Music holds a fascination for the younger generation, and many are
always on the lookout for good musical instruments. The Daily Star
recently spoke to Gopal Ray, who has been working at a musical
instrument shop New Surasree at Mirpur Road for long. He talked about
the market for musical instruments and more. Excerpts:
What is the most popular instrument at the moment?
Gopal Ray: The Spanish guitar is the most
sought-after musical instrument as youngsters love to play it. Most of
our customers are amateur musicians who scout for all sorts of guitars.
What other instruments do you have in your shop?
Gopal Ray: We sell all kinds of musical instruments.
We keep everything, starting from guitars to tanpura, trumpets, sitars,
sarod, surmandal and harmoniums. The starting price of guitars is Taka
1800 taka. We also have expensive guitars of renowned brands. Harmoniums
go from Taka 9,000- 60,000, while flutes start from Taka 350.
We also have a large array of folk instruments including ektara, dotara, khamak, mondira, dhol, tabla, banshi and shanai.
Folk instruments are being modernised as they are being used by young
musicians. Instruments like flute, dotara, khamak and mondira are
widely used as well.
However, the shanai is almost on its way out in Bangladesh as there are a handful of shanai players left.
How do you collect these instruments?
Gopal Ray: We import most of our instruments from
India, Europe and America. And for folk instruments, local guitars,
tabla and harmoniums, we have our own factory in Rishipara, Narayanganj.
Making musical instruments is tough, and requires expertise.
What's the present market scenario?
Gopal Ray: Despite a downturn in the audio market,
our business is steady. However, we are yet to recover fully from the
losses we suffered during last year's political instability. Once there
used to be concerts in every corner of the city, but the trend has
reversed. Now there are more live shows on television and radio, and a
small number of indoor shows.
