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.