Music Manifesto Case Study #3 - Harpreet
- Harpreet is 14 and has been living in Leeds for 6 years
- She studies Indian classical singing, harmonium and piano
- She also plays in a Youth Music sponsored group, Fused
- Her brother plays tabla and dhol
- Her mum promotes South Asian music through an organisation called SAA-uk
- ‘If you’ve got talent you’ll probably have everything else, but if you have ambition and don’t get what you want than that’s a big blow-out’
Harpreet doesn’t mince her words: ‘The music industry should shape up. Right now a load of rubbish music is being let in purely for sex appeal. That is not what music is about’. At 14, she’s pretty clear what it is about: ‘I listen to different types of music, because each one of them makes me feel a different way. Say, if I listen to rock music, it’s a great stress buster and R’n’B makes me want to dance along. When I sing my Indian classical music I feel so tranquil’.
As a British Asian, Harpreet sees nothing unusual in embracing different popular and classical cultures on equal terms: ‘I’ve been singing Indian classical music with harmonium for four years and I started playing piano at the beginning of the year. I do piano every other Monday with Yorkshire Young Musicians, harmonium every Sunday and singing every Friday through SAA-uk [South Asian Arts]’. Then an interesting addition: ‘On Thursdays I take part in a group called Fused, through Youth Music. It’s like a jam session, but we make tracks too’.
Now living in Leeds, her vocal training continues, thanks to her inclusion in the Gifted and Talented scheme. And perhaps also thanks to her mother’s job as a programme manager for the South Asian Arts organisation. ‘It was really when I decided I wanted to become the best at something that my mum found me a way to sing’.
Of course, it’s not just the music that’s different, it’s the way you learn it. Committing to a long-term, gruelling training regime for the classical Indian voice must surely pale in its attraction compared with the instant jamming of Fused? ‘I wish I had a special gift where I could become the master of an instrument at the click of a button, without all the hard work and everyone bugging you to practise, practise, practise. But I would say I’m determined, positive, ambitious and passionate. There’s a lot of little things that are hard and you feel completely rubbish when you can’t do it. Like when I performed for the first time and got my first nerves and I felt really bad and depressed. But I did it, got over it and learned from it’. So that’s a ‘yes’ to the regime, then.
But Fused is where the current excitement lies: ‘The Youth Music group – when we completed our first track. We did a photo shoot. Then got the CD back. That was really cool and exciting. If I wanted other people to appreciate my music, I’d describe it as original, combining Indian with modern music: exciting, funky, new. And maybe in five years’ time I’d love for it to be BIG! I’d love to be modelling … and have a secure relationship with music – and honestly, cash would be nice’.
A far cry, perhaps from her performances in the local Sikh temple in front of 200 people. ‘For someone else that might unusual, but I’m a person who lives a culture that is a blend of Indian and Western’.
But it’s not the only culture clash Harpreet has no difficulty with. The tension between the personal and the public, the ‘artistic’ and the commercial is one that never gets resolved for many. ‘Most of the time, my music is personal – I’m afraid what other people might think … when I’m singing – I know it sounds cheesy – I feel at peace with myself and everything around me. But I like being creative and productive. Basically my ambition is to enjoy music as a job and earn enough money from that to gain ANYTHING I want! I enjoy music and I want other people to enjoy it too’.
So what does she enjoy? Justin Timberlake, Franz Ferdinand, Junior Senior, many songs from the Indian films I go to watch, some raags I hear when I go to concerts with my mum, and a piece by Mozart – can’t remember the name but it begins with P’.
To download this case study as a PDF, click here