Gerry Smith became involved with Project Ability through the You, me and ASD exhibition, and since then has been a regular fixture of the Trongate 103 First Thursday events. Every month, Gerry generously gives his time –and talent!- by playing the sitar in our gallery. The beautiful sounds are a perfect accompaniment to the art and enrich the gallery experience. We took the opportunity to ask him a few questions during last week’s event.

How long have you been playing the sitar?
I have been playing for about four years now, on and off. Since I took up piano, I haven’t been playing sitar as much. I bought this sitar on Gumtree, and within a few weeks I saw a poster at Strathclyde Uni, where I was studying, advertising a sitar class. A week after seeing the poster, I was taking my first lesson. It was taught by Haroon Simon, a student, from Pakistan, who is now a good friend. Haroon's father was also a sitar player.

What drew you to this instrument?
I heard it in the 80’s in Camden Market, a stall was selling a couple of sitars, not in very good condition, and this guy was playing it. I desperately wanted to buy one… I was playing the twelve string guitar at the time and always loved that tone effect. There’s something very human about it, there is a rhythm, but it’s not like the four-four you have in Western music. To me that sounds like slaves pulling the oars of a boat… In Indian music you can hear everything in between.

When you are playing, is it something composed or do you just improvise?
I learnt some very basic parts of the Indian rag. It comes from the voice: the voice has quarter tones and notes in between the full tones that other instruments can’t reproduce, and this is how the sitar came about.

Have you always been into music?
Always.  I’m much more confident with music than I am with other means of communication. I’m not great with reading or words, but I feel comfortable with music.

What other instruments do you play?
I’ve just passed my Grade 3 piano, I might do a Grade 4 this year. I also play guitar, ukulele, and I’m trying to learn the squeeze box. But I wouldn’t bring another instrument here, they could feel quite intrusive in a gallery, not like the sitar. This place is amazing for playing the sitar. This music has a lot to do with imagination. When you hear Debussy’s piano music, you have the same feeling that you get with Eastern music, because he changed his style after hearing Javanese gamelan music at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris. His style was a lot freer after hearing Eastern music.

And on that note, Gerry goes back to the gallery and fills the room with beautiful melodies once more.