String theory

With Mumbai Guitar Day being held today, we scrutinise the role of the instrument in modern-day music

It was 1999, but the memory remains as clear as yesterday. This was the era when air-conditioned Maruti Esteems were a thing of true luxury, and this writer happened to be in one, getting dropped off in a friend’s car after computer tuitions. While on the ride, the friend slipped an audio cassette into the tape deck. It started playing Sultans of swing by Dire Straits. The AC environs of the vehicle, and the superior quality of the expensive tape deck, made the music sound extra special. But our mind was well and truly blown when Mark Knopfler launched into the song’s seminal guitar solo right at the very end. “What is this wizardry?” we wondered to ourselves, and ever since then, a well-crafted guitar solo remains one of our favourite experiences as a consumer of music.

Mark Knopfler’s ending for Sultans of swing remains one of the most enduring guitar solos of all time. Pic/Getty Images

That’s why we are excited about Mumbai Guitar Day, an event that will be held today to celebrate the instrument. It features a line-up of local and international talents who will display their proficiency, including Malina Moye (USA), Davide Lo Surdo (Italy) and Esani Dey (India). But it also gives us an opportunity to explore the role of the guitar in the modern day, when the musical lexicon has been invaded with all sorts of new-fangled sounds. Hark back to the 1970s. That is when the electric guitar truly came into its own, thanks to technological advancements like distortion. The instrument became a vehicle for a generation to release its angst, after the failed hopes of peace, love and flower power in the decade earlier. Musicians like Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix offered the soundtrack for this disgruntlement, and all through the 1980s, ’90s and early 2000s, the guitar provided the backbone for bands that believed in getting up on stage and thrashing out their music.

Keshav Dhar

But then, electronic music entered the equation and started altering the course of things. “Producers on their laptops changed the sort of symbol that the guitar stood for,” says Keshav Dhar, who plays the instrument for progressive metal act Skyharbor. This symbol, he clarifies, is one that stood for rebellion. He tells us of an incident in his childhood when he landed up unprepared for a piano lesson, and the teacher wrote a note for him in big bold letters that read, “Stop wasting your mother’s money and my time.” “I left her place in tears, telling myself that I would never learn the piano again. And I remember going back home, putting on [American rock band] Soundgarden and thinking, ‘This is so much more fun!’ I can’t imagine a guitar teacher ever telling me what that piano teacher did, because the guitar celebrates imperfections. There’s no elitism with it, it’s more about acceptance. It’s an outlet, rather than a mere extra-curricular activity,” the 34-year-old explains. 
 
Kabir Bhattacharya, 18, who plays the guitar for Indo-Spanish band Red Summer, agrees. When we ask him whether he can explain the pleasure of listening to a mind-blowing guitar solo, he takes a pause and answers, “Music involves emotions, and when something is well thought-out and the musician knows what mood they are going for, and they can evoke that in a person, that is pretty much everything.” But Bhattacharya also feels that modern electronic music shouldn’t be viewed as a hindrance to the guitar’s enduring importance. “I used to think otherwise, but now feel that instead of thinking of electronic elements as a curse, we should view them more as an opportunity. There is no reason why you shouldn’t run your guitar through a synth pedal. It’s all fair game,” he says.

And indeed it is, because we have come a long way from the era of classic rock and tape decks. But the guitar isn’t going anywhere. Yes, its symbol as a form of rebellion might have been diluted with time. Yet, it remains a crucial element even in genres such as French electronic music. So, let’s celebrate its enduring legacy, which is what Mumbai Guitar Day aims to do, because some things never go out of style, and the guitar is one of them.

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