In America

Thoroughly enjoyed the acoustics at IPAC event yesterday. Girish had introduced me to audiophile hobby. He had played a sample piece and asked me to observe where the violinist is, where the piano man is. That precision was there in the acoustics experience. Usually, the portion between vocals sits in my head as "background music". Instead, the instrument discernment was immediate. I could see the dark brown spectacles of the clean shaven senior violinist. The play of the beats dancing on both sides. It is no longer "background music". Jamms had sung "Thookki" from Vaazha 2. The raw confidence of the sisters! Sisters sang as two overlapping lines, and then suddenly one sound starts waving while the first one continues.  Expertise. Saw the same video on whatsapp. The magic at the hall is not there in the video.  At the mixer, I saw all kinds of graphs, and a plethora of controls, and terminologies. As the song was playing, he is continually clicking around,...

  Singing is an introspective activity. You lose yourself in the lyrics, in the emotions, in the notes, in the nuances, in the orchestration, in the story. Select songs that resonate with you and immerse.   However, I need an event like the IPAC singing event yesterday for me to zero in on a song, and put in concerted effort into the song.  The event is the catalyst. It gave me the permission to do the song exploration that I wanted to do anyway. I also needed to perform. As the time was ticking, I got worried about whether I will get chance to sing the second song. But if the idea was to do the exploration and immerse yourself into the song, then why does it matter whether I actually sung or not? It is not just the exploration. I wanted to have been able to sing the song including the learnings on the song that I earned through the exploration.  And I would have been disappointed if I missed the chance at the mike.  People have been kind with their gesture...