North Indian Tradition

     Brij Bhushan Kabra was born in 1937 to a prominant musical family in Jodhpur. His father had studied with the sitar master Inayat Khan, father of Vilayat Khan. One of his brothers was Ali Abkar Khan's first student. (Kaiser pg. 40) Although Kabra wasn't that interested in classical music he had great exposure to the music through his father and brother. His brother was a student of Ali Akbar Khan and took Kabra to see Khan perform many times in his youth. While in his late teens, studying business administration in Calcutta, he heard the "Hawaiian guitar" for the first time on the radio. Within a short period Kabra had his first guitar, a Hofner accompanied with a bar slide.

     Within 15 days Kabra was able to play a few film songs with the slide that he learned by ear. He shortly returned to his father's home and brought the guitar with him. His father begged him not to play the guitar or the style of film music. "Why don't you learn a sitar or sarod, or a vina, an Indian instrument.."(Kaiser pg.40), his father insisted, but Kabra remained determined. When his father saw his determination he challenged his son to perform a concert of some classical music within a year, also asking his son to promise to play only classical music on the instrument.

     During the next year Kabra studied the guitar diligently, playing up to eighteen hours a day. A few lessons from Ali Abkar Khan provided some of the basic fundamentals of music theory and Khan also provided some much needed encouragement. After Kabra had studied for a period Khan said "Don't leave this, because I believe that you are going to do something special on it. There is something special about this instrument: it has its own character, its own individuality". (Kaiser pg. 40) Khan also provided him with some further instruction. Kabra's impending performance found him playing for twenty minutes and meeting with some encouragement from many musicians in attendance for the performance. It was at this time that Kabra began to think of how to make the instrument more suitable for the music he was playing. Before we look at Kabra's innovations to the guitar we will look at the early musical training of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Debashish Bhattacharya.

     Vishwa Mohan Bhatt was born in 1943 to a musical family. While growing up Bhatt's father was a vocal teacher and Bhatt absorbed the compositions his father taught "without the formal training." (Wald pg. 79) Bhatt told Elijah Wald, "Without my father sitting and teaching me, I was learning all those compositions, all the ragas which my father taught. Before the student started singing I would start singing, because he used to teach them all the same compositions and it got in my ears." (Wald pg. 79) It was in this way that Bhatt began his study of music.

     More formal lessons started as Bhatt got older. He began to study the sitar, which his eldest player was already studying. Bhatt studied the sitar for two years or so and then began learning the violin, which one of his other brothers played for another couple of years. At the age of 16 Bhatt decided to try his hand at the guitar to be different from his brothers. Although Bhatt knew of players such as Brij Bhushan Kabra who played classical music on guitar, he knew of no teachers. Having seen people playing in the Hawaiian "Lap" style Bhatt decided to try to teach himself.

     Bhatt didn't find much outside encouragement. Bhatt says "most Indians still considered it appropriate only for light music and pop music, people didn't expect serious classical music out of the guitar." (Wald pg. 79) Bhatt's family was no different, encouraging him to continue studying sitar or sarod. Bhatt, however, wanted to "take the challenge and try to create something new". (Wald pg. 79) By the time Bhatt was in his late teens he began performing and was well received. Debashish Bhattacharya had a better opportunity to study the guitar then Brij Bhushan Kabra and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt due to his parents early encouragement of his taking up the instrument.

     Debashish Bhattacharya was born in West Bengal in 1963. He was born to a musical family. Both of his parents as well as his sister, are vocalists, and his brother is a tabla player. Debashish was exposed to music from an early age. His mother sang classical music until she gave birth to Debashish, and she became ill. Under the advice of Debashish's dad she began to take up "light" music. This included taking up the guitar. It was during this time that Debashish first heard the instrument. Debashish had a strong musical sense as a youngster and began to study the guitar, using a bar as a slide when he was five years old.

     With coaching from his mother Debashish began to master the scale positions on the guitar with the bar. His mother would sing solfegio lines and ask Debashish to copies these with his slide. As Debashish advanced in his technique his mother added the gamakas (ornaments) of Indian music. In this way Debashish was introduced to Indian music. Debashish told Steve Humphreys "This is the system, learning from singing. I never felt any limitations on guitar because I learned from a limitless type of music, vocal music." (pg. 18) Debashish's lessons with his mother were supplemented with lessons from a Western musician of Hawaiian and Spanish guitar.

    After two years of training in the Western style Debashish quit his lessons and began to play light Indian music and some of the compositions his mother had previously taught him. Debashish then began to study the sitar and it was at this time that he began to learn about ragas and traditional compositions. He studied with a number of sitar players in Calcutta and later began to study the harmonium. Throughout this time, he was still playing the guitar. By his early twenties Debashish was performing concerts and he won the President's Award of India in 1984 playing the six-string Hawaiian guitar. At this point Debashish decided to alter his instrument to make it more suitable to the music he wished to play. Brij Bhushan Kabra had started innovating the instrument some time before him.