Posted:
In general music is about how it appeals to the ears and the feeling it evokes. If it awakens the spirit in whichever way, it has partly done its job. Some sing for others and some for oneself. Not to deviate from the subject but I think people think singing popular music is somehow different from having a classical base. Speaking vedically, a Rag is defined as:
"Yoyam Dhwani Visheshastu Swarvarna Vibhushitah
Ranjako Janchittanam Sa Ragah Kathito Budhai"
meaning:
" A certain order of notes that is adorned with swaras and the variations within those swaras
And that which pleases the hearts of the people, that is called a Rag".
Now strictly from this Vedic definition of a Rag, how is this different from hindi music. Music is music and no music is "halka" as such.
What we are forgetting is that almost all of our great playback singers from the past such as Kishore, Lata, Rafi, Manna Dey etc, had come from strict training in traditional classical music. That is why there music was so unbelievably melodious that the sounds made lasting impact for generations. We still sing many of their songs!
Hemachandra in general has a much better tonal quality from a musicians perspective.
Debo sings certain songs very well, but many of his renditions show a tendency towards Rabindra Sangeet or Nazrul geeti (both of I absolutely love but would I want to hear them fuse with popular hindi music, that's another thing). This can be good and bad depending on the type of song. He also has milder issues with pronunciation.
Vineet also sings very well. There is a lot of potential in him. He has a Rafi-esque voice, but I think in terms of "Sur", he will do good to sit down with a classical Guru and really get down to some voice toning and hardcore riyaz. I find his foundation quite shaky. A couple of well designed taans can easily expose his lack of control over voice. But again, thats not that important for "canned" performances since all that can be adequately compensated by other support factors.
These three singers in general sound very good to us because there is a lot of sound editing, top grade accompanying musicians (orchestra: one cannot underestimate what a top class accomanist can do to your performance), pitch-edging, digital mastering and other techniques that support their acts,, even when singing live and in one take.
For a trained musical ear, it is very easy to distinguish who has learnt the basics of music well and practised for years, and who has not. I think the fast track to success is the new way of the trade but what one doesn't realize is that most such musicians eventually are unable to sustain themselves in the long term. Either many return to first principles and focus on learning the classics, that eventually improves the quality of their singing and of their the songs, or else if they don't do so, they phase out.
In general Hema, Vineet and Debo should take vocal training music lessons and learn some good Rags from a classical based Guru. This will surely help them in their careers.
When good classical training meets Bollywood, you get once in a lifetime musical bursts such as Silsila (Shiv Hari) or a Zakir Hussain. Many of Silsila's songs for example were tuned and sang entirely in Rag Bhoopali. Some of our greatest songs even of modern times are well rooted in the rags. AR Rehman is perhaps the best example - he is a master of classical-modern musical alchemy and he did study western classical music in England. His formal training clearly shows.
I don't say this because I learnt classical music, since I am part of the young generation myself and my tastes vary from traditional classical, to western rock to jazz to Ghazals, bhajans and dance music. There are some fantastic singers in the west as well but they have all trained well.
There should be something extraordinarily unique and substantiating about he/she who gets the top spot in Sa re Ga Ma Pa or for that matter any national level musical contest. Take for example the All India Music Contest organized by AIR or by ITC's Sangeet Research Academy. The level of music of the participants is really good. They sound phenomenal and they are given extremely difficult songs to sing. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa used to have such singers but this year it seems to have moved away from that. Now the mentors hype up the contestants to the n-th degree and it becomes a game. It is a game after all, but with stakes that are very high. India is undoubdtedly the only country in the world where music is phenomenally advanced in form and style. Having studied formal western music as well as formal Indian classical music, I can say that in many ways western musical form is quite primitive compared to what we can do with our music and with our voices as Indians. However that class and quality that certainly exists in our singers in India, is not being reflected in the current 3 participants (or for that matter in the ones before). Yes they sound good and their quality varies from song to song, but there has to be more to it than just that. Imagine if they sang completely in Sur and accurately: the impact that same song will have on us sung by that very same singer, will be much more than it is now.
Not that it really matters but if one has to take the argument to its extreme for hypothesis sake then one can play a recording of the three contestants and put a simple chromatic meter in front of it. This is a small $20 device that musicians use to tune their instruments to a particular scale or pitch or learners use to see if they are singing in Sur or not. If the voice or instrument is out of note (besura), then the device moves into the red zone otherwise it stays in the Green zone. Try running this experiment on these three singers and you will see what I am talking about. Vinet and Debo hit the Red zone and stay there for long periods. Hema also hits red a lot but by and large he stays in Green. Now try running the same experiment on recordings of Lata, Rafi, Kishore, Manna Dey, Sonu Nigam, Kumar Sanu or some of the good known singers and you will see that the device pretty much stays in the Green zone i.e. indicating that they are singing in tune (Sur). Then there is no need to listen to the SRGMP mentors who may or may not be speaking the truth. Again this is just a hypothesis and music is not about using devices to adjudicate quality. As long as it evokes the feelings, it works.
Whether one likes it or not but quite honestly a fair play would have been to get a musical stalwart such as Pandit Jasraj or Shiv-Hari ji to adjudicate the final 5 contestants. Only they will be able to differentiate the contestants given that sometimes we feel one singer sings better and some episodes we find the other singing better (speaking impartially).
But it is what it is. I thoroughly enjoy the show for what it is and tend not to miss an episode if I can. I think they all sing well. But on musical ability alone, can one say they are currently good enough for the top spot, that is perhaps a whole new can of worms.
It is very hard to be impartial isn't it!
best
-Anurag
"Yoyam Dhwani Visheshastu Swarvarna Vibhushitah
Ranjako Janchittanam Sa Ragah Kathito Budhai"
meaning:
" A certain order of notes that is adorned with swaras and the variations within those swaras
And that which pleases the hearts of the people, that is called a Rag".
Now strictly from this Vedic definition of a Rag, how is this different from hindi music. Music is music and no music is "halka" as such.
What we are forgetting is that almost all of our great playback singers from the past such as Kishore, Lata, Rafi, Manna Dey etc, had come from strict training in traditional classical music. That is why there music was so unbelievably melodious that the sounds made lasting impact for generations. We still sing many of their songs!
Hemachandra in general has a much better tonal quality from a musicians perspective.
Debo sings certain songs very well, but many of his renditions show a tendency towards Rabindra Sangeet or Nazrul geeti (both of I absolutely love but would I want to hear them fuse with popular hindi music, that's another thing). This can be good and bad depending on the type of song. He also has milder issues with pronunciation.
Vineet also sings very well. There is a lot of potential in him. He has a Rafi-esque voice, but I think in terms of "Sur", he will do good to sit down with a classical Guru and really get down to some voice toning and hardcore riyaz. I find his foundation quite shaky. A couple of well designed taans can easily expose his lack of control over voice. But again, thats not that important for "canned" performances since all that can be adequately compensated by other support factors.
These three singers in general sound very good to us because there is a lot of sound editing, top grade accompanying musicians (orchestra: one cannot underestimate what a top class accomanist can do to your performance), pitch-edging, digital mastering and other techniques that support their acts,, even when singing live and in one take.
For a trained musical ear, it is very easy to distinguish who has learnt the basics of music well and practised for years, and who has not. I think the fast track to success is the new way of the trade but what one doesn't realize is that most such musicians eventually are unable to sustain themselves in the long term. Either many return to first principles and focus on learning the classics, that eventually improves the quality of their singing and of their the songs, or else if they don't do so, they phase out.
In general Hema, Vineet and Debo should take vocal training music lessons and learn some good Rags from a classical based Guru. This will surely help them in their careers.
When good classical training meets Bollywood, you get once in a lifetime musical bursts such as Silsila (Shiv Hari) or a Zakir Hussain. Many of Silsila's songs for example were tuned and sang entirely in Rag Bhoopali. Some of our greatest songs even of modern times are well rooted in the rags. AR Rehman is perhaps the best example - he is a master of classical-modern musical alchemy and he did study western classical music in England. His formal training clearly shows.
I don't say this because I learnt classical music, since I am part of the young generation myself and my tastes vary from traditional classical, to western rock to jazz to Ghazals, bhajans and dance music. There are some fantastic singers in the west as well but they have all trained well.
There should be something extraordinarily unique and substantiating about he/she who gets the top spot in Sa re Ga Ma Pa or for that matter any national level musical contest. Take for example the All India Music Contest organized by AIR or by ITC's Sangeet Research Academy. The level of music of the participants is really good. They sound phenomenal and they are given extremely difficult songs to sing. Sa Re Ga Ma Pa used to have such singers but this year it seems to have moved away from that. Now the mentors hype up the contestants to the n-th degree and it becomes a game. It is a game after all, but with stakes that are very high. India is undoubdtedly the only country in the world where music is phenomenally advanced in form and style. Having studied formal western music as well as formal Indian classical music, I can say that in many ways western musical form is quite primitive compared to what we can do with our music and with our voices as Indians. However that class and quality that certainly exists in our singers in India, is not being reflected in the current 3 participants (or for that matter in the ones before). Yes they sound good and their quality varies from song to song, but there has to be more to it than just that. Imagine if they sang completely in Sur and accurately: the impact that same song will have on us sung by that very same singer, will be much more than it is now.
Not that it really matters but if one has to take the argument to its extreme for hypothesis sake then one can play a recording of the three contestants and put a simple chromatic meter in front of it. This is a small $20 device that musicians use to tune their instruments to a particular scale or pitch or learners use to see if they are singing in Sur or not. If the voice or instrument is out of note (besura), then the device moves into the red zone otherwise it stays in the Green zone. Try running this experiment on these three singers and you will see what I am talking about. Vinet and Debo hit the Red zone and stay there for long periods. Hema also hits red a lot but by and large he stays in Green. Now try running the same experiment on recordings of Lata, Rafi, Kishore, Manna Dey, Sonu Nigam, Kumar Sanu or some of the good known singers and you will see that the device pretty much stays in the Green zone i.e. indicating that they are singing in tune (Sur). Then there is no need to listen to the SRGMP mentors who may or may not be speaking the truth. Again this is just a hypothesis and music is not about using devices to adjudicate quality. As long as it evokes the feelings, it works.
Whether one likes it or not but quite honestly a fair play would have been to get a musical stalwart such as Pandit Jasraj or Shiv-Hari ji to adjudicate the final 5 contestants. Only they will be able to differentiate the contestants given that sometimes we feel one singer sings better and some episodes we find the other singing better (speaking impartially).
But it is what it is. I thoroughly enjoy the show for what it is and tend not to miss an episode if I can. I think they all sing well. But on musical ability alone, can one say they are currently good enough for the top spot, that is perhaps a whole new can of worms.
It is very hard to be impartial isn't it!
best
-Anurag
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
CID
