Indha kazhudai ketta Manja sevuru

Have not posted anything about music this year and it is May. That doesn't mean there was no music this year.

The year started with learning classical music heavy movie songs and semi-classical songs for the entire January with Paadarivom Padipparivom, and I loved singing every one of those songs. 

We were busy traveling in Brazil and Argentina and I kept listening to "Vedam Anuvilum oru nadham" on repeat even while walking along the beaches in Copa Cabana. Knew I had to sing it as soon as we came back. Had hummed it silently so many times that when it came time to sing it, there was a confidence that the notes were close to where they needed to be! The rest of the songs in the genre were also appealing and challenging but loved it.

Also got a chance to be mentee again after two years and jumped at it. There were high expectations this time from my teachers and hopefully I didn't let them down. Have never tried singing Jathi ever and had to memorize the Jathi portions for a song and sing it. It was a great experience and my teachers were very happy with my enthusiasm. Will write about this mentee experience on a separate post. 

Then we went to India and work caught up and singing took a backseat for a good month. Every now and then, would banish myself to the unheated guest room with the yellow accent wall (hence the title for the post) and try to sing the song of the week from 10-11:30 PM. Given the kids are not here and my wife is busy watching some Korean serial till midnight, can practice till my throat protests. 

One fabulous thing that happened last month was the first US members meeting of Paadarivom Padipparivom in Dallas. Why Dallas? Because two of the teachers are now in Dallas and there are also three members there. One of them is an extremely passionate event co-ordinator and he pulled off what the three members in bay area could only talk about for the last two years. 

Students flew in from all parts of the US to meet and sing with the teachers and the other students. (some are not in the picture as they had to leave early to reach their destinations. there was bad weather and flight delays that weekend to add to our adventures)

The big bonus for us was a crash course on "how to get the most of a dynamic microphone" by the two teachers. Many of us who sing on Smule with our teachers use the mic that comes with earplugs which we hold with our hand (the earpods typically don't work well as they have a lag). When handed a mic in front of a live group the voice simply doesn't sound the same and one has to work too hard.. if you don't know how to use the mic!

Me happily demonstrating how not to hold a mic.. too low and not tilted up enough to suit my throat and mouth!

The teachers helped fix my problem in that one session. Turns out everyone is different and the angle you hold the mic and how close you hold it is something you can figure out easily. One has to practice it though.. kind of like holding the flute at the angle that suits your whistle. 

At the end of it, was able to hit high notes without straining my throat. Given the gain in the amplifiers, we don't even have to be loud. We can sing at a lower volume and sound way better. That was the big takeaway for me. All this time I was "seerghazhi govindarajan'-ing in front of a live audience. Holding the mic but using my real voice to reach.. bummer!

There was also great food and excellent conversation. Met some of these folks in person for the first time but feels like I have known them all my life. These folks are going to be friends for the rest of my life. 

It was great that San joined me for the trip. Within a day and a half, we managed to also visit 3 temples, eat at four places and catch up with friends and see the local area. Traveling with San is always fun for me as I just enjoy watching her be happy! Her face lights up when she is with friends and food.

Will cherish this trip for a long time to come! San also thinks my singing has actually improved. My first song was iffy beacuse I had practiced to a Smule track and was so used to seeing the gray and blue bars move to prompt me to sing and we ended up with a different track in Dallas.

There were two lessons there. First, just sing to the music and avoid the visual aid. Should have actually done that given the song was memorized already. Second lesson is to go before the start and get a feel for the sound of the room. Sometimes it is not easy to hear your voice when singing through a microphone because the amplified voice takes a second to hit your ear and if you are not used to it, you will be late on the beat. Guess this is why people use ear monitor in the mics. However that is not required. Just getting used to it before actually singing the songs does the trick!

San said I did fine after the first song. She even said it to our friends and that made me really happy. She sets the bar very high and we fight every now and then on the topic of "just repeating the same thing is not going to fix it. you have to understand what you are doing wrong and fix it and then sing it".. the repeats for me are to get to a basic level before even attempting fixes. We are clearly at different levels when it comes to singing! 

Now I am back to the manja sevuru every now and then trying to sing. Paadarivom Padipparivom has been a true blessing. The 4th year anniversary was celebrated last weekend. In two months it will be my 3rd anniversary with this wonderful group of people. 

My enthusiasm is still alive, but finding time with changed travel schedules and things at home is making it challenging to do more than just singing one song a week and practising Carnatic music for few hours a week.

Happy to be able to do at least that! 

Marghazi singing

Paadarivom Padipparivom has this wonderful idea to give a platform to students to sing one song each during Marghazi season. There is a lot of encouragement from this community for learning Carnatic music as well as Cine music.

Most of the fellow adult classical music students I have talked to, started learning in hopes that the knowledge here will improve their Cine music singing. It has been two years and two months since I started learning Carntic music again after a long break, from Koushik Ramchander.

He has been an epitome of patience!

For a novice like me, the support this group gives is just phenomenal. If there is one place where the Dunning Kruger effect is in full display, it is while learning Carnatic music or singing Tamil movie songs. 

When I started singing, my knowledge was very limited.. not that I could not identify ragas instantly or have a concept of what "right" sounded like. When my own voice was producing the output, my ears somehow selectively decided to be very forgiving when I was off. It takes a lot of "listening", very careful listening to understand that you are off. 

If a song had 600 notes total, I would be off on 400 of them two years go. Today I am off on 40 and going towards 4. My MIL has been my one constant judge and supporter while my mom has been my strongest critic. 

Two weeks ago, they agreed for the first time after hearing me sing a carnatic based movie song. My MIL told me my voice has finally adapted to sing SPB songs. My mom actually said this and I am saving this for posterity! She prefers if I stick to slokas and bhajans instead of movie songs, which is expected. 

My teachers at PP of course gave me honest feedback on every line of that song on where I was off in the notes, pronunciation and execution. The DK effect does play mind tricks, once you know finer details and appreciate what is actually required vs. where you are. You know what has to be done, but it needs a lot more effort to get there and it cannot be done in a week!

Not one for giving up, have been trying impatiently. That is the truth. 

Singing with just a Tanpura in background and your own hand to keep the beat was a lot more challenging than singing along with your teacher or fellow student on Smule with a familier fixed backround track! Almost came to the conculsion that Smule singing isn't singing and was downright depressed two weeks ago. This song is usually sung in the ragam Naatai (for most of the instances you find on Youtube). He taught it to me in Gowlai ragam. Asked my teacher why he thought I could do this and he said "You can do this Sundar! you already sang every line after me very well in class. you just have to do it at a stretch and on your own!"

Thank god for teachers. They tell you to buckle up, keep your head high and get your confidence back, one step at a time. Koushik Sir as I call him has been my music shrink as much as my music teacher. When you start learning at 49, the psychological challenges in learning need to be fixed as much as the skill gap. What he says between singing notes and making me repeat is the other half of the lesson, probably the bigger lesson! After many attempts, voicenotes feedback on whatsapp, he finally gave me the equivalent of the Oliver Cromwell look.. that made my day!

A heartfelt thank you to this platform and the folks who make it great!  

Carnatic music folks (especially family), this will not meet your standards. The good news is that I am okay with where I am today and tomorrow WILL be better than today! 

Thanks again to PP for this experience! It feels good to participate in the Marghazi season remotely!

When the rug gets pulled under your feet...

The recent spring concerts I attended were not just a treat to the ears, but also a treasure trove when it came to learning new things. 

Not just talking about the new ragams that we got to hear and appreciate and add to our list of things to cross correlate for future raga identification, but the specific details and comments made by the singers during the concert. 

Two of these concerts had the same nugget of information presented in slightly different ways. When Sudha Raghunathan started explaining the concept of "graha bedam" (planetary shifts would be my literal translation or place changes a more amenable translation?) I was simply lost.

She started explaining it this way. We start with Madhyamavathi ragam and if we move the base Sa (imagine C in a C to C scale) to the next note in the raga, and we prounce the notes differently keeping the original frequencies, we end up with a new known raga. This type of note shifting on the same original scale gives you five ragas.. when you start with a five note raga like Madhyamavathi.. she asked the audience what happens when you make the "ri" into the "sa" and what happens when you make the "ga" into the "sa" and some audience members responded.. and as she kept asking the volume and number of answers dropped exponentially. It was funny to watch. For me, it was like my ground shifted!

Sitting there trying to grapple with what was happening, my head started hurting. I am a drawing board kind of guy who is a very visual learner. Made a mental note of this and came home and searched google for pictorial explanations of this. Did not find anything that clearly showed me this.. so made a chart to explain this. 

Before doing that though, wanted to make a list of five note ragas using the same style to try and pick from the raga list. There was a lot of time spent double checking this across multiple sites. In spite of that, there are possible mistakes in this. Some ragams have complex multiple descending sequences and that might not be same across sites. Some ragams are essentially the same notes, but the way the notes are used in select sequences to bring out the flavor of the raga (think catch phrases.. or literally "pakkad" in Hindustani terms) is just different. 

First a list of pure five note ragas that are common and where at least two songs are there to identify it. This one has the ascending scales listed and descending scales listed

Then there were ragas that had five notes in aarohanam (ascending sequence) but more than five notes inavarohanam (descending sequence). Made a table of that as well.. which came in handy after another concert!

Once this list was done, I did not even have to know what raga turned into what. Just go on a sequence of Sa to Sa to the next octave Sa. Type in the first ragam, see what the notes changed to, cross refernce with the first table.. and voila.. it was easy to see what she was talking about!

You can click on the images to get a large size version.

The idea is this, based on my limited understanding. If you start with Madhyamavathi, you make the "ri" the "sa" and move all corresponding notes in Madhyamavathi raga relatively on a keyboard (shift it by same number of keys), then you get the next ragam. It is the sound you make versus the syllable you say but the way this is done in a concert is simply masterful. You need total command over the placement of the notes in their respective frequencies to the point where saying something different consistently and shifting it and doing it all over again makes it sound natural. 

To a layman, it sounds like magic. I felt like that monkey in the youtube videos that is amazed by a magic trick! Only after doing all this notation, there was some understanding and an "aa-haa!" moment. Some folks have the natural ability to visualize this and it is easy for them as they are steeped in music. For other learners who need music aids, this might hopefully help!

Again, mistakes if any are mine. So advance apologies for them. If you read this and find ways to correct this, please drop a note.  

This same concept was done at a more advanced level by RaGa (Ranjani Gayathri sisters) in their Raaja by RaGa concert. They started with one raga and went to explore both five and six note ragas with this same shifting and covered it with songs composed by Ilayaraja in movies. It was done brilliantly. With each shift they covered a five and six note raga variation. 

There were many amazing nuggets of information and learnings across all concerts. Will share them over the next few weeks.

Until then, the learning continues..

Sometimes all you have to do... is listen!

One of the advantages of living in the bay area is the significant local population that is interested in South Indian Classical music. 

We have two organizations that have memberships and have a concert(Kutchery) series announced early enough. The main one is SIFA or South India Fine Arts and the other one is Sankrirthi Laya. Then there are the other one off concerts where you buy direct tickets for artists who do just one or two concerts!

This spring concert season in bay area starts when all the artists have done performing in Chennai and Mumbai and they migrate to the bay area when the temperatures just start to be manageable compared to Chennai. They end up starting in California and go east as the weather warms up there. 

Have been treated to a wonderful concert list. Most of these concerts are on Sunday, some being on Saturday. It is almost a concert every weekend for 12 weeks. Made it a point to attend almost all of the vocal or instrumental ones. Skipped the dance programs. 

Given my knee was already hurting and inflamed for most of spring, sitting in one place for 4 hours for each concert, not to mention the lines to get seated.. the carpooling with friends back and forth to venue, each concert was a 5 1/2 to 6 hour commit. Given the interest with my friends, we went as a group! The group is 5 ladies and me. Apparently only one person in each of those families manages to sit in one place for 4 hours! Given the ladies color coordinated their Sari's for every concert, they would even publish the color in our whatsapp group and where possible I would even wear a T-shirt in their color of choice. All said and done, I had a lot of fun attending the concerts. 

Most of them were amazing, some were like "meh" and one we left 30 minutes before concert ended as one of the carpoolers had to take care of an urgent issue at home. Somehow we were all okay leaving that one early. 

Here is the list that I attended in the order

Violin concert by Lalgudi siblings

Vocal by Kalyanapuram S. Aravind

Vocal by Sudha Raghunathan (this was not through the memberships but a concert organized for fund raising for OPEN education).. she did more of a lec dem than a traditional concert

Vocal by Saketaraman

Vocal by Abhishek Raghuram 

Vocal by Malladi Brothers

A special "carnatic'y concert based on Ilayaraja songs by RaGa (Ranjani Gaythri) which had discounted tickets thanks to SIFA! Added bonus was that I got to take Jr. who had just landed from college the previous day!

Vocal by Amrutha Venkatesh

Vocal by Gayathri Venkataraghavan 

This pretty much wrapped up Spring season. Fall season begins in September!

When you get to listen to all these artists and their accompaniment artiss on voilin, mrudhangam, tabla, ghatam, kanjira .. you are in for a treat in every concert. 

Listening to the different styles, the way the artists express themselves in each piece, their mastery of their craft and in some cases the amazing syncronization between two artists, gives you a subconsicous understanding of what these ragas make you feel. Going to concerts is also a good learning experience, when you and your friends are chatting on the whatsapp group trying to race to identify the raga for the song or the concept being tried. We discuss the concert on the way home! Sometimes my friends and the jokes pre or post concert add more to the experience than the concert itself. 

When I get to write more, will key in my thoughts on each of these concerts and the special lightbulb moments!

The good thing in these concerts was the number of parents who managed to get their kids to sit and listen. Sometimes it is tough to keep them in one place. For the most part the kids sat, listened, guessed ragams, sang along in places and their smiling faces in the audience made it all the more interesting. Carnatic music wil definitely survive another generation at least based on the audience stats!

The regular memberships for SIFA is 160 USD for a year and Sankritilaya is 75 USD. You get ~12 and ~8 concerts for that a year! If you get to attend most of the concerts, you get your monies worth! Trick is in clearing your weekend calendar and prioritizing this over other events.  My family has been extremely supportive in letting me disappear all evening for this many days! They do it because I come home with a song on my lips and have a happy high for a day or two post concert! That means they have to deal with regular me only for 5 days a week.. Given a choice they would send to a concert every three days. 

They say "katradhu kai mann alavu, kallaadhadhu ulagalavu!" (what you have learned so far is comparable to a fist full of sand, what you are yet to learn is as vast as the earth). Even though we familiarize ourselves with as many ragas as possible, in every concert we learned a new ragam and what it sounds and feels like! 

The listening continues, as does the learning!

If you are a bay area parent trying to get your kids interested in learning Carnatic or South Indian classical music, do avail yourself of these memberships in the organizations and give your kids a chance to hear these wonderful artists. They will definitely enjoy and take an interest!

My film song singing definitely improves over time as my Carnatic singing progresses. Given time constraints and the knee issues, have not been singing movie songs to the extent I used to. That will pick up in the next three months!

Here's to more music listening!

Tea-iladha naalilaa..oru radiovilaaaa

We used to live in the top floor of a house facing a cemetery in Mandaiveli when I was a kid just starting school. It was more of an asbestos roofed shed than a proper floor. We had to go out of this room to use the bathroom. It was one large room with a countertop for the stove. There was the small terrace where me and my brother could play. My sister was a toddler. The big plus was the windows facing the cemetery, the main road and the intersection that had a few stores, not to mention a clear view to the tea and bhajji stall, right below the window.

Just watching the tea and bhajji's being made in the evening and served to the standing customers was quality entertainment for a 6 year old. As the older kid, I was allowed to sit at the window and watch the road. I also used to be sick a lot with a skin infection and my parents just let me be.

If the tea and bhajji stall was not entertaining enough, the radio in that stall that would always be on provided even more entertainment. Would sit and listen to movie songs from the window and hum along. Was introduced to the magic of MSV and the then sensational breakthrough genius of Ilaiyaraja.. without even knowing their names. We were not a movie going family.. that shouldn't be news to the readers of this blog.. there was always music though. A gramaphone record player where we would listen to MS, MLV and KJY (all carnatic!). I didn't know then that KJY sang some of the movie songs I was listening to from the window.

Usually the same songs would play at the same time for a few days or even weeks till a new song broke into the list. A few of those songs have stayed deep in my head and when I hear them even today, my mind goes back to that window!

One of those songs is "Vaan nila nila alla..". Had no idea about the movie it was part of or the significance of that movie as a debut for so many famous actors.. the song and the alternating violin were haunting.. all I got was the "nila" (moon) part and would see the moon through the window and would wonder why this song moved me the way it did! 

(could not resist the temptation to mix two photos.. one. of the harvest moon from our front yard and another one of me with a violin and use some effects on Photoshop)

Got to see a track for this song recently and sang it.

Didn't even have to practice for this one. Just listened to the original song once and gave it a shot. Had no idea all those song line variations were etched in my head! It just came out like I had been singing it all these years! This was as surreal an experience as me reciting Sri Rudram off my head sitting in some temple and suddenly imagining sitting in my grandpas lap and almost feeling his hand holding me by my stomach so I don't run away.

The song which has an amazing use of words ending in "la", takes you instantly to la-la land and probably sounded like a nursery rhyme to me as a kid. It was easy to hum.. even if I didn't understand at that age!

There are a few more songs from that time that still come out and I don't know how the lyrics went into memory..Machchana paatheengala, chinna kannan azhaikkiraan, Raja enbar, kadavul amaithu vaitha medai... just to name a few. 

It is amazing how music works its way into the brain.. subconsiously. More amazing is how irrespective of the sadness of happiness level of the song, the way they transport me back in time usually end of making me smile. Music is magic! 

My only recommendation from this is to expose kids to music. Especially melodies! It will definitely help them subconsciously during their adult years!  I am one small living example.

If you have similar experiences, please do share!

Someday I wish Paadarivom Padipparivom will teach this song as a solo, or I get to sing this in one of the platforms they provide for the students to showcase what they have learned over the years!