Right now I am listening to a piano jazz channel online, precisely Wave by Jovino Santos Neto and Weber Lago featuring Joe Lovano. Courtesy Prashant Pillai's workshop I have been to today. Workshop. Well, that may not be the perfect word for the today's session, as we did not 'do' a lot, but there was a lot of talk, which came as both ideas and inspiration.

Just to make it clear, it is not an advertisement of the workshop, and I would not ask anyone to go there if they are not genuinely interested in music, or making music to be more precise. But yes, for those present there at today's sessions, most of which were tech people with an interest in making music, it was a good knowledge about how to step forward from where they are.

Today, when I finally reached the venue, it was an instant surprise. Not just because I was the first attendee there, but actually because this workshop was not in some large hall with a stage, but a small studio room with a sofa for four. However, Prashant asked me to sit and within a few minutes, there were ten more people who were interested in attending the workshop, out of the forty odd people who had registered for the event, I later got to know.

After a regular introduction and 'what is your idea of music', Prashant broke the ice by telling his own story, about how he reached where he was. And even though it was a lot like the other stories of people's struggle, there was a lot there which clearly told us what to do.

While there is a lot I heard and absorbed but won't be able to reproduce, here is a gist of some things.

The first advice was LISTEN. Listen to a lot of music and all the genres you can. Do not just stick to what you like and keep on listening to it. To make music, you need to be able to blend various types of music and that may come in only when you listen a lot of music before.

The second thing was CONTRADICT YOURSELF. Prashant said one should contradict and challenge oneself and do things that you do not like to do, things that we would not do if we kept going within our comfort zone.

And the third, and the most important advice was to MAKE THE MUSIC. Prashant says that the biggest thing he did was to make music. Even when things were not looking right, when people and circumstances went against him, he still did not listen to what anyone else said and just kept doing it. He says that since you cannot get it right the first day you do it, and since it will always take time to make things fall in place, one should just start making music, and just for the sake of joy one gets from it, rather than anything else.

He even gave some tips on simple marketing and some ideas on how starters can sell their music at a beginners' level itself, except answering a few queries related to even copyrights.

Near the end of it, he asked people to play their instruments or sing, and then gave even some examples on how people can challenge themselves to create better music and ended the session on a happy note with a video being recorded and some photos being taken.

Overall, Prashant Pillai's workshop was a nice experience, and not just because we got to see a person whose name we have seen on screen and whose songs we have loved, but also because he seemed genuinely interested in connecting to people who are following his footsteps even if far behind.