Vanshika Verma Khare, the author of the book ‘Playing Keyboard Made Easy’; feels that the book is for all ages – if a child or an old person can understand and enjoy music, he or she would definitely be able to use this book to play evergreen old and new songs given in this book on their keyboard or any piano app.
Aditi: Who are you? Tell the readers who you really are.
Vanshika: My name is Vanshika Verma Khare. I am a software engineer. I completed BE from MIT Pune, and M.Tech from Mysore. I was working in HCL, Noida before my marriage. Currently, I live in Karnataka with my husband, Abhinav Khare (IPS) and my mother, Rajni Verma, an astrologer. I have written two books -Playing Keyboard Made Easy –Volume I & II and by next year I am going to publish the third volume of the book with a new set of songs.
Aditi: What does music mean to you?
Vanshika: Music is a stress buster, a mood-lifter for me. It gives me happiness when I am sad and makes me forget all my worries if any. Listening to music or playing them on my keyboard gives me immense pleasure.
Aditi: Do you play the keyboard? If yes, since when?
Vanshika: Yes, I play the keyboard. It is my hobby. I have been playing keyboard since my childhood. I don’t even remember when I started figuring out the method of randomly picking up any song and playing it on my keyboard. By trial and error method, gradually I learnt this instrument. But yes I did learn chords from a cine musician Mr. Arun Chaturvedi sir. After learning chords I realised how beautiful the world of music is, and how chords complete any music.
Aditi: Who or what inspired you to learn to play the keyboard?
Vanshika: My dad, Shri Krishna Kumar Verma. He was very good at playing the harmonium, and keyboard. He was the one who taught me the basics of piano and introduced me to this wonderful world of music.
Aditi: What made you write this book?
Vanshika: One of my friend was learning piano from a music book and that book was very complicated, as it was written using sheet music. While discussing she told me that music is very difficult to learn, and there are no good tutors. She had bought that book but it didn’t help much. After seeing that book I
realised I can create a book of my own by writing notations in a simpler format, which could be easily understood by anyone.
Aditi: What is the USP of this book? Is there any competition for it in the market?
Vanshika: USP is “;chords and notations of top Bollywood songs for all ages and for all levels”. I have not found such simplified chords and notations of Bollywood songs in other books or on the internet. There are other books which use sheet music but people find it difficult to follow them without proper training. Playing Keyboard Made Easy series is very easy to follow. You don’t need to join any music class. The theory given at the beginning is enough to let you perfectly play any song from this book.
Aditi: This book is for what age group-would teens also be able to follow the instructions?
Vanshika: The book is for all ages. If a child or an old person can understand and enjoy music, he or she would definitely be able to use this book to play evergreen old and new songs given in this book on their keyboard or any piano app. There are many diagrams to explain all the required basics of piano theory.
Aditi: What are the three most imp things that one should remember when one is learning to play the keyboard?
Vanshika: The three most imp things are:
- You need to practice to use your right hand for playing notations and left hand for playing chords.
- You should know the tune of the song well that will make you learn songs faster using scientific pitch notation system method given in the book.
- If your keyboard is of different sizes, try to find out the ‘middle C’ , using the method given in the book. Notations of most of the Bollywood songs are composed around that ‘middle C’.
Aditi: Your book has a lot of instructions for Bollywood songs, but can those wanting to play western songs use your book as a guide as well?
Vanshika: My book has chords and notations for Bollywood songs. But yes, the theory given in the starting of the book is very useful to learn western music as well. Soon I will be writing a book for English songs as well.
Aditi: What is the one message you would give to your readers who want to embrace music into their lives?
Vanshika: Music is like morning tea. It is a mood medicine, a magic for mind. Just inhale it, and you will feel fresh the whole day.
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