Dancing to Changing Tunes

uh my name is amit dutta and

my whole mission at this part of my life

is to prove to the world that

guitar playing is a respected dignified

job in life

and it’s it’s a change already

you know talking about winds of change

talking about change

um you know i mean like we were watching

the

video before we started uh right from

the beginning you know evolution we were

we we are what we are because of the

changes

you know uh we you know walk on

two legs now instead of four legs and

that is selfish change

and i don’t know for what uh we are so

scared of

you know change and we always

put up a wall he said no this is not us

this is that this is eastern this is

western

we are from planet earth what’s the harm

i’m taking good things from the others

it’s like

you know um

so that’s why um

i thought you know to really talk about

change

particularly the word change and how

through music that’s

i always thought that can be explained

through a piece of music like that

so before that excuse me

um when you talk about

being different

you can’t be just different just to be

different you have to be different

or take a path which is different like a

change from the

so-called or normal life has to be

different

for the better so you have to check out

why you’re being different

why should you do that so basically what

i’m saying is if you follow your heart

changes are automatic you know like i’m

a guitar player

and someone is a historian someone is a

business

you know it doesn’t matter but all put

together is

is what the society is so we can’t be

afraid

and can’t be shunning our differences

uh it’s like uh

you know if you if you do the same thing

every day

it’s like doing the same thing every day

getting boredom and it might just

become very monotonous and usually what

we do you know people say

i need a holiday i need a change day

itself a holiday is a change you need to

come back

and when you come back to the same exact

job it’s a breath of fresh air then

you’re fresh you’re rejuvenated

you know so like that in a bigger

picture if everybody

is the same guy everyone is a doctor or

an engineer

where’s the color in the world anymore

you know

so if i’m a guitar player someone is a

taxi driver someone is a mason someone

is an engineer someone is a historian

and we learn keep learning each other

and believe me we need we need each

other

can you can you can you imagine a life a

world without music

and i don’t mean guitar music the guitar

music and also the

the falling leaf you know the waterfall

can you imagine without all that that’s

music you know you don’t have to play

music like that music is right around

you all over the world

all over nature you know or everything

so usually

changes are to my mind is negative and

positive usually the natural

the natural changes are healthier and

mad winds are

sometimes not that like for example you

know

the global warming thing it’s it’s it’s

a bad for us that kind of change we

don’t need

i don’t know if you can reverse it but

we can at least stop it you know

how do we stop such a big phenomenon

each one can be

each one is like a dot you know it’s

like

a pointillism artist

he organizes every millions of dot every

dot

and the art comes emerges out of that so

if you put our heads together and every

dot like we are all dots in this huge

you know existence we put our heads

together and each dot is organized

we can probably have a more organized

life or planet

and a better safer world so talking

about that

since i’m a musician a piece of music is

like the world in itself

you know and there are many many things

that goes on for us to learn

and then create that piece of music and

someone who’s

a musician will probably understand the

the

the tech the tech part of it but even if

you don’t understand just the list now

it’s good enough because we need you too

but i’ll try and explain them explain

piece of music in more straight language

other than technological

technical language so this is a piece i

wrote

many years back about 20 years back when

i was taking a lonely walk

um at the site of amsterdam river in

amsterdam

and this piece came to my head and i

came back to the country and i played it

so i hope you like it

and then we’ll talk about it a little

bit and how changes are

also necessary in music

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do

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do

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thank you very much let me just describe

what i did for you to like it

you know so and i i’m gonna use exactly

the terms and the

devices that we use in life to make our

lives a little bit more fitting

we change to make ourselves fit within

the time zone that we survive in you

know

if you are still going to the well to

fetch water which is clean water which

is great

but you don’t need to you can get water

from the tap in the urban city but if

you can get it in the village do it

i mean you can dig up a well in this in

town and get water and do it

but if it’s practical no it’s okay so

there’s no real barrier you know

whatever

fits you know and there’s no

discrimination

if it’s good genuine honest effort it

works so what i’m saying is

change is necessary okay let me just go

to how many of you guys

musicians here are serious listeners

cool oh that’s a lot of them yeah sure

yeah okay uh

this is a stupid question but let me ask

you anyway how many of you don’t like

music

see this is what i mean no nobody none

none really so obviously you you vouch

you you say that we don’t like a world

without music

and i don’t believe i don’t mean this

music this this is their fine

but like i said the birds the morning

chirps and the falling leaf you know

dryly walking on dry leaves and these

are music to my ears and music to

everybody

and you know a vacuum without that it

doesn’t

so there’s a different color anyway

the fact that our guitar player is

talking at this stage

says it all that means you need that you

know you need that we need everybody of

us here

all right so let me go back to that

piece of music it’s called amstel

the real melody is just very very simple

and that’s one of the facts that

really made you like the piece that i

played

the music is basically the first three

notes of

the major scale which is saree you know

that’s it everyone knows sari gamapadani

sir

dorami fasolatido

so i just used to make it simple and

straight to the heart

just going to use three notes of the

first basic skill that we all learn

you know so that kind of thing so but

that was a little bit too basic and

since i’m an artist and i’ve been

playing for a long time i

wanted to put some sophistication and

complications to it

and not for to confuse people but to

ornament to dress it up

a lady dresses up in the evening to

make herself even more beautiful so the

the

change in her look is not uh because

she’s she’s not

discarding what she looks like she’s

only adding to it

so if you if you take a um

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culture from outside uh wherever from

iran or whatever

it’s not you you’re negating your

present culture you’re only adding and

enhancing your own history

you know so to my mind there’s no shame

in really using and i don’t

care what is from the western part of

the world or

eastern part of the world it’s just good

for human race that’s all that i’m

interested in you know what i mean

so so what i did i put a pattern in the

base

which is the low part of the thing i put

what i call a con

country motion the mo the the melody was

going up like this

and i went you know

sorry i’m sorry

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so if i play the music and the first

part again see

now notice

that’s the one on top and in the end is

how many at the bottom is

so can you hear both lines going up and

one come down and then i dress it up

with some

that kind of thing so it’s like the

waterfall

so now you go

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becomes

you’re kind of dressing it up you know

so that’s how

you think like life needs changes for me

as a musician i need to dress it up and

put some changes

so the interest retains it change the

interest stays back

and then but if i carry on doing that

for a long time that becomes boring also

becomes

um unchallenging uh uninspiring

and sometimes even complacent because

people seem to like it so

let me carry on doing the same thing but

that is not it

the thing is again stretch yourself in

like whatever field of work you are and

like i’m talking about music because i’m

a musician all my life

so you know then i figured that i needed

a little change so i went

then change

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little darker idea and i i don’t want to

mention things like chords and scales

because those are only musician terms

only

terms to identify so guys can you tell

me

if you feel when do you feel

bright and when do you feel dark i play

two sounds for you

and just put your you know just tell me

which is the bright one the first one or

the second one

all right first one

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and the second one

which is the dark one this is a bright

one

the second one exactly how did you do

that you know not even musicians

that’s what i’m talking about so it’s a

deep thing i mean

it’s a very very deep thing we give in

our lives to do that

and to not to be different but to follow

my heart

and this country really needs that right

now

each one has to follow their heart like

you guys are here

because you got that passion to do what

you want to do i’m sitting on this stage

because i did what i want to do all my

life no matter what

that’s the strength that you have to

carry on with that’s that’s the that’s

the drive

you know that’s the drive and and it’s

not always young people play guitar and

they’re wasting time

i’m 59 publicly saying i’m 59 i’ve got

gray and i’ve been playing guitar for

from age 11. only 10 years of my life or

11 years of my life i was without a

guitar

for me without a guitar is like a fish

out of water that drive that passion

whatever you do has to be at that level

you know

and just do it and you feel the change

you know so you know likewise i don’t

want to go too deep into it like

then i did a little scale change so i

kind of also scammed a little bit

excuse me i played a melody like this

and then i took the same melody and did

it on another thing

but without you realizing it because i

what i call a key

change you know and then i built a

bridge

between two stations station one station

two i built a bridge

which is

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oh sorry that’s a wrong key

like water you know

so all these little things if you hear

instead of just listening to lyrical

lines like

words i love you i hate you whatever

whatever that is obvious

but if you understand instrumental music

it’s wordless lyrics

you know what i mean so for me i had to

learn that

to communicate with you guys or when i

play

two people whether it’s 10 people or 10

000 people

you have to communicate to that but for

that you need to be

fearless and work on your art and

doesn’t matter what

i’m just going to be honest to myself

and carry on doing to my best of ability

and um hope for the best and then

educate the people in front of me who’s

listening to me

to unders make yourself understood that

look man

this is a great job in life you know not

guitar is just not

like happy days and butterflies and

honey you know it’s it bleeds i really

literally bled

from my fingers you know and and i’m

i played guitar and i’m lucky that i’m

carrying on and i want to i wish to

carry on till i die

but that’s the drive i’m talking about

and here we are talking about change

and this all this music you know it’s

actually changes

in that that’s make make things

interesting so without change

life is bland complacent boring

so experiment but it’s a dangerous word

experiment word but don’t be

stupid check it out how far can you

experiment what how much can you stretch

it also depends on how much of expertise

you have

you know if you want to play like here

you have to train yourself to go there

you want to go to the edge of the sea

you have to train yourself to go

you have to be a diver you have to take

those risks you have to train yourself

to be

you know and you have to be honest and

work work on it

yeah so what i mean is don’t be scared

of changes i mean i’m talking about not

to you guys but generally people say oh

that’s not my culture this is not my

culture it’s

i don’t care i mean i think it’s it’s

time for us to be open-minded

and and take or give

whatever it takes to make your own thing

you know on your own

in your own welfare you know is your own

good you know too many changes of course

is unsettling you don’t know what to do

but if you settle down too long in one

place

life becomes spiceless and colorless you

know

so if you are put our heads together

without worrying of these division lines

and

your country my country or of course

border on this side of the border you’re

western

i’m eastern just human race and if you

put our heads together

and be aware of what our benefits are

and you put all those dots like a like i

mentioned

like dots of pointillism and organize it

and the

song and and the art emerges and like

if we organize our notes carefully put

together

and a beautiful song can be made and

hopefully a beautiful life too

thank you very much have a great day

thank you very much