The substance of Carnatic music - online survey! Please Vote

[KNV1955]

The survey shows that majority in this forum subscribe to my tastes. My own feeling is that this will not the the majority view of CM Rasikas as a whole. May be a survey of the rasikas in major venues during series will throw more light.

[vasanthakokilam]

I have forwarded the survey to one of my online social groups that contains a good mix of hard core and not so hard core music enthusiasts. I encourage you all to do the same wherever possible to widen the reach of this survey.

[Rsachi]

Folks,The results till date can be seen here:
http://www.surveycrest.com/survey/publicsummary/rsachi

[Rsachi]

Dear Rasikas, here is a snapshot of what 264 rasikas have polled as their choice of TOP FIVE ATTRIBUTES till date:


And at 95% confidence level, this survey size represents a margin of error of around 6% only, even if the Carnatic rasikas population as we define it would run to a couple of million people!
So all in all a pretty clear message.
Ciao.

[KNV1955]

It is really heartening to see the results. The message is clear. Majority of the Rasikas want only Sampradaya Sangeetham. The big six Ragas got a score of 60%. That is great. Not many takers for Bindumalini/Brindavan Saranga/Subha Pantuavarali etc etc.

[rajeshnat]

It is really heartening to see the results. The message is clear. Majority of the Rasikas want only Sampradaya Sangeetham. The big six Ragas got a score of 60%. That is great. Not many takers for Bindumalini/Brindavan Saranga/Subha Pantuavarali etc etc.

KNV
A wrong conclusion .We did not ask any question explicitly on other ragas-other than big six . Also there could be many in that 60% category who also like to hear subhapantuvarAli , Brindavana sArangA .

[rajeshnat]

Rsachi
Can u also explain how you arrived at the final figure(as per post #54) for each of the attributes from the link http://www.surveycrest.com/survey/publicsummary/rsachi where each of the attribute is counted for all 15 positions.

[Rsachi]

Rajesh,
I added the percentage of responses from col.1 to col.5 for each attribute.

[KNV1955]

rajeshnet Let me put the question to everyone. Name your choice of 10 Ragas for Main & RTP.
I am declaring mine : Kambhoji/Sankarabharanam/Todi/Kalyani/Bhairavi/Karaharapriya/Saveri/Keeravani/Poorvikalyanim/Nattakurinji

[Rsachi]

Dear rasikas,
I am closing the survey on 15 Feb. 2013.
Kindly give your responses if you haven't done so till now:
http://bit.ly/surveyCM

I will share the analysis of final results on Sunday next!
Thanks
Sachi R

[Rsachi]

Dear all,
Please go through the survey results compiled and saved here:http://bit.ly/YmYZPK

The survey attracted 293 responses to the four key questions.

The answers showed that musicians and rasikas have a clear ranking of attributes in their minds of what constitutes good Carnatic music.

An analysis showed that there was no significant variation of ranking patterns among respondent sub-populations.

The confidence level of 95% with 293 sample responses represents only 5.7% error margin even for an assumed large population of one million rasikas.

The top attributes of Carnatic music voted are:
Shruthi-alignment
Bhakti/Bhava of lyrics
Niraval and Kalpana swaras
Alapana Virtuosity
Trinity Compositions
Ragam Tanam Pallavi
On-stage Chemistry including accompanists
Big Six Ragas (Kalyani, S'bharana, K'priya, Todi, Bhairavi, Kambhoji)

Hopefully musicians and patrons can derive some insights from this survey.

Ciao
Sachi R

[priyaram78]

Thanks to this survey, a clear idea of expectations from rasikas, musicians and carnatic music lovers can be easily known. I read the suggestions for the growth of carnatic music. Most of the respondents desperately want a carnatic music channel, to popularise carnatic music among our youngsters. Not all can attend live concerts, and those living outside Chennai, especially away from south dont get to listen to carnatic music on radio. Hence a channel dedicated to carnatic music is the need of the hour. Ofcourse we have youtube and other online concerts, but nothing like the television., which will cater to rasikas overseas too. Podhigai and other channels do host concerts but still lets wish and pray to see a carnatic music channel soon.

[KNV1955]

Sachi there is maximum score for Sruti alignment. But several vocalists & Violinists do not understand the need for perfection of this attribute. I will also add Sthana Suddam. Alignmnet of notes with sruti. I suggest you publish your findings in Sruti magazine or Hindu.Let the next gen of musicians would know what rasikas look for when they perform.

[Rsachi]

Priyaram78,
I have been thinking about the online bit. Here are my observations.

A. Online radio type of channel has been around for some time, and some channels like Carnatic Radio are decent. They are free and have no ads.
B. radio web.in has been a disappointment, because of technical issues at both ends... Choppy connectivity on my side and inability to bookmark and or rewind etc on their side which means I have to listen to the same inane stuff a few times instead of listening to pure music. Similar issues with radio walla.
C. Sangeethapriya.org is by far the best, but they have 'panga' as they say in Delhi with most leading current musicians.
D. iPhone, iPad, android compatibility is almost mandatory if you ask me because people don't want to be tethered to their computers.
E. the HTML5 and Adobe Flash issues are not yet resolved so platforms have different levels of performance.
F. online videocasts have been generally choppy. Too many technical issues like last mile etc.?
G. If most concerts are free, and one can set up some inexpensive and reliable way to audio cast concerts, I think it will work wonders, I think audio is the way to go.
F.There are tons of equipment with DD and AIR and also bandwidth but they won't come easily to the party. Private broadcasters are good too, but so far the best programs are time shifted. We can live with that. By which I mean if you guys hear in a chennai concert tonight some wonderful stuff and someone broadcasts on Internet tomorrow after quality check etc, I am OK to hear it, around the world.
G. Archiving and streaming audio is a proven concept and I have a good experience managing that at Parvathi blog for 3 years now.
H. If deep pockets are silk-lined at RMKV etc and want to take short 10 sec ads to sponsor a steady stream of audio, why not?

Some interested and experienced parties should now take ownership. I am thinking here also mobile companies sponsoring it.
I think annual subscriptions, 'buy before you hear' etc. won't work.

Carnatic music is synonymous with 'love for freebies'.

Any paid channel with exclusive access won't do.

You Tube delivery mode is too distracting to be a good experience.

[Rsachi]

KNV,
I don't have the clout with Sruti or the Hindu.

[cmlover]

Many thanks Rsachi for the final results.
This is in fact a capsule summary of our (active) membership profile.
Very valuable.

[vasanthakokilam]

Thanks Sachi for summarizing the survey results. Great job. Thanks.

Expected results I suppose given the self selection of the survey participants and it reflects them. I tried to spread it to a little bit outside the beltway and I know 2 people who do not fit the profile of a hardcore rasika participated. But I suspect it is still predominantly inside the belt way stuff.

Would you please consider adding the two dimensions of the 'rasika profile' to the results table for 'What do you think will help Carnatic music grow?' ( namely, the answers to the number of years of listening and 'how would you characterize yourself' ). Thanks.

The top one, sruthi suddham and sthana suddham, is very elementary and mandatory and hence very obvious as a basic requirement. It surprises me that it is even a parameter for debate as if it is a choice at the professional levels. But I am glad that we as this 'top tier' rasikas passed the red face test by ranking it very high
The other two obvious things, while not strictly part of the survey,being, a rich and pleasing voice and good & clean singing skills. All these go together to form the minimum non-negotiable package.

Beyond that, if anyone wants to draw any lessons from this survey, they have to be judicious and careful. For example, while the usual bhava of CM ( bakthi or otherwise ) can cut across a wide cross section of society, do not assume people will have the patience to sit through a 20 minute alapana or an RTP. So there are definitely non overlapping requirements between hard core and lay rasikas and trying to satisfy one will turn off the other. So knowing the audience is still part of the professional skills of an artist. 'singing to the gallery' is deeply scorned at by the hard core rasikas. Artists should not take that too seriously since what 'we' really mean is it is a sin only when the artists is not singing to 'our' portion of the gallery. So go ahead and sing to the gallery knowing who is in the gallery. ( This of course does not mean dilution of content by any means )

[vasanthakokilam]

>Carnatic music is synonymous with 'love for freebies'.

True.

Add to that,
Online in general is synonymous with freebies. So, Online CM is a potent combination indeed
Law of diminishing marginal utility is at play.

[KNV1955]

Sachi pl send me in article form. I will ask Sruti Editor. 300 is good no to generalise & present as the rasikas reflections. Your effort deserves wider publicity. I am pleased with the findings. I didn't expect the findings to be in line with my taste.(except voting for Tukkadas relatively speaking).

[Rsachi]

Ok, will do so in the next few days, KNV.