Music

Walmart Ed Sheeran is born

My first real step into the world of music had an amusing reason behind it - peer pressure (the good kind). During 7th grade, all my friends were part of a band of sorts and they would jam regularly at someone’s house, practice and perform during competitions at school. This filled me up with major FOMO, and I decided that I’m going to learn an instrument as well. I started going to classes for acoustic guitar and completed a beginner program in 6 months. After this, I would go for classes here and there and try to learn some intermediate techniques and music theory. That progressed in a sort of okayish manner, but most of my learning was done on my own through the internet. Over the next four years, I mostly self learnt a number of techniques, my favourite being, fingerstyle guitar. In this, you don’t use the guitar pick at all. Instead, you use your fingers to pluck the strings and play out any melody of your choice. I have recorded a ton of covers, you can listen to a few here.

with a hint of Slash and Beethoven?

In 9th grade, I got my first electric guitar. I went for classes for around a year or two and learnt basic rhythm, scales and solos. Unfortunately I was really hooked onto my acoustic and didn’t spend that much time on my electric. Soon after JEE prep started in 11th grade, I found myself being really short on music time, and whatever little time I did find, I would always spend on the acoustic. So that’s a sad story.

During lockdown, amidst my infinite boredom, I did one useful thing. I learnt how to play basic melodies and chords on the keyboard and also how to sing along with chord progressions on guitar as well as keyboard. This was actually something I was really happy with. I also managed to “song-ify” some poems written by my friends, and I received overwhelmingly positive feedback when I posted this on my Instagram, which gave me a ton of encouragement to carry on.

Spotify Wrapped AIR 1

Other than this, I spend a ton of time everyday listening to music. During studying, eating, showering, cycling, before going to sleep, you name it.
My favorite artists include Ramin Djawadi, Hans Zimmer, Linkin Park and Ed Sheeran. Favorite album of all time?
Westworld Season 1 OST. That soundtrack was nothing short of amazing, I could listen to it a million times, especially ‘Dr. Ford’. Also, if you haven’t watched the show, you’re doing something wrong. Fix it.
If you wanna know more about my music taste, head on over to my Last.fm or my Spotify.