Topic: Music

 

 

This is what I wrote for Sargam July 2006

The President Speaks His Mind

 

 

How To Do Riyaz

 

1. Prayer: Riyaz is like prayer. Switch yourself off all other activities. Don’t attend phones, guests, keep chatting on nonmusical matters at riyaz time. Do not practice when you really do not have the time, or inclination, for it. Those few moments are meant exclusively for music, and let them be so earmarked, preferably every day. How long, well, it is up to you. Just like prayer.
2. Warm-up: Always allow some time for your voice to get warmed up for the practice. For that it’s a good idea to hum and hold on to lower notes for a few moments/minutes before going on to the real song/raga. Ideally, the Sa, and 2-3 notes around it are the best to warm up the voice. Sa-Re-Ga, and/or Sa-Ne-Dha combinations are good to start with, unless the raga doesn’t have them, in which case the appropriate 2-3 notes should be used for warming up. For males the Sa usually is Csharp, for females Aflat. A harmonium or any instrument by which you can get your Sa is useful here.
3. Food: Never practice on a full or an empty stomach. The full stomach interferes with proper rendering and may cause burping while you practice at important notes. The empty stomach will deflect your attention to the food. Just enough to make you comfortable is the key. Avoid fried spicy foods and chilled drinks before practice. All irritants to the vocal cords are to be avoided before practice. Because practice perfects the voice but also irritates the vocal cords, even if it pleases the mind.
4. Start: Always start with songs that have lower notes and then go on to high pitch ones. This is to prevent sudden strain on the vocal cords and prevent them from cracking in the long run.
5. Humming: It is a very good way to start the riyaz of any song/raga with humming. It gets both the voice and the mind tuned to the task ahead.
6. Accompaniments: It is a desirable to have a source of melody (e.g. harmonium) and if possible, rhythm (e.g. tabla/dholak) with you while practicing. Also, a recording device and earphones with a mike to listen to your own voice/singing are useful accompaniments. A recording of the original singer for version singing is equally useful.
7. Listening to the original singer: After having practiced the song a couple of times, it is a useful to listen to the original singer to confirm you are not making any obvious mistakes. Mistakes, when practiced over and over again, become very difficult to erase later. They are better not allowed to creep in at the formative stage.
8. Learning the song by heart: It is a very good idea to have the song written in your song book (You must have a special song book, not practice holding bits of paper you misplace and get frantic about later.). If you listen to the song a number of times, understand its meaning and not only its manner of singing, sing at least 15 times without looking at the book, and over three days (not just one day), you can have the song by heart.
9. Practice earlier numbers: Always brush up on old songs at every riyaz. Suppose you have 30 mins with you for actual practice after the 5 min warm up. Practice 2-3 earlier songs for 8-10 mins, and devote the rest of the time for the new one.
10. How long does it take to practice a new song: In general, you will take 20-30 mins to get the first real feel of a song. In that, half the time is spent in listening, and the rest in writing it down and singing. You will not get the feel of a song without singing it at least 3-4 times. Similarly, with another one. So, if you plan 1 song, spare 30 mins, if 2 songs spare 1 hour, and so on. This is an average figure. Difficult songs may need much more time.
11. Repeat practice: Always repeat the practice of a new song once after 12 hours, second after 24 hours, and third after 7 days, to allow the song to be transferred from your short term memory to the long term one. It is only what is in your long-term memory that can be retrieved when you need it. And need it you will, when you get on stage with your heart in your voice, your eyes at the audience rather than dug into the paper or the music book.
12. Suggestions from listeners: If possible, have someone with a good ear for music listen to you sing before you perform on stage. Listen to his/her suggestions carefully, and carry out improvements in your riyaz before coming on state. But do not get disheartened by comments. In any case, do not have negative and devastating commentators around. After a performance, do listen to constructive feedback, and be ready to work over it during riyaz.
13. The 100 times test: Do not perform on stage unless you have performed the 100 times test I have outlined earlier.
14. Pray: Finally, it is a very good idea to start your riyaz, and also end it, with a prayer, either sung or recited. If sung, the song will become perfect. If recited, it is a reminder to you that music is also one way to establish communion with the divinity around, and the soul within.

 

This is with my good wishes to you on the Guru Poornima celebrations of Swara Sampada for which we have assembled today.

 

Dr Ajai R. Singh

14 July 2006

 

Food for Thought for Prospective Singers
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: Music
Classical training for light music
I find an interesting argument doing the rounds in music circles. When asked if you have undergone training in classical music, some people have a ready reply: ‘what about Kishore Kumar and O.P. Nayyar? They had no formal training in classical music. See the beauty with which they did their music. Who says classical training is necessary for light music?’

Well, let me tell you if you have the caliber and pratibha of a Kishore Kumar or an O.P.Nayyar, you don’t need to read me. Maybe I should come and take a lesson or two from you. For all the rest, it may make more sense to listen to what I have to say here.

There are grades of difficult songs, but we can roughly classify them into three categories:

1.Easy, 2. Difficult, and 3. Very Difficult.

This classification is from the point of singing, and has nothing to do with the worth or ability of the singer rendering it.

1. Easy:
Songs like ‘Mera joota hai japani’, ‘Kisiki muskurahaton pe ho nisar,’ can be classified in the Easy category. In fact a number of Mukesh numbers sung for Raj Kapoor were like that. They were meant to be, for the master film-maker wanted simple heart touching melodies for his films which would appeal to the common man’s emotions. Here, even if you have no classical training whatsoever, only a basic understanding of sur, tala and laya, you can enjoy a number of such melodies all through life without bothering about anything else.
So many light, foot tapping numbers of this type keep on getting produced from earlier times till today, and no classical base is necessary to enjoy singing them.

2. DifficultSongs like those sung by Rafi for Naushad like ‘Suhani raat dhal chuki,’ of Lata sung for Madan Mohan like ‘Yoon hasraton ke daagh’, or even the Melodies of Khayyam like, ‘Who subaha kabhi to ayegi’ will come in this category. Even Talat Mehmood’s most popular songs like ‘Jalte hain jiske liye,’ or ‘Tasveer banata hoon’, also fall here. In this case classical training is not obligatory, but facilitates the voice flexibility that the grinding undergone by a classical training brings about.
So it will help you for sure, but you may do without it if you carry out serious riyaz of light music.
3. Very DifficultIn this category come songs like ‘Ayega anewala’ of Lata, ‘Dekhi zamane ki yari’ of Rafi, most songs of Manna Dey with a classical base like ‘Bhay bhanjana’, non-filmi songs of Jagjit Singh like ‘Koi paas aya sawere sawere’, of Mehdi Hasan like ‘Konpalen phir phoot aayin’, and the difficult Ghulam Ali numbers like,‘Hungama hai kyun barpa’, and some songs of Talat like ‘Tasveer teri dil mera behla na sakegi’, or ‘Beraham aasman’.
These songs cannot be faithfully rendered without a classical base, howsoever hard you try.
If your dream is to sing such numbers, (or even songs rendered in films by classical maestros like ‘Ketaki gulab juhi champaka bana phoole’), go and take refuge under the feet of a guru who will chisel and fashion your voice to make it capable of such rendition. He may or may not teach you to sing such songs (most probably, he will not), but he will help you get such control over sur that is the essence of high quality singing

Any effort in this direction, properly guided, will reap rich rewards.

Any attempt to prove me wrong may just be so much effort gone down the drain.

I would hardly recommend you do that to your self, at least not in the field of music, and definitely not since you are in Swara Sampada*.


Ajai
16 June 2005


*Written as The President Speaks His Mind for Swara Sampada, a music organisation. See: http://swarasampada.tripod.com