Ear for music

Learning to play the saxophone takes three years, explains Dubai-based music teacher

Anwar Yusuf is a man with a passion for the saxophone and has devoted his life to this wind instrument. He teaches Indian semi-classical music along with Western music on the saxophone and has been playing at musical shows in Dubai for the past 14 years.

A musician with a ear for tunes, Yusuf can provide improvisations of any tune on the saxophone. He has been committed to music and been a saxophonist for 35 years now.

As long as he is playing on his saxophone, it does not matter to him where he is performing, whether at the orchestra, tutoring a pupil or on a trip to a distant country with a group of performers. If none of these are happening he plays for hours together at home, every day.

In the course of his career, he has been around the world. On a world tour as a saxophonist, he has visited the UK, U.S. and Canada. He has also performed in Africa, Kenya and Tanzania.

Like other musicians of his time, Yusuf feels the era of providing background music in recording songs has faded away. "Thirty years ago we were very much in demand," he recalled. Now the trend is for using a coupler.

"His ability to bring out a piece of music with such clarity and rhythm evokes spontaneous appreciation from his listeners," says V. Harshavardhan, group finance manager, Al Reyami Group of companies, and an ardent fan and pupil of Yusuf. Harshavardhan has been learning to play the saxophone for the past two years.

"Through music he helps me unwind after a hard day's work," he said. "Learning to play the saxophone is like learning any other musical instument," explains Yusuf. "It is the blowing technique which has to be mastered."

Son of a police band master in Baroda, India, Yusuf started training at the age of 17 under his father and continued for four years.

"Everyone wants to learn how to play saxophone in a month," he quips. "It takes at least three years to learn any instrument although a talented person can learn it faster. Learning to play a saxophone would be faster still if a person already knows to play another instrument. Mastering of music cannot be rushed," he adds.