2015 Resolutions

It’s a new year and the time to make a list of resolutions. Here are some of mine:

Music:
1. I have a few (great?) ideas brewing and I really look forward to implement at least some of them.
2. I happened to meet some amazing artists last year and I will be collaborating with some of them. 
3. I’m planning to make my practice sessions more intentional and take notes to connect the dots later. 

Life:
1. Declutter both my online and offline lives. 
2. Simplify and lead a more intentional life. 
3. Be more active, physically and mentally. 
4. Create more and consume less. 
5. Develop some wonderful daily habits. 

What are your resolutions for the new year? 

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Song of the Season [Winter] - Free Audio Download

You can download Malare Mounama's audio for free here.

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Song of the Season [Winter] - Music Video

Here's the new music video from Song of the Season project in our Thematic Music Series. This time its a Tamil song from the movie, Karna. The song was originally composed by Vidyasagar in Darbari Kaanada raagam.

This is a relatively, less cheerful version of the song to suit the mood of winter - gloomy and cold. Also, this is the first time I'm trying my hands on music arrangement. Here's Malare Mounama, an alternate version. 

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An ode to discovering better

It’s not about making a good piece of art. It’s not about being a good artist either. 
The point is to discover a better way to make a piece of art, to discover ways to become a better artist, a better musician, and a better person. 
Never stop the process of discovery because there has to be a better way of doing things.
Here’s to discovering better life, better art, and better music. 

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Choosing syllables & phrases for song lyrics

Sometimes, lyrics can have an adverse effect on the melody line of songs. Lyrics can also, include syllables such as ‘thandhanaane..naane”,’lalala…” and so on. 

If you think about it, there are thousands of examples out there that we have grown up listening to. What I would be interested to know is the reasoning behind choosing certain phrases/syllables as a part of song lyrics. 

Even though the choice of phrases depends largely on the context and the theme conveyed, here’s an example to illustrate my point - “Thangai" would be a better word than “Thangachi” and “Mayakkam" would be a better word than “Urakkam”. And here’s why I feel so - it just ‘sounds’ right. This is somewhat similar to the logic behind idioms in English grammar. I’m not sure if these are good examples, but, you get the idea, right?

On a related note, WikiHow has already described a set of steps to write song lyrics. Here are a few other sources that does the same.

So, the question here is how do one decide the right syllables/phrases to effectively express a song, especially in Indian music sub-genres. Do you have any examples to share? 

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