Writer and musician Andrew Peggie continues his series of case studies, meeting young people across the UK to find out just what making music means to them.
Brother and sister Rajinder and Gurinder are young musicians from Leeds who study six instruments between them.
* Rajinder plays tabla, sitar, dilruba and dhol and sings traditional Sikh hymns
* His sister, Gurinder, plays tabla, sitar and harmonium
* They live in Leeds and have music lessons three times a week
* Rajinder has been playing and singing in the temple for eight months
* Gurinder sees music as 'fun, relaxing and enjoyable'
* Rajinder says, "If I wanted other people to appreciate my music, I'd describe is as full of my effort, passion and my love."
Rajinder is 15, Gurinder is 13. They're a brother and sister who together play harmonium, tabla, sitar, dilruba (similar to sitar) and dhol. Rajinder sings traditional Sikh semi-classical hymns. They live in Leeds with their mother and father (computers and lecturing, respectively) and younger brother. Rajinder says, "I'm a British Indian and Sikh by religion." Gurinder says, "I've been playing harmonium since I was five, tabla for over seven years and sitar for two years. The hardest thing was when I first started learning sitar. It was painful!"
Their learning routines are impressive - and possibly a logistic nightmare for parental transport. On Mondays Gurinder goes to the temple for tabla and harmonium, while Rajinder has a singing and dilruba lesson from his teacher/guru, Ustad Harbhajan Singh. Tuesday sees Gurinder at the Chapeltown temple for more tabla, and Rajinder has a dhol lesson at school and a tabla lesson afterwards. On Thursday it's back to sitar - Chapeltown temple for Gurinder and after school for Rajinder. Then on Saturday they're both off to the Leeds College of Music for more sitar. But of course, "every day I practise my instruments. Or sometimes not all - it depends how much time I have," says Rajinder. "The hardest thing I've done in music is to take up five instruments in total, never giving any up, practising and keeping committed regularly. Sometimes I feel stressed out but I know that in the end there will be a good outcome."
Rajinder has grown up with music: "I've been playing for a very long time, from since I was very young and I can't remember the age I started, it was so long ago." He's now immersed in GCSE music. "We do different activities such as performing, listening, composing and learning about lots of different styles of music." But music is a lot bigger than that. "It's something that the family takes part in," says Gurinder. "Our little brother sings and plays tabla, our mum sings and plays the dholaki [drum], my uncle plays the guitar," says Rajinder.
Then Rajinder adds: "My musical inspiration comes from my teacher Ustad Harbhajan Singh - and not forgetting God, who I look up to and pray to keep me going in my musical part of life. The most exciting thing for me at the moment is to be able to go to the temple and perform on Sunday mornings where I sing and also accompany the priest by playing tabla while he sings. I've been doing it for about eight months."
Gurinder has a more personal view. "Friends, teachers, family - and something inside, is what keeps me going." Rajinder identifies that 'something inside' as ambition, though it's Gurinder who first mentions the word 'professional'. "I might be a professional in five years' time," she says. Then reality intervenes. "Not really... I would like to be more competent in my abilities, though." So how would you describe your musical personalities? "Imaginative and a bit different," says Gurinder. "Determined, loving and ambitious," says Rajinder.
Neither can identify a moment when it all began, or when they suddenly got inspiration, it's just always been there - in the family, at school, at the temple. "I'll never have any musical limits," says Rajinder, "I'll go wherever my music takes me." He talks a lot about 'my music'. "I believe that my music is for anyone and everyone to take part in." What makes a good piece of music? Gurinder is straightforward: "Well, if I like the sound of it, it's good," she says. But Rajinder is more considered: "I know if a song is good or not if it plays with my emotions - if it makes me sad or happy with the sounds of the music and the lyrics as well."