Guru worship and Carnatic music

 Now this might be a slightly incendiary subject. But the wonderful thing is that so few people read this blog. And they are all mostly very close friends. So I have the freedom to say what I believe without too many worries about repercussions.

My whole education has been based on the Socratic method. We argued endlessly with our professors. They in turn threw out inane postulates wanting to incite the class into serious debate. And that is how we arrived at the truth for ourselves. Never by passively accepting something. But by constantly poking at things to find holes and then accepting it as true for ourselves. A sort of reductio ad absurdum approach at times. And this was what was expected of us. Through our professional careers we spoke our mind fearlessly with bosses and clients who had a lifetime of experience behind them. And we were never considered disrespectful. We did it with bosses that we idolized and clients, we adored, who were the sharpest brains in the industry.

So obviously, I came to Carnatic music not knowing that the culture here is different. And nobody to tell me otherwise. I still remember my first teacher who was such an absolute sweetheart. I was learning the Vasantha varnam and the third charanam of course starts D,,N ,SDN. I could not for the life of me understand why the composer would insist on D,, and not D,,, or D, both of which would have been easier for me. I remember arguing as to how it would make no difference to the musicality. Instead of telling me to jump out of the window, she patiently explained that the elders had composed it like this and that is the way it should be sung.

Thank heavens, I am slightly better now. But it is still very difficult for me to keep quiet when I do not understand something, whether it is in the musicality of a phrase or sahithya or the meaning behind something or even why something is notated a certain way when it is sung a different way. And my mind keeps dwelling on it in the same way as one's tongue at a piece of food caught in a deep set molar.

Many of these things I have learnt to work out on own. But I do think it would be better to open it up . I have immense gratitude for every single person I have learnt from. Teaching is hard. I would be totally incapable of it. Every time I sing, I hear that teacher in my inner ear, see their body language in my mind. They have truly been a vehicle for my discovery of something. And yet, there will be absolutely no outward manifestation of that gratitude carried in the heart. Because otherwise it gets tainted. I am incapable of being sycophantic, of falling at their feet, of praising them in exaggerated ways in front of others. It rings so false. And diminishes the immensity of my experience. But somewhere in so many of the groups I belong to, that seems to be the norm rather than the exception. 

Now let us take Bhakthi. I strongly believe that Bhakthi/adoration is between the individual and the object of his or her devotion . No third person needs to know. Just as an apple when cut and left out becomes brown, so too, Bhakthi worn on the sleeve is tainted over a period of time. And yet Carnatic music is so full of these outward symbols.  Sometimes these outward manifestations of something are themselves an impediment to the true experience of an emotion. We get hooked onto the symbols and forget the living experience of something. 

My adoration of my favourite Trinity composer consists of me cursing him every morning and saying " This really cannot go on, you know. Either I need to stop seeing the beauty in this phrase or I have to be able to execute it the way it has to be. Now you decide." 

So far he is still ignoring me.

Pranavam Sankaran Namboodiri

 I had heard this vocalist before once or twice. But not a great deal. But sometime on Sunday afternoon, I discovered this Manorama Music channel with a series of lessons titled " Learn from the Legend. Pranavam Sankaran Namboodiri". A lot of them were songs that I had learnt. I did not want to revisit. It is hard enough learning the first time. One does not want to relearn. But there were enough new compositions . Almost the minute, I started listening, I got hooked. I can say that since Sunday, that is less than 72 hours back,  I have gone onto Youtube and started listening to this first thing in the morning. Invariably, I am falling asleep with one of the refrains in my head.

Sankaran Namboodiri is an extraordinary singer and teacher. There is also a certain basic goodness that is coming through. His desire to communicate the beauty of the composition and have his students get it is transparently visible. There are also certain pidis of great beauty one can observe in almost all the compositions. 

This is not going to be a long post. Since I need to go back to Pakkala. I am learning almost one song every day. And I need to keep up the momentum. But what can can one say. Immense gratitude to the teacher and also Manorama Music for this wonderful initiative.

Demystifying Simhananda

Today morning I decided I wanted to understand a little about this tala. One has heard of it and it's complexity. I knew it was the longest tala in Carnatic music and heard some strange references to things like Guru, Plutam etc in this context. But apart from that I was totally clueless.

I started with Vasantmadhavi's book The Theory of Music and went on to two Youtube videos, a demo by Hemanth Lakshman and Guru Bharadwaaj's online seminar on the same.

This tala is depicted as follows

S S I S' I   S O O

S S I S' I   S' S I I +

I have intentionally depicted it in 2 lines with the spacing between angas since it is easier to memorise. 

You will see the first five angas in both lines are a repeat.

If you observe the line above, you will see there are five different symbols denoting five different angas. There are a total of 18 such units showing a total of 18 angas.

Normally in the course of our practice we will only be coming across talas with lagu and dhrutham because those are the components of most thalas like triputa, ata, matya, dhruva, eka etc. Occassionally we come across the anudhrutham if we are singing something in jhampe.

But seldom do we come across the Guru, the Plutam or the Kakapaada( or Hamsapada)

These are denoted by the symbols S or 8, S' and the +( plus sign ) respectively. 

The Guru has 8 aksharas, the Plutam has 12 aksharas and the Kakapaada has 16 aksharas

The I in the depiction above refers to a lagu and in the Simhananda it is a chatusra jaati lagu. The O refers to a dhrutham

So let us see how many aksharas this tala has

It has 6 Gurus, each of 8 aksharas equivalent to 48 aksharas

It has 3 Plutams each of 12 aksharas equivalent to 36 aksharas

It has 6 lagus of 4 aksharas each equivalent to 24 aksharas 

Two dhrutams of 2 aksharas each equivalent to 4 aksharas

And it ends with a Kakapaada   equal to            16 aksharas

Total =                                                               128 aksharas or 512 matras

So one avarthanam of this is equivalent to 16 Adi tala avarthanams, which would have 8 aksharas each.

The Guru is depicted with a circular motion( clockwise) to a total of 8 beats( inclusive of the Dhruvakam which is the first downward beat on lap). The Plutam is a Dhruvakam( downward beat) and a total count of four followed by a wave to the left( Krishya) followed by three finger counts and a wave to the right( Sarpini) followed by three finger counts.

The Kakapaada is depicted by the Dhruvakam, followed by three finger counts, an upward wave( Pathitham) and three finger counts and the Krishya followed by three  finger counts and Sarpini followed by three finger counts ( just like in Plutam)

What is interesting is that that the Kakapaada is supposed to be a nishabda kriya. So the Dhruvakam is made without a sound( with the fingers curved like a bird's claws on the downward beat)

All of this is demonstrated by me in the Youtube video( link below). Do take a look at it. I believe it will be quite clear. 

And now for some little mnemonics to help students remember the pattern. 

S S I S' I   S O O

S S I S' I   S' S I I +

1. If you look at the two lines, the first five characters are repeated. So first memorise this. I called it Ssishi inside my head with the sh sound for the S' signifying Plutam

2. Think of the two OOs ( dhruthams) as a mid way point. It is not. But just for this exercise. Because after this, the same Ssishi pattern will be repeated.

3. Now the first time after you finish Ssishi, you have SOO. But the second time you finish Ssishi, there is a small change. You do not have a S immediately . But a S' followed by S.

4. By the time you have come to this last S, you are almost home. This is the home stretch. You  just need to have two more lagus and end with a Kakapaadam(+)

5. Also remember, that in the Ssishi pattern, the S' is always sandwiched between two lagus. 

6. There are some tricky places one can get lost, if one loses focus.  In 2 places the lagu is followed by a S'. Now the first bit of S' is the lagu. It is then followed by the side waves. So a little focus needed there. Or you will be wondering am I doing this right?

7. Also in the second line you have a I S' I S' pattern. So literally you will be doing two lagus before the side waves. Be conscious of that.

8. And right at the end, the Kaakapaadam also begins with a lagu. So it is like you will have three lagus one after another. Only difference is that the Kaakapaadam is a nishabd kriya. So the last time you do the lagu in this avartanam, you will do it silently with your fingers bunched together like a claw.

It took me under 30 minutes to learn to put this tala, including creating these mental tricks for myself. So yes anybody can do it. Of course, this is only about putting the tala. Singing to it is a totally different ball game, since each anga has four maatras.

The demo of me doing it is available at the link. It is an unlisted video. You can enter only through the link.

https://youtu.be/v1VNhckVSeM
 

Enjoy !!

Mishra Chaapu and Viloma Chaapu

 Today morning, I was singing Nannu Brova in Lalitha. In all honesty, this is a song that I have spent some little time on. However, there was something I saw for the first time only today.

Both in the notations, I have received from my teacher and in the TKG book, it is listed as Mishra Chaapu. Which to even somebody with my limited knowledge starts on the double beat.. or expressed as takita taka dhimi. Now since this composition, starts on the dhimi portion, I automatically assumed that I would start with the double beat and begin the song on the second single beat. I had mentally classified it as an atheetha eduppu composition and got on with it.

However, for the life of me I could not figure out why the song would be notated like that. Why was the avarthanam showing as starting from taka dhimi and ending with takita? It made no sense. It could not be a mistake. And I do not think TKG makes mistakes like that. I checked to see how other mishra chappu compositions of other composers had been notated by him. And they were all nicely starting on the takita bit? But why this here? Then I checked to see if this was unique to Shyama Shastri and his lineage. But Janani ninu vina starts nicely on samam . So I could not make out. It bothered me a lot. However a query to my friend Ramya got the answer. According to her this is a viloma chaapu composition which does start on the taka dhimi portion. She directed me to ninnu vinaaga in Poorvikalyani by the same composer which starts the same way.

Now, of course this has me wondering if there is a viloma Khanda Chaapu composition lurking somewhere? If anybody stumbling on this post has the answer to this one, please do post in the comments section

TK Govindrao

 I met TK Govindrao, sometime in the early 2000s. His daughter , who lived in the US, used to come down in the summer. She had a flat in Mahindra Gardens in Malad East and my teacher and myself would go visit him . And learn a few krithis. I have had the good fortune to learn a few from him.. Brova Bharamma ( Bahudari), Sri Narada and Sukhi Evvaro in Kaanada, Rangapura etc. And in everyone, there has been some small something that I have not heard elsewhere and has stayed with me. My teacher warned me that he did not like to be recorded so I have nothing except my memory of him singing something.

I have ofcourse long believed that the six books he might have written documenting rare varnams, and compositions of Trinity and Swathi Thirunal are a humongous contribution, which has been insufficiently lauded by the community at large. I refer to his books every single day. They have been bound and fallen apart many times. 

Today, I chanced upon a 1994 Musiri Chamber concert of his accompanied by VVS on the violin and Vellore Ramabhadran on mridangam. The 5th song here is Samukana Nilva in Kokilapriya. A song I have not heard in a ragam I have not learnt. So basically know zilch about this. It is indescribably evocative with a deep melancholy in various places. And the accompanists , VVS and Ramabhadran are sublime.

Now today afternoon, this extraordinary piece of music had zero views, no likes and no comments. Of course, it has just been posted. So maybe it will still build momentum. No problem. But at the same time, the current teen wonder singing a Thirupugal has 27,69,124 views with 33K likes in the past 15 months. Now do not get me wrong. The young lady sings beautifully and fully deserves the bright future that lies ahead. 

But it is just that while we are celebrating certain things, there are other precious rare presentations that are getting overlooked. In this 1974 concert, TKG's voice is certainly not cooperating. There are places it wavers and there is a brief pause in the middle when he is trying to get his breath or drink some water etc. Any vocal coach worth his salt would hear things like that and tell the singer to do pranayam, hum, sustain the shadjam etc etc etc. But what is absolutely and incredibly marvellous is the way the singer transcends his voice. The voice, the very instrument of the vocalist, is set aside and the music happens. And what incredible music at that. It is not a complicated song. One could learn it. Once upon a time, I would have taken out my book and tried to learn it immediately. But I am a bit wiser now. I will abstain from that. I can learn those notes. I can sing that composition. But I will not be able to produce the music that was there that day.  Below is the link. Go hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdQkO6wIcjo&list=PLpxlqf8i24EC1OHgQ8NCGIFxx3mdd1TG_&index=5

Gajendra Moksham

 Gajendra Moksham is referred to repeatedly in various krithis by different composers. It can be referred to in different ways as " You who saved the elephant" , You who liberated even an elephant" etc etc. but the underlying story is the same. What is the story?

There was a king called Indradhyumna...noble and wise and a devotee of Vishnu. Once Sage Agasthya came to see him. The king did not get up. Agasthya was offended and cursed that he would be reborn as an elephant.  And so Indradhyumna was reborn as the elephant, Gajendra.

Similarly there was a Gandharva called Huhu who was a slight comedienne and like playing pranks. Once when a Sage was doing his ablutions in the river, Huhu dived into the water and grabbed the sage's legs like a crocodile. And Huhu the Gandarva was cursed that he would be reborn as a crocodile.

Now even as an elephant, Gajendra was noble and wise and a staunch devotee   of Vishnu. Once when he went into the river to drink water, Huhu the Gandarva who was now a crocodile grabbed his legs and kept pulling him into the water. As Gajendra was drowning, he kept pulling lotus flowers and throwing to the skies as an offering for Vishnu. Now Vishnu  never forsakes his devotees. He came with his Sudarshan Chakra and killed the crocodile. Of course if you are killed by Vishnu you get instant Moksham and both Gajendra and the crocodile were liberated from rebirth by Vishnu. And that is the story of Gajendra Moksham.

A little update from my friend and batchmate V Ramabhadran.

He tells me that the curse which Indhradhyumna got was itself a blessing since the King had some tamasic vasanas and the elephant body was best for exhausting them. He exhausted those vasanas and got Moksha in that birth. According to him the crocodile got back his Gandharva body and did not attain Moksha in that life. In that sense, his version differs from Prince Varma's version. I am sure there are other versions out there too. 

Story Courtesy: Prince Aswathy Thirunal Rama Varma ( from one of his Youtube videos)

How to learn Carnatic compositions

 I must first clearly and absolutely state that everything here is based on my experience and my world view. I am totally open to being corrected on anything I say here. As I have said, many times, I started learning as an adult and I feel the trials and tribulations faced by adult learners are unique. So what does it take?

Ideally be born in a family steeped in  music so that you are taken off for lessons when you are somewhere between four and seven years of age. Long before you know anything about music. The teacher sings something and you just repeat it so that you can be allowed to go out and play. My mami says that is the way it was with her. When she came from school, the Bhagavathar would already be sitting having his coffee waiting for her to change and come for her class. She says she used to be so irritated then. In retrospect, she understands what a boon that was.And classes were almost every day. So they sang the compositions again and again till she could sing it in her sleep. And on the days, you had to practice at home, you had a parent who knew enough to correct you, every time there was a false note. Even when I started learning, it used to be only twice a week. But I think for most students now it is once a week. So current and future generations of music students are not going to get that kind of privilege.

Learning as an adult is uphill. In our culture, we believe that no seeker should be turned away. So, you will have people say," What is there? For music, you can learn anytime." That cliche is not true. Would anybody try to be a ballet dancer in their 40s? So what makes anybody think they can be a serious classical singer that late in life. And the truth is that today there are more and more people going into various art forms at an advanced age. Rukmini Vijayakumar is having online Bharatnatyam classes for people of any age and with no training.  I tried doing the araimandi which I did effortlessly when I was ten years old and thought my knees would give up.

The idea is not to discourage anybody. But hopefully give an insight into stuff which might work for you.

Firstly, find a teacher that works for you. I cannot even begin to explain how important this is. Let me explain the phrase " works for you" The best teacher might not be the one who has all these star students, performing all over the world. Assuming that he or she takes you in some group class perhaps. 

The best teacher might not even be the one who sings so well that you yearn to sing like him or her. In some ways that is even counter-productive because when you are a beginner you will wonder why you are singing the same thing and yours sounds like shit and his or hers sounds divine. And you will not know how to correct. Maybe your voice is not capable of all the micro tones and " trying to sound like them" is inherently wrong. You have to just concentrate on trying to sing it correctly .

The best teacher is this one . You sit in front of them and you feel it is not impossible. There is a compassion and generosity which does not mean they do not correct your mistakes. They do. But they make you feel it is possible. And they have internalised the composition they are teaching you and can understand the limitations of different students and " how" to correct.I remember when I first started learning, when I was being corrected repeatedly I would often ask" What am I doing wrong?"Because I did not understand. Only a few people have been able to say what I was doing wrong. Also, when you are a beginner being told to sing with more bhava or from within etc will not help you. In fact it can be a slippery slope and you might lose out on authenticity.

A long long time back I was in a workshop . It was the first day of the workshop and we were being taught a Mukhari varnam of Vasudevacharya. I was clueless about both Mukhari and Vasudevacharya.At that point in time, I would learn a varnam over 4 classes. I remember going back after that class and in the car, I could sing most of that varnam. I was stupefied. I did not know that was possible. I still remember that varnam. And again when my sense of thalam was so terrible, I remember learning a song which had a nadai change in the middle. Almost the whole class groaned. And the teacher said " Nothing. No problem.Just repeat after me. And keep putting thalam. You will see that it will fall perfectly"

What I am trying to say is that there are people who are absolutely confident about what they are teaching and if the student does this, then that shall happen. See if you can find somebody like that. 

Nowadays, many times, notations are handed out. Now this is a double edged sword. 

There is a certain benefit in enunciating a line saying it loudly and writing it down. This act gets you in touch with the sahithya in a way that seeing it on the sheet does not. Especially when there are lines that start atheetha or run into multiple avartas. Say all the words loudly to yourself with emphasis on the pronunciation, and the breaks and write it. Understand what the words mean. Never mind if your teacher has given you a notation. When you go home say the words and write it. Do you remember when you were still in school and you used to study by writing the answers whether in maths or history or geography?Same principle.

The notation is very important. Do not get me wrong. Our generation is not repeating the song everyday like earlier generations. After you "learn" a song, you might not revisit it for six months or six years. And so when you go back to it, you need to be able to capture the flow , words etc in a jiffy. Also, one has limited time for music and you do not want to spend that time figuring out what word falls where. 

A long long time back I learnt Himagiri Tanaye( Sudha Dhanyasi, Muthiah Bhagavathar). In the charanam, the vaggeyakara mudra Harikesha is split( with Hari in one avartanam and Kesha in the beginning of the next). I was happily singing Hari and Kesha separately till I heard Sowmya sing it six months later and I hit myself on the head multiple times. The point was the teacher did not correct me and I did not know any better. Could have been  corrected easily by me.

Sing things slowly. Record yourself. You will see your mistake. Stick with this even when hearing your recording depresses you and you think, " Good God, is that how I sound?"

When you are learning a composition totally and absolutely desist the urge to go on Youtube and see how Sanjay or TMK or RaGa or any particular favourite of yours has sung. You are learning a version from a teacher. Trust that teacher. It does not matter if his or her version has more/less sangathis etc etc. Just learn that. Long after you have internalised that song, you can listen to others and you can then maybe incorporate some little thing. But that is later. Not when you are still learning.

Now just last week, I was in a class where a participant was singing the notes but when she sang the sahithya she was going wrong. This used to happen to me too( still does sometimes) And one way I found that worked for me was to sing the notes, then sing that in aakar and then sort of " cut paste" the sahithya on top. 

Use the notation to learn the structure, eduppus, flow etc. After that try not to look at it. I have so many songs I have "learnt" with multiple sangathis with such small changes, that they do not at all sound different( at least in my voice). There has to be a flow in the sangathis. If you have to look at the notation and say " Oh, oh in next it is not NDP, but NMP, then it is not working for you. I have notations, which basically do not work for me in certain places. You need to be able to change this( with the help of your teacher). See I have a theory that a consummate singer can make any notation work. But the point is whether it is organic. Does this phrase automatically lead to this? Except in cases when you just have something startlingly different.. to enhance the dramatic. 

My training, by and large, has been very very notation based. But in recent times, I have realised that the notation is like the architect's blueprint. While it is important it will not capture the majesty and grandeur of the final building... the tiles on the floors, the soft furnishings and all of the other interiors. 

Now this is a new age problem I am facing. There is so much teaching available on the net. Great gurus, teaching rare compositions, and it is theoretically possible to learn a lot that way. Try not to be a glutton. Try not to fall on each of these and download thinking" I want to learn this. I want to learn that". My laptop has so many such compositions complete with notations that I have told myself I will learn one of these days. Let it go. One cannot learn every thing that is available. Choose what you want to learn and just perfect that. Do not keep flitting from one workshop to another like a honey bee. Not all of them can help you sing better, if you do not lock yourself in your room and work on that one krithi till you have discovered possibilities there nobody else ever has. You have to do the work. Nobody can do it for you.

Ultimately, you have to decide if you want to sing ten songs badly or one song well. Shunning the siren call of those wonderful other compositions  and sticking with one composition day after day needs a lot of discipline. But do it. Sometimes, in very complex compositions you will hit a road block after a few days. So take a break and go on to something else for a few days. But come back to this and finish it.

This whole business of learning has gone through a total paradigm shift in recent times and especially in the last seventeen months. On one hand, a student today has access to the best of training irrespective of where they are living. On the other hand, if musical training continues to be online, there are things we have to be cognizant of. For example, when you are sitting in front of a teacher and your thalam is lagging, the teacher can catch you immediately. But in an online situation, when you are repeating a phrase, it is not that easy. Something is one after  a beat, you have to be conscious. And remember the teacher is not seeing your hands. I still remember sitting and putting simple adi thalam and my teacher telling me to simply press down on each finger so I would not run. How will things like this happen? And do not even ask about swara singing. If you ask me where did you start" I will give the right answer, But did I really start there?" One cannot check these things as easily. Another small thing. I used to struggle a lot when eduppus were one or three off. Samam and half eduppus are comparitively easy. I remember Padmanaabha Paali( Hindolam) where the composition begins one after the beat. The teacher used to keep saying" No, that is two after. No that was samam". And I struggled and sometimes got it right by chance. Years later I figured out for myself, how to do this. You concentrate not on where you are starting but where you have to end.

And when is the learning of the composition completed? I used to ask my executives when a project was completed. And they used to say" when it is handed over to the client". And I would say " No". And they would say, " After we have billed for it" and i would say"No". And they would say " After we have received the cheque for it( this was before most payments were direct to bank)". And I would say No. And they would be like " What the hell.." And I would say when you deposit the cheque and it does not bounce and you get your credit it in your account.

In the same way, the composition has been " learned" only when you can just sit in front of your teacher and the composition flows out of you simply and effortlessly belying all the effort and struggle in learning it.

I shall now start applying some of the excellent advice that I have given in this post!!!