My experience singing Khushiyan

By Rashmi Nair

I had fun singing this song (Khushiyan); it was my first attempt on an original composition. I must say it definitely was a great learning experience for me. I had no idea it was going to turn out the way it did. It took almost a month for the song to shape up. During that time, my parents were visiting us. It was almost like singing to an audience - the only difference was I received live feedback and often constructive suggestions. We laughed and joked about my ‘husky’ voice and my goof ups here and there.

I live in a small apartment complex, so after singing those high registers, the next day, I would often open the main door to see if there was an eviction notice pasted outside.

Silent Mind

By Shivkumar Krishnan

The origins of 'Silent Mind' were in mid 2006, when i was experimenting with the Korg Triton and Karma range of synthesizers... I had conceived a soft instrumental piece that lasted for about a minute, to be used for montage scenes (showing transitions of time) in movies. Then when Blogswara V5 came along, I decided to amp this to a complete instrumental track. I played around with Virtual Instruments (from EastWest corporation, for instance) to simulate the orchestral sounds. Then I met Bill Williams, a sound engineer near San Francisco, who helped me mix the piece...

He was amused to hear the Mirudangam sounds! We had a fun time at the mix sessions, with Bill coming up with different Western drum sounds and trying to get it to gel with the whole piece...
I'm going to add vocals and continue with this piece in the coming months. Hope you like the piece and it gives you a peaceful state of mind!

Tools used to compose: Pro Tools LE7.4, Korg Karma synthesizer, Godin Freeway Classic electric guitar, EastWest Orchestra platinum edition, SwarShala (from swarsystems, to simulate Eastern Instruments).

My story of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

It was in the last year that Vijay S had asked me to sing his first song for Blogswara. The song was called Kaathirundhen and it is one of the much appreciated songs of Blogswara's V4 album. I loved that song totally and was happy to sing it with Sindhuja, a wonderful singer. I practiced the song a lot, recorded it multiple times, but fell ill just before I was to make the final recording. I had a terrible cough which was followed by sever throat pain. My voice was hoarse and this lasted for almost 2 months. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the song and I requested Murali R to sing it. The song came out very well with the vocals of Murali and Sindhuja.

I was glad when Vijay came up with another gem of a song this year and asked me to sing it. When I heard the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro at first I wasn't sure if I could sing it. The shruthi of the song was way too low for my vocal range (I think my vocal range fits for the mid-range songs, not too low and not too high) and I expressed my concern over it. Especially the parts like "kaaNaamal kaaNaamal maayam" in the 1st charanam were too low for me and the song tempo was a bit fast. So the tempo was changed to be a bit slower and the shruthi a little higher. Still, the tempo did not leave much room for improvisations from vocalists but the song in itself was so beautiful and it did not need much improvisation.

Vijay S had started planning the song early, so we had enough time to practice the song. He first sent the song to Sindhuja and she was kind enough to record the song in her voice and sent it for me to learn. Vijay is a perfectionist but he also let the singers to take freedom in improvising at parts. There were so many emails sent back and forth and Vijay would also call me on the phone to discuss certain parts of the song or to explain the meaning of the song.

At one point of time, I thought I wouldn't be able to do the final recording, because my sinusitis usually gives me cold and nose blocks in regular intervals. So I told Vijay that I might not be able to finish the song on time or he better get another singer. But he was confident that I would be okay and that is how my voice went in. :-)

The orchestration of Azhaithadhu Yaaro, done by Vijay N, has gone through a lot of phases and Vijay N has done a wonderful job. He has made video about this orchestration experiments and you can watch it here.

I never met any of the people who have worked with this song - Vijay S is in Bangalore and we talk only over the phone or chat through Gtalk. My communication with Sindhuja was limited only to Gtalk and emails, and I have interacted with Vijay N only through emails. Yet, we were able to do this song and I think that is the beauty of Blogswara. That it encourages people to come up, communicate and collaborate irrespective of the location and with their love and passion for music.

Listen to Azhaithadhu Yaaro from here

Un-making of Azhaithadhu Yaaro

Here is a video put together by Vijay N about his experience in orchestrating the song Azhaithadhu Yaaro.

Your comments please!

The song teams who participated in the 5th version of Blogswara would love to hear your comments. Please do put in your comments in this comments space. Thank you.

BlogSwara Version 5 - Song teasers posted!

Hola everyone!

It is time for another version of Blogswara! Yes, it is Blogswara's version 5!! We have posted the song teasers in our website, so hop over to there to listen to the 20 seconds long song previews.

We have 14 songs this year and in four languages - Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada (the first Kannada song of Blogswara) - and also instrumental music. All by some of the people who have participated in Blogswara's previous versions and many new faces.

So watch out for 12th December 2008, which is only one week away from now, for the grand release of Blogswara Version 5. And do spread the word around!

Inviting Entries for BlogSwara 5!

Hello all,

We at BlogSwara are inviting entries for the 5th version of BlogSwara project. Please visit our website for more details and start working on your songs!

Blogswara on a thesis

It is a joyous moment for all of us who worked with BlogSwara platform to know that it is getting attention from an opposite corner of the world. BlogSwara has become the center case study for an MA thesis submission.

Jessica Keyes, a student of Department of Music, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada has chosen the music blogging with a primary focus on BlogSwara for her academic defense. Her paper titled "Blogging Music: Indian Musicians and Online Musical Spaces" presents an ethnography of the Indian music blogging community and a critical analysis of the historical and technological foundation for music blogging.