BENGALURU: We all think of learning new instruments, composing our own music and making YouTube videos and even compile albums. But rarely do we accomplish this, especially when trying to do it all by ourselves with little assistance.Aged 16, Joshua Samuel Yessudass, is a self-taught musician who recently composed his first song Red Sands, which is now on YouTube. Joshua first started learning the cello at the age of 8, where his love of music started.
“My father played the mandolin and so did other members of my family. Although I had no interest in learning any instrument, my father and brother forced me to learn the cello. That’s when my interest in music started,” he says.
Within three years, his interest grew. After the cello, he moved on to learning the bass and then the list of instruments expanded to keyboard and drums at the age of 12, mostly self-taught. “I started going to the Bangalore School of Music where I was guided by talented musicians and also got a bit of training in Chennai, but I mostly learnt playing instruments from the Internet.”
Inspired by AR Rehman and members of the band Coldplay, Joshua’s music is a mix of classical, jazz and rock. Currently pursuing First PUC at St Joseph’s evening college, Joshua is dedicating all his mornings for practice, giving three hours for practising the cello and another three hours for acoustic and bass guitar.
He says he always places his passion for music first. “I enrolled for a degree in Arts because I wanted to dedicate more time to music.”
He currently records at a studio near Cox Town and says he wants to compose and professionally produce music for other musicians. He also says that he wants to start his own YouTube channel where he plans on giving music lessons to other aspirants. This idea came to him when he noticed that there are no channels on YT that give basic lessons in cello.
(If you have any heartwarming stories to share with us, do write in to bengalurucityexpress@gmail.com with the subject line ‘Bengaluru By-chance)