Kamal Ahmad is a sitar player and teacher of raga music. He started
his musical journey learning tabla before being initiated in the art of
sitar playing by his elder sister. It would not be long before he began
to seriously pursue his musical studies under sarod maestro Arnab Chakrabarty.
Soon after, Chakrabarty introduced Kamal to his would-be gurus, sitar virtuoso
Vinayak Chittar and scholar-vocalist Pandit Arijit Mahalanabis, under both of whom
Kamal continues to study. In spite of having taken to music at a fairly advanced age,
Kamal compensated for a delayed start with an acutely critical approach to learning,
which allowed him to identify and pursue an efficient path to honing his abilities.
As such, Kamal maintains his critical endeavors in his practice, performance, and
teaching of music, in an attempt to constantly improve at each.
Teaching
Kamal is available for lessons in person, in the San Francisco bay area and online
anywhere in the world. He has experience teaching students of all ages, with a range of
skill levels and artistic backgrounds. Consequently, Kamal believes in gearing his lessons towards
the needs of each student to help them progress towards their musical goals. At present, he is available for sitar, tabla, esraj/dilruba, harmonium and rubab lessons.
My seven-year old son has been learning tabla under Kamal for more than a year now.
He has learnt a lot and enjoys learning under him. Kamal is extremely patient with younger kids.
He teaches kids with utmost love and care. Kamal is also an extremely good listener when it comes to kids.
He addresses every question that my son has, and engages with him at all levels in order to keep his
enthusiasm in music alive. Kamal is a very versatile teacher who has mastered a couple music instruments.
My son has learned and progressed a lot in the year, and he enjoys and appreciates Indian music ever since
he started learning tabla. My son has done both in-person and online classes with him. Online classes are
equally good as going to in-person classes.
- Vani
Thank you Kamal Ji for teaching me tabla. It is very fun to learn. I love to learn tabla every day.
Every class is very exciting. I don't know what I am going to learn next. You make class very simple, fun
and easy to understand. You don't disapprove questions. You are a great tabla and other musical instrument
player.
