What is Kansura?

in friday/sat episode both sureshji and sonu asked couple contestants to watch out from being "kansura". what does that mean? Can any knowledgable members explain, which recent C05, C07, Indian Idol contestants performance could have been kansura (just to give examples - not wanting to start any controversies)

Thanks for your help.. Take care..

A simple explanation could be, that which sounds very harsh & screechy to the ears 😊

I have learnt Carnatic music,but I'm not familiar with technical terms in Hindi.But from the example that Sonu Nigam gave yesterday(when he sang utkarsha's song..once in a besura way and once in kansura way),i think kansura is what cld be termed as half note low than the actual sur.I other words not in sync with the original sur.
Eg)Say a sur is set for a person to sing a song,say a scale of '6' or 'A' as they call it.When he sings the song ,the entire song should in sync with sur 'A'.Some ppl deviate from the notes in the sur once/twice during the song catching a different Sur.This is besura....which is still forgivable.But when a scale of 'A' is set and a person sings the entire song in scale 'G+'(5.5) or 'A+'(6.5),ie when the entire song is sung half note lower/higher then it wld be kansura.It means not being in sync with the given sur and singing the entire/almost entire song half a note or on a minutely lower/higher note.

It is not a minor one time deviation mistake.This mistake is normally done only if the person picks up the song half note lower,doesn't realise his mistake and continues singing half a note lower.A good singer wld have realised that he is kansura and tried to get into sur immediately. Kansura sounds awful and to a person who understands music intricately,it is the worst possible torture to endure!!!that is why Sonu and Sureshji were displeased.
Hope this xplanation is clear.If not someone who can explain better plz explain 😊

Thanks a lot .That is very clear.

as far as I understand it means a little out of tune or rather, oversinging, especially the endingnotes. It is difficult to explain in words, but see the video and Sonu explains it by singing the kansura note as sung by the little kid.

Originally posted by: rock&roll

I have learnt Carnatic music,but I'm not familiar with technical terms in Hindi.But from the example that Sonu Nigam gave yesterday(when he sang utkarsha's song..once in a besura way and once in kansura way),i think kansura is what cld be termed as half note low than the actual sur.I other words not in sync with the original sur.
Eg)Say a sur is set for a person to sing a song,say a scale of '6' or 'A' as they call it.When he sings the song ,the entire song should in sync with sur 'A'.Some ppl deviate from the notes in the sur once/twice during the song catching a different Sur.This is besura....which is still forgivable.But when a scale of 'A' is set and a person sings the entire song in scale 'G+'(5.5) or 'A+'(6.5),ie when the entire song is sung half note lower/higher then it wld be kansura.It means not being in sync with the given sur and singing the entire/almost entire song half a note or on a minutely lower/higher note.

It is not a minor one time deviation mistake.This mistake is normally done only if the person picks up the song half note lower,doesn't realise his mistake and continues singing half a note lower.A good singer wld have realised that he is kansura and tried to get into sur immediately. Kansura sounds awful and to a person who understands music intricately,it is the worst possible torture to endure!!!that is why Sonu and Sureshji were displeased.
Hope this xplanation is clear.If not someone who can explain better plz explain 😊

I am a lay person, trying to understand this, so forgive me for my ignorance. I have also heard that most singers prefer to sing in a certain scale and so if the original compostion is not in their preferred scale, they sing either higher or lower scale that matches most closely to their comfort.. Is this what you were trying to explain.??

Right Anu..

Even I guess its the same.. In simple words we can say going out of tune..

wow i didn't knew that...

how does one know if it's in scale or not?

Originally posted by: goblue

I am a lay person, trying to understand this, so forgive me for my ignorance. I have also heard that most singers prefer to sing in a certain scale and so if the original compostion is not in their preferred scale, they sing either higher or lower scale that matches most closely to their comfort.. Is this what you were trying to explain.??

Yes, singers do that, but that is quite different from being a kansura. If the original song does not match your range, you request the musicians to modify the key accordingly or change the track.

If the musician starts playing in the key of C major, he expects that the singer will sing in the same key. If the singer goes off into C-sharp major, then its being a kansura.

Originally posted by: Morgoth

Yes, singers do that, but that is quite different from being a kansura. If the original song does not match your range, you request the musicians to modify the key accordingly or change the track.

If the musician starts playing in the key of C major, he expects that the singer will sing in the same key. If the singer goes off into C-sharp major, then its being a kansura.

Exactly.Changing the sur from the original to suit one's range of singing is absolutely fine.For eg,if Asha Bhonsle has sung Tanha tanha in scale '6'(will use numbers here,since that is what is used to refer to scales in carnatic music.....I'm more familiar with that)If this scale is too high for me,I can choose a lower scale. Let's say I choose to sing Tanha Tanha in scale '5'.Now when the musician plays the scale of '5',I should start the song in scale '5' and continue in the same scale.If I sing the song in scale'5' ,it would be fine and not kansura. If I either start the song in scale'5.5/4.5' or sing a major portion of the song in scale '5.5'/'4.5' then I would be kansura.

On a more technical level... it can be explained like this.The famous song 'Sayanora sayanora' from Love in Tokyo. is based on raag Mohanam(Bhup/Bhupali in hindustani,i think) .Each raag has a certain combination of sur which when sung in a certain order make the raga.Normally there are seven major sur...Sa re ga ma pa dha ni and some other minor sur.The combination for Mohanam is 'sa re ga pa dha sa'......These surs can be sung in various scales(4/4.5/5/5.5/6 ..any scale that suits the singer)Suppose a singer chooses to sing the song 'Sayanora' in scale 5 .After the musician plays scale '5',if the singer starts the song off wrongly and sings the entire song in scale '4.5'(note that scale '5' is playing in the background) ..This singer has hit the right notes of sa re ga pa dha sa...but he has hit them at scale 4.5 instead of scale 5.In other words he has been consistenly wrong.His very basis was wrong .

It can be compared to a doctor who knows all the right medicines for Malaria,typhoid etc ..but made a misdiagnosis and gave medicinees for malaria when the patient actually had typhoid!!the medicines he presribed for typhoid may be correct,but whne he made a mistake in his basics(ie the diagnosis of the disease) he failed in the first step.Kansura,in my opinion, is like that.A good song gone consistently wrong since the first basic step was wrong!!!😊..Sorry if i got too technical.Thes things can be explained better by actua singing than writing 😊