At the end of April ‘The Teak Project’ visited Guitar-X for a master class like no other.

The Teak Project is a trio featuring Justin Quinn on guitar, Jonathan Mayer on sitar and Neil Craig on tabla. Their style of indo jazz can be related to the indo jazz band Shakti who formed in the 70s. Their leading member was English guitarist John McLaughlin. Shakti released several albums and in 1999 they reunited under the name 'Remember Shakti' and they recorded a double disc album.

The master class started off with demonstrations of how the instruments worked and were played. Tabla consists of two drums of different sizes tuned to certain pitches. They are both in tune with the other instruments. These are not easy to tune as you use a hammer and it can take some getting used to. The sitar has two layers of strings one layer is tuned to the scale that they are playing and the other are used for droning. Jonathan explains that melodies are all played on one string and you only use two fingers to fret the strings. The frets can also be moved to allow variation in tuning. Justin Quinn played a nylon string guitar in drop d tuning.      

The guys played songs from their album and they explained the different time signatures they were using. There were some amazing harmonies going on between the sitar and the guitar which sounded brilliant. Everyone in the audience was also involved in this master class when Neil got us to clap out different rhythms. The music was very interesting and they also gave us a chart of one of their songs so we could follow it. This master class was way different to any I have seen so far. I’m hoping there will be a few more like it.

This master class was a great introduction to indo jazz.

Declan Gaughan. Marshall Scholarship winner 2007