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. ”.
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Ganesh Rajagopalan on releasing a Neo Carnatic Instrumental track "Milky Way".
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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.
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T.N.Krishnan performs at
YAKSHA 2013 (A Classical Indian Music and Dance Festival)
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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.
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·
The Three Generations: (From left) Ragini Shankar, Dr.N.Rajam, Sangeetha
Shankar, and Nandini Shankar
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“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.”
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·
(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.
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“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.