Karan Khosla, who moved from Delhi a year
and a half ago is a physicist by education and a jazz guitarist by passion; the
protégé of jazz pedagogue Matthew Warnock. Being immersed in the jazz music
circuit in Delhi through his own instrumental jazz outfit, The Karan Khosla
Quintet and his various performing stints as a session guitarist with popular
music acts across the country and globally, Karan is clear in his mission to
impart world class teaching methods to create next generation artists in Goa
and provide them a professional avenue. He shares, “There is very little
professional based music education available. Music isn’t just about exams and
theory alone. Skills to improve learning to play by ear, understanding the fundamentals
that allow students to collaborate improvise and perform together within a
structure helps hone confident musicians. ”
As with all things academic, it isn’t a
surprise that in India, 90% of music education is exam based. Making a detour
from the traditional by providing a curriculum for Jazz, the Goa Jazz Academy
offers private instruction and certificate courses in ear training, music
theory, improvisation and specialisation courses for ukulele, bass, guitar,
drums, piano, vocals and wind/reed. Currently situated in Sangolda, the academy
hopes to have a more permanent venue by next year in North Goa. Khosla
elucidates, “One of our more successful programmes is our band/ensemble
education programmes that teach students about the art and science of playing
together. For young musicians, we have the ‘Mini Mozarts’ programme that gets
students to build confidence in working together by learning lots of songs. Our
adult education programmes especially the Guitar classes have also been doing
well.”
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Catering to students of varying ages from 7
to 60, the Academy also has a Jazz Ensemble scholarship programme in
association with Guitar for Life (GFL), based in the US, which is run by Dr
Matt Warnock – one of the leading jazz educators in the world. Khosla is happy
to add, “Our first batch of 12 musicians have gone through Level 1 of the
scholarship and the response has been so good that GFL has agreed to increase
the funding support to include two jazz ensembles.” The Academy will be running
this intensive programme again, over a period of two months in October/November
2019 and applications will be accepted in September. This is an easy to access
free of cost tuition for participants that would help them build a deep
foundation for jazz music and learn the vocabulary that helps students craft
their solos better and train their ears to improvise.
It is a fact that Jazz arrived in India
through the Gateway in Bombay and then spread to all metro cities. While many
western orchestras performed in the hotel’s lobby, homegrown talent came mainly
from Goa especially to play the saxophone and clarinet. They contributed greatly to background scores
in Hindi movies. Adds Khosla, “Goa has such a rich musical heritage coupled with
so many music venues. It’s important to have an organised set up with good
musicians to keep the performance culture alive.”
With support from leading Goan musicians
and students who have joined the course and been part of the scholarship
programme, Khosla confidently says, “It’s important to have the right teacher
and pedagogy has to evolve over time to make it interesting for the student.”
It isn’t a surprise then that UNESCO has asked the Academy to be the official
partner for International Jazz Day 2020.
With experience on his side and humility
his armour, Khosla could add an important missing link in providing the right
exposure and creating a confident approach for talented next gen Goan
musicians.
