National Indian Music Competition - Sharadh Rajaraman

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 8^th 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.