Dhaatu Varisai....
After sleeping over my interest in music for 35 years of my life, I decided to give myself some sense of 'pursuing my interest' by sigining up for vocal classes this october.
I should say my Guru [Shri. Ponnani S Ananthanarayanan] would now be thinking his happier days are behind him. His efforts to make me synchronize my 'sruthi', akshara and talam have so far met with lesser success than he would have liked.
Still, he was so tolerant of my mistakes and in fact had enough confidence in me to ask me render the Dhaatu Varisai - For those who think I m trying to parade some jargons, Dhaatu varisai is a combination of zig zag 'notes' . Instead of the gradual and regular Sa, Re , Ga , Ma , Pa , Da, Ni the Dhatu varisai goes like
Sa Ma Ga Ma Re Ga Sa Re
Sa Ga Re Ga Sa Re Ga Ma....
The purpose is to learn the movement from one note to another and become an expert in the twists and the turns.
Though performing on stage is nothing new for me, the difference this time was that it is the first time I was rendering carnatic vocal. Normally, stage performances are given after a certain level of expertise is reached, but here I was , performing just 12 classes after joining. Yes, I had another singer and Violinist with me so my mistakes would not be all that glaring, but it was a big decision on my Guru s part to encourage me to go ahead with it. He gave me a lot of confidence.
It turned out much better than I thought. It challenged my ever conservative mindset that you have to be an expert to get on to the stage to perform a carnatic vocal. After being proved wrong, I would now recommend anyone learning music to give a stage performance whenever you get a chance - It is a thrilling experience [ even for a 35 year old].
I was so happy after getting it right - Why did I miss this all these years ?
Life pretty much follows the Dhaatu varisai than the more structured Swaravali Varisai or Jantai varisai. Ups and downs in life at a pace of 4 swaras for one akshara is likely to make us feel left behind, but we learn to cope up with time and practice. When the swaras reverse, the pattern remains the same but the tune changes to a counter-intuitive one - veyr much like our life. We often find results exactly opposite to our gut feel , but learn to deal with it.
The Dhaatu varisai will always remain closer to my heart, for it is closer to reality the the first two lessons.
I should say my Guru [Shri. Ponnani S Ananthanarayanan] would now be thinking his happier days are behind him. His efforts to make me synchronize my 'sruthi', akshara and talam have so far met with lesser success than he would have liked.
Still, he was so tolerant of my mistakes and in fact had enough confidence in me to ask me render the Dhaatu Varisai - For those who think I m trying to parade some jargons, Dhaatu varisai is a combination of zig zag 'notes' . Instead of the gradual and regular Sa, Re , Ga , Ma , Pa , Da, Ni the Dhatu varisai goes like
Sa Ma Ga Ma Re Ga Sa Re
Sa Ga Re Ga Sa Re Ga Ma....
The purpose is to learn the movement from one note to another and become an expert in the twists and the turns.
Though performing on stage is nothing new for me, the difference this time was that it is the first time I was rendering carnatic vocal. Normally, stage performances are given after a certain level of expertise is reached, but here I was , performing just 12 classes after joining. Yes, I had another singer and Violinist with me so my mistakes would not be all that glaring, but it was a big decision on my Guru s part to encourage me to go ahead with it. He gave me a lot of confidence.
It turned out much better than I thought. It challenged my ever conservative mindset that you have to be an expert to get on to the stage to perform a carnatic vocal. After being proved wrong, I would now recommend anyone learning music to give a stage performance whenever you get a chance - It is a thrilling experience [ even for a 35 year old].
I was so happy after getting it right - Why did I miss this all these years ?
Life pretty much follows the Dhaatu varisai than the more structured Swaravali Varisai or Jantai varisai. Ups and downs in life at a pace of 4 swaras for one akshara is likely to make us feel left behind, but we learn to cope up with time and practice. When the swaras reverse, the pattern remains the same but the tune changes to a counter-intuitive one - veyr much like our life. We often find results exactly opposite to our gut feel , but learn to deal with it.
The Dhaatu varisai will always remain closer to my heart, for it is closer to reality the the first two lessons.
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