Interview Session, Balawan YouTube Channel: A Musical Diary

"Iya saya punya sekolah musik, namanya Balawan Music Training Center, sekarang sudah berusia lebih dari lima tahun, mungkin ada sekitar 300-400an murid. Jadi semua saya ajarkan dan pelajaran gratis untuk bermain musik gamelan, disekolah jadi mereka tetap cinta dengan musik tradisi dan saya suka memberikan konser-konser gratis kepada mereka, jadi mereka bisa terinspirasi, dan menambah wawasan dan referensi musiknya", pungkas Balawan.

(English)
In the midst of his life as guitarist, he doesn't forget to develop youngsters who are interested in music by establishing a music school named Balawan Music Training Center (BMTC). In his music school, Balawan holds a free guitar concert for his students. The aim is to make his students learn from him. He also gives free gamelan lesson to his students to make them learn to love gamelan. 

He informs, "Yes, I establish Balawan Music Training Center. Now, the school has been existed for five years and have approximately 300-400 students. I teach gamelan for free in school so that they can know and love traditional music. I also like to hold free concerts so that they can have more reference in their playing style or variation." When I ask the possibility of establishing BMTC outside Bali, Balawan has a plan, yet he is focusing on developing BMTC Bali first. He wants everything to be settled before expanding to other places.

(Indonesia)
Tutorial bermain gitar yang diajarkan Balawan di Chanel Youtubenya sangat membangun, ia mengajarkan beberapa teknik gitar dengan jelas. Malahan sesekali, ia berkelakar tentang cara bermain gitar. Ia ingin agar orang tidak terburu-buru meberikan penilaian. Dalam memberikan penilaian ia berpesan agar orang mengetahui terlebih dulu, latar belakang musik yang dimainkan, teknik apa yang dipakai. Jadi orang jangan terburu-buru dalam memberikan komentar negatif.

(English)
The guitar tutorials Balawan shares on his YouTube channel is helpful. He explains guitar techniques clearly in his tutorials. Sometimes, he joke around about how to play guitar. He hopes that people doesn't immediately give judgments. He advised that before giving judgments, people understand the background of the music and its technique before leaving negative comments. 

"I try to give some tutorials in my channel to help my viewers understand the process of playing a song and its techniques. I want people to know the background of the songs I'm playing. Sometimes, when people don't know about it, they can easily say that the song is played badly, don't have the soul, etc. It's like the people today. When they don't like something, they immediately leave negative comments without even trying to gather up information or playing the song," he described.

(Indonesia)
Dalam keseharian Balawan, ternyata dirinya merupakan seorang family man. Meskipun dirinya juga sibuk mengurus keluarga, ia tetap berkutat dengan gitar dan aktifitas seputar dunia musik. 

"Keseharian saya sama seperti bapak-bapak muda lainnya, jadi pagi-pagi sama istri nyiapin anak-anak untuk sekolah nyiapin sarapannya, kita sama-sama dengan istri terus antar jemput seperti, gojek antar jemput anak bolak-balik, dan diselingi dengan latihan, bikin rekaman,komposisi terus sorenya juga bermain musik. Terus ngurus anak-anak di sekolah musik. Malam bermain dengan anak dirumah, seperti biasa aja. Kecuali kalau saya sedang tur.

(English)
In his daily life, Balawan is a family man. Although he's in the music world, he still cares about his family. 

"My daily activities are like other young dads: I and my wife help our children to school, prepare the breakfast, and pick them up to school. We also pick them up home. I do that besides exercising my skill, recording, composing and playing music in the afternoon. I'm also taking care of students in school. At night, I play with my children like usual, except if I'm in a tour," he said.

(Indonesia)
Dalam sesi terakhir wawancara saya bersama Balawan, ia menjelaskan bahwa seorang gitaris yang baik dibutuhkan sebuah sikap yang dinamakan kejujuran. Sikap yang akan mendasari permainan gitarnya. Karena ini akan membuat ia menjadi gitaris yang mumpuni.