VIJAYAWADA: Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao College of Music and Dance has been registering a dropout rate of an appalling 40 per cent for three consecutive years and the main reason for the situation is academic pressure. “Students are facing severe study pressure. They join our college not knowing the extent of preparation required to learn music and dance properly.
After a few months at the institution, they realise that the courses that they have chosen demand a lot of effort. They finally drop out on realising that it is hard to juggle music, dance and studies,” said principal K S Govindaraj. The courses that have seen the highest number of students quitting are violin, mridangam, tabla, Bharatanatyam, and veena.
The number of students who enrolled for violin saw a 45 per cent decrease; mridangam, 35 per cent; tabla, 35 per cent; Bharatanatyam, 35 per cent and veena 25 per cent, this year compared to last. “These instruments and Bharatanatyam are complex and therefore require time and patience to understand. These days, people are not able find enough time for that,” said Govindaraj. Parupalli Phalgun, a renowned mridangam player who is a lecturer with the college, said, “Women have never been fans of mridangam; you can rarely see a female learning the instrument.
However, these days, men too have lost interest as it has gone out of fashion. Youth these days want to learn to play instruments which are fancy and in vogue. They don’t understand that mridangam can make unique sounds that cannot be replicated by any other instrument. It is an essential instrument in classical music.”
Amruth Kumar, a tabla lecturer who has taught several musicians working in Tollywood today, said, “Tabla still has passionate students as it is an instrument that is used to make music in Tollywood. However, the kind of music is changing, so it has gone a little out of use. Nevertheless, tabla will survive as it is compulsorily used for certain scenes and musical cues in movies.”
Apart from the courses, even vocal and Kuchipudi have marked 30 per cent and 25 per cent dropout rates respectively, and a 20 and 15 per cent enrolment dip. Students TNIE spoke to said they were hard pressed to find time for classes. “I have a lot of work at office, yet I come here to learn the veena,” said B Haritha, a software engineer.