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Home > Articles
& Features > Article 5 - Product is as good as its process, so is
Musician |
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Article 5 - Indian Classical Music - Product is as good as its process,
so is Musician |
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During my recent professional stint as
software process consultant I have learnt a basic process improvement concept
which says that “any product is as good as its process”. This principle
of process has proven to be very effective in the manufacturing industry to
produce almost defect free products. The stress of this principle is creating
the process in such a way that it produces predictable results of predictable
quality. Now, when it comes to human being, I am
sure not all the principles of manufacturing a product would be applicable.
In fact we do like every human being having a unique characteristic and would
not like every human to be exactly same like another. However I always wonder, “Can same
principle of process be applied with some variation where we can develop a
performing musician of considerably high quality every time when he/she is
subjected to a streamlined process of musicianship?” Following hypothesis explains why the
answer to above question in my opinion is affirmative. In ancient I wondered if there exist any examples
of such system in the recent time which endorsed the ancient system of
“Gurukul”. I started looking around and came across many
examples, two of which I would like to mention here to support the thought
process. When I started reading about Ustad Baba
Allauddin Khan Sahib and his rigorous system of training his shishyas, I saw
a stunning resemblance between the ancient “Gurukul” system and
the environment of learning he created in his humble abode in Maihar. When I
read about his strictness about the practicing, his discipline, his
customization in teaching based on the student’s capabilities and his
informal but every well thought and well defined system of teaching, it gave
me a little glimpse of ancient “Gurukuls”. With his system and
process of teaching he proved time and again that the product is as good as
the process. He produced not only one or two but the battery of world
renowned and very well respected musicians like Pt. Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali
Akbar Khan, Annapurna Devi, Pt. Nikhil Banerjee, Pt. Pannalal Ghosh, and many
others of national and international repute. In another example, scholar Daniel J.
Levitin in his book “This is your brain on Music” tries to
dissect the subject and tries to get to the root of the question “What
really makes a musician”. He also mentions the theory of “Ten
Thousand Hours” along with other theories where in he refers to the
various studies giving indication that ten thousand hours of practice is
required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class
expert. He goes into much details of substantiating the hypothesis, but for
the purpose of our discussion here, we can safely say that there exist a
correlation between process and the product even in the case of producing the
finest musician. I would like to conclude this
“Write out Loud” feature with the question, “Can we somehow
recreate the environment of ancient “Gurukul” of same rigor and
formalize what Baba Allauddin Khan Sahib mastered in terms of art, science
and process of teaching to produce world class musicians? Can we
institutionalize this process in universities and colleges? If we can bring in the same rigor in the
process of teaching and learning in the modern system of education especially
in music, can we mass produce the finest musicians as the outcome of finest
process repeatedly?”. For your comments and feedback write to samvadiniartiste@yahoo.com |
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