By Eric Rodrigues — Founder, The First Chord Academy, Banaswadi, Bangalore
People ask me sometimes how The First Chord Academy came to exist — this music academy in Banaswadi, sitting above a bank, with guitars on the wall and keyboards lined up and children learning things they’ll carry for the rest of their lives. The honest answer is that it didn’t start as a plan. It grew out of something that was already there — a life spent playing music, on stages, in studios, with bands, with strangers who became friends over shared chord progressions.
Dubai — And the Question That Wouldn’t Go Away
Before TFC, before Banaswadi, I spent time in Dubai working in insurance. It was steady work. It paid the bills. And every single day I sat at that desk, some part of me was quietly asking the same question: is this really it?
When the company started going under and the layoffs began, I did what most people do — I applied for other jobs. Nothing clicked. And somewhere in that uncertain stretch, I picked up the guitar. Not as a strategy. Just as a release.
I started going to open mics with my friend Dillon, who sang and played guitar. We played together, figured things out together, named ourselves a band. We called it The Final Chord.
That name — slightly changed — would eventually end up on a sign in Banaswadi. But I didn’t know that yet.
Music Was Always the Real Thing
When I came back to Bangalore, I came back for music.
Not to teach. To play.
I played with bands — primarily Twisted Mischief and Ledge 13, which took up most of my time and energy. But also Quarter Fret, Negative Zero, and a rotating cast of musicians who found each other the way musicians do — through mutual friends, through jam sessions, through someone saying “we need a guitarist, do you know anyone?”
I did sessions. Solo shows. Duet performances. The kind of life where you’re moving between rehearsal spaces and stages and studios and someone’s living room at eleven at night working out a bridge that isn’t sitting right yet.
It was full. It was real. And it was, financially, unpredictable in the way that every performing musician knows — great months, quiet months, the constant uncertainty of when the next gig comes in.
Teaching came into the picture practically. A steady income between gigs. Something that used the same skills, the same knowledge, but on a predictable schedule. I started taking students and found, fairly quickly, that I was good at it — and that I genuinely liked watching someone go from nothing to something.
Banaswadi — The Place That Made Sense
I was living in Kammanahalli — close to Indiranagar, accessible to Koramangala, near enough to Benson Town where my family is. It was a good base for a musician. Good access to where things were happening.
When the time came to find a proper space for the academy, Banaswadi was the natural answer. It was familiar ground. It was a neighbourhood with families and children and parents who wanted something good nearby but didn’t want to drive across the city to find it. And unlike Koramangala or Indiranagar, it wasn’t already saturated with music schools competing for the same students.
We found the space above IDBI Bank in Subbanapalya. That became The First Chord Academy.
The Name — From Final to First
The name took time. I went through many options before landing on what felt right.
The band in Dubai had been called The Final Chord. There was something in that name I liked — the finality, the weight of it. But for a place where people were beginning — where a child picks up a guitar for the first time, where an adult finally does the thing they always said they’d do someday — final wasn’t right.
I called Dillon, asked if he minded. He didn’t.
The First Chord. Because that’s what this place is about — not where you end up, but where you start. That first note, that first chord, the moment when music makes sense in your hands for the very first time. That’s the moment worth building around.
What TFC Is Now
The First Chord Academy today offers guitar, keyboard, and ukulele classes, arts and crafts, and academic tuition for Class 1 to 10 across CBSE, ICSE, and State Board. Small batches. Individual attention. Teaching that takes the student seriously.
The Saturday Sessions — a monthly one-day music workshop for adults — launched this year. TFC Fast Track offers 8-session private music courses for people who want to move fast. The plan is bigger: performances, a stage, a recital where students play in front of an audience and feel what that actually feels like.
But every week, the core of it is the same. Someone walks in through the door above IDBI Bank. They pick up a guitar, or sit at a keyboard, or open a book with a teacher who actually has time for them.
And they play their first chord.
Still the whole point.
Come and See for Yourself
If you’ve been thinking about music classes — for your child or for yourself — or if you’re looking for academic tuition in Banaswadi, we’d love to have you in.
Free trial classes are available for guitar, keyboard, ukulele, and arts and crafts. A free assessment session is available for academic tuition. No commitment. No charge. Just come in.
And if you want to move faster — ask about TFC Fast Track: 8 private, 1:1 weekend sessions designed to take you from beginner to playing real music in two months.
📲 WhatsApp 8217506289
📍 Above IDBI Bank, Subbanapalya, Banaswadi, Bengaluru 560043
🌐 thefirstchord.com
Eric Rodrigues is the founder of The First Chord Academy and has performed with bands including Twisted Mischief, Ledge 13, Quarter Fret, and Negative Zero across Bangalore. He teaches guitar, keyboard and ukulele personally at TFC in Banaswadi.