·        ON BACK COVER OF BOOK

• DO YOU WANT TO SING, BUT DON’T KNOW HOW TO GO ABOUT IT?

• DO YOU HUM SONGS VERY OFTEN, BUT DEVELOP COLD FEET THE MOMENT ANYONE ASKS YOU TO SING BEFORE OTHERS?

• DO YOU ADMIRE OTHERS AS THEY SING, BUT FEEL YOU CAN NEVER DO IT?

• DO YOU SIT IN THE AUDIENCE AND HUM WITH THE SINGER SINGING ON STAGE, BUT CANNOT MUSTER THE COURAGE TO GO SING YOURSELF?

• DO YOU THINK SINGING REQUIRES YEARS OF PRACTICE, HOURS OF RIYAZ, BEFORE EVEN A SINGLE SONG CAN BE SUNG WELL?

• DO YOU FEEL SINGERS ARE GOD GIFTED PEOPLE, AND YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THEM?

• DO YOU FEEL YOU DON’T HAVE THE TIME, OR THE ABILITY, TO BECOME A SINGER?

• DO YOU FEEL YOU SHOULD NOT BE MERCILESS ON OTHERS BY FORCING THEM TO LISTEN TO YOU?

• GOOD, FOR THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU.

• IT WILL SHOW YOU, STEP BY STEP, HOW TO BE A QUALITY SINGER, AND ALSO A GOOD HUMAN BEING.

• THIS IS THE RESULT OF A TWO YEARS EXPERIMENT CALLED SWARA SAMPADA , THAT HAS CONVERTED UMPTEEN BATHROOM SINGERS, OR DORMANT SINGERS, INTO STAGE SINGERS.

• IF THEY COULD DO IT, SO CAN YOU.

• READ AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF.

·        FRONT COVER

·       THE SWARA SAMPADA SOURCEBOOK ON MUSIC ISBN 81-901406-2-0

• EDITED BY

• AJAI  R. SINGH

• ASSISTED BY

• RAJU GANAPATHY

• MANGESH GOKARN

• SOLOMAN CHEULKAR

• SUBHASH NAYAK

• SARALA RAMACHANDRAN

A SWARA SAMPADA AND KAIZEN EDUCATION SYSTEMS PUBLICATION

…………………………………………………………………

PREFACE

THE SWARA SAMPADA SOURCEBOOK ON MUSIC

The Swara Sampada Sourcebook on Music is an essential companion for all aspiring singers and connoisseurs of music. It’s meant to guide and inspire potential singers, and demystify some commonly held beliefs. It takes you step by step through the process of becoming a singer and shares some secrets held closely by good singers, but seldom available to others.

In the Section The President Speaks His Mind, the author Dr. Ajai Singh leads you by the hand and gives you practical tips on becoming a singer. He discusses topics like How to select a song, the 100 times test for 100% success, How to protect your voice, How to develop stage presence, How to Emote while singing, Lyrics, Diction, Classical Base, Music and Nature etc.

In the section The Science of an Art called Music, co-author Raju Ganapathy discusses technical details of music that is essential knowledge for all aspiring singers.

In the Section ABC of Music, co-author Mangesh Gokarn shares his invaluable insights into singing, which has helped a number of his students of music succeed.

Ashok Sahasrabuddhe, voice culturist, in a guest article, discusses how to enjoy listening to music in his piece Listening, Hearing and Enjoying Listening.

In the Final section on Songs and Scale, co-author Soloman Cheulkar, who has been giving orchestration for a number of years, shares his painstakingly compiled original scales of Hindi film songs with you. This is not available in any other book I know of. It will be an invaluable addition not only for new, but even established stage singers, and even orchestra players, who can refer to it during their rehearsals.

Subhash Nayak has worked tirelessly over the cover designing, lay-out and printing of  The Swara Sampada Sourcebook on Music, and Sarala Ramachandran, Editor of Sargam, the Monthly Bulletin on Music of Swara Sampada, has done the original editing of The President Speaks His Mind and The Science of an Art called Music, which now appears here, albeit revised. She has also helped with the editing of the present work.

The Swara Sampada Sourcebook on Music is dedicated to the fond memory of Late Smt Padma Sitaram, an accomplished Carnatic vocalist and bhajan singer, and mother of  Swara Sampadite Mr. Ganesh Iyer.

The Swara Sampada Sourcebook on Music should prove to be a boon to all aspiring singers, music lovers, and an invaluable companion to music teachers and orchestra conductors too.

EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK

The 100 Times Test for 100% Success When people come up to sing on stage or before others, they are much concerned about two very valuable things. One is their music book and the other their spectacles. They wear the latter, dig their heads into the former and sing, blissfully unaware of a wide appreciative audience waiting to establish eye-contact with them, to enjoy with them, to smile with and clap for them. After finishing, they close their book and remove their spectacles with a great sense of relief! Thank God, it's over! That's their feeling, or something to that effect. And then the complaint is, the audience is not appreciative, today my voice is not upto its mark, there is some difficulty with the sound system, the musicians did not play the interludes well. That's why the song fell flat. Although, mind you, the voice may be good, and everything else may be in order. What was missing? A very significant factor, that is the essence of a live performance. The rapport of souls was missing. The symphony between the heart of the singer and that of the audience was not established. Because the singer was so busy looking into the book, he/she had no time to look into the eyes of his/her audience. The heart-strings could not be tugged at. How could they? If I speak the most loving words to you and speak them before you, but looking down or the other way, you will obviously not believe they are meant for you. You'd probably believe they are for someone on the side, or down below. And you cannot be blamed for it, can you? The singer must look up at his audience. He must smile at them. He must look into their eyes. He must watch their faces as they feel happy, or sad or excited, or pensive. But for that he has to have his eyes away from his book. He must know the lyrics of the song by heart. How does one do so? The procedure is very simple. But the simplest of things are often difficult to do for most people. Let this paradox not be applicable to you. The procedure is what I call the 100 times test. 1) First of all, the lyrics of the song must be perfectly written down with you. You need to hear a song at least 5 times for

	this. Then the song by the original singer must be heard at least 10 times before you start singing it, and then you sing it for 10 times before the words become fixed in your mind. 2) After these 25 times, you sing it before one person, may be your spouse/friend, whatsoever, or to yourself, imaging that someone is listening. 3) Again listen to the original song for 5 times and sing it to yourself for another 20 times, before singing it before your family members. 4) Again listen to the original song for another 5 times, practice for 20 times before singing it before a small circle of 5-10 people, may be with musical accompaniment. (That's a total of 75 times.) 5) Listen to the song again for 5 times before practising another 20 times before you are ready to sing before a larger audience, like a Swara-Sampada group, or on stage. A song heard at least 25 times,sung to oneself or before a small circle for 75 times, is fit to be consumed by a larger group. You don't eat raw wheat or rice. You have to cook it. Then it's fit for consumption. When you come and say, I have not prepared my song but will still try, it's like telling your guest, here is the wheat, I could not make chappatis, please excuse me and eat it. Does it make sense? Be merciful to others. But before doing that, be merciful to yourself. Because it you follow this method, even if you are awakened in the dead of night, even if you are on your death-bed, if you have the strength and your memory is intact, you will still be able to sing, I can assure you. This is the 100 times test which will succeed for you 100% of the times you do it. You want it to happen to you? To sing confidently before an audience? To enjoy your singing? To look into their appreciative eyes while you sing? Then just go ahead and do it. I hope you will, my dear Swara Sampadites. Dr. Ajai Singh, Sargam, Vol 1:5, August, 2003 Rule No. 5 : Practice a song 100 times (listen to it at least 25 times, and sing it as best as you can for another 75 times) before you present it to a larger group. Know your song by heart.