Srinivasan M

Music and dance have always been close to my heart. Though I have tried few other things as out of interest right from my child hood days which include athletics, martial arts, sketching, blogging, poetry, sketching, cricket, dancing, singing in school choir, learning guitar etc but never really could take anything to next level due to lack of guidance and support. 2 years back, while I was playing around with Garage band application in my friend’s Macbook, a thought struck me that ‘Why shouldn’t I learn music and create my own music and make others dance to my tracks? Trying multiple things I like, is fine but shouldn’t I be good, if not best, in atleast something” and that’s when I decided that I should take up music and learn it properly.

One of my friend who had attended a workshop of NSM and know about NSM, recommended NSM to me and I am happy that I have joined NSM. I did my level 1 keys course in batch 6 last year as a complete beginner and have joined NSM for my level 2 in keys.

For a working professional, attending an intense 10 weeks ”Music method” program is very difficult but the class timings was made flexible based on the convenience of the batch members and Jason, whenever required. Even when I had to miss a class or two due to hectic work schedule, Jason helped me to catch up on the missed parts in the next class. The course is well structured and the individual attention I got during the classes was very good. The quality of the instruction is awesome. Jason understood the pace of my learning and the level of the skill and taught at a pace which was comfortable to me.

Never has Jason sulked during teaching or to answer any of my silly questions in the class. Due to the close attention in the class and during the jam sessions, Jason was able to promptly correct most of the mistakes in my playing techniques and whenever I was struggling with few techniques in few lessons. Jason is very much approachable for any queries or any guidance about any music related stuff even outside the class via phone or online or in person, all throughout the course and even after my keys course completion.

The jam sessions with the batch members, to practice for the stage performance after the course completion, was a lot of fun experience and was a tremendous opportunity to learn about playing in time, playing with the band and the band dynamics. Within 10 weeks of course, I never thought that I could learn so much.

When I started the course, I never imagined that I will end up performing couple of songs on stage, along with the NSM batch students. NSM and the active NSM alumni forum in facebook, provides amazing platform to network with other musicians. The association with NSM doesn’t end with just the course and it keeps continuing through the NSM alumni forum in facebook, chances to play in gigs by NSM and NSM club sessions.

Though there I highly recommend NSM to anyone who is passionate about music and is keen to learn. NSM offers amazing learning experience and goes a step beyond compared to other schools/place, to help musicians get better overall in their area of music.

A Happy Student of NSM
-Srinivasan M

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Namrata G

I have always wanted to get back to vocals and learn the guitar, but never had the time or the guidance required, once i left school. NSM provided a one stop solution to my problem with a better time frame and experienced staff. also a bunch of creative and fun people.

“Music Method” was quite an intense program (10 weeks, 3 days a week and 2 hours per class). What pushed me to come down all the way to Bangalore city was the fact that it was a capsule and was in a city i was previously working in as well as had friends living nearby – it all seemed to fit. Plus,i hadn’t quite found such a focused approach in Mumbai.

There is no doubt that the quality of instruction is good. The benefits are manifold, one is the glamour of being part of a band as well as meeting like minded people from various backgrounds.

Although I wish I could have completed the course, with the little time I spent at NSM .

Nathaniel has contributed in a large way to my courage to sing publicly again,as well as rekindle my goal of learning the guitar. NSM’s ambience and vibe is something that is rare.

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Chandramoulee Palani

As a banking professional, I had a rather tight schedule and was fairly clueless on music fundas.

At NSM, not only did the schedule fit in conveniently, the syllabus was quite well planned and gave me a good grounding on keybord basics and theory.

While I have a lot more distance to travel before I qualify as a good keyboardist, it was a fun experience. As a banker I have to say this: this was worth the buck! Go for it!!

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Purvaa Sampath

I’m right now doing a course called Berklee Transfer Programme which is a 4 and a half year course – I do two and a half years at International College of Music in Malaysia and then transfer to Berklee in 2014 where I plan on majoring in Music Therapy. I’m specializing in vocals now and I hope to come back to India and take to the music industry in a big way. :)

Nathaniel was what made me realize that there is a lot more to vocals than what I’d learnt. Being trained in Indian classical music for 15 years, I now know that I only had skill, but no training of the voice. Lillian Ma’am was the first to even tell me that there are things like chest register and head voice.

I joint Nathaniel because of a college friend. I think the intensity of the programme suited me really well. Being someone whose made music a priority in life, I found myself looking forward to the classes and I made it a point to get as much as I can from each of these classes. Studying music in college now, I realize how invaluable some of the things I learnt from Ma’am is. She will always be my first and most important teacher!

I think practicing for our show was one experience that I’ll never forget. Its only then that I realized how difficult it is for people to come together to make good music. Its never only about the vocalist, or the guitarist or the drummer. Its not about how good each of them are, its about how well they come together as a band. I’ll never forget the fun, the drama, the fights and the joy at the end of the show!

My most memorable moment would be when I was on stage to sing Bad Day – the keyboardist forgot to transpose and I started on a pitch that was to low for me. Thankfully, he realized and changed it by the time we got to the chorus. It was definitely embarrassing but I realized what the saying “Go on with the show” meant that day!

I think in class, there are innumerable moments that have made a difference to me. Lillian ma’am has always brought a very personal teaching experience to the table and that has worked wonders for me. Be it sitting at the dining table and talking or standing in front of her while she analyzes your progress in class, they are all moments that have pushed me to be where I am today. I think the quality of instruction was very efficient for me because it taught me everything I needed to know. It was a short period but the knowledge I gained has taken me a long way.

I would definitely encourage people to take this course because there are many dimensions to it that makes it a very well rounded course. Not only do you improve on skill as a musician but you also learn to work with other musicians and understand dynamics that are vital for a musician. For those who’re just getting out there, the show is a brilliant way of getting over your stage apprehensions and being confident about your skill and your music.

This is what pushed me to leave college and follow my dreams of music college and I haven’t been happier! So thank you for that :)

Purvaa Sampath

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Sandeep KS

The major thing which pushed me to learn music is as simple as this, I had keen interest in music right from my young age and in school i managed to play drums for a few school days. And later somehow lost touch, but was a real hard listener of music. And during my Engineering i decided that i should continue on with this passion and while browsing the internet for best music schools in Bangalore, i came across Nathaniel School of Music and somehow i found that NSM’s course content was unique when compared to others. I must also admit frankly that i was very much impressed with NSM’sWebsite too !. So then i joined NSM and at that point of time i was totally new to NSM.

Then after that, all i can say is”ITS BEEN AMAZING AND WONDERFUL”

Now coming to the course “MUSIC METHOD” . No doubt that this course is very unique from others and the structure of the course is excellent. Another thing which i felt convenient was the batch timings. Its very flexible for all kinds of people. I was in the morning batch.

After the completion of my Level 1 Keyboard, we were straight away put up for performing a live show which i think is the best way to go as you get the real live experience. I must tell you, after this show i really felt more confident than before. Lots of memories still remain of the first live show i performed with my batch mates.

The best memory and best compliment of this live show which i received was when Jason picked out 3 best songs from the show and out of those three songs 1 song was performed by me. Unforgettable memories from batch mates still remain.

The best In-Class moment : When Coffee was served every morning !! :). The entire in class environment is very impressive with Jason’s unique teaching methods.

The course flow was very very interesting to be frank. Jason’s course structure and quality of instruction in each levels feels that NSM is the right place for music.

Now the benefits of learning Music with Nathaniel :

1. Excellent structuring of the course with different levels.

2. High level quality of instructions.

3. Flexible batch timings.

4. Live stage exposure with Live Shows.

5. The entire faculty at Nathaniel is too good. Be there to experience it.

6. One final sentence : “The Right Place for Music”.

Finally i would definitely recommend the course for all the reasons told above ! :)

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Warm regards,
Sandeep KS

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Shaival Thakkar

After living in dry Ahmedabad and hot-tempered Delhi for a long time, I knew that Banglore was the city which would save me. I bumped into information about the Nathaniel School of Music while surfing the Banglore map on Google Earth. So, I came and saw NSM once and met the guitar teacher Varun Murali.

I chatted with him about how I didn’t want to learn to read notations but just wanted to learn enough music theory to help me crack songs and also help me write some songs of my own. And he said that NSM was the right place for me. After doing the Level 1 guitar course, I agree that NSM was the right place for me to learn music.

I got in-depth knowledge about music theory that I always wanted and we also learned some contemporary songs in the class. Now I know enough music theory to jam with another guitar player. And when I jammed with my batch mates a couple of times, we were sounding like Guitar Gods! (Or at least that is what we like to imagine!)

I also had enough time on my hand to do another course. And so I did Level 1 Vocals course. Like a lot of people out there, I always wanted to sing. And that dream came true in Lillian Madam’s classes. Attending her classes was so much fun that it was like one big picnic :-) Apart from rigorous vocals exercises, she helped us practice sounds which can be useful in singing songs. Musically we covered a lot of things from different scales like the melodic, the harmonic minor to the blues and pentatonic scales to styles of singing like acapella and scatting.

We were also taught to sing in different voice registers like the head register, the chest register and the falsetto. We also learned some very helpful warm up exercises for singing and got many tips on what to eat and and other such to-dos in order to improve as singers. Once in a week we would sing a song of our choice acapella style or do its karaoke version. After the song was sung, other students would give feedback about the song and Lillian Madam too showed us the merits and the demerits in the way we sang the song and gave advice for improving the singing.

And to let you in on a little secret, we were always treated to two rounds of home-made coffee and frequently treated to homemade cakes, biscuits and other such goodies. :-) And thus our wonderful vocals teacher Lillian Zachariah with her vast knowledge of music, a whole lot of inspiration and with some gastronomic delights helped me and people of my batch become singers or as she likes to put it, she “conned” us into singing! :-)

After the course work ended, we started rehearsing for our performance which is a part of any course one take’s up at NSM. After a lot of organising on Facebook and a meeting with all the muscians, we agreed on the songs everyone wanted to do. And after a lot of practice and improvements with the help of Varun Murali and NSM’s director Jason Zachariah, we finally went on stage on 23rd November and gave a mindblowing performance to our long suffering families and friends at Kyra Theatre & Pub.

The chance to perform on stage is a unique experience that NSM offers and it gives one a glimpse of what it takes to be a musician (like the amount of practice required, co-ordination with fellow musicians, and how to play as a band)

So, I recommend NSM to everyone out there who wants to learn music seriously and wants to have lots of fun while doing it!

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Srinivasan M

Namrata G

Chandramoulee Palani

Purvaa Sampath

Sandeep KS

Shaival Thakkar

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