is something I haven't tried much even though some people have suggested in the past. I picked up playing keyboard from my undergrad days. At that time, my goals were to play some of the best tunes of Ilayaraja. I always used to hum them, but wanted to take it a bit further. So, I started playing on my own. I am very glad that I did that 'cause I know so many others who might be much more talented but may not have taken their first step yet. As Julia Cameron says "The same age if you don't" in answering "Do you know what age will be when I can play the piano peacefully" :)
Coming to composing, I am somehow hell bent on believing the same Ilayaraja does - it should just happen and you can't make it happen.
"Isai enbadhu nigazhvadhu, nigazhthuvathu illai" - Isaignani
So going along the same lines, I need to feel the music in my mind before I can start mapping it on to the keyboard. Some others believe that composing can be learnt. I am not sure how effective that will be in the end. You can learn the tools to compose, but not composing itself - is my belief. I could be wrong. So where do I start. I should at least start playing some own tunes for my own hearing. I need not demonstrate it to others. I have to start doing this. I have been trying to do this in the last month, where I compose something for eight bars - they need not be the best tunes, but they are somewhat musical. I try to do a two-voice composition. I am using a lot of buzz words here, but don't be scared yet.
I have a friend who is an ardent music fan. It is a blessing that I ran into him and befriended him. He has a great sense of music and has the relative pitch firmly ingrained in his mind. He is now taking courses at the local colleges to further hone his musical knowledge and composing skills. He calls himself a new age composer. He hasn't played his compositions to me. Yesterday was the first time he played about 8 bars of his fugue composition. It was pretty good. It is amazing how he is able to compose in the 17th century style! Now, this whole thing gives me some hope or on the contrary puts me in a very uncomfortable situation. "Will I be able to do the same stuff". On the negative side, I have not had a formal training in Indian classical music in my childhood - childhood is the key here. Age simply goes against you when you try to make habits out of certain things, like remembering or identifying raagams and so forth. For my friend, identifying raagas and other things in a song is a piece of cake. He thrives doing such things. So, that's a major drawback. But, on the positive front, I can restrict myself to composing just in the major scale, which has spawned several compositions. One more note on the positive side is that I have great appreciation for music, admittedly not as much as my friend does.
So, what am I going to compose? I should try a reasonably long piece. I should try to get it in closed form. It is probably easier to improvise without having a theme. Having a theme is very important. The music should touch the listener's heart. The technicalities in the music should always stay below the grace. Grace is the ultimate thing in the music. Grace and the overall theme. Music is one hell of an art. It is magic how this thing has evolved over the years. It is a blessing.
Coming to composing, I am somehow hell bent on believing the same Ilayaraja does - it should just happen and you can't make it happen.
"Isai enbadhu nigazhvadhu, nigazhthuvathu illai" - Isaignani
So going along the same lines, I need to feel the music in my mind before I can start mapping it on to the keyboard. Some others believe that composing can be learnt. I am not sure how effective that will be in the end. You can learn the tools to compose, but not composing itself - is my belief. I could be wrong. So where do I start. I should at least start playing some own tunes for my own hearing. I need not demonstrate it to others. I have to start doing this. I have been trying to do this in the last month, where I compose something for eight bars - they need not be the best tunes, but they are somewhat musical. I try to do a two-voice composition. I am using a lot of buzz words here, but don't be scared yet.
I have a friend who is an ardent music fan. It is a blessing that I ran into him and befriended him. He has a great sense of music and has the relative pitch firmly ingrained in his mind. He is now taking courses at the local colleges to further hone his musical knowledge and composing skills. He calls himself a new age composer. He hasn't played his compositions to me. Yesterday was the first time he played about 8 bars of his fugue composition. It was pretty good. It is amazing how he is able to compose in the 17th century style! Now, this whole thing gives me some hope or on the contrary puts me in a very uncomfortable situation. "Will I be able to do the same stuff". On the negative side, I have not had a formal training in Indian classical music in my childhood - childhood is the key here. Age simply goes against you when you try to make habits out of certain things, like remembering or identifying raagams and so forth. For my friend, identifying raagas and other things in a song is a piece of cake. He thrives doing such things. So, that's a major drawback. But, on the positive front, I can restrict myself to composing just in the major scale, which has spawned several compositions. One more note on the positive side is that I have great appreciation for music, admittedly not as much as my friend does.
So, what am I going to compose? I should try a reasonably long piece. I should try to get it in closed form. It is probably easier to improvise without having a theme. Having a theme is very important. The music should touch the listener's heart. The technicalities in the music should always stay below the grace. Grace is the ultimate thing in the music. Grace and the overall theme. Music is one hell of an art. It is magic how this thing has evolved over the years. It is a blessing.
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