At the moment I am taking baby steps in Manodharma Sangeetham (MDS). Thanks to my guru Smt. Aparna Balaji, I have some wonderful guidance getting started.
First of all, what is MDS. In a broad sense it is a way of self-expression just as a collection of strokes on a canvas by an Artist. The Artist works a bit more freely with the strokes, however, in Carnatic Music, the singer must follow a few basic rules when exploring MDS. MDS is intrinsically tied to a particular Raaga, we only talk about MDS in the context of a specific Raaga or Raagas. Here are some tips for MDS aspirants (as I understood from my guru)
1. Singer must stick to the Raaga’s scale
2. Singer must express the Raaga (For more discussion on difference between Raaga and scale of Raaga, listen to T.M. Krishna’s Lecdem on Allied Raagas )
3. Manodharma is an umbrella term for Neraval, Kalpana Swara, Raaga Alapana, Viruttam, Brigu
4. Kalpana Swara always goes with a specific line in a Krithi (song)
5. You should know the starting note for that line
6. Kalpana Swaras must end on a note that is one note above or one note below the starting note
7. At first, it may help to practice a specific set of Swaras as the ending notes for an entire cycle, e.g. You may choose P,PMGR as the phrase that fills 6 counts in a Rupaka Talam and will always be the last phrase in the Kalpana
8. First start with sequential notes and slowly go into Daatu (skipping notes), Jaaru (sliding between notes) etc
9. Finally, totally enjoy doing it. Think of MDS as way for you to connect with the Raaga and it will be out of the world, I promise!
Thanks to Aparna Balaji for reading drafts of this.
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