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A request to amateur composers who visit this page

Topic started by Vijay (@ 212.137.205.127) on Thu Nov 16 16:58:22 EST 2000.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I'd like to request amateur composers who visit this page to tell me if they've uploaded any of their work onto the internet and if they have, please tell me where I can listen to it. Thank You.

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Some composers to check out (in no particular order): Jay, Srikanth, Ganesh, Eswar, Sridhar Seetharaman, Kumar, Rjay. Vishwesh Obla

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Srik (@ 64.80.98.165) on: Tue Sep 16 10:52:07 EDT 2003
  
  DRs, if want more info please email me, we should take this offline. srikanth@srikanthd.com
  thanks.
  
  
• From: D. Raj Sekhar (@ 61.2.236.103) on: Tue Sep 16 10:56:47 EDT 2003
  
  Srik,
  
  But I thought you are in US right? How come you completed your studies at Chennai? Also, can you post more info about the COURSE (a specific link at trinitycollege.co.uk perhaps), about the COACHING FEES (charged in Musee Musicals), and the EXAM FEES (by Trinity college) and the venue of the exam (can we write it in Chennai itself? If so, who would the examiners be? From London or India?)
  
  Can you help?
  
  - DRS
  
  P.S: You also learnt carnatic music?
  
  
• From: D. Raj Sekhar (@ 61.2.236.103) on: Tue Sep 16 11:09:30 EDT 2003
  
  RJay,
  
  I 'GOOGLE'ed but I only got sites showing the basic construction of ragas. It was helpful but it would have been better if it included the emotions each raga conveys explicitly? Is there any site giving information on that?
  
  - DRS
  
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 11:19:25 EDT 2003
  
  DRS
  
  Which Raga brings which emotion. Best way to learn this is to study the masters. Raga songs list from TFM page and the Classical Ilayaraja series are of a great help and the recent series of articles by Ram on chords page.
  
  Even though the easiest way to learn raga identification is through playing the raga on a keyboard or learning to sing it and then
  when you hear a song it just 'occurs' to you.
  This I call analysis through synthesis!
  
  However, if you want to take the ear training route, here is an exercise that might work for Raga identification. I have used Ilayaraja songs,
  but if you are too young for that ;), we have to
  create a Rahman update with probably other songs.
  
  It is best to start with some distinct ragams (like primary colors) - Let us start with Srikanth's suggestion: Mohanam, Kalyani and Aboghi.
  
  Listen to these two Mohanams first and imbibe the mood:
  Ninnukori varnam,
  Meenkodi theril manmadarajan
  
  Next listen to these two Abogis -
  Inraikku aenindha anandamae
  Thangaratham vandadhu veedhiyilae
  
  Listen to Shanmugapriya
  Marainthirundhae paarkum marmamenna
  Kannukkul nooru vidhamai idhu oru kanavaa
  
  Now, take this list and try to sing each song
  and try to guess the ragam.
  1. Kalai nera poonguyil kavidhai paada poguthu
  2. Thanthana thanthana thalam varum
  3. Kaadhal kasakkudaiya
  4. Kasthuri maanae kalyana thaenae
  5. Vanakkam palamurai sonnaen (MSV)
  6. Vaan polae vannam kondu
  
  Dont try the quiz before spending a few days with the training data!!!
  
  
  
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 11:29:09 EDT 2003
  
  DRS Asked:
  Why is that almost all carnatic 'singers' are able to say the 'raga' in which the song is based upon on hearing only once (inspite of there being about 72 ragas) but people (keyboardists) trained in Western Music are able to tell the key in which the song is based upon only after finding the actual notes of the song?
  
  This is not true. A trained musician can say which key the song is in. This is because when you choose a key and a scale in the key, you also determine which chord progressions you will use
  prominently with it. Chord progressions have a unique feel to each, even though they use the same intervals, because of the overtones and harmonic series they create, each chord has a unique feel to it, which is distinguished by the mind.
  (1-3-5 diatonic triad intervals for instance)
  
  As you start playing chord progressions, you will start noticing them in isolation too. This is what Srikanth calls as perfect pitch. I do not think there is real perfect pitch, ie you point out and say that is the A note, because always we perceive notes in relationship to others. But you can say this is a phrase in E minor, because of the
  harmonic feel it invokes.
  
  Again, this perception is gestalt (whole pattern recognition) and not bit by bit calculation. So these things are learnt through learning examples with labels and tested through hearing new examples and labeling them.
  
  I am reading an excellent ear training book :Hear and write music by Ron Gorow.
  
  
• From: DRS (@ 61.1.203.254) on: Tue Sep 16 11:31:24 EDT 2003
  
  RJay,
  
  Thanks for your detailed reply :)
  
  I'll try it :)
  
  Thx again!
  
  - DRS
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 11:33:00 EDT 2003
  
  Scales can also be simplified using tetrachords.
  Sa to Pa is the lower tetrachord, Pa to upper Sa is upper.
  
  For instance, you use same Sa Ri Ga Ma and a different combination of Pa Dha Ni and get new scales. Simmendra Madhyamam, Shanmuga Priya and
  Madhuvanthi use same lower tetrachord and different upper tetrachord. These ragas for instance confuse us by being close together, but then if the composer emphasizes the upper tetrachord's uniqueness, the tune stands out.
  
  
• From: DRS (@ 61.1.203.254) on: Tue Sep 16 11:40:13 EDT 2003
  
  Dear RJay,
  
  You seem to be *highly* knowledged in music. I am a newbie who has learned a bit of keyboarding, and sight-reading. Can YOU and SRIK kindly help me choose the right learning path? Like, courses to take, etc.
  
  I would be very very grateful.
  
  - DRS
  
  
• From: DRS (@ 61.1.203.254) on: Tue Sep 16 11:42:12 EDT 2003
  
  Btw., isn't carnatic very difficult to learn? I find the western music principles easier :)
  
  - DRS
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 11:53:20 EDT 2003
  
  DRS,
  Dont make me feel ashamed by calling me
  highly knowledged in music. Music is and should be something that you 'do and enjoy' rather than 'learn and know about'. If I am becoming a knowledgebase in music, I am taking time away from being a musician and a listener! ;)
  
  Straight and enjoyable path will be:
  1. Learn to play melodies (songs) in keyboard.
  2. Learn to sing or play melodies a nonkeyboard (acoustic preferably) (real!) instrument.
  3. Learn to play harmonic accompaniment
  (chords for songs) in keyboard or guitar.
  4. Learn to play melody and harmony in piano.
  
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 11:59:35 EDT 2003
  
  Carnatic vs Western?
  
  I dont think one is 'easier' than the other. They just specialized in different dimensions. Carnatic is primarily a monophonic (single instrument sings a melody at a time) and a vocal centric tradition, so the uniqueness, strength and complexity is in scales and the ornamentations for melody (gamakam).
  
  Western is a polyphonic and instrument centric tradition, so the uniqueness, strength and complexity is in harmonizing and arranging.
  
  There are easy things you can learn in each of these (20% of knowledge that gives you 80% enjoyment), but if you want to be a professional you need much more....
  
  For instance, an easy curriculum in Carnatic is learning to sing varnams. An easy curriculum in Western would be to play from a fakebook. (melody and chord symbols)
  
  The difficult curriculum in Carnatic would be to learn Keerthanams from Maestro composers, this would stretch the raga prayogam and gamakam aspect.
  
  The difficult curriculum in Western is to sight read and play full score.
  
  
• From: DRS (@ 61.1.203.121) on: Tue Sep 16 12:05:26 EDT 2003
  
  RJay,
  
  No... I mean, what path I take to actually do each of the steps you had mentioned? Like, how to play the piano, for example. What course would be best? (I live in Chennai, by the way) What grades to take? And, are additional things like Sight-singing, etc. necessary? Would learning Carnatic music make me understand more about music?
  
  - DRS
  
  
• From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112) on: Tue Sep 16 12:08:18 EDT 2003
  
  DRS: Ragas are also classified by their rasa (mood/emotion) like karuna, hasya, veera,shringara etc. You might want to search for 'raga rasa'. You will find some links. Try to get some books on carnatic music written by musicologists like Sambamurthy.
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Tue Sep 16 12:17:11 EDT 2003
  
  DRS
  
  I am not in Chennai, so probably someone else might point to a good teacher/school.
  
  However, vast majority of people who go to formal training drop out sooner or later after finding that it is harder than they thought!!
  
  The better option is find a friend or relative who plays melodies on keyboard and learn one or two simple songs from them watching what they do.
  This will give you the confidence and energy to take formal class.
  
  Or find a friend who has taken a class which teaches with more songs and less theory.
  
  
• From: MS (@ 129.252.25.243) on: Tue Sep 16 12:42:04 EDT 2003
  
  Sam:
  
  Beautifully arranged. Your file goes into the set of songs which I listen for relaxation. Very well done.
  
  
• From: rags (@ 63.100.100.5) on: Tue Sep 16 13:34:45 EDT 2003
  
  Sam, Too Good. Very well done.
  
  
• From: Srik (@ 64.80.98.165) on: Tue Sep 16 13:56:41 EDT 2003
  
  sam nice job on the sequence, notes are quite clear and well played,
  only thing is to concentrate more on the expressions. I felt it at few places.
  might be better patchs might clear things.
  after kismu, we have one more good set of ears. hats off.:)
  
  
• From: Swamiji (@ 198.102.112.18) on: Tue Sep 16 15:37:49 EDT 2003
  
  Sam, awesome! I liked your piano / bass, and the arrangement. Good use of sounds, and good imagination in modifying original.
  
  
• From: rjay (@ 156.77.105.123) on: Wed Sep 17 13:41:50 EDT 2003
  
  Sam,
  
  excellent.
  
  
• From: Sam (@ 69.58.11.200) on: Wed Sep 17 22:31:04 EDT 2003
  
  Thanks guys for ur responses (aditya, radhika, UV, MS, rags, Srikanth, rjay and kishmu). I am glad u guys liked it. I made it for my friend, and I didnt want her to know that it is this song right in the beginning. (sort of like that hotel calif acoustic version, where the guitarists played around for some time and then played the trademark progression, it had the crowd roaring once they heard the trademark tune). SO i played that piano intro in the beginning and then gave a hint after some that it is this particular song by playing the 1/8ths bordering on F# major witht the left hand.
  
  Once again thanks for ur appreciation.
  
  
• From: Jay. (@ 66.28.42.140) on: Thu Sep 18 09:51:33 EDT 2003
  
  Sam,
  Nice done! I didnt know Jeans had a song like this. Very western arrangements.
  
  

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