Self-discipline and Love

Recently after a talk that I had given, a couple of ladies came up to me and asked me this question, something along the lines of “In your opinion, what is discipline?”. I told them that it is a tough one to define. In fact I wrote an entire blog about what is not discipline, the […]

10 Easy Ways To Optimize Your Music Practice

Last summer, we published a week-long series called “The Young Person’s Guide to Making Music” in collaboration with our colleagues at the radio program From The Top. The idea was to provide guidance and suggestions for parents and kids just starting out in music, with ideas for everything from finding a great teacher to reducing audition anxiety. Deceptive Cadence […]

What Makes A Musician – John Sloboda

As I was searching on the web for prior articles on what really makes a music student successful, what differentiates her from others, I found this nice writeup by John Sloboda on the European Guitar Teachers Association. Read it when you have time, it tries to separate the myth from the fact and sheds some […]

Teachers Who Made A Difference: Joyce DiDonato’s Seeds Of Confidence

“My teacher yelled at me for nothing”, “She said I was fiddling with my toes in the class”, “He talks too loud, scares me” we hear these words from school going toddlers. It is unfortunate that some teachers don’t have a clue how to teach, forget inspiring, they are not sure why they are teachers! […]

Counterpoint, An Important Musical Technique

New York Times Music critic talks about an important musical technique in this video, I enjoyed watching it and hope you will too..

Music = Practice

No practice, no music. If you practice music everyday, 7 days a weeks, 365 days a year then you are setting up yourself to be an amazing musician in 5 to 10 years. If you don’t practice, 5 to 10 years of music lessons won’t get you that far. There is no one better than […]

Harmonium Lessons For Sai Bhajans By T.V. Hari Haran

Excellent work is being done by our sai brothers T.V. Hari Haran and Srinivas Raghavan in teaching playing harmonium for sai bhajans. Please check the part 1 and part 2 of these harmonium lessons, you will want to watch more. You will want to play the harmonium even if you don’t know what it is!

Music Pressure Cooked

[source: http://www.thehindu.com/arts/article952354.ece] As a young girl, every single music class with my father and guru Lalgudi Jayaraman was an experience to be remembered and cherished. Like his other students, I was also fed the staple diet of technical aspects in music such as korvais, poruttams, tricky eduppus and challenging pallavis. But there was much more […]

Akhanda Bhajan, A World Bhajan Idol Showdown?

This weekend devotees from the Sri Sathya Sai Baba centers all over the world will undertake an enormous endeavor as in every year for the past 30+ years, to sing bhajans as a group for 24 full hours non-stop (Akhanda Bhajan). What’s the “Why” of Akhanda Bhajan – Is it an opportunity to show off […]

What Is Your Pitch (Sruti)?

What does it mean when we say someone’s singing is “besur?” It means that they are not singing in pitch. This pitch is called sruti in the south (the word sruti is translated in different ways, this is one of them) or sur/ swar in the North. Finding and maintaining one’s pitch is of fundamental […]