They say that a student of music ought to be a good listener first. I agree only partially. Ofcourse it is important to remain a good listener so as to be able to get an idea of what sounds good and what does not. But above that, I personally dont think a student can just be like any other member of the audience.

The audience is the end consumer of all performing art. No audience, no performing arts. It is as simple as that. The art would survive without an audience but not with the same amount of splendor and grandeur.  The audience has what i call a 'listener's license' and in my opinion a student ought to be a listener without that license.

As a member of the audience it feels both justified and convenient to make sweeping generalisations on music and its performers. Take some classic examples which i have personally heard from a cross section of listeners:

"MS Subbulakshmi...oh she is great in devotional items saar but no vyavahaaram, no kanakku...sounds too rehearsed saar...no creativity at all saar"

"DK Pattammal...very good in pallavis saar but sings so many dikshitar kritis saar...sounds too pedantic"

"Semmangudi...excellent manodharmam but sadly no voice - so many places shruti lapses saar..."

"GNB...very systematic saar but no bhavam - shruti lapses also saar"...

and the list goes on and on...(encompassing the giants of today such as TM Krishna, Sanjay, Vijay Siva, Unnikrishnan...)



Now as another member of the audience I could just plainly either disagree or agree with such statements and move on...but as a student? Sadly no!!!



A listener can afford to just make an opinion and live with it. But a student does not have that luxury!! A student is constantly on the look out for any nuance that he can grasp, any new kriti that he can hear, any new raga that he can hear elaborated, any new pidi in a raga...

Is there ANY great musician who has not toiled day and night in the hope of mastering the art?

Arent all human beings prone to a fault (or faults)?

Being a student, if I casually form opinions and stay that way, my music would definitely not grow!!





Take an example.

It is very easy to say that MSS's music "sounds rehearsed" or "sounds predictable". But as an aspiring musician, I would consider my life complete if I could achieve atleast one percent of the perfection that MSS did during her lifetime.

It might sound 'intellectual' to say that Semmangudi's voice was uncooperative and he had problems with his shruti (or whatever), but if i can sing a Ksheenamai with even an iota of the life that he could I could just stop living!!!

It could be an "in thing" to say that GNB lacked bhavam or he sang too many brigas but if I could sing atleast one alapana with the same amount of patience and elan as he could I would be in heaven!!

It might sound cool to say that Pattammal sang kritis which sounded well rehearsed, but if I could sing a Ranganayakam with the same grandeur, I wouldnt have any other desire left!!

I might sound analytical if I said DK Jayaraman sang extensive swaras for even mahadeva siva shambho...but if i could make the eyes of a listener swell up with tears just by singing "gangadheeswaram" I dont think I would have anything else to live for!!!



To me, music is an enigma...so much like God itself.

No one would ever understand what music is.

Each comes up with their own path...

There is no such thing as a perfect path...but there is no journey without a path.