Sing Along

We often call a song good, a classic, great, pleasant, soothing, catchy, disturbing, soul stirring and all that. But what makes a song a sing-along song? Good melody, great melody, catchy rhythm, or is its lyrical beauty? Humming is something that we do even we are not actually listening to a song, but we sing along when we actually are hearing and listening the song. By singing along, I mean naturally singing along with the song, without even being aware of it.

What makes us to sing-along with a song? Is it the great melody? Yes, may be, but it can’t be just that. Or is it the catchy rhythm? No, I don’t remember singing-along with any of the kuthu songs that has been dished out in every other Tamil movie soundtrack. But definitely rhythm has a part to play, when it is a fitting rhythm that gently carries the melody without any overbearing sound. Or is it the lyrical beauty? No, because I sing (rather hum) along even when I hear an instrumental piece or a song in the language that I don’t understand. And in what I call sing-along songs, I don’t usually sing-along from the very first line till the last word of the song. Suddenly somewhere in the middle, something pushes me to start singing along with the music, it could be just a word, or just a line.

May be there could be some technical reasons for a song and its melody to have this quality, but from a layman’s perspective, I feel it is the flow in the melody (the rhymes we learned in our childhood are the simple and best example for the flow in the melody), is what that makes it a sing-along song. Though there are songs with very complex melodic structures, catchy rhythms and great lyrical value, there is always this natural link that gets formed between phrases of the melody. A melody which starts with a stream of notes, when it takes a very natural passage, which sounds as if can’t take any better path, as if there is not alternate path in which the this melody can flow. The feel, this link or connection between phrases is not seamless in all the songs. Even the songs that we call great from a technical point of view may not have this seamless link between the phrases.

I don’t know if an entire song can maintain this streamline flow in its melody. But this kind of a sing-along song is becoming a rarity these days. It certainly requires some skill and genius to e experiment make a melody technically complex and great for elites and yet have this sing-along quality that helps a layman to connect with the song easily. Somehow, when we try to put our mind into the technical details in the song, we forget that there is such a beautiful quality that exists for a song, and we miss the pleasure of singing along.

Also, Why do we hum?

Rahman and Me on a Nostalgic Trip

2000-word blog post becomes 18000-word e-book

Memoirs of a Rahmaniac is a celebration of twenty years of omnipresence of AR Rahman's music in Sureshkumar's life.

Buy Memoirs of a Rahmaniac

Zip file contains e-book in all major formats: mobi (Kindle), epub (Nook, Kobo, Sony, iBooks), and PDF.

Reviews

"Speechless."

"Lost for Words."

"I had tears in my eyes."

"I think we should share this with Rahman and I cannot imagine how happy he would be."

"Read it twice. What a nostalgic trip, just that u had taken it for me too."

"You made me cry with Nostalgia."

"I can't believe I had a very similar journey as a Rahmaniac."

"Stunned!"

"Excellent. This is the story of many Rahmaniacs, especially people nearing 30."

More Reviews..

More Reviews..

Music not just for Ears

My friends often tell me that I spend too much time in listening to music. Listening to music is not a problem but they say listening continuously in Ipod with ear phones could bring lot of problems to my ear drums. Though I didn’t take these advices seriously, I realized that they have a point. I often fear about what would happen to my life if I become deaf someday. I couldn’t even think of such a situation. But recently I found that I already have a solution for this problem which infact I posted in this blog before.

I am no Beethoven to compose music inspite of being a deaf but at least I can feel and listen to music in my mind. It may not bring the same effect as it would if I have the ability to hear but at least I can console myself now.

Nowadays, there is this technique of playing the songs in my mind. Believe me, it is a very good meditation which will definitely improve our concentration levels in other activities. But when listening to music in my mind, instead of listening to just the main tune of the song, I try to listen to all the layers in the orchestration. It is really tough but I believe if the music is good, every single note of the score will stick to our mind.

Doing meditation was always a problem for me. Meditation is nothing but concentrating on one particular thing. I found meditation easy when I close my eyes and listen to the songs in my mind. It is more effective than meditating with music playing in the background. Has anyone done this before? If not try it out and tell me how it felt.

Why do we Hum a tune?

For past few years I have been thinking about this or rather asking this question to myself but never thought of posting or asking in this blog. Why do we suddenly hum or whistle a song or a tune? How is it that a song suddenly comes to our mind out of nowhere? If we had listened to a song in a TV channel or in a FM in the morning, we are bound to hum the same song all the day or we usually hum a song we heard just few minutes of few hours back but what it means if you start humming a song which you don’t even remember the time you last listened to it?

Some of the songs that often comes to my mind are ‘Unnai Naan Arivaen Ennai Andri yaar Arivaar’ from Guna, ‘Vaan nilaa tharum oli ival vizhi’ from Kadhal Virus, ‘Bhaagere Mann’ from Chameli, ‘Unnodu vazhatha vazhvu’ from Amarkalam, ‘Kaatril varum geethamae’ from Oru Naal Oru Kanavu, first interlude of ‘Kanmani Anbodu kaathalan’ from Guna, version of ‘Paavana guru’ from Mella Thiranthadhu kadhavu and few others. Some of the songs that I have listed are classics and some may never come to my mind when someone suddenly asks us about my all time favourite songs.

I initially thought that it all depends upon the mood. Partially it is true; ‘Bhagerae mann’ always comes to me when it drizzles in Bangalore. But does it mean that it is the best rain song ever made. Why ‘Oh ho megam vandhado’ didn’t come to me. It definitely is a song that has more chances to come to any Tamilians mind while it is raining. Why it didn’t come it me? What does it mean? I seriously have to go back and analyze all different situations when each of the above songs came to me. I think I will definitely find an answer. If someone has already thought about this, please let me know why it is so. The more you try to understand the music, more mysterious it becomes.

Comment on Marudhanayagam Music

Here is a comment on my music for 'Marudhanayagam Trailer' that made my day.

Hi Suresh,
Apologies for the delayed comments. I wanted to be able to hear it more than once, to say something substantial. First of all, I’d like to say, great job!
Composing music for trailers is one of the most difficult things to do, because there are such abrupt changes in mood, unlike a song or an advertisement. This one is pretty long too, and so there’s that added problem.
In fact, I thought the trailer should have been cut better, to suit your music ;)
I like the fact that it starts off strong, then goes a bit soft, and then comes back strong. Working at home with a computer and samples is quite difficult, actually. I think just the fact that you are working on a computer makes it more difficult to imagine how it will all sound together. Without vocals to back you up, it’s even more difficult, because you are creating something out of just a mood, I suppose.

Any case, just a few comments I had - hope they are not too long!
1. I like the way it starts, but then there is no suspense/big hit for the first time we see Kamal’s face. That was one of the places I wanted the visual to stay for at least a second more on Kamal’s face, so that you could have perhaps hit a good, high/strong note for that. Perhaps not really your fault, but the editor’s!
2. I loved the way the music went when Kamal “rebels” and bites the guy’s neck. Bravo!
3. The percussion begins well, and when I’m getting used to it, it stops abruptly. You have mentioned you had to do that to change the mood, but I would still transition from that, and build up a bit more before letting go of that strong element. It pretty much dominates the first minute or so, and then you transition nicely when Kamal is on the bull(?), the aerial shot, and after he throws the rock down the waterfall, it becomes dominant again. So, letting it go after that abruptly is a bit surprising.
4. I like the repeated theme in different instruments that you use after “Lost his roots,” “lost his loved ones,” and “found a new religion.”
For the “lost his loved ones” scene, I thought the music might have been a bit stronger (perhaps more depth?) — he sems to have lost his wife who hanged herself or something.
5. For the Kathi sandai, maybe go a bit higher, or use the (cliched?) cymbals? Therla… it feels a metallic sound is waiting somewhere (the one you use at 0:52 before the end)?
6. I like the music during the quick cuts too (after “A rebel all his life”), great job with that. Perhaps can be made a bit faster?
7. For the cannon, I suppose you didn’t want to use the usual sound of a cannon!
8. After “Mohammad Yusuf Khan,” I think it is really great the way you make the cymbals sound — seemingly out of sync, but I think it’s one of the greatest things about your piece (at around 0:22 before the end).
8. Great ending too!
Hope I haven’t bored you too much with this long, long comments essay. Cannot wait for the next one. I am sure you have a great future ahead of you in music.

Meera

Maayakannadi

When I saw Cheran’s Autograph and Thavamai Thavamirundhu, I thought how great the movie would have become in Illayaraja’s music. Especially the kind of scenes Cheran conceives is perfect ones for Illayaraja to come up with soul stirring background scores. These two movies had some good variety of songs and different situations which I thought Illayaraja would have done justice in his way. So, when I heard the news that Illayaraja is the composer for Cheran’s next, I was eagerly waiting and expectations were sky high. But after listening to ‘Mayakkannadi’, I felt Cheran has got Illayaraja for a wrong movie. We cannot blame Cheran, because Illayaraja came into the project because of the producers of the movie.

In present scenario, the directors who have no guts to reject a tune of Illayaraja could better stay away from him. Even for Balumahendra, Illayaraja gave just above average tunes recently. I think as of now, if there is someone in the Tamil films who can get the best out of IR; it is Kamal or may be Bala. Illayaraja is not taking film music seriously these days. IR said he initially took 15 days to write music for Thiruvasakam and after finished writing it, he was not satisfied with the music and then started writing again from scratch. Why can’t he follow the same in film music? Why can’t he give the same importance to film music? Frankly speaking, he himself won’t remember the song he has composed for this movie a few months down the line. I am not saying that the songs are bad, it is good but it is repetitive and boring. I feel IR should stick to his own style, I mean the synth, e-beats and jarring sound loops doesn’t really gel well with his typical melodies.

Yet, the sweetness in ‘Konjam Konjam’, IR’s singing in ‘Yele Enga Vanthey’, interesting rhythm pattern in ‘Kaasu Kaiyil’ and ‘Kadhal Indru’, the orchestration of ‘Maya Logam’ and especially ‘Ulagilae Azhaghi’, and interludes in all the songs are some likeable aspects of this soundtrack. And of course, I still have hopes on the background score of the movie. Let us wait and watch.

Marudhanayagam Trailer

In kirukkal subbudu had asked to add 'Karka Karka' song from Vettaiyadu Vilayadu for the mute 'Marudhanayagam' trailer. But it seems many people interpret the trailer video in many different ways. You would have heard my music for the trailer. And now, we have two more entries. One with Ennio Morricone's music and another originally composed by Mr.Ram Shanker, which has typical Vangelis sound to it. Do watch these videos.

Oscars again

Three of Rahman's Songs Chan Chan from Water, Khalbali from Rang De Basanti, Lukka Chuppi from Rang De Basanti are in the short list of 56 songs among which 5 is going to make it to Oscar nomination for Best Original Song category.

Among the three songs, Chan Chan is a real gem rendered beautifully by sukhwinder singh. One of the all time best of Rahman with minimal instruments. I really think it would be difficult to win an Oscar but atleast if we get a nomination, the song will be performed live on Oscar night which would be a great feet forward in the international career of A.R.Rahman. Let us wait and see. Here is the complete list of selected songs.