Strumming A New Tune

Baravkar experimented with the guitar in Wood & Strings Vol II which was released in August 2009. It featured songs from Indian cinema of the 60s. “Normally,instrumental Hindi songs are not played entirely on the guitar. But it is this instrument that today’s youth identifies with,” says Baravkar. “The good thing about listening to instrumental music on guitars is that the music just makes you sing without thinking how good or bad a singer you are!” he feels.

He learnt to play the instrument by himself in 1973. A student of Fergusson College,he would bunk classes to explore his talent with the guitar. “I have always been inclined towards music. I started off as part of a band called Emotions which performed at Jazz Garden in 2001. The band broke up after our drummer expired,” he says. Baravkar built his career by doing stage and theatre shows,dramas,cine recordings and television shows in India as well as abroad. In 2001,he established the Symphony Music Academy in Kothrud where guitar,drums and keyboard are taught to over 100 students.

When you have melodies purely on unplugged string instruments,recording can be quite a task. “On the Spanish guitar,the sound does not last long enough for proper recording as we do not use amplifiers. But I wanted my music to remain unplugged and fresh,” says the guitarist who was awarded with the Trinity Guildhall Certificate in music literacy by Trinity College,London.

Evergreen love songs like Pehla Nasha,Tum dil ki dhadkan me,Chehra hai ya chand khila hai,Kya yehi pyaar hai and others were handpicked by Baravkar for the album. “I selected the most beautiful love songs of all time; they’re my personal favourites. However,I had to choose songs which gave me enough space for clean guitar pieces. Jab koi baat bigad jaye and Kya yehi pyar hai have been performed entirely with a 12-string guitar,” he says.