Any listener worth their salt has experienced periods of obsession--when they can think of nothing but one song, one piece, one raga. Well, the last few days have been Jaunpuri days for me. I have been reviving compositions from my notebook, listening to online recordings, and picking up film songs--all in the raga Jaunpuri. Here are two pieces that I mustered the courage to record.
Jaunpuri Chhota Khayal in Tritaal. There is no tabla, but I was trying to follow the tritaal cycle as I sang.
My attempt at Geeta Dutt's brilliant Kabir bhajan: Ghunghat Ke Pat Khol from the film Jogan
Continuing with Rama's earlier post about learning from a guru/teacher vs. learning through any other method--including recordings... I had learned the chhota khayal (Sajan Gare Laag) from my teacher in India in a very conventional manner--writing down the words and learning the melody by ear and rote. The song I learned from recording--again in a conventional manner. I downloaded the lyrics and sang them numerous times with Geeta Dutt's recording. But it was more than just Geeta Dutt's recording. I also recorded myself and played it back, cringing at my ineptness and marking places where I could do better. There is yet a huge scope for improvement but the opportunity for self-criticism did help...
Recordings are the medium through which film songs reach us and that would be the obvious way way to learn them. Where as we are taught to consider classical music as sacred--difficult to learn except through face-to-face (or telephonic or virtual!) interactions with a living teacher/guru. Is that why it is easier for us to accept learning a film song in this manner rather than a classical composition?
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2 comments:
First of all- very good singing. Your voice is very clear and strong and in shruti. Really enjoyed listening. The gunghat song is haunting me too since the day we started to listen to it together:)
Regarding learning from a guru vs recording- this was what I actually meant in my earlier post. It is amazing the magnitude and quality of learning that has taken place in my musical life since coming to America and having access all at once to 100s of recordings- different versions of the same artist as well as renditions by different artists. Like being in a cyber sabha or kacheri if you will! Back home I was fortunate to be able to attend kacheris and experience the artists' expression of their manodharma- which would not be possible if I were to listen to one or two recordings commercially available. A friend told me once that recordings were deliberately designed to appeal to the masses and so even the pure classical ragas were stripped of many nuances that only a discerning learner may perceive and appreciate. That's one reason I search for recordings of live concerts.
I agree with you about the apparent difference in the way we learn film songs and how we learn classical music. My teachers repeatedly told me 'Don't learn from recordings. How much can you learn?' Although I agree that the layers of translations that I discussed in my earlier post may result in the cyber learner miss many nuances, I see innumerable possibilities in cyber learning even if from a downloaded file or on youtube. The more sadhana you engage in by being an evaluative listener, the more your ear gets trained and learning to sing the song requires less effort. Someone said learning to sing or play an instrument should involve 60% listening and 40% practice. I couldn't agree less - and this applies both to listening to live music as well as recorded.
Coming back to why our gurus discouraged us from learning from recordings- is there a possible threat of the guru shishya parampara losing its credibility perhaps? I agree that a recording cannot tell you what mistake you made, how and why you made it and how to correct it- all of which a guru- even a cyber one at that- only can tell you. But as your ear gets refined, one can improve one's perception and attempt to understand mistakes and rectify them. This requires extensive, attentive and evaluative listening.
However, a guru teaches you more than just how to sing a raga. Having learnt from several gurus, I will be stating the obvious if I try to describe the 'perks' that one gets from a guru- lessons in lifestyle, morals and character building, theory and context, bhava and rasa- ok I will stop here.
The most important impact that cyber record learning has had is that it has enabled different musics to reach a much wider audience- the local going global!
Learning classical music by listening to a recording is like attempting to cook a dish just by tasting/eating it. When we listen to a recording we are only getting exposure to the product - we are not getting any exposure to the process that the artist went through to prepare that product. Thus, a guru is essential when it comes to learning classical music. S/he teaches us on the process that can help us make great recordings.
Popular music is an easier game. There you can often make out the process from the product itself - almost like being aware of the ingredients and process of preparing a burger just by seeing or eating a burger. In other words, one can easily replicate the product, even without learning in detail the process that prepared it. Thus, popular music can be learned without a proper guru.
That said there are always exceptions, though the exceptions would be rare in case of classical music. Sometimes a person may be extremely talented and be able to figure out the process of classical music on one's own. If not talent one would need at least some previous exposure to the process of classical music (most likely through a guru) to be able to replicate classical recordings without the help of a guru. The situation is analogous to a knowledgable cook attempting a dish just after tasting it at a party - s/he may easily succeed in replicating the dish or even better it, even though s/he had no exposure to the specific process that prepared that great dish. That would be possible because s/he already has idea about the generic processes of cooking, if not the specific process pertaining to that particular dish.
In summary, one can learn classical music without a guru, if one is extremely talented or has some previous training to the process that allows the person to generalize those processes to new ragas. That said, I think your recordings were great Aditi, and I attribute that to your talent and previous formal training that you had in classical music.
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