upcoming musicians. I personally use different portals to publish
my music or talk to my listeners. The application I mostly use
is TuneCore that helps put out music across different platforms.
Every technology can be used for or against a cause and I must
admit it has to be used till certain extent to ease up work and
reaching out to the audience.
Do you feel melakartha (full scale) raagas have higher scope
in aalapana compared to janya raagas( derived scales) which
comparatively have lesser notes?
As for me, every raaga is a true gift and has a unique feature.
While the generic opinion is Melakartha raagas have more scope,
I feel they are more restricted because one cannot freely glide
over swaras. However, in janya raagas , some incredible wonders
can be done because of the pitch placement.
Your piece of advice to all the young musicians who are aspiring
to take up veena playing in the future. How should their approach
be towards learning?
The golden words would be just dedication and practise. You
have to make the instrument take over you and that’s the key! I
used to practise for thirteen to fourteen hours in a day in front
of my father. There is nothing like a born gifted artist because
practice brings about the best.
What were your biggest learnings from your Guru?
I learnt just one Pallavi and Anu Pallavi from him for three
years. Most of the other times I just attended concerts with him
carrying his Veena and observed how he attracted people with
his music and captured the interests of the audiences. I learnt
more by being in his presence, and how he perceived music as
part of his life.
Do you think technology has helped musicians to get better artists
or it impacted the way performance is done- using tweaks and
auto tuning?
I think technology just helps artists improve and enhance their
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music. It is definitely helping me a lot. I’m up to date and also a
gadget freak.
What are the life lessons you got from learning music- apart from
the technical knowledge?
Discipline is the biggest learning for me through music. A
musician can be greatly talented with gifted skills, but without
discipline all that can go into vain.
What challenges do musicians face while performing rare raagas?
There are some restrictions while performing rare raagas. For
example if you take a four swaram based raaga like Lavangi,
you have to keep playing the same thing over and again. So, I
generally do not opt to play rare raagas.
What is your take on the current music scene from when you
initially started out?
I always try to create a balance between the current music trends
coupled with old music too. Like everyone always says, Old is
gold. The current generation always look for something new
so even in my concerts, I do not play the music today that was
played yesterday.
Even during the December season, even though we play one
main composition throughout all the sabahs, it’s important to
make sure that it is played with a tweak in each of the places.
If the same person comes to two different sabahs to watch me,
I need to make sure that they are not listening to the same
music twice.
What do you do to keep up with the changing trends in music?
In 2006, I started playing fusion music. Initially people did not
accept it and at that point I used to only play in two or three
sabhas but now by God’s grace I’m playing at all the sabhas
during the season which means that people have accepted.
Even the Sabah secretaries call me now and ask me to perform
something different.
At sabhas now, they are encouraging us to play a different
version of film music by inducing classical elements to it too.