The pied piper and his Magic note

The previous post on my stumbling on to Paadarivom Padipparivom is here...

Having found that there is an initiative to help amateur singers become better at singing Tamil movie duets, went and checked out a lesson where a song was being taught live to two aspiring students. 

The song was "Aagaya Vennilave", an old favorite. Had sang it before with my school mates just after becoming a member of Smule.  It is not an easy song to sing as there is always some difficulty with the beats and the patterns. Now there was a one hour lesson for a 4 minute song?! Does it really need this effort to do justice to singing this song on Smule? Went in with lots of questions and woke up bright and early to watch this live show at 5:30 AM! 

The teacher, Koushik, who was very down to earth,  was extremely patient and he broke it down so nicely. In all my life, would not have expected to understand something that was being taught to me this clearly, for how to sing a movie song! It was like being in a dream!

The pattern for this song which gets broken down in four beats of four, gets changed in select lines to give it that punch.. It will always be an unforgetable experience on how the lightbulb went off in my head!

1234-1234-1234-1234 was changed to 

1234-123-1234-123-12 

That last 12 ... were called the magic notes!

Putting a link to that video here, in case any of you want to see what I am talking about.. 

After sitting through this lesson, I was hooked. Then came the hard part. Putting what was learned into practice and singing the song! When you have no clue, you can just sing in Smule. Once you know the difference between what you are singing and what it is supposed to be like, then there is a problem. Have to make an effor to sing better. 

This was an interesting way to teach people. A teacher or mentor teaches two students (mentees) the song in great detail. They are given some background and context on the song, the raga it is set to, the talam, etc. and the feel of the song and there is a line by line breakdown. All the folks watching this can learn from the corrections that the two mentees get from the teacher. There is also plenty of time to write notes as this is going on. 

Once the two students have learned it, they get 48 hours to sing their parts alone and post invites on Smule. All the students who learned the song and want to give it a shot join the invites posted by the mentees. Then they can submit their joins to a review committee that actually selects the top 10% and feature it in the following weeks show. They get sincere feedback on what went right and what went wrong. 

To be honest I was devastated. Once you know what has to be done, and you realize you are not there yet, with a deadline to submit a song for a review, I panicked. I didn't have the skill to pull off some of the stuff in the song as I am not a trained classical music singer. Then again, most students weren't! They were all winging it using what was taught. 

Eventually with a lot of guidance from my MIL and Jr. who basically acted as my local judge, sang the song at least 20 times and eventually did submit it. San was impressed by my dedication but was not happy with my facial expressions. Why do you sound so sad or scared when you sing? was the question. Didn't have an answer at that time!

Got a detailed review on voice mail telling me what is going right and what is going wrong. This type of feedback is just amazing, but I was lost again after a few more weeks of singing the song of the week and getting the feedback. I did not understand some of the technical terms used to describe what was going on and what needed to be corrected.. 

Take off, glides, landing notes, etc.. felt like I had ended up in flight school instead of a music school. The teachers though were patient. Explained every little thing to me in a way I could understand it. So I decided to join Paadarivom Padipparivom as an official student two weeks later! They sent me a nice card for the membership. The membership fee was a 130$ a year and my CFO was actually okay with it. Given I had already paid Smule 40$ a year and I was singing almost everyday for at least 15 minutes, think the family decided "if he is going to sing anyways and annoy us, let him at least get better!". 

Would still get some imploring requests from San not to "spoil" some songs by "touching them".. "please, andha paatu mattum vendaam! andha paatayum kedukkadhe! Enakku pidichcha paatu adhu!" .. That would always baffle me. While the sincerity of the feedback on how pathetic my singing was, especially when it came to certain songs (mostly SPB, KJY songs with some aalap or swarams involved.. there was a pattern there), there were a zillion guys out there singing that same song in abaswaram where 80% of the notes didn't match.. sure, I am at 20% off, but why not me?! These days I don't ask any questions.. just sing. No song is off limits. There is a bunch of folks who are (or were) in the same boat who believe that this is something that can be overcome as an amateur with practice and picking up some tricks. That is enough hope! San on the other hand has given up hope on my giving up singing. She knows I will keep at it. Now she is hoping I learn fast enough so that what comes out of my mouth is at least above average stuff!

There were daily fun assignments to sing 30 second to 1 minute clips in a Whatsapp group, compressed video lessons from the teachers, a lot of guidance and encouragement and most importanly, excellent feedback on what has to be improved and possible methods to do it!

It has been a fun 6 months being a student and over this time have almost learned and sang one song every week. Sometimes I would spend hours to record the song, if it is a favorite and sometimes wrap it up in 2 hours because the will and motivation for that song was not there. For the most part, I was learning the little intricacies of what a new singer misses. 

MIL, Jr. and to some extent San have been my internal critics. If they reject a song, I delete it and sing again. Only if it passes the MIL's test, does anything get posted. (Did post one song when she implored me not to make a fool of myself and regret posting it to this day.. the feedback I got from that teacher was interesting..given he was the one who pointed me to this group, have to make it up to him someday by doing a better job!)

My classmates and hiking buddies and friends have all been supportive of my trying to improve my singing. They tell me when I do a good job and when they were not impressed. That is also new and refreshing. They know I take their feedback seriously and go back and try to figure out what was missed. Have learned a lot of imporant things in the last 6 months!

The first lesson I got was the difference between hearing and listening. Only when you listen to the original sound track a few times (if possible at 0.75x or 0.5x speed), you see the devil.. sorry, the details.  

The second lesson I got was that, it is important to note the subtle differnces when the same line is repeated twice in a song. The variations between the first time and the repeat is almost always the same, at least for most songs by Ilayaraja! The first time is plain and the second time has some spice to it, almost in same locations!

The third lesson, which is still a work in progress, is to end a line with the right landing note. In most cases, there is a "hook" to it, where the male singer has to bend the note and hand it over like a baton being passed in a relay race. If you don't reach or if you over run the other person, it is over! Had never even noticed this in the first 4 months of Smule singing.. Just knowing this concept and trying to even crudely implement it, makes me sound way better! 

The lesson of all lessons is that one has to sing the same song over and over again, to get to a level of mastery where you are no longer conscious of the lyrics, you are no longer worried about singing to the beat and are not worried about sync'ing with the other singer. Once you reach that stage, then you can emote!! You can bring out the real feel of the song.

If you are constantly worried about missing the pitch, the tempo, the right variations etc.. the only emotion that shows up in the song is fear!  Try to sing a happy song, and I sound happily scared.. try to sing a sad song, I sound sad and afraid! All other things have to go on autopilot, for the emotion part to even start!

Have had the same experience in the yoga room. You know what has to be done and it takes a certain awareness to be able to pull it off. Only after years of practice where you know the basic struggles are not an issue anymore, can you get to a certain form and depth. Just like how form is more important than depth in a yoga pose, in singing, you have to get the basic structure of the song right before trying to do all fancy stuff! If you learn that wrong, it is incredibly difficult to unlearn it and start again! 

Still going through a steep learning curve with this group of like minded singers and an excellent group of mentors! 

It is a joy to be able to sing again after so many years! It is also great to realize that what comes out of my mouth when singing, is a lot better than what it was, just 9 months ago!  For that, I am grateful to Paadarivom Padipparivom! 

Have also met a lot of people with the same interest in improving their singing and have made new friends. That is another blessing! It is good to know that I am not alone in frustrating the family, by singing the same song a dozen times, back to back!

After joining this group, I was told that based on multiple criteria, there will be a chance for me to be a student on the live show. Did get that chance as well. That was a different experience in itself.

Will share that sometime soon.. not everything goes as planned.. another big lesson!