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NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 6 A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Reflect and Respond

Book page 194 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
I. Read the questions given below and share your answers with your classmates and teacher. 1. What kind of music do you prefer to listen to—vocal or instrumental?
Answer

Answer for yourself, but make the preference say something. ‘Vocal’ or ‘instrumental’ on its own is not an answer; the reason is the answer.

What a good answer needs: the choice in the first line, then what each kind does that the other cannot, and one honest admission about when you switch.

Sample answer: I prefer instrumental music, especially while studying. Vocal music brings words with it, and words demand attention — I find myself following the story of a song instead of the page in front of me. An instrumental piece gives me the same mood without any language to compete with my own thoughts. That said, I switch to vocal music the moment I stop working: a song can name a feeling exactly, and no flute solo has ever made my grandmother sing along the way a Bihu number does. So the honest answer is that instrumental music is for concentration and vocal music is for company.

Worth noticing before you read the poem: Bryanna T. Perkins never once says which kind she means. Her poem calls music an ocean, a rhythm, a therapy and a friend — all of them things music does rather than kinds of music it is. That silence is deliberate, and it is what makes the poem fit any listener.
Q2.
I. 2. Name your favourite musician(s).
Answer

Name real musicians and be specific — a name plus what he or she actually plays or sings tells the class far more than a list.

What a good answer needs: one to three names, the instrument or voice each is known for, and one particular piece or performance you have actually heard. Avoid a list of ten names, none of which you can discuss.

Sample answer: My favourites are Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia on the bansuri — a name Shruti’s friend Iqbal has on his wall in the play — and Zakir Hussain on the tabla. Among singers I listen most to Bombay Jayashri. The performance I keep going back to is a Chaurasia recording of Raga Yaman in which the alaap runs for almost fifteen minutes before the tabla enters at all.

Tip: if you name a film-music composer or a band, say what they do that others do not — an arrangement, a use of a particular instrument, a way of writing a chorus. That turns a preference into a musical observation.
Q3.
I. 3. Give reasons for your choice.
Answer

A reason must point at something in the music, not only at your own feeling. ‘Because I like the songs’ is not a reason; ‘because he leaves so much silence between phrases’ is.

What a good answer needs — three kinds of reason to choose from:
  • Technical — tone, control, phrasing, timing, the way an improvisation is built.
  • Emotional — what the music does to you, and in what situation.
  • Personal or cultural — where you first heard it, who introduced you to it, what it belongs to at home.
The best answers use at least two of the three, so that the choice sounds thought about and not merely felt.

Sample answer: I choose Chaurasia for a technical reason and Zakir Hussain for an emotional one. The bansuri is a simple bamboo tube with six holes and no keys, so every bend between two notes has to be made with the breath and the fingers alone; hearing a raga unfold on it is like watching someone draw a curve freehand. Zakir Hussain I like for the opposite quality — the sheer speed and precision of a tihai landing exactly on the sam, which is the most satisfying arrival in Indian music. And there is a third reason I cannot separate from the other two: the tabla is what I hear in my own street during weddings, so it was music before I knew the word for it.

Why these three questions open a poem about music: they force you to describe what music does for you personally — which is precisely the poem’s subject. Perkins is not writing about musicians or genres at all; she is writing about the uses of music: it pulls, it moves, it heals, it lifts, it keeps her company. Having named your own uses first, you read her list as a comparison rather than as a stranger’s statement.
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