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Arshad Mahmud
 With the frequency of music channels and musicians increasing at a shocking rate, I’ve often wondered what it is that makes some musicians sustain their careers over decades while others fizzle out sooner than you can remember their names. I’ve always been a firm believer in music education and promoting worthwhile ventures in this discipline, so we at EyeCandy decided to pay a visit to the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi to catch up with the renowned music composer and the head the of the music department; Arshad Mehmud in order to take a closer look at what this government funded institution had to offer. So here is our interview with this authority on music:
Do you think music schools are commercially viable in this part of the world?
No, not really. Even the known schools abroad have excessive fees. The Royal Academy of Dramatics and Arts (RADA) charges around thirty-eight thousand pounds per semester. Even with that kind of fees they require a lot of charities to run it. Another example is that of NIDA- National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney; they have a large group of investors and their fees are also really very high because in a performing arts academy the ratio of teachers to students cannot be more than 1:8. We cannot have a big class, for instance we enrolled twenty student and we divided them into two groups. For the teachers it’s double the work too, thus there is this disparity in ratio.
Given the minimal fee of six thousand per trimester how does NAPA manage to keep the institute running financially?
It runs mainly on grants and donations. It has a board of governors and the government funds it heavily. It’s not a commercial institute at all. The aim is not to make money but to provide music education.
What is the admission criteria at NAPA for a music course?
We have a proper practical testing system and only people who have the aptitude to be musicians get admission. You have to be at least seventeen years of age to be able to grasp music. You can’t be totally tone-deaf and expect to get into NAPA. There’s a certain sense of rhythm that is inborn that must be present in you. Everyone can learn to strum a guitar; but not everyone is capable of being a musician. If you don’t have aptitude then you will not get admission in NAPA.
Are music schools registered in Pakistan?
Music schools are not registered, mainly because they’re not many of them to begin with. Also most of the time it is a one man show. Someone who is a practicing musician usually ends up teaching theory as well as practical rendering of music, regardless of the what genre they’re teaching, unlike here at NAPA. Here we have different teachers for different disciplines. Music can very easily be divided into vocal and instrumental and vocal music itself has many genres like classical, pop, rock, jazz and world music. So we have teachers that are experts in their own field and hence can teach better.
 Why has the music faculty at NAPA shrunk since its inception? Are there not enough students or teachers?
Teachers are hired keeping in mind the need of the hour. We have a lot of students here and most of them are screened out during the admission process. Most of the students come and want to become singers, there are some who want to play the guitar and some who want to play the piano, but we have only a couple of students who have registered to play a sitar or a tabla. For example if someone wants to play the trumpet or drums we can hire teachers for them. So the size of the faculty really isn’t an issue, it’s what is the requirement of the students that we cater to.
How well is your degree or diploma recognised nationally and internationally?
We issue a diploma not a degree. We have applied to get recognised as a degree but that has not happened yet. It’s a long process. Even National College of Arts (NCA) got their diploma recognised as a degree after seventeen years of applying. Of course they were in existence years before that but it took seventeen years of effort and hard work to get there. Since NAPA came into being through an initiative that the President took, it is already recognised nationally. We are trying now to have our degree recognised internationally too.
Given how music is generally perceived by the masses how in your opinion can the status of art education and music education in particular be uplifted in our part of the world?
Art education is not footed at all in Pakistan. We’re trying very hard to make everyone realise that music is an academic subject and it should be treated as such. The major drawback in our society is that people do not perceive music as such. Take my own example for instance; I make my bread and butter from composing music. But this happens to be every other day; when someone asks me what do you do I tell them I compose and make music. The response I get is ‘we know that already, but what do you really do?’ And I just don’t know how to tell them that I just do this! This is my job!
Given the subjective nature of music how would you define a ‘good’ musician?
People! You see it is really very clear and transparent because if you’re good you will get bookings. People would want to hear you and you will not be idle and penniless. If you’re not good you will not get bookings.
There are a lot of people out there making millions in Pakistan that cannot sing in tune, can’t hit a note properly and do not know how to play but are booked for concerts throughout the year. What incentive do they have then to educate themselves?
It’s one’s ability to sustain oneself for a significant time that is the deciding factor. The basic aptitude is present in a lot of people. With the basic aptitude anyone can produce a music album, because the fact of the matter is that no one is really trained. But then they lose their fame very quickly. They don’t survive. I’m talking of the pop scene in particular right now, here people who’ve been trained like Sajjad Ali, may not come up with a hit every year but he survives, he gets work. But people who have not trained like say, Jawad Ahmad, Ali Haider even Abar-ul-Haq, after a decade or so are already getting nervous about their future. So I don’t know what the younger generation will understand.
What are your thought on the upcoming dilemma of ‘fusion’ music? Do you think fusion is mutating the pure eastern classical form and feeding the audience with something that’s neither original nor a good combination of the genres?
Fusion is an original melody line. Fusion is actually the thing which you have heard. Fusion started happening in the British rule, e.g. even though the concept of a large orchestra was not part of our traditional music but it was there, even before the fusion world was born.
 Given the complex nature of eastern classical music and how it requires a great amount of training to be delivered accurately, do you think fusion is the right way to go to try to keep eastern classical music alive?
In fact it’s easier. It’s easier to market and commercialise these complex melodies. Those traditional melodies have been tested and tried and the important thing is that they exist. All you do is change the shape and the packing, but the basic structure remains the same. So it’s the same, it just becomes easy for an artist to further his popularity. But then after you’ve consumed all that you know, at the end of the day you run out and realise that you know very little. Then you need to come up with your own thing, because survival becomes an issue then.
How do you think education in performing arts generally can be promoted in our country through the media?
You see performing arts is something that cannot be taught, it has to be learned. So the responsibility lies entirely on the student. They just need to be made aware of the importance of the education and the role it plays in their careers throughout. It’s not the responsibility of the teacher, it is something that they have to understand.
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