Slices of a Performing Artiste

What are the various aspects of a musician? Rather, what are the qualities that are required for a performing artiste to become one and be one? What distinguishes him/her from others and does that serve as a Selling Point to the audience?

There are various aspects to a musician as there are to music itself. I put them down here not in the order of importance, but as they occurred to me. 

Training (Patantharam) - There is a significant ignorance amongst the non-trained listeners that anyone with a good voice and capability to develop it could be a successful musician. They will quote Ilayaraja, SPB and Chitra for examples. Little do they know how skilled a listener Ilayaraja is. A good author is a voracious reader. So is a music composer a tremendous listener and a discrete one at that. Wouldn't Ilayaraja take the effort to get trained when he chose it as a career?  Once SPB/Chitra got a chance, wouldn't they run to get the fundamentals strong and steady? They may not say it out but every successful person does his/her homework. It may not be all too significant to be trained for light music (cinema songs) at that time period since the competition was lesser than today. Ilayaraja didn't raise many singers. In Rehman's age, we see a new singer everyday. Many music programs are aired on T.V weekly and are being judged by senior musicians. The talented pool of youngsters are all well trained. 


For the carnatic stage, training is extremely important.  This incorporates both vocal training and strong theory of fundamentals. 


Vocal training means how to do the sadhana (practice) or sadhakam. Asura sadhakam or Ahaara sadhakam, depending on the type of person you are ;-). With respect to Raga and lyrics, vocal training pertains to எந்த  இடத்தை  எப்படி பாடனும்  I have plenty of workable theories from my own experience, experiments and observation. I am reserving those ideas for a short book or worst case, another blog. Practice is not everything. CORRECT practice is. Guru's involvement is a compelling factor. 


Theory is NOT history - whether Tyagaraja ate uppuma or idli for breakfast. Theory is that of melakarthas, janya ragams, arohanam, avarohanam of each, raga lakshanas, swara prastharams, various thalams, mathematics behind maathirais, etc, etc, etc. Reading literature or online about a composer's life history or who-knows-what is simply a music buff stuff, nothing of practical use or importance.

Knowledge (Gnanam) - I would say, this is the actual listening capacity of the music student. பாட்டு கேட்டு கேட்டு வரதல்ல , கேட்டு கேட்டும் வரலாம் . Note that the stress is on the capacity, not just the listening. It takes an inherent interest to listen and develop (do the actual sweating, the hard work to develop, yes). Sangeetha gnanamu bhakthi vina. Here, the devotion refers to shraddha to learn music, to sing. A krishna devotee does not sing "Bhavayami gopala balam" any better than a Murugan worshipper. It must be the love for Yamankalyani. It took me a long time to realize this. BJ's interview opened my views and made me feel comfortable with my own new thinking. 

Voice (Saareeram) - 

           - The very Texture of the voice 
                       - melodious, nasal, full-throated, husky, manly/womanly, sonorous, etc. Add any adjectives you could think of (But be appropriate. Once I heard 'BJ is a sexy singer, yaar'. I stopped discussing music with any north Indians). Some people are naturally gifted with a beautiful voice. Agreed. It is a gift bestowed upon. But, voice could also be cultivated over a period of time with correct practice. Voice is also cultured. Like drinking warm water during practice and kutcheri rather than a cold coke. I reserve my ideas here again. Not too many secrets in one blog. 

           - How capable/flexible the voice is to execute a sangati. 
                            - Singer on stage has common cold. Well, he should not be there in the first place when he has a cold. Not all singers could as easily swipe their card in the lower octaves  as in the higher octaves. How often did you listen to M.S do that? M.L.V?  There you go, you get the idea.

Personality (Sareeram? No, not exactly)-

                    - Hair styles ? Does he answer relevantly to those questions in Jaya T.V Margazhi Utsavams or simply bluffed an answer? Does he reply to rasikas' emails or head-high? Is that a designer kurta or stitched from his wife's kanchivaram?  to me, none of these matter. To those who were calling themselves ardent rasikas and felt free to open to me, all these seemed to matter. "Sudha's PR was excellent. That's the reason".

Creative Potential (Manodharma) -  

                       - To me, this is the GOD selling point. No elaborations. This is what makes BJ, Shankar, TMK and a certain few above and beyond to me. This is the only metric on how a musician has evolved over the years. That's what made me write this blog.



If everybody sings every song the same way, there is no need to listen at all. 

Listen to Shankar's creativity below .