught me jazz chords and some fingerstyle classical music, Along taught me to read music and Satem taught me how to play electric guitar! These guys were masters! I will write about them later!  I am indebted to Joshy for leading me to the right teachers! Though he was an engineering student, he ended getting a sales job at Reynolds! And like any pure Malayali does, he moved to Dubai! The last l heard was