Barham became a student of Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, whose international popularity by 1966 had grown to include Western rock audiences. In June that year, Barham attended the Bath Music Festival in the west of England, where Shankar and American violinist Yehudi Menuhin were due to perform an historic duet. At Shankar's request, Barham transcribed the sitarist's adaptation of Raga Tilang into Western musical annotation for Menuhin's benefit, after Shankar had been dissatisfied with German musician Peter Feuchtwanger's attempt to adapt the same raga. Later in 1966, on Menuhin and Shankar's Grammy Award-winning album "West Meets East", Barham supplied liner notes, explaining the various musical terms particular to Indian music.