The puppet master called MUSIC

Living in a world of intense competition, life is of course hectic and chaos. As opposite to you drafting your schedule, you have a schedule that drafts your day-to-day actions including the time and timelines for your meals. Its quite natural and human to be stressed. Have you ever felt you could have a device that just drains out all the negative energy piling up? The answer is, most of us carry that device with us everywhere. I'm talking about an Mp3 player or an iPod or your mobile that can play any monkey/donkey file formats.

Two things that are capable of releasing the negative energy stocking up are physical exercise and music. I have no clue about the former, but, I'll try to take you through the latter. So, whats the big deal? I listen to the music I want to or whatever is there, what is the problem? As much relief as music can provide, there are so many chances of getting into an emotional mess.

To explain this, I'm pointing out a very common example. FM is something most of us are forced to listen when we make use of public transport. I remember the days when I used to listen to FM played in my college bus. Half way through I used to doze off and thanks to Suryan FM's new releases edition from 5PM to 6PM, I would get up startled to the jarring effect of "Naaka Mukka" (the female version). There is no need to say how the rest of my day would be.

Having set that context, what kind of music should you listen to? The answer is very simple and all know it. The kind of music you enjoy.

The first problem here is something called as an anchor. Most of the times music reminds you of the past. For instance, I used to listen to a set of songs while reading Harry Potter (I read all the books at a stretch), so the same songs kept repeating throughout the time and whenever I listen to anyone of those songs, my mind goes to HP, Hogwarts, the Forbidden Forest and so on. This relative thinking is called as an anchor. Again, an anchor could be a blessing or a curse.

Nostalgia, for instance is a good feeling, at least for me. When I listen to "Kaathadi Thanalum" from Classmates (Malayalam), if I close my eyes and concentrate, I could go back and live through my entire college life. Its really the best complement to a musician to say that he has composed a song that takes you there. So, suddenly one day I'm sitting in office close to midnight (or early morning) feeling lonely, I have my solution right next to me. Anchor is a boon here.

Now, the curse part: People who just broke up in a relationship resort to all kinds of romantic-sad songs. Say a BIG NO! Its going to make you worse. If you want the music to take your mind off something, its logical that you should be listening to a genre/theme different from where you want to deviate. Studies say that the recovery time from a break-up is 10 times slower if you keep reliving those moments. So, beware of the anchor and use it right.

Another common but serious issue is falling asleep while the music is still running. When I got my first mp3 player in college, I used to carry it everywhere. On the way back, in the college bus, listening to songs and falling asleep used to be an everyday deal. One evening, I woke up when the bus reached my stop and ran out of the bus in haste, the player still singing "Sundari" from Dhalapathy. Unaware of the surroundings, I kept singing it to myself till I reached my flat. Two girls who overheard used to ask me who Sundari was until the day I shifted from there.

Jokes apart, the music still playing while you are asleep is not such a good thing, especially if the music has lyric in it. Your brain sometimes stores these information without your knowledge. You might have come across situations where you sing along with a song and suddenly realize that you never made an attempt to by-heart the lyrics. So, if you are a sleep-as-soon-as-you-settle-down type, keep the play list to a minimum and turn off repeat mode. If you insist keeping a loop, an alternative solution is to listen to instrumentals in a low volume. This way your soul still enjoys its kind in the music and you get to sleep happily.

Though there are a few pointers that one could gain about what kind of music to listen, its impossible to generalize. In the end, its one's tastes that matter. Whatever your taste is, you can use music to the best to get some stress out. A few suggestions are listed below:

• Always enjoy your music.
• Beware of Anchors.
• Don't listen to a mix of themes unless you are in a casual mood. If you are looking for motivation, go with songs that motivate you.
• Don't force yourselves into listening to music. Plug out the earphones and give way for air flow when you feel it.
• To thinking clearly and still enjoy the music, lower the volume or listen to instrumentals. Listening to words (song/speech) attracts part of your brain's reception.
• Repeated listening to the same song sometimes has bad effects. You may get bored of the song soon.
• Don't force someone listen to a song when they are not up for it. They will for sure hate the song.
• If the play list has a collection of themes, don't let the software choose for you. All it can do is to generate a random number.
• Sleep and music together have both good and bad effects. Filter out what you might not enjoy.

Believe it or not, there is a raagam called Amridhavarshini that is capable of bringing rain. Well, some say its a myth, but I say, when music can alter the course of nature, why not your mind? The field of therapy with music is gradually developing and don't be surprised if, in future, part of your hospital bill reads, "A.R.Rahman Expenses". Enjoy your music. Keep your soul happy and relaxed.

HOLA

Hi all,
I know chiju would be WOW'ed at my post.....It would be atleast 6 months or more since we got into this agreement of writing about the little bit we know in music. Well yes, i'd been into more serious stuff all these days. Now, i am out of all that and i feel i have to share whatever little i know with the other music lovers. Well we want to write a lot of technical stuff here, before which we need to kinda plan where to start. we'll also put our compositions (very amateurish) across sometime. We (me, chiju, deepak-lyricist) would be more than happy to get opinions on those.....................

So, lets get to the point........MUSIC...................................................................... A lot of us like music, different lang, genres, artists........We even listen to music in languages like croatian, mungese, uuuuttt, and so on.... (refer to the crazy options in orkut). But do we know the music that we listen to?.........we might even know the lang.....but the music?........

Once we get to know our music, a lot of beautiful things take place......I can bet my bottom dollar on it.. in place of just arbitrary tunes here and there, if we have well defined structures?........Thats what we'll be writing here.....with due humility we'll share the information that we know.
We'll also write something more interesting like 'what we don like in the prevalent carnatic concert styles?", we'll even write abt some artists, who are technically matchless but screw themselves up with their gestures on stage. Also......................................... write for and against the tradition......To do all this we need to dive deep into it, and we will.
As my guru says,"To be a rebel, you first need to know the existing system inside out"............So, we'll get to know the system and then rebel if we have to.
Alright, i'll come up with some good information on my next post.......btw VTV songs are good......As always Rehman Ji is beyond ordinary levels of perception.....so i don have anything to say abt it except that it is good......

Took me by surprise and awe

It so happens to many people that they suddenly come across a track that captures their attention completely. The beauty is that the track would have been rendered by their favorite singer or music director and they would have so long claimed that there is not a song of that person that they've missed.

Hariharan is one singer who has fascinated me right from his Thamizha Thamizha. I've loved each and every song he had sung, composed or whatever.

Back during my school days (11th std I guess), during summer vacation, I was running through the channels one by one. However, there was nothing that interested me. Finally I settled with K TV (a Tamil channel, for those who don't know) which had a movie called Ooty. I'd heard about the movie a lot of times but the cast was not that appealing for me to sit and watch it properly.

As the movie was playing there was a song that did not impress me much. So, naturally my expectations of the music did not stay that high.

The next song caught me by awe. It was a patriotic song called India. When I heard Hariji's voice it caught my attention. I listened keenly. By the time, the song played fully I was all in goosebumps.

The song is a traditional South Indian number. The use of instruments is awesome, especially the portions supported by the mridhangam and kerala Chenda. Though there is nothing new or fresh in the song, the patriotism and chillness has been maintained with the wonderful rendition by Hariji.

The way the words "Vande Matram" is sang in the first stanza is the first catch. I definitely can't take the privilege of reviewing the way Hariji has sung a song. But, the way he has sung this song is just one example why he is a genius. The chorus has also been well organized in the song.

Inspired by the song, I got it recorded the next day itself. I heard it many times, passed it to my friends and for the Independence Day celebrations in my 12th std we performed this on stage. In a boys school where choir is generally woo-hooed, we received standing ovasion when we almost reached the end. I had to mention the chorus specially because organizing that was the toughest of all tasks we had. However, the chorus we used was full of boys between 6th and 8th std.

Listen to the song and enjoy! Will be back with more.

PS: Liking and not liking a song is completely personal. These posts are to fill in for the people who would not like to miss out on such songs.

Listen to the song here

About the Authors - Chiju

Hey people!

I'm Sriraj. I call myself Chiju. Neither is blogging a new thing to me nor am I a great blogger. However, blogging started with http://cathchiju.blogspot.com.

I've always claimed that I live with music.

Now, does listening to music (whether 24x7 or not) justify that statement? I asked myself this question a zillion times. The answer is a big fat NO!

So, I've started to get a bit more serious than that. I just needed a yardstick to measure the depth of what I'm going to learn or contribute. That is my part of the story in Raaga Lahari.

In a nutshell, I have been getting trained in carnatic music for sometime. However, I've not taken it so seriously other than a few stages where I've sang and at times people have appreciated me for the way I sing. Putting an end to the intro here.

PS: Being a part of the software field, I myself am curious how fast and how frequent I'll be posting. Anyways, keep visiting.