IMPORTANCE OF SHASTRA...?

Few questions arises in my mind, how much Shastra is importance for actual performance. How much we have to learn (shastra) and look on it when you sing on the stage. Knowledge is like ocean. Many people talk about ocean, by standing on shore, how much is the depth width and all. When you are really in the middle of that, when you feel the depth of the ocean you will be speechless… only you can experience the warmth and wide spread ocean there. Your mind will become shanta, very calm. We talk about music and try to explain things. I have observed, who start learning music talk a lot, as you progress, you become silent and start thinking. I use to talk lot about music, but today, I feel,I don’t know how to describe music. Sometimes Shastra becomes speechless or monotonous. In musicology you study about raag and taal, but when you perform you add emotions and experience to it . When you enter the ocean of swara and laya , you become speechless, you talk less in the process. Only those who have attained can tell us about this stage but NO,they wont, they become more intra ward. Presently I am doing my M A from KSGH music university Mysore, got the opportunity to study few books and little bit of shastra. Now I slowly realise that, when you learn music for 15 to17 years and then study Shastra, it would be easy to relate. I am not propagating this but just my observation through the process that I have undergone. I think its like kids learning language, they learn how to talk first, later they learn grammar. I don’t think it’s wise to teach how to talk with grammar… Relating shastra changes from time to time and different levels. Our musicologist or sangeet shastragnas are very intelligent and have worked hard. Music is very vast subject, it is not an easy job to give some shape to it, lot of contradictory thoughts, lot of branches. They have contributed a lot to music. If you read Pt. Paluskar or Pt Bhatkhandeji s life, contributions to music is stupendous. Pt Bhatkhandeji s concept of Thaat is not very ordinary Idea. That is not like while playing cricket, kids make two teams distributing players. There is logic, some methodology and lot of brain storming ... involved... When you perfrom how much importance to be given to shastra is the basic question of music student. City map is very helpful to know about the city and roam around but with map you can’t enjoy the city, you have to be there actually experiencing the architecture or natural beauty of that place. When you sing Yaman, ..... you know vadi, samvadi , pakkad etc., you think yaman as complete. Once ..you know raag Yaman’s chalan and how it develops, there is no need of vadi samvadi or pakkad. Shastra is like body but singing music is body with soul. So without Shastra we can’t sing and, only with shastra we can’t sing… this sounds strange but this is our classical vocal music.

Class and form

Generally people talk about class and form in many fields; sports, arts and music. A painter creates many works in his life time; his selected works will be far superior to others. Soccer player plays superbly once in few matches, musicians give excellent recital in few concerts.If the artiste is very consistent in performance, he will be considered as high quality performer. With his rigorous training, extra ordinary talent he attains a level where he can be called as a class artiste or classy player... but some instances he will be extra ordinary, we can say he is in very good form. In music we can take this idea of form and class for some extent.We can see how the artiste performs in a span of 20 to 30 years,especially in classical music. Artiste will start his true musical journey around 35-40 years of his age. That time he will be mature, well trained and well-practiced. Classical musicians very good time in his life is 45- 60 years , in which you can say few artiste has class, but few are only having good form for short period. Audience can’t decide or come to conclusion regarding musicians’ class and form in one or two concerts. That particular concert may be average due to many reasons. Maybe his/her health, sound system, accompaniment, atmosphere of the hall or venue. Earlier the number of concerts was less, artiste used to get more time in between concerts. They used to prepare well. Keep their form and class for long time. We can’t generalize this; even now few artistes have class and form for long time. Music has changed a lot in many angles. But an artiste class and from is very important in music field.