The National Indian Music Competition is
one of Singapore’s most prestigious such
competitions, being hosted by the National Arts Council (NAC) itself. I
participated in the competition twice before, in 2008 and 2011, and wasn't
successful in securing a place in the top three, both times. This year however,
I resolved to give it my very best, ever since I received an e-mail from the
NAC about this year’s competition; this was
while I was on vacation in New Zealand in January. Fast-forward two months and
my preparations for the competition had begun in earnest, as I learnt two new
songs just for the competition. I had done something similar for my 8th
Year exams in June 2012 as well: I learnt my main krithi the previous November, while I had begun practising for my
RTP in January.
One main hurdle was singing a raga alapana, the krithi and kalpana swaram,
all within the stipulated time limit of 8 minutes. It was even harder, as my
tutor, Guru Nishant put it: ‘to sing an alapana within the time limit, without compromising the essence of the ragam
in question.’ He emphasised this to me from the very start (Nishant sir has
always been very particular about sticking to time limits, even in a 1 ½ hour concert). My habit was to not look at a stopwatch while singing
and instead estimate how long each segment had lasted, because I realised that
my quality of singing became worse if I kept referring to the time elapsed
(perhaps I got nervous and rushed; I don’t really know exactly why it happens.) Slowly, a fifteen-minute song
became halved; and the ‘essence of the ragam’ in each song was also more than satisfactory.
Not to discount my violin practice and this
began slightly later, due to my performance at the music festival. I asked
Ravindran sir to teach me Thanayuni
Brova, a Thyagaraja krithi in Bhairavi. I had learnt this song in
Carnatic Vocal before; hence I found it slightly easier. However, Bhairavi, no matter how experienced one
is in vocal, is always a complex, challenging ragam to render on the violin without practise. My violin tutor,
Guru Ravindran, put it this way: ‘To be as good a violinist as you are a vocalist, your skill and
experience in playing the violin needs to be three times as much.’ A big problem as a
violinist is keeping your own talam;
you have to refer to someone else’s or
use your feet. Doing the latter becomes quite distracting, as your focus is
torn away from the music and is on the rhythm. Relying on someone else is also
risky; what if they make a mistake or go off-tempo? This problem is exacerbated
especially while doing neraval and kalpana swaras. Hence, it took a lot of
time to practise the songs and the manodharma
without someone keeping the talam,
all while not going off beat. It’s
honestly harder than quantum mechanics.
At the competition itself, I realised just
how much competition there was (repetition not intended): eighteen participants
in the Intermediate Carnatic Vocal category, while there were six in the
Intermediate Violin category. Thankfully, I passed through the Preliminary
Rounds for both categories with relative ease. I really enjoyed singing and
playing Sari Yevvaramma and Janani Ninnuvina, respectively, although
I was told that I had gone off-talam
while playing (ouch).
The Final Rounds were going to be much
harder, and I hoped beyond hope that I would do well. To be very honest, there
was a lot of pressure on me - especially from my Gurus. As already mentioned, I
was determined to outdo myself this time. Fortunately I did, and clinched the
first and third prizes in the Intermediate Carnatic Vocal and Violin
categories. As a slight damper, I was told again that I had gone even more off-talam while playing Thanayuni Brova during the finals; five times according to someone
(ouch again).
At any rate, both my parents and I are very
happy with my performance at the competition, although there is the tiny twinge
of regret that I could have done better on the violin. Nevertheless, it was an
enriching experience, and a great way to keep in touch with music. I hope to do
much better come 2017.
Besides this NAC Competition, I've
performed several other concerts, and accompanied several more artistes. There
are many lessons to take away from both this competition and other
performances, which include 'controlling the stage', and while accompanying,
subtly supporting the main artiste without them finding our music distracting
or worse, disturbing. It's always an act of holding the equilibrium in a
concert. A well-planned, well-rehearsed concert is always a joy to perform, as
well as to hear. I hope that my next endeavours are up to this benchmark.
