My experience at my first Western Band Competition

A certain brand advertises with the tagline: ‘It’s your life! Make it large!’

 Slowly and steadily, knowingly and unknowingly, I am eventually trying to live up to that very tagline in my own life. I shouldn’t be boasting about it as I have hardly made my life large as of yet, be it any possible way. And the latest entry in my life was taking part in a western band competition organized by my college as part of the annual cultural fest. Never ever had I imagined that I would be playing western music and that too, in a competition, as I was more comfortable playing music, which is of Indian taste . Well, such has been the turnaround in my life and I quite enjoyed it too.

If you happen to follow music very closely, you will notice that for the instruments, it is more or less the same thing, be it western or Indian music, lest some minimal variations. It is the vocalist who has to endure maximum variations and differences while shifting from various type of music. Anyways, I won’t talk much about the music part. Let’s come to the stage part. When I was a kid of 10-12 years, I always wondered how it would feel to be on the stage. And now, some 10 years down the lane, I have donned the stage more times than I ever dreamt about it during my high school days. So, this time, added to that, it was also a memorable moment on the stage as it marked the first time I competed in a band competition and that too, playing the keyboard which I had never learnt. It takes some guts to perform an instrument which you have never taken lessons before. Anyways, once on the stage, the faces of the audience tend to make you nervy. Everything blackens out. The face tends to redden in response to the countless beats by the heart but once you control those involuntary reactions by your body, the stage becomes a mere platform for you to rule. Well, I don’t know about others but that’s what happens to me every time I am on stage. Sadly, I very much missed a special person within the audience. Due to unavoidable circumstances, the person was absent and the beauty quotient of the competition went missing. The presence of that person would have surely given me some much needed motivation but nevertheless, the performance was good. All the band members performed extremely well. The singer of our band, Jaideep, an extremely talented singer, sang his heart out. Lead guitarist and bassist, Abhigyan and Abhilash, respectively were at their habitual best while drummer Debasish overcame his nervousness and produced a wonderful show. The keyboardist, that's me, tried my level best too. Two songs were performed by us, which included an original composition. The performance surely could have been better. But no hearts lost. It was a first time in such a competition and we gave everything we could. We weren't selected but we are surely game for it in the next edition as well. Till then, rock-n-roll.