Rules for performing in concerts for veena

[Kru]

Dear fellow artists!

Is there any agenda or rule book for playing veena in concerts.

For example: what should be played first varnams/ keerthani’s? Is there any specific raga that should be played first and last.

Thanks

[SrinathK]

Welcome to the rasikas forum Krutika (from your email I assume that is your name)!

Before answering this, will you please first tell us how long you have been learning music and what stage you have reached?

[Kru]

Thanks Srinath. I have learnt CM for 10 years during my school days and during the period I did two concerts and veena I learnt for like 2 years and lost touch before a decade and I was just practicing what I learnt. Now I did a intensive 100 hours course to brush up and to learn to play gracefully with Smt. Kavitha who holds B.A in music with specialization in veena. And answering to your question i would consider myself a beginner and I have learnt around 4 Telugu varnams, 8 Tamil songs, and 3 keerthanai’s.

[SrinathK]

Dear Krutika, as of now the number of compositions or ragas you know is really small. You are really just getting started. With this you might only be able to do one 30-45 min recital.

So you may do something like this :

A varnam, 2 speeds or maybe even a third if you can attempt it.

A kriti with swaras - language is not an issue. Maybe you can play tanam briefly. As you are a veena student you must learn this.

One kriti with raga alapana, neraval (optional)and swaras - preferably in a familiar major raga.
1-2 smaller pieces to end.

At least learn one tillAnA and the mangaLam.

Beyond this you have a lot to learn and practice. And you should listen to many concerts.

You have not written if you can actually do any kind of manodharma at this stage. If you can't, don't attempt it and instead just play what you know well for a half hour recital.

If you need to give 10 concerts, you would have to know at least 50-100 compositions of all kinds with the ability to do alapana, tanam, neraval and swaras for a complete recital. So you should be learning a lot more.

So good luck. Practice well daily. We have lot of material here to help beginners. Maybe one or two lessons may help you.

[Kru]

Dear Srinath! Thanks a lot for elaborately explaining on how to perform in a concert at my level. And also I am not at level of doing manodharma.


Can you please let me know if there are any notations for thanam; as I am not able to find any online?


And yes I agree I need a lot of practice and practice; and sure I will learn Thillana and mangalam.

Also I am living in Denmark not many people know about veena nor many veena players in here so I am asked to play on various events so I wanted to know about the fundamentals before doing one.
Thanks again.

[SrinathK]

Find a good teacher online to teach you the basics. Maybe someone else here can recommend. Before tanam you should learn how to play swaras and how to translate phrases you hear into swaras. For that you should know how music is sung to a good extent.

So find a good teacher first. Till then just play what you know well without compromise on quality.

[Kru]

Thanks Srinath I hope I find a good teacher soon to enhance my knowledge.