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!

An age for everything

It has been almost two years since I got the Smule account and started singing. 

As of now, most of my friends agree on one thing. I have consistantly improved week on week by singing one song a week.

This has continued to this day. The song selections are not my choice though. They are all duets, but cover different times from the 1960's to 2010's and different music directors, singers, song genres over the years. 

Some are simple lyrically and crisp with no hidden meanings, some are risque and some are downright NSFW.. if you are in a workplace where folks speak Tamil that is.

While the compliments for the singing improvements keep coming on one side, there is also the comments on the songs themselves.

There is one repeated theme from family and extended family. Sing songs that are appropriate for your age.. aka Bhajans and devotional songs. It is no secret that I turned 50 a couple of months ago and this "age appropritateness" always makes me go "where is this written down?".. "who made these rules?".. at what age is singing what appropriate? 

I am not going against this logic blindly. Just trying to understand the categories and what age is good for what..

For example..

0-3 years: Nursery Rhymes

3-5 years : just Rhymes and kids songs. (think Rafi songs like Baby Beluga or Down by the Bay, when I write this)

5-15 years : Carnatic training (geethams varnams keerthanams , I guess if you are lucky enough to get trained?)

15-25 years : Movie songs (one has to sing them as youth or when else can you sing love songs?)

25-40 ? : Mature movie songs? 

40-50 ? : slokams?

50+ : Bhajans only?

60+ : stop singing ? as it is no longer age appropriate?

These questions have no good answers but have summarized the general suggested direction with ? 

Not sure if this is the generic thought process across Tamil families .. any stats collected in this regard would be nice to analyze!

If you actually analyze some of the slokams or devotional hymns that are in praise of the female goddesses, they describe the goddesses and their beauty with unparalleled metaphors that would make the modern day movie song lyricists look like nursery rhyme writers.. not that there is anything wrong with writing nursery rhymes!

As per this unknown age guidance, I am to sing devotional songs only for the next ten years and taper off to recitation mode only. Maybe this is written down somewhere and I am not aware of the source. Maybe it is the right thing to do. Who knows?

For now, I am just going with the flow and singing the song that is taught each week. Some songs suit my voice. Some suit my voice and pitch (preferably C# to D!.. now that I know what those mean). Some songs also work with my ability to show some emotion in the voice (Sadder the better ?!) 

I do put warnings when posting the songs if they have some double meanings.

If any of you would like to share your thoughts on the age appropriateness of select music, I would definitely be interested in compiling it and updating this post!

In the meantime, one song a week. You can check it out under my smule id sundar72ps.

A method to the madness

Almost every week, since I joined Paadarivom Padipparivom as a member, have learned a new movie song. Except for 7 or 8 weeks out of ~70, have tried to learn the song, sing it and have submit it for reviews. 

Many years ago, I was at a dance competition. One way to get a subsidy on the competition fees or hotel was to be a volunteer at the competition. You run errands for the judges, you walk around the ballroom and collect the score sheets the judges hand over after every round and rush it to the score tabulator, you do score tabulation, you help the guest star performers with things .. a long list basically. Sometimes you end up having breakfast with these judges. Once at such a breakfast, a renowned teacher by the name of Ray Rivers (my memory on dance stuff is intentionally bad..know his last name is definintely Rivers) told me "I heard you have a doctorate in engineering and are dancing competition. Why?" and my response was "I like to dance!" and he said "going to give you a piece of advice! The name of the game, is to stay in the game! As long as you keep dancing and don't give up, you can be a really good dancer!".  He was right. I quit dancing shortly after marriage and that good dancer thing went poof!

Why bring this up?!

If you do anything with diligence, intensity and sincerity and keep working on it, you will get better at it. My yoga teacher Matt tells me all the time "you get good at what you practice. you practice the right way, you good at doing it the right way. you practice the wrong way, you get good at that too! So be careful what you practice!"

I am not planning to give up on music this time. Will keep working on it at my own pace with no timetable, but there will always be music. Over the last 17 months, the method to learning and singing this "song of the week" has evolved and it has kind of reached a set routine. I am documenting this routine in hopes that it helps aspiring students who are in the same boat as me. No formal classical training, but want to improve their singing.

1. Listen to the sound track 20-30 times on a loop while walking, cutting veggies, while in the bathroom, when taking a walk at lunch, basically when time permits. 

2. Listen to the music on Youtube video but at 0.75x speed. I didn't even know you could listen to Youtube videos at different speeds till this music interest! 

3. Listen to the recording of the teaching show. (given the Chennai to California time difference, I always end up watching the recording of the teaching show).

4. Take notes by hand of what you need to pay attention to. Write down every word. My notes are probably for me and may not help others. To each his own! The notation you use might be different.. I put some wavy lines which mean something to me which doesn't make any sense to others. Where possible I write down swarams or notes for select syllables so I can hit the right starting, highlight or ending note. 

5. Correct the notes by cross referencing to the OST (Original Sound Track, another abbreviation that I was not aware of!) and the Youtube 0.75x listen. 

6. Start singing a few times with audio only to finish entire song. If you make a mistake keep going to finish song. Delete all the wrong ones. Listen but don't save.

7. Once you are okay with singing the entire thing by heart, now go for the feel of the song. Lyrics you know by now. Ragam and Taalam you know by now. So now after 20-30 tries work on the feel and emotion. 

8. Once that also seems as good as it can get under current skill set, start recording with video. This is the painful part as you cannot overwrite a specific line in video. You make a mistake, you have to start from scratch. Do it! In video there is no point in finishing song. Here you just delete after a mistake and start over!

9. Verify song before saving.

10. Send song to MIL for review. If she says "okay" or "decent" then submit. Else, delete and start over after figuring out what was off. 

This method is the current status quo. Song is taught over weekend. Listening is done over weekend. First few tries on Monday evening, second try Tuesday. Video attempt on Wed and if fail, Thursday. Submit Thursday night or Friday AM before deadline. 

Will keep doing this approach. It used to take me 60 tries to get an "OK". These days I get it in 30 tries which is good.

However that said, there are songs which have taken me 100+ attempts to try as they are way outside my current skillset and I am practically memorizing notes and just brute forcing it by repetition. 

When singing something not taught yet by Paadarivom, I do same method, except there is no teaching show to watch and the notes are from the OST and slowed down Youtube video. Picking the right track that matches the tempo of the OST is key. Sometimes folks speed up the tracks to make it easier for beginner singers to look good, but that backfires if you want to sing it right and do justice to the song!

Let's see where this method gets me in 2023! Who knows, this method might change as things improve, or more steps might end up being added as more things become obvious! It is all part of the learning!

Wishing all of you a wonderful new year filled with music and happiness!