identifying swara

[sreevin25]

Hi

I am fairly a beginner in carnatic music and I am currently in the process of learning geetams and I have a couple of questions :

1) given any song or any word for that matter, I am having a great great difficulty in identifying the swara. How can anyone do this - is there a practice way or something else that I have not learnt yet? It frustrates me so much that I cant do this.

2) I tried singing my sarali varisais in aakaram but I was not happy with my own performance. How can I improve and sharpen this further?

3) In learning geetams, what speed exactly do we sing them in? when I asked my teacher, she said .. jus sing - no speed etc..
but I keep wondering shd not we be able to sing them in all speeds?

Please note that all these queries arose out of my curiosity and none of them have been answered by my teacher. So, any guidance here is greatly appreciated.

Mods: I could not figure out where to post this query, so I posted it here. Please feel free to redirect it as per your classification.

Thanks much
Sree

[arunk]

#1: It will come over time as you continue learning and practicing (and listening to a lot of music - pay attention to kalpana swaras and try to map them to the phrases of the ragas you may find "familiar"). Some may have this talent available to them quicker and some others it takes more time and effort (IMO everyone has it, its just that different people require differing effort to bring it out). Once you get a firm handle on the varisais, gitams and varnams you may be able to first detect the "longer" swaras (i.e. what is called karvai), atleast it is how it started for me
#2: Here the general "answer" I get from all - "just practice, it will come" - perhaps true but I can understand your frustration and need to see if there is a quicker and effective technique (i.e. voice training). I am certainly no expert but what you should be aiming is to get out the individual swaras witth almost no movement of your lower jaw, and so the throat muscles have to move - this will come only with practice - lots of it. I still am quite bad at it.

Arun

[cmlover]

Very good suggestions Arun.
Let me add some more.
Listen carefully to the stalwarts especially their swaraprastaarams. You will get to associate the notes with their frequency as heard. After a while you may be able to find the swaras of sahitya phrases even when the notations are not there. This takes lots of effort and lots of listenings. Try also to sing along to internalize the swaras. At this point listening to lots of Raga Alapanas by experts will help to get a grip on the akaarams. Continue the practise on varnams and geethams (with the accopanying notations) which will be a great help. Listen carefully to the intonations of the teacher!

[hariniraghavan]

Hi

I am fairly a beginner in carnatic music and I am currently in the process of learning geetams and I have a couple of questions :

1) given any song or any word for that matter, I am having a great great difficulty in identifying the swara. How can anyone do this - is there a practice way or something else that I have not learnt yet? It frustrates me so much that I cant do this.

2) I tried singing my sarali varisais in aakaram but I was not happy with my own performance. How can I improve and sharpen this further?

3) In learning geetams, what speed exactly do we sing them in? when I asked my teacher, she said .. jus sing - no speed etc..
but I keep wondering shd not we be able to sing them in all speeds?

Please note that all these queries arose out of my curiosity and none of them have been answered by my teacher. So, any guidance here is greatly appreciated.

Mods: I could not figure out where to post this query, so I posted it here. Please feel free to redirect it as per your classification.

Thanks much
Sree

Generally geetams are sung in madyama kala. There are no different speeds for geetams. To identify swaras, first know the arohanam and avarohnam very well of each raga that you learn. Aquaint yourself very well with the varisais and also whileractising geetam start with the swaras. for eg: first sing s r ma g r s r g r s and then the sahityam Lambodhara lakumikara. Do this for each line. When you repeat it several times you already know what swaram stands for which sahityam and there by when you listen to a song with same swaras, you will where it appeared and it will be easy for you to identify.
Harini.

[cmlover]

Excellent advice!

[sreevin25]

Thanks everyone. I shall def follow the same.
One more question, how do I keep a strong command of my shruti. I find myself starting off at sometimes 5, sometimes 5.5 or sometimes even 4.5. This is all the more confusing me with the aakarams when I do and try to identify. Any tips there?

[msakella]

There is a specific method in getting ability in identitying svaras. If you cantact to my ID 'msakella2002' on skype I shall tell you in detail. amsharma

[sreevin25]

Thanks sharma garu. Shall add you soon.

[hariniraghavan]

Thanks everyone. I shall def follow the same.
One more question, how do I keep a strong command of my shruti. I find myself starting off at sometimes 5, sometimes 5.5 or sometimes even 4.5. This is all the more confusing me with the aakarams when I do and try to identify. Any tips there?

You find out which is the most comfortable sruthi with which you can always sing. That sruthi with which you can reach the higher panchama without effort should be your standard sruthi and stick on to it and always practice at that sruthi and every time you sing please do so with the sruthi box.
Harini.

[Rasika911]

Identifying swaram requires you to internalise the swarasthanas and the various gamakas present in ragas. To have command over this may be hard at the geetham stage.

Firstly I think you need to learn varnas and krithis in ragas such as thodi, bhairavi, shankarabharnam. kalyani, kambodhi, durbar, nattaikurinji, surruti, nayaki, kedaragowlai ect. and you also need to be listening to music. You'll find that after sometime you can pick some of the notes that the violin plays particularly in the swarakalpana portion.

I know that many teachers don't believe in writing notations for krithis and while I disagree I think they do this because they want the student to understand the gamakam. I believe that first you should learn the krithi paying close attention to the gamakas and once you have internalised that then you should try to notate it. I feel this is a very good exercise to improve swaragnanam.

Also it is important to find a good teacher who understands the subtle aspects of carnatic music and is able to communicate them to the student.

[vasanthakokilam]

>Also it is important to find a good teacher who understands the subtle aspects of carnatic music and is able to communicate them to the student.

Absolutely. Knowledge, willingness to teach and share, understanding the student and ability to communicate the ideas to the student are all the various dimensions to this. Lucky are the few who get to learn from such teachers. Sri. Akellaji is in the top of the list of such great teachers.

msakella is always more than willing to provide help online, as he has indicated above. Sri. Akellaji's own methods are indeed among the best out there, they are publicly available, he knows the subject matter to an unparalleled depth, he is a great communicator and he is willing to provide personal consultation without expecting anything in return except for commitment to learn from the student. I am not sure we can ask for anything more.

[msakella]

Dear brother-member, vasanthakokilam, Thank you for your kind comments.

Any system must be adjudged basing upon its results only but not by the fame or stature of the teacher. Having committed umpteen blunders in my teaching-life, only now, that too only by the grace of the Almighty, I am able to find a successful system in teaching our music, rectify many of my defects and I dare tell, now, I can teach successfully.

Recently, when I had been to Chennai to receive the TTK award from the Music Academy on 01-01-2010, one of my close friends, Shri S.Nageshwaran (044-24745544/9840626385) met me and shed tears being unable to find a reliable music-teacher to teach his 11 years old grand daughter, Chi. Shreenidhi. I have pacified and promised him to teach her online. On the next day itself when he brought her to me I have found that she had nice music sense along with proper rhythmical instinct. From then onwards, gradually I have initiated her (but not teaching) to practice all the needed rhythmical exercises, at the first instance, and later the needed music-exercises also of my CD to make her fit learn Varnas. Thus, later, listening from the same CD, she had started learning Varnas from 13th April, 2010 and now she could complete learning 9 Varnas including the Atala-varna in Bhairavi and also the Shyama Shastry’s Svarajati in Bhairavi. In addition, she is also able to sing Bhairavi-raga and also intricate-rhythmical-svarakalpana for Kalyani-Ammaraavamma-Khanda-chapu (one-unit-gap in 2nd degree of speed) and for Mohana-Evaruraa-Mishra-chapu (3-units-gap in 2nd degree of speed), even before learning those Kritis. All this happened only by my initiation and her regular and strenuous practice.

Thus, I am happy to make the process of teaching music ‘Time-bound and result-oriented’ by the grace of the Almighty. amsharma

[gita]

Sri.Akellaji,
I am in the US and I would like to get your book with CD set. Pl. let me know how I can get them.

[msakella]

Dear sister-member, gita, You can get the copy of my book, Sangita Svararaga Sudha (English version) from my disciple Chi. M.V.N.Prasad (Ph:256-693-2510 / 256-730-3227) working in US. amsharma

[gita]

Thankyou, Sri. Akellaji.

[msakella]

Dear sister-member, Gita, Even after getting the copy of my book, Sangita Svararaga Sudha (English) along with the mp3 CD, you can contact my ID ‘msakella2002’ on Skype around 8am or 8pm (IST) to discuss the problem and to get proper guidance in this respect. amsharma

[balakk]

> identifying swara

I think learning to play an instrument(in parallel) might be a good exercise as well.
To an instrumentalist such a requirement comes very early, rather than a vocalist.
Even very small kids attempt this earnestly, just to play their favorite film track on their instrument