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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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