In this series, T5E takes a look at the different Cultural Clubs in insti, and offers a peek at what they have planned. You can find the rest of the articles in this series here.
IITM’s Music Club has, historically, seen many brilliant musicians in campus, but this year, the club seeks to expand its activities by giving music enthusiasts in Insti an even bigger platform to come together, learn, develop and eventually make their own music. For one, it plans to make sure that an enthusiast’s calendar is filled up with some activity or the other throughout the year. From beginners to advanced level musicians, it will be catering to the diverse musical audience in the institute. Enthusiasts will be connected and updated through the Club’s mailing list and Facebook page.
Music classes for beginners have kicked off with tutors teaching the basics of playing the guitar, keyboard and flute. With this, the Club has laid the foundation for a lot of students to eventually get up on stage and showcase their skills. As far as other activities are concerned, the Club has planned a set of 6 workshops over the course of the year. The first workshop, which has already taken place, was an interactive Drum workshop conducted by the drummer of Chennai based band Crypted, Vishnu Reddy. Yesterday, Baiju Dharman, guitarist of Motherjane and god to many, came down himself to conduct a guitar workshop for the Club.
Other workshops lined up for this semester are most likely to be a hip-hop rap workshop by Brodha V of ‘Aathma Rama’ fame, and a keyboard/piano workshop presented by the faculty of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music. The Music Club has kept the students engaged with other activities too, such as an informal Karaoke Contest that was awarded with food vouchers.
In addition, Open Jams at Himalaya Lawns will be organized every month for all those enthusiastic about playing music. Meet up with new people, find those with similar tastes, and who knows? You might just end up making a new band and going places. Aside from all these plans, the Music Club also intends to provide the students with a couple of gigs, one each semester, giving them the chance to sit back and enjoy an evening full of music.
The Institute Music Room is also set for a revamp. Proposals have been made to make it fully air-conditioned and closer to the level of a professional jam room. New equipment will fill the current lack. “Once we’re done with it, expect it to be as good as, if not better than, any jamming facility in the city,” say the coords. Access to the music room will be made free for all, subject to attendance to a fundae session which will be organized once the revamp gets a go-ahead. On the delay in this revamp, the coords clarify, “For all the students who are waiting to use the room, we apologize for the delay. But we will try and make it worth the wait.”
For any comments or clarifications on the activities of the music club, you can drop in an email to the conveners at [email protected].
The Music Club conveners for the academic year 2014-2015 are Asmita Ghosh (9962959445) and Raunaq Banga (72004 95724).