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Believe in yourself and practice, practice and practice and after that practice again’As a self taught drummer, she performed on stage for the first time in the year 1996 at State Academy Hall Kohima in front of a huge crowd with her parents watching her.
Lopeno Ovung recalls this as one of her most extraordinary and joyful experiences although she confesses she was very nervous and literally shivering with her hi-hat stand moving away from her all the time, as she puts it.
She grew up with music and she goes back in time, pulling out memories of family members gathering every night to sing choruses and hymns. However, she started on drums only after finishing high school, adding with a little tinge of regret that during the formative years she didn’t have any kind of formal training which compelled her to start learning how to read drum notations on her own.
But pronouncing that her guitar lessons helped her extensively, she remembers learning the basic guitar chords from her Dad, Shibemo, and then later training under few other supervisors. She was a member of the Patkai Christian College Guitar Ensemble for four years. Her heart was certainly in it for she also won the State level Western Classical Guitar Recital Competition organised by the State department of Youth Resources & Sports in 2002.
And yet, the Drums remained her love all the way. She apparently never had her personal drum kit and so, she says, ‘I hardly found a proper place to practice and had a very hard time looking for someone who would actually lend me his drum kit for a while’. And that’s how she practiced and did her ‘homework’ till, in 2003, she finally bought a second-hand drum kit that pretty much solved much of her struggles.
She did climb the barriers standing her way to becoming an accomplished drummer even as she looks back and realises that there wasn’t any centre for drum grade examinations in the North East during her time but notes with happiness that there are music institutes in Nagaland working hard to set up centres in this regard.
Prior to becoming a Drum Instructor at the Crown Centre in Dimapur along with other schools in 2003, she played in bands like Oleanders (Winner-State Level, and 2nd Runner Up-National Level of the Northeast Music Festival organized by Doordashan and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan,Delhi 2003), Alive 107, Native Rising, which was selected as opening band for international rock act Michael Learns To Rock, Abiogenesis and XTC(selected as opening band for international rock act Firehouse).
She has also been associated in performances with bands for social causes like HIV/AIDS before pursuing her further studies in drums at The Yamaha School of Music, Singapore.
Lopeno is presently a Drum Instructor in Delhi (since 2007), but she is simultaneously training herself under Manoj Mavley who is a well known drum instructor in the national capital. She is also a member of the Faculty of Drums at Aria - The Music and Theatre Conservatory and Asha Music Academy at Vasant Kunj. Alongside, she trains students for the Trinity Guildhall and Rockschool Examinations.
The lady drummer has definitely experienced more than one fulfilling rendezvous with music but she still finds it difficult to define it. But for her, “Music is almost like a Heaven-sent gift which keeps me going when life gets tough. I also think that it is a universal language and that is exactly how we can think of making a major difference in the world, just by giving it a chance”.
Towards this end, she feels that Nagaland is full of very sincere musicians, which she expresses is the reason why it is gradually progressing in the field of music. Describing Music as a culture and a very detailed process, she says that event organising is also a very important part of the music industry.
She also feels strongly about introducing refined courses of event management in the State while explaining that, this way it’ll be in constant touch with the other major event management firms across the country and abroad. Moreover, she adds local talents will have a greater prospect to outshine themselves.
Otherwise, she sees ample scope for music in Nagaland and expresses further that it’s specially because she sees a lot of support of government organisations like the Music Task Force, which are helping young aspiring musicians to pursue their musical careers as well as the many music schools which are giving the right guidance to the young learners and further makes a special mention of the academic institutions which have added music as a subject to their curriculum.
Personally for her, among the many fantastic musicians who have inspired her, she says that she has always had a very intricate relation with nature and while confessing her love for everything which is natural, she also feels that this is what actually inspires her to do good music.
She also professes that she will always support every step taken towards the welfare and wellbeing of the society. She has, over the years, been associated with social welfare programmes through her musical abilities and goes on to add that she would always want to help by participating in any social activity for the uplift of the society.
In the longer run of her life, she plans “to keep on playing my drums and constantly learn and upgrade myself in the field of drum concepts”. The biggest reward for her is actually the audience who come for her concerts and this Lady Drummer doesn’t think gender really applies in the field of music. “The whole jazz lies in the passion of becoming a part of a musical instrument (i.e. becoming a musician). It can be anybody. It takes nothing to become a lady drummer but it takes dedication, discipline and humbleness to become a real musician” she says.
It is also noteworthy that all the music credits she has earned has all come from “Practice, practice and practice and after that practice again” but sensibly conveys “through all that practice do not forget to believe in yourself”.
Believe in yourself and practice, practice and practice and after that practice again’As a self taught drummer, she performed on stage for the first time in the year 1996 at State Academy Hall Kohima in front of a huge crowd with her parents watching her. Lopeno Ovung recalls this as one of her most extraordinary and joyful experiences although she confesses she was very nervous and literally shivering with her hi-hat stand moving away from her all the time, as she puts it.
She grew up with music and she goes back in time, pulling out memories of family members gathering every night to sing choruses and hymns. However, she started on drums only after finishing high school, adding with a little tinge of regret that during the formative years she didn’t have any kind of formal training which compelled her to start learning how to read drum notations on her own.
But pronouncing that her guitar lessons helped her extensively, she remembers learning the basic guitar chords from her Dad, Shibemo, and then later training under few other supervisors. She was a member of the Patkai Christian College Guitar Ensemble for four years. Her heart was certainly in it for she also won the State level Western Classical Guitar Recital Competition organised by the State department of Youth Resources & Sports in 2002.
And yet, the Drums remained her love all the way. She apparently never had her personal drum kit and so, she says, ‘I hardly found a proper place to practice and had a very hard time looking for someone who would actually lend me his drum kit for a while’. And that’s how she practiced and did her ‘homework’ till, in 2003, she finally bought a second-hand drum kit that pretty much solved much of her struggles.
She did climb the barriers standing her way to becoming an accomplished drummer even as she looks back and realises that there wasn’t any centre for drum grade examinations in the North East during her time but notes with happiness that there are music institutes in Nagaland working hard to set up centres in this regard.
Prior to becoming a Drum Instructor at the Crown Centre in Dimapur along with other schools in 2003, she played in bands like Oleanders (Winner-State Level, and 2nd Runner Up-National Level of the Northeast Music Festival organized by Doordashan and Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan,Delhi 2003), Alive 107, Native Rising, which was selected as opening band for international rock act Michael Learns To Rock, Abiogenesis and XTC(selected as opening band for international rock act Firehouse).
She has also been associated in performances with bands for social causes like HIV/AIDS before pursuing her further studies in drums at The Yamaha School of Music, Singapore.
Lopeno is presently a Drum Instructor in Delhi (since 2007), but she is simultaneously training herself under Manoj Mavley who is a well known drum instructor in the national capital. She is also a member of the Faculty of Drums at Aria - The Music and Theatre Conservatory and Asha Music Academy at Vasant Kunj. Alongside, she trains students for the Trinity Guildhall and Rockschool Examinations.
The lady drummer has definitely experienced more than one fulfilling rendezvous with music but she still finds it difficult to define it. But for her, “Music is almost like a Heaven-sent gift which keeps me going when life gets tough. I also think that it is a universal language and that is exactly how we can think of making a major difference in the world, just by giving it a chance”.
Towards this end, she feels that Nagaland is full of very sincere musicians, which she expresses is the reason why it is gradually progressing in the field of music. Describing Music as a culture and a very detailed process, she says that event organising is also a very important part of the music industry.
She also feels strongly about introducing refined courses of event management in the State while explaining that, this way it’ll be in constant touch with the other major event management firms across the country and abroad. Moreover, she adds local talents will have a greater prospect to outshine themselves.
Otherwise, she sees ample scope for music in Nagaland and expresses further that it’s specially because she sees a lot of support of government organisations like the Music Task Force, which are helping young aspiring musicians to pursue their musical careers as well as the many music schools which are giving the right guidance to the young learners and further makes a special mention of the academic institutions which have added music as a subject to their curriculum.
Personally for her, among the many fantastic musicians who have inspired her, she says that she has always had a very intricate relation with nature and while confessing her love for everything which is natural, she also feels that this is what actually inspires her to do good music.
She also professes that she will always support every step taken towards the welfare and wellbeing of the society. She has, over the years, been associated with social welfare programmes through her musical abilities and goes on to add that she would always want to help by participating in any social activity for the uplift of the society.
In the longer run of her life, she plans “to keep on playing my drums and constantly learn and upgrade myself in the field of drum concepts”. The biggest reward for her is actually the audience who come for her concerts and this Lady Drummer doesn’t think gender really applies in the field of music. “The whole jazz lies in the passion of becoming a part of a musical instrument (i.e. becoming a musician). It can be anybody. It takes nothing to become a lady drummer but it takes dedication, discipline and humbleness to become a real musician” she says.
It is also noteworthy that all the music credits she has earned has all come from “Practice, practice and practice and after that practice again” but sensibly conveys “through all that practice do not forget to believe in yourself”.
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