Rahul SharmaRecently having watched a movie, which depicted Mumbai in the year 2050, I wondered what kind of music we would be making in the future.Well, it’s an interesting thought, isn’t it If we start by going back in time and observing how some musicians trained and practiced or did their riyaaz so dedicatedly, we would be surprised by their techniques. Well, some of them practiced one particular musical phrase constantly till an entire candle burnt out.Which means, when they sat to practise, they also lit 1 or two candles and then practiced all the way till a few candles burnt. In olden days, there was no television or internet and the forms of distraction were fewer. But of course, I think musicians were more dedicated to their riyaaz, which they did religiously.Coming to the present time and age, I think musicians have already become jet setters, performing in different parts of the world, and are very tech-savvy. That certainly does not mean they are less dedicated to their riyaaz. It’s a known fact that every musician needs to practise a good 6-7 hours a day or even more during the days of training.Maybe they are assisted by robotic machines for instance the taal-maala. The taal-maala is a small machine, which has all the different taals or different rhythm cycles fed in it. Now a musician can simply sit with the taal-maala and practise for hours at a stretch. Of course we also have the luxury of being assisted by amazing software whereby we could record professionally at home, straight on our computers. Also, the different genres of music in India have increased by quite a number adding to the sheer variety available.In the future it would be awesome to play concerts on the moon. Didn’t we hear about the space colonies and commercial jets taking passengers to the moon All that may be true, but I am sure that the beautiful raagas in the Indian classical music will remain constant.The beautiful way that they have been composed with a 24-hour time cycle and the variety and depth of each raaga will remain unchanged.What we feel during sunrise is different to what we feel during sunset and our emotions at such times are different and based on these emotions a lot of the morning and evening raagas were composed.I am sure even then these will remain constant. It will take more and more dedicated musicians to master these mysterious raagas, whether they perform on the moon or on another planet or here on our very own Earth.