THE LIFE OF AN ARTISTE.

Boredom gives you the opportunity to think. You have all the time in the world to laze around or to start planning your activities for the rest of the day. I was bored. I wasn't thinking. My college was coming to an end in around a couple of weeks. Being the final days of the semester, lectures won’t happen, they’d get canned or faculties won’t show up. So it’s kind of a leisure time I’ve got here. No college or work. What do I do when I’m bored? I usually draw to keep myself busy. I was bored to draw. Playing video games is like planning a trip to Neverland. That didn’t work out either. Boredom was winning. Did I say that it gives you ample time to think what to do with your life? I did. I somehow managed to activate my little grey cells. Thanks to the keen interest I have in music, I play the violin as a hobby. Now was the perfect time to listen to classical; the mood wherein you're lazy and you can't think of anything else to do. I plugged in my MP4 player and started on a solid I don’t know how many hours of melodious music journey, eventually dozing off in the middle of a long Panthuvarali raga by T.N.Krishnan. Music is considered to be the most difficult, yet the most beautiful form of Art. May it be any genre; western, classical, Hindustani, Carnatic, etc. Listening to music makes you feel happier even in the weirdest of situations. No doubt that it soothes your mind. So, the next time you need a boost of emotion, you know what to do. Music is like medicine having a therapeutic value. It’s a perfect substitute for a tablet that you think would help you stay relaxed and stress-free on a busy day. Another advantage is that it helps you sleep better. Yeah, I may have highlighted this point pretty well a couple of lines ago.

I love attending live concerts. Any music lover would. All the time I used to wonder about the amount of effort put in by these artistes to give a mind blowing performance in front of thousands. The only self-explanatory fact is that most of the times, these musicians have their lineage filled with great music pundits, making them child prodigies. I wanted to know more. More about how he/she prepares for concerts; basically his/hers’ professional life. I’ve summarized my early research in the following to come.

Music means a lot of things. It varies from person to person. In one of his interviews, the renowned violinist Ganesh Rajagopalan, summarized on what a composition actually means. “We create only music. We give the freedom to create whatever you want. For example, one composition can mean something to you, something to somebody else, something to the camera person, something to the director and so on. In short, everyone can have their own idea about their composition. ”.

Ganesh Rajagopalan on releasing a Neo Carnatic Instrumental track "Milky Way".

Carnatic music, according to today’s world, is vocally dominated. Now how would a violin artiste respond to that?

“When we do music, we’re musicians. Not violinists per se. First ask yourself this, “Why is music a very unique form of art?” It differs by a huge scale when compared with other art forms. Many people will answer this differently, no doubt. What I feel is that music is the only non-visual art form. It means, when you make it in to a visual form, it immediately becomes the subsidiary of that form! Now that’s instrumental music.” Ganesh Sir’s reply to the above.

How well put. The natural sound that the instrument produces is to be listened and enjoyed. No need for it to be seen.

Having listened to a lot of recordings of the violin maestro T.N.Krishnan, his style of playing is what intrigues me the most; every time I listen to him play the violin, I seem to be discovering and learning something new. He just amazes me with the way he delineates the raga to bring out its beauty in just two phrases.

A musician’s style and class is what is appreciated. The unique way they make music sound melodious is what amuses the audience. During practice, they constantly start, stop, back up, and repeat, making split-second decisions as they review every aspect of technique, interpretation, and performance. That is, they know how to attain perfection.

Here’s one of the most common scenarios that every learner may come across. At least I have. They often make the mistake of blindly imitating the artiste (the one they look up to, that is). It is very difficult to be able to do that in the initial stages. Later the learner doesn’t succeed in doing so and is lead to give up. Artistes are experienced performers. Music is their profession. They devour music. They dream music. Their life is music. It’s a cake walk for them, but a struggle for the learner. Following such practice isn’t right.

“For amateur learners, it is very important for him/her to accompany experienced and accomplished artistes in concerts. Only then will they gain thorough experience and will be able to achieve great heights”, highlighted T.N.Krishnan in between one of his concerts. It’s the experience through which the learner gains an in-depth knowledge of the music and that every time he accompanies different artistes, he tends to learn how to sync his style of playing with the host performer. After months and years of such experience, the learner would’ve developed his own style of playing.

T.N.Krishnan performs at YAKSHA 2013 (A Classical Indian Music and Dance Festival)

While going through certain concert videos of Prof. T.N. Krishnan, I came across an article (The Hindu International Edition on 8th March 1994); an interview of his where one of the questions he was asked were regarding his practice schedule during those days. He said, and I quote, ‘It started at 4 am. My father would wake me up. Practice started immediately from 4 am to 7 am. Then I had coffee and a break for half an hour. Again the lessons were continued till 9.30 till I started for school. During the lunch interval between 2 and 3, I had another short practice for half an hour. In the evening again from 4 to 7. It’s because of my father that I am what I am today.’ Now you know what made him the violin wizard.

Singing requires loads of practice. Also, producing the same in an instrument is a challenge. There is one such artiste that I’d like to write about in particular.

Holder of the Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan, and the Sangeet Natak Academy Award, and the pioneer of the Gayaki Ang (to play as though sung), Dr.N.Rajam, a great violin virtuoso, is known for her Hindustani classical. Her music is referred to as “The Singing Violin”. It means that the singer and the violin player are in unison; producing sounds through the violin which emulate the voice. It is certainly very difficult to imitate each and every vocal notation on the violin and to be able to make it sound just like the way it’s sung. N.Rajam does that with ease.

“We had no external distractions like outings, festivals or any other form of entertainment. It was just practise, practise and practise of the violin for us which brought us to this level”, said Dr.N.Rajam in an interview. She spent her entire life in achieving the dream of becoming a world famous maestro.

Being T.N.Krishnan’s sister, both of these living legends lead a very strict and a disciplined childhood.

“My father was an austere man. Practice was the only word he was well acquainted with. During his sleepless nights, he would wake us up and make us practice until he was satisfied. The amount of hard work that we put in during those days were unimaginable. It is thanks to our father that we are what we are today.”

The music doesn’t end here. Ms.Rajam has trained her daughter, Sangeetha Shankar, and her grandchildren, the upcoming artistes, Nandini and Ragini Shankar. And not to forget her niece, Kala Ramnath. As “The Three Generations”, they give concerts all over the world, bringing musical serenity and emotion to the minds of the audience.

·        The Three Generations: (From left) Ragini Shankar, Dr.N.Rajam, Sangeetha Shankar, and Nandini Shankar

“To be able to incorporate the teachings in small children ranging from the age group of three to twelve is not an easy job. But when the child reaches the age of twelve or more, he starts realizing the importance of the subject and starts practising. He immediately develops a keen interest in the field”, added Ms. Rajam.

Well, here’s another gist of a short documentary I saw online. Another violin professional Mrs. Viji Krishnan, T.N.Krishnan’s daughter, in preparation for her concert at the Music Academy in Chennai, dated on the 24th December 2014, was interviewed on the day before the concert. Following were the questions she was asked:

1. How long does one need to practice before concerts?

2. How does an artiste mentally prepare himself/herself for concerts?

Mrs.Viji Krishnan during her "Malabar to Morocco" album launch

Mrs.Viji replied, “About four hours for a one hour concert. Not practice, prepare. Carnatic music is different from western classical where we don’t have pieces that we say we’re going to play. For instance, when we play in a concert, ninety percent of the time most of the items are not planned. We just have a whole list of things to choose from. So from a list of ten, one might be one and from another list the other song might be two and so on. So we have to have an epitome of almost 50-60 songs ready for a two/ two and a half hour concert, because we don’t know what we’ll play.”

·        (From left) Sriram Krishnan, T.N.Krishnan, and Viji Krishnan performing at the Music Academy on a Christmas holiday playing to a fairly large Christmas audience.

      

“The most important thing is that it (the music) should synchronize. Being a trio, we have to match each other while playing. There should be a sense of understanding and anticipation between each other onstage. Being able to anticipate what the other person is planning to play or playing is very important.” T.N. Krishnan answered.

T.N.Krishnan and Viji Krishnan

For the second, Mrs.Viji responded, “Suppose if the concert’s at 9 in the morning the next day, I’ll be up and running around 4 in the morning, practice till about 6 am. This helps to warm up the fingers to get comfortable. It starts like, for the past three days I’ve not done much, going out or…you try to stay in the zone and not deviate too much from focusing on what you actually need to do. Because there are too many other distractions that sort of affect you in some way. So mentally, you’re not in that zone. You try to stay in there as far as possible.”

Here’s an important notice to all the artistes. According to T.N.Krishnan, an artiste should keep refining the method of presentation and approach. “I have been playing the Thodi ragam for almost 70 years. Even today when I go up on stage I think of newer and better ways to explore and engage with the ragam. For the sake of the audience, the same ragam must be played in different ways. What’s the point in repeating the same again and again? You need to be totally involved in it to make your music vibrant and refreshing. In modern terminology, it is called job satisfaction,” he laughs.

In conclusion, all it requires is tons of hard work and loads of devoted practice hours.

And such a promising phrase by Brian Lynch, the famous jazz trumpeter; makes me want to read it all day long:

“Practicing is the job, and that if you don’t truly enjoy practicing then you may as well find another job that you do enjoy, because life’s too short.”

Music requires passion. It comes with the prerequisites of interest, dedication and willingness. Having the passion, one will automatically develop the skill to perfect it. You have the interest, you work for it. Sky’s the limit. Reach for it.