
“Once they caught on to the basic song, we incorporated synchronised claps to teach them the idea of rhythm,” says Hegdekar. “We chatted about a group of seven friends, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni, in which each friend is just a little bit taller than the one before them.” Meanwhile, peppy visuals and lyrics flashing on a projector eased the kids into a sing-along mode. One of the first activities involved introduction to the basic swaras through storytelling. “Even students of higher grades throng the classroom, partaking in our activities with a craving that is palpable,” she says. The content would include everything from Punjabi or Kannada songs to world music,” shares Mahadevan, as Archana Hegdekar, the music teacher behind the pilot classes, adds Rabindra sangeet, Japanese folk and African melodies to the exciting list.Ĭity Programme Manager with SMA, Hegdekar can’t stop talking about the buzz that her twice-a-week presence in the two schools have generated among students. And what kind of music would the students be learning? “All kinds! Only the medium would be vernacular.



The larger programme, slated to coincide with the next academic session, would involve a few more schools. Keen to start slow before replicating the model elsewhere, Mahadevan’s troupe started with pilot classes in the Adarsh Nagar Municipal Primary School and the Prabhadevi Municipal School this week. Of course, if the process throws up some bona fide talent, the students would stand a chance of being nurtured by the academy, or Mahadevan himself. Instead, Mahadevan, whose enterprise Shankar Mahadevan Academy (SMA) has earlier taken music to the financially disadvantaged, hopes to leverage the good cheer of melody and rhythm to make lessons exciting. “The idea isn’t to turn each one of them into a Kishore Kumar or a Mohammad Rafi,” he clarifies. “It always struck me as unfair that children without the means to enroll in certain kinds of institutions miss out on the joy of music,” explains singer Shankar Mahadevan, who has joined forces with Shiv Sena’s youth wing Yuva Sena head Aditya Thackeray to introduce Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation school students of Classes I-IV the mellow delights of fine arts. Not through ho-hum texts, but interpretive music.
Shankar mahadevan academy online classes free#
The highlight of the program was the musical fusion by the children who come under SMA’s Inspire India Project, where children from economically backward societies are given free music classes.Should you find yourself in select civic body run schools around the month of June, you have a fair chance of running into teachers from singer Shankar Mahadevan’s online music academy, disentangling concepts of mathematics and geography for students. Age was just a number that was re-emphasised by the participants of the event. A bunch of talented artists came together to present their own compositions sung by budding artists. Sangam successfully portrayed that music is a confluence of heart, mind and soul. Pallium India was blessed to be part of this event. At the same time, they could bring out many hidden talents from many of Pallium India’s patients and caregivers through singing and fun.Īnd to add to this joy was a music extravaganza ‘ Sangam’ performed by the talented students and teachers of Shankar Mahadevan Academy.

The 60-minute musical bonanza was an initiative to have musicians perform to people who battle life alone – living with a serious illness or coping with sheer loneliness. Shankar Mahadevan Academy introduced a free musical entertainment program called Nirvana. It connects people in ways that no other medium can. One thing that is constant in this world is the power of music.
