Ramesh on Music

Oora Therinjukitten - Cover Version

2012-01-22T10:26:00.003+05:30

Here is our cover version of the song Oora Therinjukitten, which was originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film Padikkadhavan.

Singer: Srivatsan
Karaoke Track, Recording, Mixing: Sripathy Ramesh
Video, Editing: Anbu Chezhian
(Thanks to Aravindhan for some additional video clips)

Listen to it and let us know your feedback.

On a related note, don't miss our earlier cover of the song:
Andhi Mazhai from Raajapaarvai.

Nenjathai Killadhe

2012-01-01T10:42:00.001+05:30

The song Paruvame Pudhiya Paadal from Nenjathai Killadhe was performed at the Ilaiyaraaja concert and it was so nice. SPB's voice, the jogging rhythm simulated by tapping on the thighs, the 1st interlude - Sada's classical guitar, the Strings section, harmonium, etc., were the highlights.

A few months back, Vicky had written about the title score of Nenjathai Killladhe. The title score was very good and quite interesting with the various mood changes. It starts with the same jogging rhythm used in the Paruvame song. Read more about this title score and listen to it on Vicky's blog.

Since it uses the same rhythm and the same relative scales - E Major and C# minor, I thought it would have been even better if the orchestra had played the Nenjathai Killadhe Title score and then continued to the Paruvame song. That would have just been awesome. Here is a mix I tried with the title score and the original song. I had slowed down the tempo of the title score to suit the Paruvame song.

Nenjathai Killadhe - Title Music and Paruvame by sripathyramesh-1

Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi - Strings section

2011-12-31T17:33:00.000+05:30

When I went to the Ilaiyaraaja Live concert earlier this week, the orchestra was doing rehearsals / sound check of the 1st interlude of Sundari Kannal Oru Seidhi song. Each section was being played separately and I captured the audio of that rehearsal. I then listened to the individual sections and I tried recreating it using my keyboard and my computer. Here is the final version of the Strings section. I have skipped the chorus section and the horns section here.

Sundari Kannaal Oru by sripathyramesh

You can listen to the individual sections here:

Sundari Kannal Oru - Individual Sections by sripathyramesh

Let me know your feedback and drop in your comments. If you want to know the exact notes or want the midi file, let me know.

Endrendrum Raja - My experience at the concert

2011-12-30T23:20:00.000+05:30

I attended the "Endrendrum Raja" live concert by Ilaiyaraaja earlier this week. It was a great experience similar to the previous Ilaiyaraaja live concert which happened in chennai around 6 years back. I absolutely loved the 34 piece Strings section. The sound of the violins was magical and they played it to near perfection. The numbers I enjoyed the most were Schubert Symphony No. 8 along with Idhayam Pogudhey, Paruvame, Chinna Kannan Azhaikiran, Poove Sempoove, Edho Mogam, Madai Thiranthu, Ayiram Thamarai, Sundari Kannal Oru, and Title music of Azhagarsamiyin Kudhirai. The others were good too. As I left before the show ended, I missed out on classics like Idhu Oru Nila Kaalam, Ilamai Idho Idho.

This concert was not as perfect as the last Raja concert in Chennai held 6 years back. There were a few issues with sound balance, certain singers did not prepare enough, etc. The previous concert was much better to me in terms of near perfect performances, even better selection of songs, lot of singers, less errors, etc. But above all, this concert was still worthwhile and there were enough magical moments. Expecting more such concerts.

This concert will be telecast on Jaya TV during the Pongal holidays. The making, rehearsals, etc will be telecast on Jan 14th and the concert itself on 15th and 16th. Don't miss it!

Before winding off, here is the video of a small demo of a 2-note composition by Ilaiyaraaja - just 2 lines.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=348203421872881

Raja uses only the notes Sa and Ri in the scale of Dm. He sings Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa Ri Ri Ri | Ri Sa Sa Sa | Sa - - - | with the note D as the Shadjamam. So he basically sings D E E E | E D D D | .... Then he asks to give the chords A and Dm to give a color to the song and sings it again. Then he changes shruthi and asks to give chords F#7 and Bm alternatively while continuing to sing the same notes D E E E | E D D D || In effect the notes in the new shruthi become Ga Ma Ma Ma | Ma Ga Ga Ga || Interesting to note this!

Endrendrum Raja - Live Concert by Ilaiyaraaja in Chennai on Dec 28

2011-12-23T12:56:00.000+05:30

I attended the previous Ilaiyaraaja Live Concert in Chennai in the year 2005 and it was just great. Around 5 hours of pure awesomeness. All songs performed were 100% pure live orchestration with absolutely no minus-one or sequenced tracks. This time again Ilaiyaraaja is performing with his orchestra live in Chennai on Dec 28 2011, Wednesday 6 pm onwards. The venue is the same Nehru Indoor Stadium.

Get ready for the show! Tickets are priced at Rs. 500/- and Rs. 750/- per head.

Book your tickets now at http://www.jayanetwork.in/.

Here is a video of a rehearsal session. In this video, the orchestra is rehearsing the 1st interlude of 'En Iniya Pon Nilave' song from 'Moodupani' - one of my favorite songs.

Eagerly awaiting the concert!

Endrendrum Anandhame - Ilaiyaraaja

2011-12-10T14:36:00.001+05:30

Rajiv Shankar introduced me to the song "Endrendrum Anandhame". It is a funky song by Ilaiyaraaja and is set in Sarasaangi raagam!

Listen to this song here:

Another intersting thing Rajiv pointed me out was the play in the time signature. The pallavi and rest of the song seemed to be in 3/4 except for the anupallavi - 'vaalibathin rasanai..." in 4/4. The beat seems to be similar for both portions. That is because for first 2 lines the beat plays 4 bars of 3 counts each and for the next 2 lines (vaalibathin..), it plays 3 bars of 4 count each. Very interesting to note this.

What I later noticed is that the melody (mainly charanam and 1st 2 lines of pallavi) seems to be in 6/8 time signature rather than 3/4. But the beat and bass follow 3/4 time signature. I don't know how to explain and so I added a tabla rhythm over the song to try to demonstrate that. Here is that version:

Endrendrum Anandhame by sripathyramesh

I may be wrong too. So please correct and educate me if I am wrong. What do you think?

Jotheyali / Vizhiyile / Jaane Do Na on the Harmonium

2011-07-24T13:02:00.002+05:30

This song, Jotheyali, was originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja for a Kannada film and that was a huge hit. This song was later reused as Vizhiyile Mani Vizhiyil in a Tamil film, Nooravudhu Naal. More recently, Ilaiyaraaja reused this again as Jaane Do Na in the Hindi film, Cheeni Kum, with a totally different arrangement.

This song has got wonderful melody and chord sequences. I wanted to try it out and so I set the basic arrangement for this song and created the Karaoke track. I then played the harmonium on top of the track and recorded it. Let me know your feedback.

Microphone used: Tascam DR-07mkII digital audio recorder

Notes: http://www.tfmpage.com/notes/ir/viz2.txt
Chords: http://indiankeyboards.11.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?p=613#613

Andhi Mazhai - our cover version

2011-07-02T09:59:00.003+05:30

Here is a cover version of the wonderful song 'Andhi Mazhai Pozhiguradhu' from the film 'Rajapaarvai'. It was originally composed by Ilaiyaraaja.

We thought of performing this song for a band competition and that is when I started to take the notes and chords of the song and then created a karaoke track just for reference. But then for different reasons, we dropped this song. Recently I recorded the vocals for this song with my colleagues Srivatsan, Vijayalakshmi, Baranidharan and another colleague Anbu Chezhian captured it on Video. He did the editing of the video as well.

Presenting Andhi Mazhai:

Singers: Srivatsan, Vijayalakshmi, Baranidharan
Music track, Recording, Mixing: Sripathy Ramesh (Original music: Ilaiyaraaja)
Video Shot and Edited by: Anbu Chezhian

Do let us know your feedback in the comments section.

Ragas in Films

2011-06-22T13:54:00.006+05:30

I started a new twitter account to tweet about the ragas that I notice in film songs. Not all songs are based on ragas. Infact, there are a very few songs that are composed keeping a raga in mind. So if I come across a song where the composer might have used a raga, I will tweet that. If you are on twitter, please follow @filmi_ragas.

http://twitter.com/filmi_ragas

I have also added a section titled 'Ragas in Films' in the sidebar of this blog which lists the recent tweets from the above mentioned twitter account.

Nizhal - A short film

2011-06-21T18:49:00.005+05:30

Arunkumar, a colleague of mine, directed a short film called 'Nizhal'. I did the background score for this short film. Here is the video. Let me know your feedback.

Please note that we are amateurs and this is the first short film for most of us involved. So keep your expectations low. We hope to do better next time.

Director: Arunkumar
Music: Sripathy Ramesh
Cinematography: Arun Titan
Editor: Anil Krishnan
Actors: Dilip, Jayamalini
Crew: Ramachandran, Appadurai, Sabarinathan, Gopal.

ARR Discography Application

2011-05-06T13:59:00.005+05:30

Recently, I noticed that the whole discography information was updated on ARR website: http://www.arrahman.com/v2/journey-discography.html

However, it was not searchable. So I wrote a program to scrap the pages and collect the basic information required for the discography and converted it into CSV files. I then uploaded those CSV spreadsheet files to Zoho Creator, an online database application and quickly created couple of forms and views. (Disclaimer: I work for Zoho). I also created a simple dynamic HTML page with the count of movies and songs fetched from this online database and those search fields that allow you to search. Here is the searchable ARR discography application:

https://creator.zoho.com/rameshs/arr-discography/

And here is a short video demonstrating its usage:

Though the discography pages on ARR site were similar, there were some inconsistencies in the structure of the HTML page. So the current database has some missing entries, which can be filled online. I collected only the movies related information.

PS: I was thinking of doing the same thing for Ilaiyaraaja discography. But then I found a better modeled application at http://www.rakkamma.com/.

FL Studio 10 has been launched

2011-04-15T18:52:00.006+05:30

FL Studio 10 has been launched couple of weeks back. Here is the announcement:

http://www.image-line.com/documents/news.php?entry_id=1301017795&title=fl-studio-10

Features of interest to me in this new version include:
- Export score sheet as a PDF file
- Autosave your project every 5 mins
- Newtone (demo) - Pitch and time editor
- Pitcher (demo) - Pitch correction and harmonizer
and many more.

Before discovering FL Studio, my sounds were quite amateurish. FL Studio was the first software I used to produce really good sounding music. It is quite easy to use FL Studio. You can even start by downloading a free trial version with restricted functionality. And the best part is once you buy a version, you will get life time free updates for even subsequent versions in future.

Note: You get a chance to win prizes when you share this information with your readers. Learn more.

Good luck. Ping me if you want any help with FL Studio. I will be glad to share whatever I know.

Thenpandi Seemayile - Strings Section

2010-10-16T09:00:00.001+05:30

About a month back, I wanted to decipher the Strings section of Thenpandi Seemayile song from Nayagan. The lead melody was easy. And with some equalization of the original track I was able to find out the notes for the rest of the orchestra. It was fun deciphering this and understanding the harmonies involved.

I sequenced the same piece on my computer. Here is the violin section, followed by the viola section, the cello and double bass section and finally all of them playing together. I am not really good at listening to a piece and reproducing it perfectly on keyboard. So if there are any wrong notes, please let me know so that I can correct them.

Thenpandi Seemayile - Strings Section Details by sripathyramesh

My next target is the opening strings section of the 'Singing Self' piece from Nothing but Wind. The good part is that I chanced upon the practice session of the orchestra at the venue for the 'Nothing But Wind' concert held at Chennai. And I recorded a small section on my mobile. Sorry for the poor audio quality. Here, you can listen to the individual sections doing the mic check and then all of them playing together. Refer the link below for the recording.

http://soundcloud.com/sripathyramesh-1/nothing-but-wind-concert-rehearsals

Do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Tata DOCOMO Jingle Contest

2010-09-07T09:58:00.004+05:30

I posted about the contest in my last post.

Here are my entries to the contest.

http://create.tatadocomo.com/createMusic/user/default.aspx?user=sripathyramesh

Let me know your feedback.

The results have been announced and here are the winners.

Tata DOCOMO - Create Music Contest

2010-01-19T18:17:00.002+05:30

It has been ages since I wrote in my blog. Was quite busy and did not know what to write. I came to know of this TATA DOCOMO Create Music contest, which I am planning to participate. Some of you might be interested as well. More information available in the following website.

http://create.tatadocomo.com/

My old compositions

2009-08-28T21:30:00.001+05:30

In this post, I am going to share some of my initial compositions. These compositions are all instrumental and most of these are around 10 years old. This was done in my early days when I was learning music through books and fiddling with a small keyboard. I knew very little about things like bass and chords. In fact if you notice, some songs won't contain any bass or contain very little bass, same goes for chords. So the compositions will be quite immature.

My interest in music started during the college (13 years ago). My first computer based tool to sequence music was a qbasic program using the Play command. Then I got interested in keyboard seeing my college mate Ranjesh play the keyboard. During the 2nd year of college, I got myself my first keyboard - a small one - Casio SA 21. I still have it. I used to read some carnatic books on various ragas and try to play it on keyboard. I was even surfing the net reading about the various ragas. Film songs set in different ragas interested me. My mother, who can identify ragas, helped me further. She also helped correct the wrong notes that I played on the keyboard. Another college friend of mine, Venkat Sundar, a guitarist taught me some basics of chords and that kindled my interest further. Then my good friend, Vasanth, got a computer in his hostel room and there was this Noteworthy express software that he got along with it. I used to hang in around his computer trying to compose on it. Then, he got Cakewalk Express software CD and that was even better. I was hooked to it and all of these tunes were composed in that. All these songs were sequenced as MIDI files using Cakewalk Express software. And they were mostly played via the default MIDI output of "Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth". I either entered the notes directly or played it on the normal computer keyboard used for typing.

I have posted 20 tracks here and all these instrumental pieces are about 1 minute or 2 minutes. You can listen the songs from the box below. You can hover your mouse over the file name or the player to read the description of the song. Names given are very random. They are an after thought. Most of the songs weren't composed with the given name in mind. Kindly listen to them and leave your comments here.

A couple of years after passing out of college, I got myself a Yamaha PSR 350 keyboard. Then there was this music band being formed in my office and I was somehow part of the band. Playing all those film songs (especially Ilaiyaraaja's) taught me a whole lot of things about music. And of course, am still learning. No one can learn music fully.

Brindavana Saranga by various Film Composers

2009-07-30T19:17:00.009+05:30

In my last post, I mentioned about the Raag Brindavana Saranga. In this post, I am going to list down the film songs composed in this raag by various music directors. Many music directors have used this raag in their compositions. Here is the list grouped by the composer.

Vishwanathan-Ramamoorthy
Ponn Ondru Kanden - Padithaal Mattum Podhuma
(listen to this rendition by Shankar Mahadevan and Hariharan. The song starts at 0:50 secs in the video.)

Ilaiyaraaja
Aathaadi Paavada Kaathaada - Poovilangu
Intha Jilla Muzhukka Nalla Theriyum - Priyanka
Maadathile Kanni Maadathile - Veera

A R Rahman
Konjum Mainakkale - Kandukonden Kandukonden
Adadadada Muthu Muthu - Mr. Romeo

Vidyasagar
Radhai Mandhil - Snehidhiye
Chella Nam Veetukkul - Poovellam Un Vaasam
Kanden Kanden - Madurai

Bharadwaj
Ye Samba Ye Samba - Pandavar Bhoomi

Vijay Antony
Ninjakootil Neeye Nirkiraai - Dishyum

Hariharan-Leslie
Paadhi Kaadhal - Modhi Vilayadu

Deva
Kookoo Kookoo Kuyil Paatu - Vaaymaye Vellum
(Pallavi lifted from the Colonial cousins song, Indian Rain, which is also in Brindavana Saranga).

If you need to add any other song to this list, kindly leave your comment below.

I have also updated this list in my Wiki website for Ragas in film songs. Let me know if you are willing to contribute to the wiki site.

Recent Raga Sightings

2009-07-14T16:52:00.008+05:30

I noticed some raga usages in recent tamil film songs. Here are the songs and the ragas.

Song	Movie	Composer	Raag
Paadhi Kadhal	Modhi Vilayadu	Hariharan-Leslie	Brindavan Saranga
Unnai Enakku	Azhagar Malai	Ilaiyaraaja	Hamsadhwani
Enna Senjalum	Azhagar Malai	Ilaiyaraaja	Mayamalavagowlai

Paadhi Kadhal is a nice song from Modhi Vilayaadu. It is set in the Brindavan Saranga raga. You will find similarities between this song and the "Indian Rain" song from Colonial Cousins in the usage of the raga and the instruments (guitar and trumpet). Interesting aspect about this song is the contrast between the 2 lead vocals. Bombay Jayashree sings in the indian classical style while Sunitha Sarathy sings almost the same tune in western style.

Unnai Enakku from Azhagar Malai is set in Raag Hansdhwani/Hamsadhwani. Ilaiyaraaja has composed only a handful of songs in Hamsadhwani when compared with other raagas that he has used. There is lot of classical touches in the way this song has been sung. In recent times, he has composed another song in Hamsadhwani from the film "Oru Naal Oru Kanavu". It is called "Enna paatu vennum unakku" sung by Sonu Nigam. That is yet another good song. Refer this wiki page for some songs in this raga.

Enna Senjalum from Azhagar Malai is set in Raag Mayamalavagowlai. Ilayaraaja has done lot of classic songs in this Raga. But somehow this song doesn't impress.

Re-Recording Raaja Contest

2009-06-08T15:28:00.003+05:30

Suresh Kumar who writes about background scores (http://backgroundscore.blogspot.com) is conducting a contest titled 'Re-Recording Raaja Contest'. Basically if you are able to recreate raaja's re-recording works, you can participate in the contest and get a chance to win Rs.10,000.

More details on this contest available at the below link:

http://backgroundscore.blogspot.com/2009/06/re-recording-raaja-contest.html

Rajapaarvai background piece - shruthibedam again

2009-05-19T09:23:00.004+05:30

Talking about Rajapaarvai, listen to the following background music (re-recording) from the same film. It is a very nice piece.

Hope you enjoyed it. Here is a comment by an user on that video:

i'm an atheist...but this music makes me think twice. Divine!

Now for the technically inclined:

While listening to it I realized that this piece starts in raag Jog in 1.5 kattai (C#) and at 00:26 secs it shifts to raag Subhapantuvaraali in 4 kattai (F) - basically the Ga of Jog becomes the Sa of Subhapantuvaraali with the same notes. It again comes back to Jog later. Kindly correct me if I am wrong.

Raaja has done this kind of shruthibedam / tonal shifts lot of times. This same Jog-Subhapantuvaraali shruthibedam was done in the album "How to name it" too.

I had earlier written about some songs were shruthibedam was used in tamil film songs. Here are the links to those posts:

BGM piece - Alaigal Oyvadhillai

Kavithai Kelungal - Punnagai Mannan

Raa Raa - Chandramukhi

Rajapaarvai Violin Concerto

2009-05-17T16:20:00.002+05:30

Listen to this wonderful Violin Concerto composed by Ilaiyaraaja for the film "Raja Paarvai". Nice blend of Carnatic and Western styles (typical ilaiyaraaja). This composition is in raag Pantuvaraali. Sit back and enjoy.

Some observations:

1. Till 1:35 secs in the video, it is carnatic style. You will notice that Kamal sits and plays the violin as in carnatic style. At 1:36 it changes to western classical style and you will notice Kamal standing and playing the violin.

2. From around 2:04 to 2:24, for about 20 secs the Sa and Pa notes are not at all played. This song is in 2 kattai (D) and in this Pantuvaraali scale in D, except Sa and Pa all others are half notes - either sharp/flat (black keys on the keyboard). So for these 20 seconds, there are no natural notes played. i.e. only black keys while playing on the keyboard. And at 2:24 after heightening the tension, it lands at Shadjamam and then from there, the drums take off. The violins, lead guitar and bass guitar go in a frenzy along with the drums. Finally it comes to a finish with the main theme played in unison.

I tried re-creating this number on my computer few years back by doing some basic midi sequencing. Here is the midi file in case you are interested on the notes of the song. By the way, I have omitted a few lines and I think there are some wrong notes in the midi file that I created.

Buying Audio CDs

2009-05-16T13:20:00.001+05:30

When I was in college, I used to buy new audio cassettes (esp of ARR) as they get released and keep listening to it. Later, with the spread of computers, internet and TV channels, this habit was gradually reduced. However I used to purchase select audio CDs (mostly albums).

Here are the audio CDs recently purchased by me in the last 5 years:

Albums

Thiruvasagam by Ilaiyaraaja
A musical rendering of the epic Tamil verses. This is a Classical Crossover album and Ilaiyaraaja seamlessly fuses both Indian classical and western classical.

Mozart meets India
After Thiruvasagam, this album was widely publisized. But it was disappointing.

Maaya - Sikkil Gurucharan and Anil Srinivasan
Indian classical songs with piano accompaniment. Really very nice. I especially like the soothing numbers "Suttum vizhi" in Rathipathipriya and "Hari tum haro" in Darbari kaanada.

Resonance - V S Narasimhan
Carnatic songs performed by a String Quartet headed by V S Narasimhan. Again different and really nice.

Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia - Flute (I don't remember the exact name)
If you like Hindustani music, then you will like this instrumental album. This has got an hindustani rendering of 'vatapi ganapathim bhaje' in raag Hansdhwani. Very nice rendering.

Classically Mild - Sonu Nigam
Semi-classical songs in hindi with western orchestration. Appealing.

Rafi Resurrected - Sonu Nigam with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
This is a tribute to Mohd. Rafi. An Evening in London - Classic old hindi songs rendered by Sonu Nigam along with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

Kavithai Gundar - Tamil Hiphop
oops... Rs. 500 for this. Not worth in my opinion.

Movie Albums

Ada - A R Rahman
This was not because I want to listen to it but because I was participating in this remix contest.

Modhi Vilayaadu - Hariharan and Leslie (of Colonial Cousins fame)
Pretty decent. Except 1 or 2 songs, rest were nice.

Modhi Vilayadu is one of the first filmi albums that I bought in recent times. I heard it was good and went for it. It was a nice experience of buying it, listening to it excitedly for the first time (on my car system) and liking it. Reminds me of the olden days. So next time if I badly want to listen to a movie album, may be I will directly purchase it.

It is also interesting how they promote CDs these days. It has almost come down to the cost of cassettes. Audio CDs are available for Rs.55, Rs.75, Rs.99, etc. Modhi Vilayadu was priced at Rs.99. It had a free audio CD of another recent movie. The free CD was of Panthayam by Vijay Antony. Couple of songs were nice in that. There was also a Rs.200 gift coupon from "naturals" beauty saloon/spa. These are some nice approaches to tackle piracy. 'Kavithai Gundar' CD included a free belt (with large letters of KG) and a DVD (probably their music video). Still the Rs. 500 price tag is not worth it.

Are you listening to songs by purchasing CDs / cassettes? If not, give it a thought.

Cheap Advice On Music

2009-04-07T18:51:00.003+05:30

Recently I came across a blog which provides valuable advice and tips on Songwriting, Home Recording and Live Sound. If you are getting started to the world of composing or setting up a home studio or part of a band, then this is a valuable resource to learn the tricks of the trade. The site is named "Cheap Advice On Music" and here is the URL:

http://cheapadviceonmusic.com/

The site is well designed and a new article is written every 15 days.

Musical Conversations - ARR

2009-04-01T10:50:00.001+05:30

A R Rahman has done some nice background pieces in songs which are basically a conversation between either 2 instruments or an instrument and a vocal. These are not question and answer types but more like a real conversation. Listen to 4 such conversations below. Interestingly all of them are towards the ending of the respective songs. It is more like a postlude.

Rahman Conversations by sripathyramesh

The 1st one is "En swasa kaatre" from "En swasa kaatre". Nice conversation of veena and chitra's voice. I love the veena in this piece. The chord and bass backing is also very good. I think this is in Nilambari raga. Please correct me if I am wrong.

The 2nd one is "Azhage sugama" from "Paarthale Paravasam". A nice conversation between piano and violin. Violin is played by Ganesh I believe. I read that it is a mixture of dwijawanti and sahana ragam.

The 3rd one is "Uyirum Neeye" from "Pavithra". Veena and violin converse here in Khamas raga I think.

The 4th one is "Netru Illatha Maatram" from "Pudhiya Mugam". Nice sitar and flute combination. You can also listen to a veena in the third line. This is the same piece played in the first interlude. But in the first interlude it is a sitar and veena conversation. And at the end, the sitar piece is the same, but a different flute response. Flute must be by Naveen.

Let me know if there are other similar songs by ARR. I will also put a separate post on such conversations in Ilaiyaraaja's music. So let me know the relevant song interludes that come to your mind in IR's music.

1 minute Jingle for Vivel Miss Chennai & Chennai Man

2009-03-31T20:57:00.005+05:30

If you are a small time composer, here is an opportunity. There is a one minute Jingle contest for 'Vivel Miss Chennai & Chennai Man' reality fashion show which will be telecast on Star Vijay. This is open for Public.

Here is more info on this.

http://www.vibaviba.com/pressnote.htm
http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/03/21/stories/2009032151322400.htm

If you are musically inclined & love to compose jingles, then you could compose a 'one minute jingle for the Vivel Miss Chennai & Chennai man contest'. You need to create the background score, write the lyrics & render a one minute song on a CD and send it to us, the best one will be selected by an eminent panel of judges. This Selected jingle will be made into a Video film as well and the winners will be featured on Star Vijay & will take home prizes & medals.

There are 2 more contests open for public. Refer the links above.

I checked with the organizers and it seems we should send the CD by April 5. I knew about this only today. Let me see if I can whip up something within that time.

UPDATE (April 4th): I checked with the organizers today. The deadline is postponed to April 12th. Infact, I had a feeling it will get postponed. Our band participated in the Chennai Anthem contest conducted by the same organizers couple of years back and we reached till the finals. That was more of a live stage performance, but this is a jingle contest and hence I think it doesn't need any live performance.

Some ARR pieces repeated

2009-03-28T10:30:00.006+05:30

Here are a couple of instances where A R Rahman has reused some of his earlier pieces in songs. These are just 1 or 2 line pieces and there is no harm in doing so since the originals are also his. You can hover your mouse over my photo on the comments bar at the bottom of the track to find out details about the songs mixed.

Rahman Repeat by sripathyramesh

I also read that one of the re-recording pieces in Roja was later the charanam of Telephone Manipol song. Also the rerecording piece of Kannathil Muthamittal became the pallavi of a song from the hindi film Ada.

Other music directors have also done that. Harris Jayaraj has incorporated one rerecording piece from Vettaiyadu Vilayadu (plane sequence with Jo) in the song Mudhal Naal Indru from Unnale Unnale. Similarly HJ had used a rerecording piece from Minnale into a song, Pinju Thendrale, from Majnu.

What do you think of this? Also let me know if you know of any other similar reused pieces.

Paadum Office version 2.0

2009-03-17T20:12:00.007+05:30

As I had mentioned in my blog earlier, our office band (in which I play the keyboard) participated in Paadum Office 2.0 (2008) and it is being telecast on Star Vijay for the past few weeks. Our prelims and quarter finals performances have already been telecast and the rest are yet to be telecast. It is being shown on Star Vijay every Sunday at 5:00 pm. Here are our prelims and quarterfinals performances. Let me know your feedback.

Prelims:

Quarter Finals:

Ada Remix Entries

2009-03-05T09:36:00.006+05:30

Around 10 months back, I posted a blog article on the remix contest by ARR and Nokia for the promotion of the film, Ada. I participated in it and was planning to publish the files only after the results. The deadline was over on June 15 2008, but they just ignored the contest after the submissions. No news what so ever. So I am publishing my entries for the contest below for your feedback. Let me know your views.

PS: From their Terms and Conditions, the rights for all the remix entries are owned by Nokia.

By submitting your remixed entry for the online/offline contest you hereby agree and consent to Nokia having all the Intellectual Property Rights of such remix and Nokia may use your remix in its future promotions in any manner whatsoever. You confirm all the IPR rights to Nokia and you also agree not to claim any IPR rights on the same in future.

Jai Ho Rahman

2009-02-24T13:41:00.007+05:30

Congratulations to Mr. Rahman on getting the Oscar awards ! You truly deserve it.

On celebration of this, I am currently having the Jai Ho song (from Slumdog Millionaire) as my mobile ringtone. I have edited it slightly. Here is the ringtone version:

Jai Ho Ringtone by sripathyramesh

I have also edited the O Saya song (again from Slumdog Millionaire) for using it as a ringtone. Here is the edited version below:

O Saya Ringtone by sripathyramesh

You can download the above ring tones and use it, if you like them.

Yamaha Music Store in Chennai

2009-02-19T21:59:00.009+05:30

I saw an advertisement in today's Hindu regarding the launch of Yamaha Music Store in Chennai. "Yamaha Music Square" is launching in Chennai today. It is located at Nungambakkam. I was already planning to purchase the Yamaha MO6 synthesizer keyboard. So this has come at the right time. So now I have a reason to visit the store and try out MO6 and probably PSR-S900 before purchasing.

Here is the advertisement on the Hindu.

And here is the address of the shop:

"Sterling Silver",
No. 24 & 25, Siva Ganga Road,
Off. Sterling Road, Nungambakkam
Chennai - 600034
Phone: 044-42909888 / 044-42909800 / 9840325440
Email: yamaha@nippongroup.com

Paadum Office 2008

2008-10-21T09:44:00.003+05:30

Long time since I blogged. Anyway as far as I know it was James Vasanthan (through his BigDeal company) who started conducting inter corporate music competitions since 2004/2005. Last year this inter corporate music competition was covered by Star Vijay channel and was telecast as Paadum Office.

On Saturday, Radio Mirchi conducted similar competitions between corporates and was titled "Mirchi Clash of Corporates". Our company, AdventNet, participated in the light music competition (band) and we shared the 2nd prize along with Infosys. CTS was 1st and TCS, 3rd.

Next is Paadum Office 2008 whose shooting is scheduled to start on Nov 22nd. You can find the rules, shoot schedule, registration forms in the below website.

http://paadumoffice.wiki.zoho.com/

You can represent your company and participate either as a solo singer (classical and/or popular rounds) or as a team (popular music). All the Best !

Updates

2008-06-14T10:11:00.005+05:30

Recently I have been following few other blogs which I have added it to my Blogroll on the right.

Kumars Planet is by Kumar, who is a Sound Engineer-Musician residing in Bangalore. He posts interesting musical quizzes on his blog, mostly on tamil film music. He also does some interesting remixes and recreates the orchestration of existing songs.

7 Swara is by Emjay. He mostly writes posts on Ilaiyaraaja and his music. Interesting to read.

I started a new blog sometime back to post my favorite interludes in songs. Will try to keep it alive by posting frequently. They are also linked to on the right side under the heading "song bgms that i like".

I have also added my twitter updates on the right hand side of my blog under the heading "what I am doing". You can find my updates there or on twitter.

Regarding the Remix contest by ARR, I submitted my entry earlier this week. The deadline was extended till 15th of this month. They don't display the entries uploaded because of copyright issues that might arise in the competition. Also the Intellectual Property Rights of all submitted entries rests with Nokia. So, right now I am not posting my remix entries on my blog. But may be after the competition I might post it.

Remix Contest by A R Rahman

2008-05-08T17:32:00.004+05:30

Nokia along with A R Rahman has announced a remix contest at remixrahmansada.com. Participants are invited to remix a couple of songs from Rahman's forthcoming movie Ada. The voice track samples are available at the site and you can do your own remix and submit them. The winner will get to do the full remix in A R Rahman's studio. The deadline is May 31. More information available at the above site.

Thanks to Suresh for informing me about this contest. I am planning to participate in it.

Also refer http://rahmaniac.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/remix-in-your-own-style-rahmans-ada/

Online Radio Stations

2008-04-06T09:07:00.005+05:30

I recently discovered some online radio stations that play non-stop music (mostly western) over the internet. The one I am currently listening is AOL Radio. There are different stations for different genres of music like Jazz, Western Classical, Country, Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Dance, World Music, etc. And under each category, there are various sub-categories. My current favorites are Jazz (Martini Lounge, Romantic Jazz), Western Classical and Country. Each station plays non-stop music without any audio advertisements. Since it is a radio station, you cannot choose the song you want or fast-forward songs. The songs are being played in different stations and you can tune in to the station you want. It is like the WorldSpace Radio online. It doesn't have any indian classical music stations, but it covers a wide variety of different genres.

I checked my internet usage logs and found that listening to about 1 hour of music will take up 45 to 50 MB of your bandwidth.

Let me know if you are aware of other good free online radio stations.

RiyazStudio - for Tanpura and Tabla accompaniment

2008-02-28T09:25:00.008+05:30

I recently tried out the RiyazStudio software, which is a nice little software for Tanpura and Tabla accompaniment. If you are practicing indian classical music at home and would like some accompaniment in tanpura and tabla, then this would be a right fit for you. You can vary the pitch, the tuning, the taal and the tempo. Here is the link to the website:

http://www.riyazstudio.com/

RiyazStudio combines tanpura and tabla machines in a responsive and easy-to-use PC-based practice environment for North Indian classical music. RiyazStudio uses real tabla loops - 150 of them - in contrast to often mechanical sounding tabla machines that set individual tabla bols at rigidly set intervals. Whatever pitch you sing or play at you'll have a choice of different tabla tunings in the main talas. You can even adjust the tabla style without changing speed.

Overall I like this software and am planning to buy it. It costs close to $40. You can get a free temporary license and use it for 30 days before actually deciding to buying it. Some of the features would be disabled in the free temporary license. And if you actually buy it during the trial period of 30 days, you get a $5 discount. I don't sing, but I am planning to use it in some of my compositions.

According to their FAQ, they seem to support only Windows PC. So if you have a Mac, I am not sure if their suggested workaround would work.

Update (Sep 11, 2008): It seems if we want to use these samples in our recordings, then the license doesn't permit it. Here is an extract from their license agreement:

This license agreement grants permission to use the supplied sound samples for practice purposes. Distribution or broadcast of these sound samples or recordings derived from them is not granted by this license; contact us at support@riyazstudio.com if you wish do this.

Telex Pandians Theme Music

2008-02-23T10:12:00.003+05:30

Telex Pandians is the name of a cricket team in our office. I had composed a small theme music for this team, the theme being "Terror". This was used as the background music for their flash based website. Here is the piece, let me know your feedback.

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The Rap was sung by my colleague, Naveen.

Not exactly remixes

2008-02-17T12:10:00.006+05:30

Here are a couple of songs in recent times, which are not exactly remixes but are inspired / lifted from old songs.

1) "Ah mudhal akku thanadaa" from Jithan

This is one of the few kuthu songs that I like. Music is by Srikanth Deva. Only later did I realize that the full tune is lifted from an old MGR song: Koduthathellam Koduthaar. They have changed the time signature to 6/8 (kuththu beat) and have written new lyrics for it. I have overlapped both the songs and you can listen it below. You can listen to the new song on the left channel and the old one on the right.

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2) "Jalsa" from Chennai-28

Some couple of lines alone remind you of the popular old song "Senthamizh then moziyaai". Listen to the mix below.

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I used Audacity, the free audio editor and recorder, to mix these tracks. I had to change the pitch so that both the songs overlapped are in the same shruthi. Because of this, the voice would have changed. Now-a-days, with the help of technology, the tempo of a song would be constant through out the song. But in those days, the tempo has to be maintained manually and hence the tempo will not necessarily be constant throughout the song. Because of this, I also had to alter the tempo in various places. I will also post a series of articles on this blog on how I do sound editing.

Learn more about ragas

2008-02-10T13:42:00.000+05:30

I stumbled across a site www.sawf.org when I searched for information on raag Jog and recently for raag Shree. There is a music section in this site and there is quite some information available on certain ragas on this site. A raag is not just about arohanam and avarohanam. The various prayogas of the raag are explained along with some sound samples too. I found this very informative and I believe you will too.

Here is the music section of the site:

http://www.sawf.org/bin/tips.dll/getclasstips?class=EZine&subclass=Music&user=Sawf+Archives&pn=Music&start=-1

Speaking about ragas, I will write a series of posts here on certain ragas and how some of the music directors have used the raga in film songs. I will be focusing mostly on tamil film music, since that is what I know. I will also keep a focus on present day music directors and hence I can write about only a handful of ragas. Please keep in mind that since it is film music, don't expect too much classical adherence to the raga.

Duet Music

2008-01-17T13:21:00.000+05:30

I was watching Actor/Producer Prakash Raj's TV interview on Pongal. He was talking about his newly launched label "Duet Music". He wants to create a platform where musicians (other than those related to films) can showcase their talent. Music albums is not yet popular in south and it seems he wants to encourage such albums and also form a business around it. As Prakash Raj mentioned in an interview:

“In another three years I wish to make music a buoyant, thriving industry, independent of cinema. The thought made me float Duet Music as a label for talents. Unlike places like Punjab where the art is celebrated, most of us have an ear only for film-oriented stuff. A capable flautist or sitar player warrants a showcase too. Duet will do it,”

Duet Music recently released its maiden audio, the songs from the yet to be released movie, "Vellithirai". In an unique move, he also released the karaoke versions of the songs in the movie, so that people can sing along with it.

I think this is a welcome move by Prakash Raj. His "Duet Movies" already identifies good scripts, new directors and encourages them.

Favorite songs of Music Directors

2008-01-09T16:13:00.000+05:30

Here are some of my top favorite songs of each music director. I can keep listening to these songs without getting bored. I generally won't change the station / channel when I listen to this song on air. Each and every music director have their own specialty and these are some songs that I enjoyed listening too.

I have not included Ilaiyaraaja, since there are lot of songs of his that I can keep mentioning. It is difficult to point out top 1 or 2. Similarly I have not included A R Rahman too.

Here is the list in no particular order:

Yuvan Shankar Raja

Idhu Kadhala - Thulluvatho Ilamai
Pogaathe - Deepavali

Harris Jayaraj

Ennai Konjam - Kaakha Kaakha
Ennai Pandhada - Ullam Ketkume

Bharadwaj

Enakkena - Paarthen Rasithen
Thaiyathaa - Thiruttu payale

Vidyasagar

Anandham Anandham - Murai maaman
Pinjumazhai Saaral - Varnajaalam

G V Prakash

Idhu Enna Mayam - Oram Po
Minnalgal Koothadum - Pollathavan

Karthik Raja

Veesum Kaatrukku - Ullasam
Konjum Manjal - Ullasam

Ramesh Vinayagam

Kadhalai Valarthai - University
Enna Idhu - Naladhamayanthi

Deva

Nalam Nalam Ariya - Kadhal Kottai

S A Rajkumar

Anandham Anandham - Poove Unakkaga
Irubadhu Kodi Nilavugal - Thullatha Manamum Thullum

Devisri Prasad

Un Paarvaiyil Paithiyam - Unakkum Enakkum

Dhina

Uppu Kallu - Karuppusamy Kuthagaitharar

Imaan

Manjal Mugame - ABCD

Sirpi

Ragasiyamaanadhu Kadhal - Kodambakkam

Sabesh Murali

Unnai Charan Adainthen - Thavamai Thavamirundhu

Mahesh

Poonkuyil Paadinaal - Nammavar

Vijay Antony

Uchi Mudhal Padham Varai - Sukran

Mani sharma

Hey Penne - Aasai Aasaiyai
May madham - Shahjahan

Minnalgal Koothaadum

2007-12-31T19:38:00.000+05:30

One of the recent songs I like very much is the "Minnalgal Koothaadum" song from Pollathavan. This is a very simple song with simple tune, simple beat and simple accompaniments but I never get bored of this song, even though I hear it on radio almost dailly. This song is picturized on a hill station and the song conveys the appropriate mood. I observed that when we listened to this song on the bus during a trip to Coorg. I was impressed with the fact that even a simple song can be made into a big hit with the right ingredients. Bombay Jayashree's voice in this song is another big plus. Manjal Veyyil song from Vettaiyadu Vilaiyadu (Harris Jayaraj) is yet another example of a simple song with the right ingredients making it a super hit.

There is some freshness in G V Prakash's song. I especially like his "Idhu Enna Mayam" from Oram Po and the "Vizhiyil" song from Kireedam.

One more recent song that I like is the "Yaarukku Yaarendru" song from Ajantha composed by none other than Ilaiyaraaja.

And this is my last post in the year 2007. I had published the maximum number of posts in this year when compared to the earlier years. Hope I continue to keep my blog active during 2008.

Wish you all a very Happy New Year !

Sennheiser Headphones

2007-12-29T22:24:00.000+05:30

I recently purchased a Sennheiser HD 202 headphones. Earlier to that, my colleague had purchased the same model in India and I listened to it and was bowled by its audio quality and clarity. He had bought in a Sennheiser showroom in Chennai for around Rs. 3000/-. He told that it doesn't cause any headache or irritation in the ear, sits comfortably and is better than the models from Sony for the same price. He also suggested to buy in the US, since it would cost only about $25 which is roughly Rs. 1000/-. So I ordered it online and got it delivered to my cousin, who brought it down here when he came to India last month.

I have been using it for the past few weeks. The quality is good. External noises are cancelled. Bass depth is very good. I was told that it is a studio-ware. The website says it is ideal for DJs.

Here are some links for you to learn more about this model:

One thing I found uncomfortable was that it changes the angle of my specs when I wear it and hence my eyes get tired. May be I need to tighten my glasses. If you are wearing glasses, make sure you try it out before purchasing.

BGM piece from Alaigal Oyvathillai

2007-12-25T15:29:00.000+05:30

Here is a BGM piece from Alaigal Oyvathillai with music by Ilaiyaraaja. This piece comes when Karthik runs behind Radha on the beach and holds her hand. The piece was so good when watched along with the visuals. This is in Raag Hindolam, conveying the same mood as in "Dharisanam kidaikaadha" song which appears earlier in the film. Towards the end of the piece you will notice a mood change with an emotional male humming. Now listen to the piece and then read further.

Alaigal Oyvadhillai - Sa ga ma ga - eSnips

As I said earlier, this piece is in Hindolam. But when the male humming starts, it changes to Srothaswani raga (Ni3 counterpart of Sudhdha dhanyasi) in a different shruthi. The madhyamam of hindolam becomes the shadjamam of srothaswani. And that is why the female humming ends at Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, Sa ma ga ma, and the shruthi changes and the male humming starts at the upper Sa which is equivalent to the ma of hindolam. This technique of changing the shruthi is being called as shruthibedam. Lets look at the notes of the scales and see how the transformation was done and why it didn't sound odd when both the ragam and shruthi changes.

Hindolam (in 1/2 kattai)

Dha

Srothaswani (in 4 1/2 kattai)

Western Notes

So as you can see above, even though the scale changes, almost all the notes which will be played / sung are the same. It is only with the relative base shruthi that you identify with the swaras and the ragas.

Some of my earlier posts on Shruthibedam in film songs - Kavithai Kelungal and Raa Raa. Infact Raa Raa is also based on Srothaswani.

Swara Harmonies

2007-12-13T21:12:00.000+05:30

I was listening to some of the BGMs of Ilaiyaraaja. Here is a short BGM bit from the film Sindhubhairavi. Listen to the harmonies and overlaps in the Shanmugapriya raga. The audio quality is poor, kindly bear with it.

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And here is a similar piece in Mayamalavagowlai raga from the film "Alaigal Oyvathillai"

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A book named "Alaap"

2007-11-25T20:17:00.000+05:30

Two weeks back, I was at bangalore for a family function. At my relative's home in bangalore, I saw a book named "Alaap". It was an introduction to indian classical music, and I was immediately hooked on to it. I was so engrossed in it and completed about half of the book in about an hour or so (I have never read novels, FYI). But unfortunately we had to leave so I couldn't complete the book.

It is basically a book for beginners to understand indian classical music. The set also comes with 20 CDs with various samples to refer and to understand. I didn't get to see the CDs but it seems there are lot of hindustani tracks, some carnatic songs and some western classical pieces too. I am not sure where this set is available for sale. I haven't yet checked the stores.

Here is a picture of the book cover on the right.

Inside the book cover, it says:

A creation of Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondichery, Bought to you buy Times Music, Mumbai.
This book forms part of the 'Alaap' set. Not to be sold separately.

There is always lots to learn in music. And the more you learn, the more you can appreciate music.

Kumaran Silks Paadum Office

2007-11-22T08:46:00.001+05:30

I blogged about the inter-corporate music competition in September. Our band from AdventNet, participated in the competition and we could only reach the quarter finals. Anyway, this year, Star Vijay covered the event and it will be telecast as "Kumaran Silks Paadum Office" starting this Saturday, Nov 24th. It will be shown on every Saturday, 7-8 pm for the next 10 weeks. It is likely to be repeated on Sunday evening 4:30 pm as per Star Vijay's website. The promos for the show are already on air.

We performed in the Light Music Team category. And one of our colleagues participated in the light music solo category too.

The order of episodes is likely to be:

Episode No.  1 - Light Music - Team (Prelims)
Episode No.  2 - Light Music - Solo (Prelims)
Episode No.  3 - Classical   - Solo (Prelims)
Episode No.  4 - Classical   - Solo (Finals)
Episode No.  5 - Light Music - Solo (Quarter)
Episode No.  6 - Light Music - Team (Quarter)
Episode No.  7 - Light Music - Solo (Semi)
Episode No.  8 - Light Music - Team (Semi)
Episode No.  9 - Light Music - Solo (Finals)
Episode No. 10 - Light Music - Team (Finals)

Episode 1 and Episode 6 is where they are likely to show us. We were the first team to perform in the prelims. Look out for "Sangeetha Megam" from AdventNet. I was one of the keyboard players in our band.

The above picture is me playing the keyboard during the prelims round. Click on it to view the photo in the original size. Photo taken by my friend, Shanmugam.

Ennai Thalaatta Varuvaalo

2007-11-18T13:12:00.000+05:30

The song "Ennai Thalaatta Varuvaalo" from "Kadhalukku Mariyadhai" is a very popular song by Ilaiyaraaja. Recently there was a song "Oru porkaalam thodangum" from the film "Kasthurimaan" again by Ilaiyaraaja. I could sense a similarity in the opening lines between the two songs. The tune looks somewhat similar. However the similarity ends after the first 2 lines. So I mixed the 2 songs together. Listen to this below. In the middle, you will notice that both the songs are played simultaneously with one song on the left and the other song on the right.

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Speaking of "Ennai Thalaatta Varuvaalo", the other version of this song from the same film is "Idhu Sangeetha Thirunaalo". Both these songs are set in 4/4 adhi thalam. The song is predominantly in the scale of the keeravani ragam, I believe. Now listen to the prelude of the "Idhu Sangeetha Thirunaalo" song below.

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When I listened to the above prelude, it seemed that the timing was in 3/4, but again it was not matching completely in 3/4. Then I heard a few more times and found that the timing goes as follows:

1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 ||
1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 4 ||

tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ka thi mi ||
tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ki ta | tha ka thi mi ||

Each cycle comes to a total of 16 counts there by effortlessly maintaining or switching to the 4/4 beat after this initial piece. Again the actual beat is predominantly 1 2 3 | 1 2 3 | 1 2 || which is 8 counts.

The 16 beat count above is also used in the song "Siriya paravai siragai virithu" from the film "Antha Oru Nimidam" however in a much faster tempo. You will notice that the tune also fits into this timing. This is however used only for the 1st 2 lines.

Speaking of the Siriya paravai song, refer this article to know how IR has used Shruthibedam in this song, where he changes to Charukesi in the 2nd interlude and the following stanza.

Some of my earlier posts on Shruthibedam in film songs - Kavithai Kelungal and Raa Raa.

Blog on Background Scores by Suresh

2007-11-16T13:33:00.000+05:30

Suresh Kumar has created a new blog dedicated to background scores in movies. He posts an audio of a BGM in his blog and asks readers to guess the movie. If you are interested in background scores or re-recording, then you would be definitely interested in his blog. Over a period of time, this will also become a repository of good background scores. Here is the URL of his blog.

http://backgroundscore.blogspot.com/

Indian Keyboards

2007-11-14T21:30:00.002+05:30

More than a month back, I had been to Sapthaswara Musicals in Mylapore to get some voice mics to aid in our practice sessions for the Inter Corporate Music Competition. I saw the demo of a new Yamaha Keyboard there. The model number is PSR I425. This contained certain indian instrument tones in addition to western instruments. The indian instruments included 2 types of sitar (very good), harmonium (single reed, double reed and triple reed - very good), sarod (not impressive), bansuri (OK), Tanpura (good) and indian percussions like tabla, dhol, mridangam, etc (very good). More information is available at psri425.com.

There were also some indian style accompaniments like bollywood mix, bhangra, Qawwali, Bhajan, indian pop and even a tamil folk beat (which was basically a 6/8 beat which lacked punch). There are around 12 such styles. The accompaniments were not impressive.

The western instrument tones such as the piano was not that good. However I did not check the other instruments. The brochure says amazingly realistic sounds. So may be you should check yourselves if you are looking to buy one. It had a pitch bend, which was absolutely necessary to serve the indian classical market. You can plugin your USB drive too to store or transfer songs or recordings.

This Yamaha keyboard was priced at around Rs. 19,000/-. That was quite expensive I felt. The salesman told that this was made exclusively for india and hence it won't be available in other places like Singapore. One had to buy in India only.

There is a new model from Casio too serving the indian market. The model is CTK-810IN. I did not check it out, but I was told that the Yamaha model was better than Casio. In addition to western tones and accompaniments, it has around 15 indian tones and 7 indian rhythm accompaniments. The Casio costs around Rs. 12,000/-. It can store songs and information in an SD card in addition to the USB port available. Technical specifications at: http://www.rajmusicals.com/product_info.php?products_id=1424

I always thought why they couldn't reproduce an indian classical instrument on the keyboard. Even drum pads have such tones in them for long. This is a welcome move and I hope it gets better and more affordable. Ofcourse it can't come close to a live instrument, but something is better than nothing.

Check out the brochures of these 2 models:

Casio Model
Front page: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/ewdEW
Back page: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/oxcnbd

Yamaha Model
Front page: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/myid4
Back page: http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/ryPdF

I basically have a very modest Yamaha PSR 350 at home. It is more than sufficient for self learning or practicing at home. But for stage performances, it is not a good choice.

UPDATE (Feb 7, 2010): Here is a nice comparison between Yamaha PSR i425 and Casio CTK 5000 (another indian focused model) - http://www.rajib.com/2009/09/27/comparison-between-yamaha-psr-i425-and-casio-ctk-5000/

UPDATE (Dec 18 2011): I noticed an advertisement on The Hindu (dated Dec 17 2011) regarding a new model of Casio with Indian Instruments. The models are as below:

CTK 4200 - Rs. 10,000
CTK 3200 - Rs. 8,500
CTK 2200 - Rs. 6,400

And here is the advertisement:

Overlapping talas

2007-10-28T15:40:00.000+05:30

The song "Kannalane" from the film "Bombay" is a well known one. I am not a big fan of this song, except for the sufi style singing by ARR in the first interlude. The bass and tabla combination also rocks here. During the interlude before the second stanza, there is a chorus section singing "gubu subu..." and after it is over, there is a small theermaanam in tabla after which the saranam starts. So I was thinking why was this extra bit added after the line / bar has been completed. So I started to look more into the talam of this song.

The talam of the song looks pretty much straightforward - adi talam or 4/4 in western. This is true for most of the song. When we come to the interlude under discussion, the tabla still plays the 4/4 rhythm. However the chorus melody is composed in 7/8 (misra chaapu). Misra chaapu is generally 3+4 counts. For example, tha ki ta ; tha ka thi mi. However this one seems to be 4+3 counts, which is: tha ka thi mi ; tha ki ta. I read somewhere that this talam is called "vilOma". Please correct me if I am wrong. That was very nicely done - mixing a 4/4 rhythm with a melody set in 7/8.

So I went ahead and tried to add 7/8 beats to the song, and here is the result. Somewhere in the middle, the melody changes to 4/4, but I couldn't find out where. This combination of talas necessiated the extra theermaanam at the end of the interlude. Use headphones to hear the below piece. You will hear the original song on the right speakers and the 7/8 rhythm that I added on the left.

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You can also follow this interlude, by putting the misra chappu talam in half the speed of the rhythm that I had played. That means, 1 "gubu subu" is 1 count.

There are a few instances of other such experiments too. I think the most talked about of them is "aagaya vennilave" from "arangetra velai". People say that the song is in roopakam while the tabla plays in 4/4 adi talam. Some time back my opinion was that the song as a whole was in 12/8, and hence the 4/4 rhythm will also suit this song. I am not sure on this though.

I also heard a mridangam player talking on radio. He was saying how tough it was playing for a song by ilaiyaraaja, where he had to play 4/4 adi talam, while the composition was in 7/8. I don't remember the song. You can imagine how tough it would be to play a completely different tala in a live orchestra. These days, with the help of technology, it is pretty much easy carrying on such experiments.

The song "Chinnan chiru vayadhil" from "Meendum Kokila" is in 3/4 (roopakam). After the 1st stanza, during the pallavi, an extra metal sound is heard in 4 counts overlapping with the 3/4 rhythm. This 4 counts may be perceived as a 4/4 or rather 6/8 meter.

One more often used thing is playing an occasional 6/8 theermanam / drum roll on top of 4/4. This is pretty much easy and hence I am not discussing that here. Do you know of any other similar complex experiments?

Finally, I don't know much about talas. So kindly correct me if there are any mistakes in this post. You can point them in the comments section.

Addictive Rhythm

2007-10-15T20:33:00.000+05:30

I was hearing the "Anbe Nee Enna" song from Pandian on the radio. The rhythm pattern was captivating and I enjoyed every bit of the song mainly due to the beats. Ilaiyaraaja often experiments with different rhythm patterns in many of his songs and in some bgms too. Do you like this song too?

Inter-corporate music competition

2007-09-29T22:30:00.001+05:30

James Vasanthan's BigDeal media regularly conducts inter-corporate music competitions during the last 3 -4 years, where singers and bands from the corporate world take part. Many software companies and organizations from other sectors take part in this competition. Our band, from AdventNet, has participated 3 times in group music (band) category. I play the keyboard in our band. We got the 1st prize in the first competition and 2nd prize during subsequent competitions. The competition predominantly used to be film music (popular music). However since last year, they included additional categories for classical music and western music. We couldn't participate last year due to lack of time and preparation.

This year, the competition starts on October 13th. And we intend to participate in it. And this time, Star Vijay channel is covering the event as a reality show. For more details on this competition, refer:

http://www.hindu.com/mp/2007/09/29/stories/2007092952040100.htm

If you are an aspiring singer, or if you have a band in your organization, go ahead and register in this competition. You have celebrity singers and musicians, judging and take noticing of you.

Find sounds on the web

2007-09-25T09:42:00.001+05:30

I came across 2 sites from where you can download various sounds or drum loops. Do you want a clock ticking sound or an animal sound or a vehicle sound or a dhol beat loop or an african rhythm for use in your compositions? You can get many such sounds in these sites.

Here are 2 sites that I came across:

1. soundsnap.com seems to be free from copyright issues. From their site:

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's. It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.

So basically if you have some unique sounds or loops, you can contribute in the above site too. I created a couple of loops in the FL Studio demo version software. I am planning to share them in the above site. By the way, the FL Studio software is awesome.

2. findsounds.com on the other hand searches for audio files hosted by Web sites throughout the world. So there are bound to be copyright issues. From their site:

When you perform a search using FindSounds.com or the WebPalette feature of FindSounds Palette, you obtain links to audio files hosted by Web sites throughout the world. The sounds in these audio files may be copyrighted and their use governed by national and international copyright laws. We do not offer advice on the fair use of these files. In compliance with the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, we will remove links to copyrighted sounds from FindSounds.com and FindSounds Palette at the request of the copyright holder. Such requests must be made in writing and identify the specific links to be removed.

Let me know if you find more such sites.

UPDATE:
Here is another site that I came across:
3. freesound.org is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Here is the license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/.

Poongathave - Remastered?

2007-08-20T22:03:00.000+05:30

I heard the wonderful "Poongathave Thaazh Thiravai" song (based on the mayamalavagowlai scale) from Nizhalgal twice over the last week on FM. It seems someone has digitally remastered the song. I have heard the original song on my computer, but this one sounded different. The prelude strings are slightly different, the chords are very much audible through out the song, the thavil sound at the end of the prelude changed. Please note that the notes / orchestration hasn't changed, just that it sounds different. The voices and most of the instruments seems to be the same.

And again in the second interlude, when the solo violin is played, a guitar arpeggio is heard. And this one completely drowns the wonderful counter melody in flute which can be heard in the original song. Does anyone know what notes are played in the flute melody along with the solo violin. I am not able to match the ending notes with any particular note / key. It seems to be deliberately off key, but doesn't sound so.

Have you heard this new version of the song?

Remix of New York Nagaram

2007-08-18T09:36:00.000+05:30

Of late, I don't get much time to blog. So I am just posting some of my earlier works to keep this blog active. I did a small remix of the New York Nagaram song for the background of a particular video. I just added some beats and adjusted the levels. You can listen to the remix below. Let me know your views.

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Callback tune

2007-07-31T09:00:00.000+05:30

I composed a simple piece using the telephone ring and I wanted to keep it as my callback tune or hello tunes (Meaning the caller will hear this tune instead of the normal tring tring). Unfortunately Airtel doesn't allow custom tunes in Song catcher. It just matches the recorded tune with its database and then if there is a suitable match, it will set it as hello tune. So I then tried setting it as my ringtone on my mobile - Motorazr v3i. But unfortunately it changes the audio levels and only the ring sound is louder. Here is the composition. Let me know your views on this composition.

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Thottal poo malarum Remix

2007-07-21T12:05:00.001+05:30

Here is my remix of the old thottal poo malarum and the "new" thottal poo malarum song. Since both the songs were in the same scale and shruthi, it was easy. The tempo of the old song alone was changed to match the new one.

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Recent songs that caught my attention

2007-06-27T12:59:00.000+05:30

Here are couple of recent songs that caught my attention (apart from the chartbusters like Sivaji / Cheeni Kum):

"Engivalai Naan Perave" from Ninaithu Ninaithu Parthen (Music: Joshua Sridhar)
This is a very nice song that I have been recently listening on radio. The thing that caught my attachment is the pallavi where the tune in plain notes has nice overlaps in the upper octave in carnatic style. I thought this is based on Raag Hansdhwani (or Hamsadhwani) but I have my doubts on it. Infact in the second interlude, when the singer sings swaras he includes the Ma note. So it seems to have the notes Sa Ri Ga Ma Pa Ni and Sa in the Shankarabharanam scale. But I don't think it is Kedaram or Nalinakanthi. Or may be I am wrong. Please correct if I am wrong. And by the way, this song is sung by Gowtham who I think was one of the finalists of Airtel Super Singer.
"Uppu Kallu" from Karuppusamy Kuthagaitharar (2007) (Music: Dhina)
This is again a nice melody that I keep listening to often in radio or on TV. Though some phrases in the song sounds familiar, it is a nice melody overall. Bombay Jayashree's vocals makes it even more enjoyable.

What do you think on these songs?

Voices in Harris Jayaraj's music

2007-06-22T22:36:00.001+05:30

I have observed that some of the voices in Harris Jayaraj's music sound better and sophisticated than the same voices under other music directors. Examples:

Karthik - Oru Maalai, Oru Ooril
Haricharan - Vaigasi Nilave
Krish - Manjal Veyil (humming of vennilave)

What do you think?

Raag Revathi in Films

2007-05-24T13:25:00.000+05:30

Revathi is the first raagam that I learnt on my small keyboard 10 years ago. Here is the arohanam and avarohanam:

a: S R1 M1 P N2 S
A: S N2 P M1 R1 S

Western notations: C C# F G A# C

This is not used much in films may be due to the classical / devotional flavor. The first film song I knew in Revathi is the "Ye Mera India" from the film "Pardes". It is a very good composition in Revathi. It suits the patriotic flavor too very well.

Other songs in Revathi include:

- Sangeetha Jaathi Mullai (1st half)
- Mandhira Punnagai from Manal Kayiru
- Some portions of Vizhigal Medaiyaam... Julie I love you from a Mohan film, Kilinjalgal
- And the more recent title song from "Naan Avan Illai"

I was listening to the Naan Avan Illai song, kaakha kaakha, today morning on Radio and hence this blog post. It was interesting how the composer, Vijay Antony, had used Revathi for a peppy song.

Ooh La La La Forms available

2007-05-16T21:30:00.000+05:30

The registration forms for the much awaited Ooh La La La contest for music bands is available on the official website http://oohlalala.in/

It is basically a contest for music bands in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The bands in Tamil Nadu have to basically compose tunes for Lyricist Vaali's lyrics on the topic Nambikkai. Judges would be Vasundhra Das along with other celebrities. The judge for the finals is none other than A R Rahman.

For more information on the contest, you can also refer to the website http://ooh-lalala.com/ which is maintained by a Rahman fan. This is an unofficial site on the event.

Guess this song

2007-03-22T09:24:00.000+05:30

Can you guess this song? I have set a different orchestration to this tamil song.

Please click on the play button to listen to the song.

guessthis.mp3

Song I hate - Dhol Bhaje from Deepavali

2007-03-15T15:06:00.000+05:30

One of the recent songs that I hate, is the song "Dhol Bhaje" from the Tamil film "Deepavali". I really don't know whether it is the tune or the lyrics. But I HATE it a lot. The picturisation would also be funny with the villain dancing along.

Guess the interludes

2007-03-14T09:35:00.000+05:30

Ajitha Watal posted a link to the following blog:

conundrumofsonata.blogspot.com

In the above blog, Sonata posts interludes of songs and quizzes the bloggers daily on tamil songs. It is really a nice one. I used to be fascinated by certain interludes or portions of interludes (esp. Ilaiyaraaja's) and it is a good way to share those with the world.

I have also changed the embedded player from odeo to esnips in my previous blog post. Now it plays the song properly. Let me know your views about it.

Ilaiyaraaja's interludes

2007-02-18T15:15:00.000+05:30

We all know Ilaiyaraaja is a master in orchestration. I noticed a few songs of IR where the interludes begin with a specific phrase (tune), goes on to explore and then return back to the same phrase before starting the charanam. This is really very interesting. I have compiled a list of such songs that I know. Do add any other similar songs that I might have missed out.

Idhazhil Kadhai Ezhudhum - Unnal Mudiyum Thambi
Notice the first BGM
Ellorum Sollum Paatu - Marubadiyum
Again notice the first BGM
Oh Butterfly - Meera
The strings section in the first BGM
Enavendru Solvadhama - Rajakumaaran
The guitar+flute dual piece in the first BGM
Kuyil Paatu (happy) - En Raasavin Manasile
Both the first and the second interludes

Here is an audio with all the above interludes. Click on the play button to start playing.

IR-interludecircle...

Hope you liked it. If you remember more such numbers do add them in the comments.

Recent inspired songs

2006-12-21T15:47:00.000+05:30

Recently I came across two songs heavily inspired from other songs.

1. "Silu Silukkum Silmishi" from "Chennai Kadhal" very much reminds me of "Alai Alai" from "Boys". Though it is not the same tune, the phrase looks similar to "Egiri Kudithen". The rhythm pattern, sounds used and the tune in the interlude also looks similar. Don't know why an upcoming music director who had shown promise in the film "Kadhal" should do it this way.

2. “Orugalluke Pilla Pilla” from the Telugu film "Sainikudu" sounds very much like "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from "Dil Se". The feel, the voices, the rhythm patterns, all sound similar to the one from Dil Se / Uyire. I can even imagine the producer / director requesting Harris Jayaraj to create a song similar to "Chaiyya Chaiyya". OK, this is my assumption, but I think that is the way it works in film industry. But this song along with other songs in the album has become a huge hit. So who do you think can be credited with the success of this song?

Copying songs can broadly be classified into two types - intentional and unintentional.

When you intentionally copy and compose songs similar to the original, then it is intentional copying.

Sometimes, one will compose a simple tune, but it would have already been composed in the past. And in some cases, the new composer would not have heard of the original itself. Or it would have been in his subconscious mind and would have come out as a new tune. As the number of songs composed keeps growing over the years, the number of simple and unique tunes not yet composed automatically decreases. So there is a greater chance of unintentional repetition. The first line of the song "Collegukku povom" from "Kovil" resembles "Kamban enna aanan" from "Jathi Malli" I think. The first line is plain simple and I believe this is a case of unintentional similarity.

Let me know your views.

Thaiyyaththa from Thiruttu Payale

2006-09-23T14:01:00.000+05:30

One of the recent songs that I like very much is the Thaiyyaththa song from Thiruttu Payale. This is a nice melodious song in Raag Charukesi. Even though Charukesi evokes pathos feeling generally, this song is not a sad song. Nice melody. The Thavil beats are also nice.

I never get bored listening to this song. This song is on my list of all time Bharadwaj favorites which also include "Enakkenna Erkkanave" song from Paarthen Rasithen.

One nice thing about Bharadwaj is the clarity with which he records the acoustic instruments. For example, I don't like the Thozha Thozha song from Pandavar bhoomi. But when I heard the song in my friend's car, I could appreciate the clarity with which the stringed instruments (banjo / mandolin?) in that song were recorded. Same case for the Parthen Rasithen song. In the Thiruttu Payale song too, there is a very brief guitar piece and I was amazed by the clarity.

Do you like this song?

Angel Vandhale

2006-08-04T14:32:00.000+05:30

This song is from the Tamil film, Badri. Music is by Ramana Gokula. I am blogging about this song because I noticed an interesting aspect in the charanams (or is it saranams?). The first charanam is sung by the lead character which is played by Vijay. It has a kind of western feel to it. While the second charanam has a light classical feel. This one is portrayed on one of the heroines, Bhoomika. But if you listen carefully, the tune of both the charanams, though seems different, is very similar. Hence I have overlapped the 2 charanams so that you can appreciate the composition. Listen to my mix below by clicking on the Play button.

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Hamsadhwani

2006-07-25T17:31:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I was listening to this "Suppose unnai" song from Sukran. It is a peppy song based on the Hamsadhwani scale. And it set me thinking why this scale is not used in many film songs. Hamsadhwani/Hansadhwani is a janya of Shankarabharanam.

Arohanam: S R2 G3 P N3 S
Avarohanam: S N3 P G3 R2 S

It is a very sweet and pleasant raga. Most of you would have heard of the famous "vathapi ganapathim baje" song set in this raga. However, this is not used much in film songs. I first heard about this raga from my mother while hearing the song "Let me see the love" from "Colonial Cousins" debut album. Film songs in recent times set in this scale are listed below. You may add more to the list.

En manadhai kollai - Kalluri Vaasal
Thee kurivi - Kangalal Keidhu Sei
Vellai pookal - Kannathil Muttham Ittal
Suppose unnai - Sukran
Sriranga ranga - Mahanadhi (interludes and charanam)
Thirakkadha poovukulley - En Swasa Kaatre (starting portions of charanam alone)
Enna paatu - Oru naal oru kanavu

I could only list a handful. The chords for this raga are also very light-music friendly. Chords like C Major, G Major alone are sufficient for this scale. E minor chord can be used at times. Still not many songs are set in this scale. Other ragas like Mohanam are used more than this. Any thoughts?

Airtel Super Singer

2006-03-22T21:46:00.000+05:30

Most of you would be knowing about the Airtel Super Singer Contest, the search for the best voice in Tamil Nadu. If not read about it at:

http://vijay.indya.com/specials/supersinger/index.html

You can either record your voice on cassette / CD and send it to them. Or just dial them up on Airtel and sing the song of your choice. If you are selected, you need to go to the auditions I believe. The winner of the finals would get a chance to sing for Harris Jayaraj. If you are a decent singer (I am ruled out), you should try this oppurtunity. You would atleast know where you stand. I think the contest closes on March 30. Watch Vijay TV for more info.

Good Luck !

Mozart Meets India

2006-03-20T20:27:00.000+05:30

Coming June, there would be a performance of the first ever Indian orchestral symphony music in chennai, combining both western and indian classical music, without compromising on any of the music forms.

More info of "Mozart Meets India" at:

http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/19/stories/2006031904710500.htm
http://www.chennaionline.com/music/Albums/2006/03mozart.asp

This is something Ilaiyaraaja does so well, especially in albums like How to Name It, Nothing But Wind and Thiruvasagam in Symphony. But this has nothing to do with Ilaiyaraaja though. I am looking forward to attending it.

Unnai Kandane Muthal Murai Naan

2006-03-13T20:29:00.000+05:30

For the past 1 week, I keep listening to this song frequently on Radio. It is a song from Parijatham - "Unnai Kandane". It is a beautiful soft song. This is the Bhagyaraj's film in which her daughter is acting. Music is by someone called Dharan. I haven't heard of him before, but has done a great job in this song. This song seems to be set in minor scale. Lots of harmonies are added in the female portions and that elevates the song. It has been sung by Haricharan (Remember Thottu Thottu Ennai?) and Shruthi. I don't which shruthi is this, but at first the voice seemed like Bhavatharini. Don't forget to listen to that song in the link above and post your comments on the song.

Master Siddharth, Young Drummer

2006-02-15T16:05:00.000+05:30

Master Siddharth Nagarajan is India's Youngest drummer. They have launched his official website recently - http://drumsiddharth.com.

I saw him on TV performing for a charity show at Hyderabad along with Kamal Hassan and Jayaram. He was awesome with the drums. Kamal and Jayaram were singing some jathis and Siddharth was answering them on the drums. What I liked is, he was thoroughly enjoying himself while playing and that is very good to watch. I wish him good luck in his career.

There is some performance of his on Feb 16th (tomorrow) at Anna University, Chennai. I would like to go, let me see.

Trills in the prelude of IR songs

2006-02-11T12:22:00.002+05:30

Listen to the opening few seconds of the following songs and identify the similarity.

You can listen to the song prelude bits below:

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The similarity is they all start with a very rapid alternation between 2 adjacent notes of a scale. I learnt from my colleague, Godwin, that this is called a 'Trill'.

The first song, Etho Moham, is a very beautiful song. You can read a more detailed review by RJAY of the Edho Moham song at http://www.geocities.com/rjaymidi/aedho.html. Heard that our Maestro wanted to meet French maestro Paul Mauriat, and took this song in a cassette to him as a sample. Upon listening to this song, the French composer immediately wanted to meet our Maestro, who was waiting outside.

Coming back to the prelude of the 1st song, there seems to be 3 string sections, all of them playing trills in different intervals. Then the strings sections takes of and the flute follows the melody.

In the second song, Nalam Vazha, some wind instrument like flute seems to be playing the trill, backed by strings filling. There is also some bass walkthrough during this piece. Is it pizzicato strings? I am not sure. After the very short trill, the guitar piece starts.

The Trill in the third song, Edho Onnu, is my favorite of the three. Here the strings section plays the same trill repeatedly. After the first 2 bars, there is a short sweet melody on strings overlapping the trill. After the piece, the song immediately starts. At first hearing, the song seems to start abruptly after the trill, but after listening properly and repeatedly, I am able to understand the timing. I don't think I listened to the strings overlap when seeing the song on TV. So use a proper headphone while listening to the above pieces.

Do you know of any other similar song employing this technique?

Identifying the timing / thalam of songs

2006-01-19T21:03:00.000+05:30

Identifying the timing (thalam) of a song is always very interesting, especially songs with a bit complex rhythm. I remember arguing with my colleagues that "Roja poo aadi vandhadhu" song from Agni Natchathiram is in 3/4 or some multiples of it, where as they were arguing that it was in 4/4. You can actually count 1-2-3-4 with that song and it will actually fit into the song rhythm. Only after a few days, did we conclude that the song was in 6/8 (tha ki ta ; tha thi mi). Other similar songs in 6/8 include Iravu nilavu (Anjali), Vegam Vegam (Anjali), Kaalam Kaalamaga vandha (Punnagai Mannan), Theme Music (Punnagai Mannan), Vaan Megam (Punnagai Mannan), Oh Oho Megam vandhadho (Mouna Raagam), Aathadi Ammadi (Idhayathai Thirudathe), etc. Interestingly IR has composed the last 3 songs, which are actually rain songs, in similar rhythm. Infact 6/8 rhythm generally conveys / brings in a jolly mood. I also heard that IR has composed many of his songs in 6/8, while ARR uses 4/4 by default. But I guess a composer will not generally start composing by saying, let me do it in 6/8 or 4/4 or whatever. It comes natutally to them when they start composing. It would also depend on the environment and culture in which they were brought up I believe. IR would have probably heard a lot of folk songs in his childhood, and hence 6/8 might be natural to him.

OK, now try identifying the thalam / timing of the song "Malarae Malarae" from the film, Power of Women and post it in the comments. The rhythm pattern is not a normal one for this timing and hence might be a bit confusing. It is a good song by Vidyasagar with a strong kaapi flavour, and sung by Hariharan (he is the lead artist too in the film).

Ding Dong Kovil Mani

2006-01-13T21:11:00.000+05:30

Have you heard "Ding Dong Kovil Mani" song from "Ji"? It is a beautiful composition by Vidyasagar. In this song, almost all the instruments seem to have a longer sustain, giving a sort of eerie effect. In the charanam an extra percussion layer of Dhols is added over the western drums giving a nice sound. This beat is similar to "Kurukku Siruthavalae" from Muthalvan.

Interestingly, this is set in a not-so-common rasikapriya raaga, which is the 72nd melakartha ragam, which is why I thought of blogging this. Arohanam is S R3 G3 M2 P D3 N3 S and avaraohanam is S N3 D3 P M2 G3 R3 S. Any other songs in this scale?

Raa Raa

2005-12-22T22:38:00.000+05:30

In one of my previous posts, I talked about shruthibedham taking the kavithai kelungal song as an example. Now lets analyze the "Raa Raa" song from Chandramukhi. Vidyasagar has done a similar experiment with shruthibedham in this song. In this film, at one place, the chandramukhi character asks rajini to sing a song in Sudhadhanyasi raagam. But this song is not exactly in Sudhadhanyasi. The kannada version, from Apthamithra, which also begins with the same Raa Raa is in sudhadhanyasi, I believe.

This song, from Chandramukhi, is set in F minor (4 kattai). Sudhadhanyasi in F minor is F G# A# C D# F (or) Sa Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ni2 Sa, whereas the scale of this song is F G# A# C E F (or) Sa Ga2 Ma1 Pa Ni3 Sa - Just a half note difference. This scale is the same as "Sindhiya venmani" song in a Vijayakanth film. I read somewhere that this scale is the Srothaswini raga.

In the later half of the first interlude (after the thom thom thom portion), he does a tonal shift and changes the shruthi to E major (3 kattai) in Pantuvarali raagam. i.e., The Ni3 now becomes the Sa. The scale of this is E F G# A# B C D# E (or) Sa Ri1 Ga3 Ma2 P Dha1 Ni3 Sa. Then in the 1st charanam he again goes back to the original scale in F minor (4 kattai) and stays there in the second interlude too. This second interlude, with all those trumpets and strings, has more of sudhadhanyasi shades, with an occassional Ri2 popping up.

In the second charanam, the scale shifts to Hindolam raagam in C minor (1 kattai). The scale of hindolam is C D# F G# A# C (or) Sa Ga1 Ma1 Dha1 Ni2 Sa. It again goes back to F minor (4 kattai) during the pallavi after the stanza.

If you see compare the scales of the different raagams and the corresponding tonal shifts (shruthibedham), you can see that many of the notes (absolute notes) are the same, but are played in a different scale / shruthi. Here is a table comparing the various notes.

Srothaswini
(in 4 kattai)

...

Pantuvaraali
(in 3 kattai)

Dha

...

Hindolam
(in 1 kattai)

Dha

...

Western Notes

...

It is a wonderful composition and looks like he has followed IR's footsteps with respect to the tonal shifts (shruthibedham). One difficult thing in such a composition is the shruthi of the mridangam should also be changed as the shruthi changes. I don't think Vidyasagar has done that here. But IR has done that and is easily identifiyable in the song Vaidehi Raman.

On the whole this is a very good composition and suits the climax situation very well. It creates an anxiety of what would happen next. The singers Binny and Tippu have done full justice to the song. It was a pleasant surprise to hear Tippu in a classical song.

Summa Nachchunnu Irukku

2005-12-15T21:24:00.000+05:30

No, this is not about Thamizh Murasu. Heard a song from Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan on radio yesterday. It is a 'kuthu' song - "Naatusarakku nachchunuthaan irukku" sung by Dhanush himself.

Let me tell you upfront that I HATE this song. May be because of the lyrics or may be because of the tune or whatever. Generally kuthu songs make one dance instantly due to the fast nature of the beats (6/8 is generally faster than 4/4). And actually now a days there are a lot of kuthu songs being composed in Tamil films, most of them relying solely on the dhabankuthu beats, and not all succeed. So in addition to the rhythm, a good melody(??#!!?@!) ingredient is also needed, I guess.

Actually, this song is in the scale of Shanmugapriya raagam. Dhanush does a fair job in singing in scale. It is really tough, believe me, for a person who is not a natural / trained singer to sing correctly in scale. Interestingly, the tunes of the 3rd and 4th lines of this song (enna size-u ithu...) is exactly the same as one of the interludes of "Ooru vittu ooru vandhu" song from Karakaatakaaran. It is also in the same shanmugapriya ragam, but much much better. Yuvan seems to be influenced by his dad's music - like a small part in the theme music of 7G RC resembling the theme music from Johnny.

Speaking of Yuvan, Dhanush and 7G, 'Pudhupettai' audio is launching today I guess. Yuvan seems to save the best for Selvaraghavan and we can expect good music from them. And as usual, they would probably release a seperate OST album after everyone buys the Cassettes / CDs. And there would also be people to buy both. I myself bought kaadhal konden cassette first and then bought it once again (just for that 'thathi thathi' song) after some 4 bit songs were added and released seperately.

Kavithai Kelungal

2005-12-13T17:26:00.000+05:30

Randow Walker analyzed the Vaidehi Raman song in his blog. I would suggest you to read the above post first before continuing. Ilaiyaraaja has used the concept of shruthibedham in many of his film songs and albums such as "How To Name It", "Nothing But Wind" and "Thiruvasagam". Today I will deal with one such song - "Kavithai Kelungal" from Punnagai Mannan.

It is a wonderful composition. The song starts with a small hindustani kind of alaap. The prelude and the pallavi is in raag Jog. It is in C scale (oru kattai). The timing is 4/4 adhi thalam.

When the pallavi ends, there is a small male humming which ends in the note D# (Ga1). From here the scale shifts to D#. This Ga1 now becomes the Sa from there on. Now we are in the first interlude and the scale is rendarai kattai. There are some jathis and nadais in tabla after which the first saranam starts in Malayamarutham ragam in the D# scale (rendarai kattai) which was shifted after the pallavi. Interestingly the saranam starts with the line "netru en paatil shruthiyum vilagiyadhe" !!

When the first saranam ends, the pallavi again shifts back to C scale (oru kattai) Jog. Again just before the second BGM interlude, the scale shifts to D# (2 1/2 kattai). The timing also changes to 6/8 (tha ki ta | tha thi mi) jagana jagana... The rest of the song is based on the raag chakravagam (ahir bhairav?) which is somewhat close to malayamarutham.

To give you the relationship between these 3 raagams and the scale shifts, refer the following :

Jog
(in 1 kattai)

Dha

...

Malayamarutham
(in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

...

Chakravaagam
(in 2 1/2 kattai)

Dha

...

Western Notes

...

Most of the absolute notes are the same, but the shruthi is different. I think this is called shruthibedham and in western, tonal shift. Very interesting compostion !! Ilayaraja has done lot of such stuff. For example refer here: http://www.raajangahm.com/music2.html

Vidyasagar has also tried this approach in Raa Raa song from Chandramukhi, which I will analyze in my next post.

Regards,
Ramesh

Importance of bhavam

2005-12-06T21:13:00.000+05:30

Have you heard the different renditions of the "shenbagame" song from Enga ooru paatukaaran? One is a happy version by Mano and Sunandha. The other one is a sad version by Asha Bhonsle. Both versions are basically the same tune and with the same tempo, but you can experience different emotions by the way the singers render the song. First listen to the duet, which is the happy version. Now look at the way Asha renders the song for the sad version. The singer has to basically get into the mood of the song to get the right emotion. This song taught me the importance of bhavam.

Someone observed that Ilaiyaraaja uses the same tempo for both happy and sad versions of a song. For eg) Povoma Oorgolam, Vaa Vaa Anbe Poojai Undu, Vellai pura ondru yenguthu, etc., while many other music directors reduce the tempo for the sad versions. For eg) Poraale ponnuthaiyee, Nila Kaaigirathu (this one is an excellent song), etc. Ilaiyaraaja uses the same tempo and almost the same beats and yet achieves the required emotions. The singer has a major role in such songs. BTW, even IR has uses slow tempo for sad versions such as "Kuyil paatu o vandhadhenna ila maane".

Coming back to the shenbagame song, it is an excellent soothing melody. I especially like the prelude very much. I read that it is based on the scale of sindhubhairavi raag, which seems to be one of IR's favorites. Enjoy the song !

Ilaiyaraaja's Bass

2005-11-19T16:13:00.000+05:30

Aakarsh blogged about IR's bass while analyzing a song from Pallavi-Anupallavi. No doubt IR is a genius when it comes to orchestration, especially the Strings orchestra and the Bass work. The bass track of his song will be a seperate tune by itself providing beautiful counter melodies to the main tune. If you are wondering what is a "bass", refer wikipedia. Bass is one element of a song, without which the song would sound very empty. The bass gives a very good filling. Even songs with virtually no instruments used such as Raja Rajaadhi Rajan from Agni Natchathiram and Raasathi En Usiru from Thiruda Thiruda have used the bass guitar at a few places.

Some of the songs of IR which has very good bass tracks giving good counter melody are listed below. I know there are a lot and I would have missed many. Feel free to add them in the comments.

Enakku Piditha Padal from Julie Ganapathy
Ninnukori Varnam from Agni Natchathiram
Ilankaathu Veesudhe from Pithamagan
Devanin Kovil Moodiya Neram from Aruvadai Naal
Vaan Megam from Punnagai Mannan
Kadhal Oviyam from Alaigal Oivathillai
Raasave Unnai Vida from Aranmanai Kili

Since I don't recollect much now, I will add later whatever I recollect in this post. On the topic of IR's bass, one thing which I want to discuss is about a peculiar style which is present in the starting lines of the charanam of the following songs:

Devan Kovil Dheepam Ondru from Naan Paadum Paadal
Kodiyile Malligai Poo from Kadalora Kavithaigal

If you listen to the charanam starting, the bass tune is either the same as the lead or it plays in seconds. I am not sure. This sound is very different and gives a real nice effect.

Finally here is a nice article about bass nuances of IR, that I read sometime back - http://www.geocities.com/ilaiyaragam/rajaresearch2.htm

Manvaasanai

2005-11-11T20:44:00.000+05:30

I became a big fan of this song, very much so especially after the Ilaiyaraaja show in Chennai. And SPB was just awesome during the show. He was singing perfectly with ease.

"Pothi vecha malligai mottu" from Manvaasanai

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/26/s/movie_name.4860/

The song is in 3/4 ( tha ki ta || ). I wouldn't attach any ragam to it because it changes shades during the interludes and charanams. But I guess the pallavi is in sudha dhanyasi - not sure though.

Some portions which I love in this song:

The prelude: Prelude is too good - very soothing and very konji-fying, especially the starting violin and the piece just before the pallavi.

Pallavi: The song doesn't start on the first count (start of the bar), but rather 2 counts later. And the accompanying music also plays along with the voice only after the 2 counts and that too for the 1st line alone and remains silent for the next line. This creates a good effect. The tabla also doesn't play for the 1st count, but only for the second and third counts. This type of tabla beat can also be observed in "mounamana neram" from Salangai Oli.

First interlude: I like the this interlude towards the end where the bass plays beautiful counter points(??) with the guitar and nadhaswaram. It is just awesome, mainly due to the bass track, just before and during the nadhaswaram part.

Pallavi after First Charanam: Now there would not be any beats but just hand claps for the 1st and 2nd counts. During the IR show in chennai, the percussionist started clapping and very soon the whole crowd got engrossed and began to clap according to the beat.

This again assured me that 3/4 is the most natural rhythm to the human - an observation which I had made. Even our heart beats in 3/4 , I believe! Not to mention Ilaiyaraaja's "Paruvame" song - with the lead couple jogging around in 3/4 timing. Normally if one were to compose for a jogging situation, composers might choose 4/4 ( tha ka thi mi | tha ka ja nu || ). But here IR has chosen 3/4 and it has suited very well. Similarly in the "Om Namaha" song from Idhyathai Thirudathe, you can listen to the heart beat sounds in 7/8 timing ( tha ki ta | tha ka thi mi || ) where normally anyone would use 3/4 or 4/4 for heart beats. That is Ilaiyaraaja for you.

Welcome to my blog !

2005-11-03T20:46:00.000+05:30

Hi ! I am planning to blog whatever I know on music - mostly indian music, and mostly film music, and that too mostly tamil film music. To start with, I might analyze film songs with respect to the composition and ragas. I might be wrong in some aspects, so kindly forgive me if wrong and feel free to point it out in the comments section. I basically play the keyboard a little bit and try my hand at composing small pieces for my own satisfaction. I would probably blog once a week. Looking forward to interacting with you all through this blog.