Some of mine

Like what I wrote in one of my previous blogs, I spend the evenings in my apartment trying to recreate some of the songs that I like, with my keyboard and cakewalk. In the process, I get to learn playing keyboard.
I was searching for a website where I can host these songs for free and I found one today. I have posted four of them. If anyone is interested, you may go to the link that I have provided below. Do not get concerned about the link. It is not spam and does not spread virus as I have tested downloading the link into my lappy.

For all these songs there are certain things that are to be kept in mind before you listen.

a. The instruments that I have used are not the same, in most of the cases, as those used in the original song. Afterall, that cannot be expected as I am using a cheap software which is not professional. However, I am exploring my software for new instruments (which are numerous) and so I can only get better as time passes by.
b. Try using a earplug when you listen as I find that it gives more sound clarity and you can listen to all the instruments that are being used. Moreover sound directly enters your ears without any external disturbance. Lappy and desktop speakers are useless.
c. The chords that I have used may/may not match with the exact song. So if anyone knows the song inside out (with the notes and chords), please forgive me.
d. You can rest assured that all these songs are definitely not 'noise' but some sort of an audible sound.
e. In some of the songs, I have used strings as lead instrument as it would add melancholy to the music.
f. Kindly reduce your master volume as I did a mistake of not reducing the decibel level while recording and mixing!
g. Each of the song has atleast one mistake in it!

When you click on the link, you will be taken to a website. Choose 'free' and not premium. You may have to wait for few seconds before you get the download link.

Lets come to the songs.

I think I have created too much hype with the previous statements. So to lower your expectations to sub-zero level, first comes worst.
If Rahman had listened to what I have done to his song (maybe the first song that he composed), he would have hung himself.......upside down! This was the first song that I tried with cakewalk. It was probably too late when I thought I should not have selected this song as my first. My assumption was that this being rahman's first song and he being paid Rs25000 for the movie, he would have used less complicated instruments which can be 'easily' replicated.
As with most of the assumptions, I made an ass of u and me.
The song is 'Kaadhal Rojave' from Roja. I have not used the tabla that he has used in the song, which will be conspicuous by its absence. The prelude and interludes are aaabsolootely hopeless. So, kindly adjust.
Here is the link.
http://rapidshare.de/files/18863928/kaadhal_rojave.mp3.html

The next song is better than the first. This was the second that I recreated. The song is 'Iru Vizhi' from Minnale.
Here is the link
http://rapidshare.de/files/18863623/iru_vizhi.mp3.html

I 'love' this song. It is a famous carnatic song that everyone except me in the brahmin community will know head to tail. I came across this first in the movie 'Alaipayuthe'. It would not have caught my attention even then had it not been for the background drums beat. I always liked to play this song in my keyboard with chords as it sounded beautiful to me. Consequently, this is the song in which I have used many chords (I dont remember how many). I have rained it with chords and to me it sounds pleasing. Also, I wanted to play this with piano and not with any other instrument. As a result, you may not hear the 'gamagam' that any human voice lends to the music. There is a mistake in the song as I have gulped a few verses in the middle. If there are any purists, please accept my apology. In all, this is the one that I love the most.
Here is the link.
http://rapidshare.de/files/18863553/alaipayuthe.mp3.html

This song was sung in the latest edition of 'Milan' at A&M. It was sung very well that I wanted to play this song with my keyboard. Again there is a mistake in this song where I missed a beat and it is prominent. But apart from that, I believe it has come out alright.
Here is the link
http://rapidshare.de/files/18863327/vaseegara.mp3.html

I have a few more songs in my mind, that I want to play. I will post it as and when I complete it. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy these.

Till I meet you next,

Adios.

Music is cakewalk

I came (went) to college station this weekend as I usually do for most of the weekends. There was a flute concert by Shashank scheduled for friday evening. I knew he was a good artist as I had seen him perform in Pilani long time back. This concert just reinforced my views.

This blog is about my take on music and what it means to me. Whatever performance that I have been to, there has been a visible trait that was common in all of the artists - their passion for the art and the satisfaction they derive from performing that art. I was able to see it on their faces when they were performing. I am sure everyone will be agree that this trait sets apart the great from good, in whatever field. I was going through an interview byRahman, when I was trying to kill time. I came across this interesting viewpoint of his, when he says that a person can make a very good musical composition and/or will be able to really appreciate music, not just with talent or knowledge of music but by being philosophical about life and with atleast a tinge of sorrow somewhere in his/her heart. I cannot agree more on this and I can certainly not prove how true it is. Each one of us who truly love music will realize that. For example, a song like 'Yaakkai thiri' from Aaitha Ezhuthu -especially the final part when he combines the carnatic notes with the western music as only he possibly can - would surely not have been composed by any of the tamil/hindi composers other than Rahman. It is from that song I started liking the term 'advaitha'. This should have definitely been one of those songs when he got the tunes while in meditation!

Personally, I go to these concerts that I was talking about, for two reasons. One, because I am obviously interested and two, because I do not want that hunger in me to keep listening to music, to die.When I am happy, listening to music makes me feel happier. When I am in sorrow, it soothes me. When I am angry, it cools me down. That is precisely the reason why I long(ed) to learn an instrument. I have been playing keyboard for some time now but I have not been able to graduate to the next level where I can play with both hands fluently. And I feel bad that I am not able demonstrate how good (or bad!) I am with the instrument when any of my friends ask to me to play it because I forget the notes and the corresponding chords! Damn it,I remember them only when I seriously play the instrument, in the evenings and all alone in my apartment. This inability along with my latest interest in sequencing (a way by which modern day music is composed by layering melody and harmony along with other special FX and finally overlapping them) induced me into buying 'Cakewalk', which is a leading sequencing software, so that I can play and record any song and listen to it whenever I want. I am still coming to terms with the complexities in the software. It is just like Pro-E or SolidWorks where it takes time to learn the nuances. As a result, my initial songs are not very pleasing to hear (one of my friends was not even able to recognise a song which I thought was good enough!) but I know I can only get better from here. I, however, do all this just for my personal satisfaction - the one that I gain when I play the notes and blend that with a few of the huge collection of chords, which in itself is interesting- and not with an intention of starting 'Advaitha' sometime soon! If anyone can let me know of a website where I can post these files, it will be helpful.

Yaam petra inbam(thunbam!) pera ivvayyagam......

To me, Music is Cakewalk and Cakewalk is Music.
To me, music had been/is/will be a companion.....

Chaos

When we did not have anything worth doing, my friends and myself used to discuss about our long term plans. I mean, how long will we stay in this country and if we will ever go back to India. I tell them that my plan is to stay here for about 5-6 years after I get a job and go back to India. If I tell the same thing to someone in India (say, to my friends), I know the response that I will get. "Dei, enna kathai vidare. Ingenthu pogum pothu ellarum ippadi thaan da solluveenga.appuram anga poi ellam paathuttu angeye settle aayiduveenga". If they still say this to me, I will ask them to come to the US and experience themselves. Apart from money,what do we have in this country that we dont have in India? I understand that I came to this country to earn quickly and doing an MS was just the byproduct! Ideally, it should have been the other way round. Anyways, coming back to the point, how long can we keep earning? After sometime, money will nomore be an issue but some other things will be. Things will begin to stagnate and we will need a change. To me, I think that will be sometime between 5-6 years from now. Above all this, what is in this country that will attract me and make me stay put here. Zilch! Just look at this country. Does it have the chaos that we experience in India? Dont let your imagination get around terrorism, make a U-turn and come back. When I talk about chaos, I talk about chaos in those simple things, say the rush in suburban trains, the unparliamentary words that you may hear from anyone when you make a stupid mistake on road. We dont have parallel parking in India. There is no concept of blindspot in India. We see chaos reigning anywhere and that is what makes India interesting. I dont want everything in order. Even a house can be clean with everything placed in order only to some extent. If everything is perfect, the place will look like a museum. It will cease to look like a house. It loses its mortality and the human touch. I dont want to live in that world. I want to live in a world where chaos plays its part. Disorder should be a part of my life. This place is so boring and mechanical. Above all this, these people do the same things that we do but they make a big fuss about it! We do those things in a simple way and quietly. I hate that artificial flavour in everything here. Nothing is natural, including the way people behave. Look at some one passing by on a road. They greet you alright. "Hey,wassup" or "Hey, How are ya?". But do they atleast slow down to listen to our response? By the time you say, "Oh, I am just fine, thanks", they would have crossed the road to the other side. They dont care about all this. The culture of greeting someone is so much imbibed in them that they fail to realize that it is a natural behavior. This is just one simple example. It is not my aim to keep giving instances as that is not the point of discussion.

There is chaos in everything and researchers spend their life on studying it! Then why not chaos in my daily life?

Life

I may be sounding a bit philosophical in my first blog but that is how my mood is today(tonight, rather).

I am just bored of my day-to-day materialisitic thinking. There is not a day when I dont wish that I own a black BMW 4-seater convertible (afterall black is beauty!), that I own a Korg triton synthesizer which I can use to play and sequence music for nothing more than my personal satisfaction when I am experiencing both the extremes in my mood, that I own a Polk home theatre and listen to those thumping beats of ARR with the volume knob turned all the way to the right. I am sure you would have heard this cliche that nothing is permanent in this world or can be taken for granted. The first thing that tops that list is life.

I started thinking about all this when an Indian student at A&M died of a car accident few months ago. He was not close to me but it is disturbing to hear about someone's death. Closeness to that person is immaterial. It happened all of a sudden. That guy was just about 30 miles away from college station when his car was T-boned. Inclement weather on that day did not help him in anyway when driving. It took time for all of us to come to terms with that. One of my friends, who used to spend a good part of his time in that person's house found it hard to believe. It is hard to believe your own eyes during these times and it takes time to sink in. I can still visualize that person sitting on the corridor near our apartment everyday, smoking and cracking jokes with his roommates.

This makes us (or atleast me) wonder as to how invaluble are all these things that we wish to own when we do not even have the slightest hint of what is going to happen the next moment. I mean, it is funny. Inspite of all this, ironically, it is these wishes that is driving the world. Lets face it. How many professionals really enjoy the work they do? Will they ever have the guts to say "Ok, pay me peanuts and I will still work with the same vigor?" Maybe, there are people who will do that. But how many? At the end of the day, people want to earn so that they can live the life that they wish to live. Else, the world would have seen innumerable Einsteins.

I would just like to believe in the fact that life is a chain of events closely related to each other, events with wanted and unwanted surprises.