Layam the name was a spontaneous thought when we intended to start classes in Ramurthynagar in the name of a recognized institution.
In 2002, I was called for a summer camp in Ramurthynagar to entertain the students organized by Mrs Sowmya Chandrashekaran and Mrs Renuka Kumaresan one of the parents in that camp wanted me to teach her son & I started teaching privately for my first student Gowtham.K from ITI Central School in the year 2002.
The thought of Layam started with Mrs. ManjulaDevi [ Principal ITI Central School Dooravaninagar ].She was my student in the year 2003.She wanted a proper Musical School in K.R.Puram vicinity so she wrote a letter to ITI LTD to give me a place in ITI Colony for Running Music Classes. I was given place in Snehalaya[ School For the Mentally Challenged Children. We started Layam on April 2nd 2004 with showers of Rain at the pooja time. The music school was started with a bank loan From UCO bank Ramurthynagar branch. It started with 6 students in the first batch for Keyboard,2 For Drums,5 Guitar and we have ............ students now from all sections. The classes went on for 2years, in the same place, Due to some issues we had to vacate the premises so Mr Surendra gave his residence for us to run the Music classes for 1 year in Dassappa Layout, Ramurthynagar. Then Finally we shifted to the present Address [ #4 A, Opp Christ King School, Raghavendra Layout, Ramurthygnagar -Bangalore 16]
2004 we had only 3 sections [ Keyboard, Guitar, Drums]when we started, now we have [Keyboard, Guitar, Drums, Mrudangam, Tabla, Hindustani Vocals, Carnatic Vocals, Light Music].
Exams : We at Layam are proud to be the first in our Vicinity that our children were the first to attend the Trinity Guildhall Exams [U.K] ,For Keyboard And Drums London college Of Music Exams[U.K], for Drums Registry of Guitar Tutor [Singapore] for Acoustic Guitar Exams We started sending the Children to the these exams in 2007. The first Batch which went to the exams consisted of Six students out of which Kishor Kumar.V [ Grade 6 Drum kit & Grade 5 Keyboard is still one our Senior most students who has been performing well till now. Our Children haves made us proud in the exams also. Now we are one of the schools to send the Maximum number of students to the exams from Karnataka. Yearly about 100 students take up the Exams. The certificates got by the students are international Grade certificates and can be made use for studying not only Further Music but can use it for any stream of learning in any part of the world. At this point i would like to mention some of the names who have brought feathers to our cap Anmol Shankar Grade 5 Keyboard Age ...........................................Lavannya.L Grade 5 Keyboard Age ...........................................Kaashvi.S.Reddy Initial Grade Age....... [Youngest to take the exams with merit] and many More which we will seeing in the further pages with each and every bodies information.
The practical Exams happen once in a year in the month of October where two Examiners come to Bangalore from U.K to test the children and the student interact with the Examiner with their preparation of the whole year. we will have a preparatory competition and a test for all the students who are taking up the exams. The portions are prescribed by the college to students earlier and they get ready for the portions well in advance.
Facilties: Instruments provided for all sections Except Guitar.
Notations & Books Provided according to level of learning of the student.
Ups Facility
Performances of students:Our students are outstanding performers in schools, Colleges, Companies where they work. We have performed in T.V Shows in the previous years in t.V Channels like Udaya, Suvarna kannada channels where once five our students performed blind folded [Nikhilesh, Pranav on Drums & Anmol, Nihal, Elvin Kenneth from Keyboard]
Competitions: We have our competitions held his once in a year to show his or talent and what he has learnt according to level of learning since age is not a matter for us in Layam. We are happy and proud that on the competition day we a 78 year old , A 35 year old and a 5 year old is performing on the same stage to show that there is no age to learn music. We at Layam don't stick on only the best 3 toppers since we don’t believe in only competition but we assure each and every students gets a stage for performing irrespective of whatever age whatever level.
Annual Day Celebrations: Every Annual Day of Layam is the most memorable day for each everyone [it can been student who is performing, It can Parents, friends, Grandparents , family Watching their dear ones perform on stage ]On the annual day we can see at least 200 students performing on stage in a group or sometimes invidual. And that is day when a very big music family called Layam gets together where we meet all parents, friends, old Students, our staff, families have breakfast together lunch together and at the end of the day the winners of the annual competition get their prizes on that day. The Prizes are sponsored by some of the parents who do it voluntarily. Here i take the opportunity to thank each every parent who has sponsored for the annual day for all these years. We are proud to say each and parents have kept faith in us and we will keep up that faith too.
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Music is in the Divine, Music is in Spirituality, Music is in Nature ,Music is in each every Creation of nature .We are blessed to be a part of Layam where Music is filled all the time inside and around us. Music listeners feel soothing to them mentally and physically also. But only a few are selected by the divine to learn music and spread the divine energy to the world through them. Music heals, Spreads Love, Shows integrity in Humans.
Each and every body that is learning Music, playing Music in any part of the world is special since we are selected by nature to do the most special thing in the world. Learn, Play, Enjoy, Spread happiness Through Music.
Each and Every thing in my life is spontaneous and the path is automatically shown to me by Superior Souls. This initiative is not by me but it is from the source & nature is helping me to progress in life. I sincerely thank Nature & the source for choosing me for this work & i will do my duty with the same sincerity till I am given time to do it.
Till 1999, I did not know that Music would be my main part of my life. Music influences a person’s life only in certain part of his daily activity. But I feel blessed to be in Music the maximum part of the day. To learn Music itself one should be blessed. There is no retirement for Music Learners like me. I will be happy if I have the strength to learn music till the end of my life. At this point I would like to thank all the people who have brought me to this stage personally and professionally.
My parents, My Mother likes Music & Songs so much that before marriage she spent her full time in listening songs, may be that instinct has brought that music in me. My father had struggled so much coming from a lower middle class. if he was like others and wanted me to go to a normal job after my studies, I would be sitting in a chartered accountants office looking into accounts. But he waited to see what is my destination. Everybody gets inspired by others but I have learnt Sincerity, Discipline, Punctuality from my father and nobody can be such an inspiration than my parents .I wish each and everybody had got parents like me. In this competitive world where everybody want their children to become Software Engineers, Doctors, Engineers etc. My parents gave me good Education, Morals and a nice Goal in life.
My Guru Smt Rathna Shastry, The knowledge what i have got from my guru When i Started learning Music with her i had no Background, No Experience, for 5 years i did not progress with my learning but my guru only saw my Interest, Sincerity and tolerated me. Many a times i have cried in front of her but she gave me Music, now after 14 years she has told me that my voice has improved, I should thank their family Mr. Subramanya Shastry[Retired Lecturer], Mr Hemanth Kumar[ Playback Singer] for considering my interest and being a support to all my way.
I thank all the people who have shown their involvement towards Layam right from the beginning, and there is a long way to go.
Thankyou for being a part of my life.
I'm Nihal.M, a former and proud student of Layam. I was tutored by Mr.Chandrakanth and I attended his classes for four years. In this span of four years I've learnt a lot and developed a keen and desperate passion towards music and now it has almost become unbearable to part with.
But the beauty of music isn't limited to this itself. According to what I've learnt it also helps in overall personality development and we the students of music reap several other benefits as well.
SELF CONFIDENCE : I have appeared in T.V several times. Once in Kasturi channel which had organized a show called 'KAMANABILLU'. I appeared twice in Udaya T.V in a program called ‘Chinnaraloka’ and once in suvarna T.V in a reality show called 'Super Star of Karnataka' where me and a team of my Layam friends had performed. I have performed in several concerts, temples (like ISKCON) and have given more than 150 performances on stage.
Now all this wouldn't have been possible without the confidence that I obtained by learning music. There are several individuals who still have a lot of stage fear in themselves and all of them are naturally very shy and possess a sense of fear in every integral part of their lives. But joining music schools like Layam will, by all means cure these individuals from this ‘FEAR OF AUDIENCE’, because there is ample number of opportunities provided by the music school regarding stage performances. So now we become bold enough to appear and perform in front of a crowd irrespective of how large the audiences are!
CREATIVITY : Creativity comes naturally to any musician, be it the drummer, guitarist, pianist,...etc as a part of our study syllabi includes the techniques of improvisation. Yes, a lot of marks are allotted for the art of modifying existing musical pieces and notations into different pleasing forms by the clever usage of chord progressions and arpeggios. While any student does this, he is indirectly trained to tune his mind into thinking new and outside the box.
I created my own website for the purpose of music www.nihalmurali.yolasite.com which gives basic introduction about music and there are several tutorials and practice tools for beginners. Music notes are also provided for certain songs. Song requests are also accepted. I have uploaded several videos on youtube. One of my videos received maximum views of over 51,000 and I have over 450 subscribers worldwide in youtube. I now use several Digital Audio Workstations (DAW) including the PSR 3000 and the FL studio to master sound techniques. All this wouldn't have been possible without the formal guidance of my teacher who taught to think a step ahead!
DESIRE TO LEARN : Music is more than a vast ocean according to me, and the more you dig deeper into it, the greater realization about we knowing something next to nothing comes to light. I have cleared my grade 4 (practical) and grade 5 (theory) with distinction and have obtained the trinity guildhall (London) certificates in music literacy. In spite of all this I still feel that there is a lot more to learn.
This sort of igniting passion in the soul of every musician drives him to go on a quest in search of the never ending knowledge. And it is due to this reason that many musicians are so well versed in academics as well.
ACADEMICS: I scored 616/625 (98.56%) in SSLC (State 7th Rank), Karnataka. I scored 99% in first and second PUC among the core subjects.
IQ DEVELOPMENT: They say that musicians have a more developed brain in comparison to the brain of an average person. There are certain sections of the brain that are larger and better developed in musicians than in others. Scientific research shows that pianists due to the simultaneous use of both their hands have an increased IQ than the average person. Study also tells that musicians are able to think vividly and differently from others. Things like sight reading tests, where a pianist has to concentrate and grasp the movements of both the hands quickly helps him think quicker than the rest.
I'm an NTSE (National Talent Search Examination) scholar and I've received scholarship for clearing this national level examination. In KCET 2014 (Karnataka Common Entrance Test) I bagged the 27th rank in state, scoring 160/180. I'm sure the roots of these feats lie in the fact that I was a musician.
TIME MANAGEMENT:There are several ways nowadays by which a lot of youngsters seem to destroy the precious and valuable time that they have. As they say 'An idle mind is a devil's workshop'. But the way out of this is just to possess any hobby and I think music solves this problem. When you try to involve in music, you try to find the maximum free time that you have and devote that to music. In case you need more time for other activities you can always reduce the time that you spend for music and this sort of flexibility allows you to successfully manage time than any other person without a hobby.
In the National Science Olympiad (NSO) I cleared both the rounds obtaining a silver medal with a state ranking of 5 and international rank of 107, and received several gift vouchers and cash prizes. I completed all 10 levels in UCMAS and have won several trophies in the state level and national level competitions. The only reason I was able to display good results in the Olympiads, abacus,… is because I was able to devote extra time to academics (when required) by eliminating the time that I devoted to music and thus indirectly I was able to spend more time than others who felt that there was very little time for anything.
So you'll be able to reap maximum benefits from the control that you possess over the magic of TIME itself!!
Apart from these I've also won several prizes in sports, quizzes, elocution, Radio Jockey, debates, painting, Young Inventors Meet, I cube fests, competitions held by ISRO, Pogo Amazing Kid’s Awards ...
I'm currently pursuing B.Tech in BITS PILANI, RAJASTHAN (Birla Institute of Technology), which is the #1 private colleges in India. I'm thankful to the wonder that Layam has done to me and the memories and learning from here are my proud possessions. I hope once I come back to Bangalore again I will be able to learn more from this institution.