20 YEARS OF MUSIC EVOLUTION (1999 – 2019) & GUITARMONK

A beautiful insight on transition of music lifestyle in the past 20 years by Kapil Srivastava (Founder of Guitarmonk, India’s Largest Chain of Guitar Schools)

Thank You for joining us. You have been a music educationist for past 2 decades. It is really admirable and inspiring to see growth of your career from an author-guitarist to founder of an amazing Guitarmonk. Only a few handful artists can reach to this level, out of millions of musicians worldwide. How do you see this success and journey?

Thank you for such beautiful words. I think we have just started and there is long way to go. There are so many beautiful ideas in my mind, which are yet to come to reality.  

You have taught thousands of students via Guitarmonk. You mentioned that you have imparted 1 million hours of guitar education to students worldwide. It’s a great figure. So how do you define music yourself?

Music is everywhere. Many fail to notice how music occupies our lives. We are surrounded by frequencies be it cacophony or disharmony and it is the music of nature. Not all perceivable by a human faculty. People also say there is music of silence too. To cut the chase, from a human perspective, music is arrangement of all those sounds, which we find pleasing to ears. We normally understand music based on our training, upbringing. Not every human can appreciate all kinds of established music genres across world. Some even hate too. Have you not seen generic disputes?

Oh Yes I have seen. How do you see music scenario changed since your school days? How do you read the evolution of music in last 2 decades?

During my growing up years, in the 90’s, it is only through radio transistors and televisions that we can listen or watch music at home. Until Audio Cassettes and then CDs came into fashion that most students like me would save up part of our pocket money so we can buy our own CD tapes and have the privilege of listening to them at the comfort of our own homes. We used to count and feel proud of our personal music library and were always excited to add something to it.

In the past, music was a privilege and luxury. But through development of technology, everybody now has an access to music anytime, anywhere on their fingers absolutely free of cost.

How do you see the impact of technology on music scenario now and then?

Technology has changed the way we experience music. Now, a simple mobile phone becomes an unlimited music shop, where one can be treated to a grand selection of digital songs, online radios, mobile music apps and a lot more. This unlocked a wide dimension in establishing music entertainment as well as music education and its valuable impact on every human being.  

How do you see impact of technology in music education?

Just like what Oscar-winning composer, AR Rahman regards that if children wants to learn music, they should have access to proper music education. Technology has provided several tools for a better music education in various ways of softwares, recording, performance etc. All these things we can easily avail today without any extra cost. It has helped us to integrate all components of music education easily, which was too expensive before. It is only through technology Guitarmonk is able to empower thousands of students and teachers worldwide.

How do you see Guitarmonk is going to impact education by next 5 to 10 years?

We are reaching masses by eliminating the limitations and breaking the boundary of orthodox and conservative music education system. Stability is one of such factors which are very important for music professionals. There are millions of guitar teachers, institutes and players in world but most of them are struggling. It is because; we failed to devise the model that can help hundreds and thousands of established music professionals to achieve stability as enjoyed by other commercial professions. And we think that Guitarmonk has the potential to serve this model to the masses and we are headed in same direction.

Do you have plans to establish physical centres outside India too?

Definitely and we are working in the same direction.

How can people connect you on social media?

They can always write us through our website guitarmonk.com or WhatsApp +91 9899 755 985

This is awesome! I want to share everyone that Guitarmonk is a brand that supports teachers, students, performers and all those amateurs who want to come in music or even earn in music professionally or invest in music in form of opening up their guitar school and settle in music professionally. So if you are willing to do something in music, Guitarmonk is right up there.

It was great knowing you and talking with you. Look forward to Guitarmonk and Thank you very much for such a wonderful insight.

My Pleasure !