Score Stars Junior : In conversation with Sshivin Shirodkar , a 13 year old guitarist
Tell us about how you started to play the guitar
I started at the age of 3 . I was inspired by my uncle who is a musician . He had this amazing guitar and i just wanted to play it . My grandma got me my first guitar and there ’ s been no looking back .
Who are some of your idols in the music industry and why ?
I started by loving Slash from Guns n Roses . He has been extremely influential in my playing . Now I ’ ve graduated on to other guitarists . I am inspired by everyone from Joe Sat to Steve Vai - From EVH to Bumblefoot . There is Kingfish Ingram and the three kings of blues - BB king , Albert King and Freddie King . I love bands like Maiden , Megadeth and Metallica and Legendary artists like Guthrie Govan who ’ s my current highest of the high . I love our Indian musicians too across all principles . There ’ s Sanjoy Das , Gino Banks , Louiz Banks , Rhythm Shaw , Shanon Pereira , Amaal Malik to name a few
Tell us about your formal music education
I have completed my Grade 8 in Trinity Rock and Pop Guitar . That ’ s a performance certificate where the repertoire consists of Iron Maiden , Ozzy Osbourne , Frank Zappa , Joe Satriani and many more . Grade 8 is the advance level beyond which you have to do your undergrad in music which I ’ m planning to do from either Berklee college or MI ( God willing ).
What are some of the techniques you have recently learnt ?
Well a good guitarist is sometimes as good as the sound they can they produce . So apart from continuously improving my fine motor skills and playing technique on the guitar , I ’ m understanding sound and the dynamics of performance . I have my own audio and video recording setup . Moreover i also have invested in some good performance equipment to be able to provide the same quality in Live as well as recorded playing . It ’ s all part of the learning .
Tell us about your teacher
Well I ’ ve been taught by many teachers from the age of 3 to 10 . While I ’ m thankful to all of them , i feel that i met my mentor at the age of 10 . His name is Abhishek Shah . He ’ s dedicated his life to teaching and aims to raise the value of the profession of music education to an all time high . He plans to do this by consistently delivering quality music education and creating students and teachers of music through his career . He has been teaching for over 20 years .
What is your practise routine ?
Well practise is like breathing . It needs to be if i want to be successful in this industry . So i try to clock an average of 4 hours of practice everyday amidst school and other routines . I ’ m learning singing too .
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