The earliest instance in my life which made me appreciate the beauty of music happened in my childhood... may be in 1994 when my aunt (mother's sister) visited our home. She was carrying so called sony walkman at that time and was listening to a cassette of the film "Padmavyuham" songs of which are composed by A R Rahman in his career debut stage. I loved one particular song "Ninna Eee Kalavarintha" so much that it stayed and got etched on my mind forever. Over next five six years, i had limited access to listen songs except for radio and an old Philips tape recorder which generally is used to play devotional songs.
When I was studying 5th or 6th class, my dad enrolled me with Sri Kodi Ramamoorthi garu who was an excellent Veena player and classical music teacher. Though I practiced Sa re ga ma notes, Jatis and few keerthanas, veena instrument attracted me a lot. I always wanted to experiment with it. I vividly remember asking him if I can borrow his instrument(which he treasured more than his life and wife) and he agreed. Over the weekend, I tweaked and twisted so much that by Monday morning that I broke three strings. The magnitude of scathing I received for that is well left for your imagination. This has put an end to six month training.
But, whenever I listened to any song, the individual components of song thrilled me. Earlier in childhood, I thought(like any other kid) that in a video song, the instrument players must be sitting somewhere near hero heroine couple and played instruments while hero heroine sang melodiously. It is only much later that I understood about audio recording and sound mixing techniques.
Thanks to my dad, who is a versatile genius and possessed gifted voice, I got multiple chances to visit and perform in radio and television, where I learned how instrument players sit in recording studio and compose music.
I remember requesting my dad to buy me audio cassette of 'Nuvve Kavali', a telugu film. He bought it for me with a condition that I should learn and sing at least one song for him which I did. I must have listened to that cassette a zillion times.
But whenever I heard A R Rahman's song it was quite different in tone and tenor when compared to any classical keertana. This evoked in me tremendous desire to understand how it is different. But as you would know, like any other indian student of my age then, was so busy with academics that I had limited time to reach out to people to clarify my doubts. Meanwhile internet helped me with lot of information.
In my third year of engineering, in JNTU Hyderabad hostel, there was a hostel day celebration going on which I attended. One senior Surinada Bhaskar introduced me to a software called Fruity Loops which turned out to be my first introduction to digital music. It had so many instruments which I often listen in any modern song may it be of A R Rahman or any other leading composer then. I remember foregoing sleep for days following that incident, tweaking with that software piece.
Thanks to fluent telugu taught by dad (who himself is a master's degree holder in telugu literature and diehard literature aficionado) and exposure to lot of telugu literature at home, I picked up tough words and complex usage very easily. During engineering days, I used to pen song lyrics whenever inspiration strikes me. I remember sitting in K S Bakers in KPHB,where we would gather for birthday parties, and instantly writing a pallavi on a tissue paper. My friend Sunil liked it and encouraged me to complete charanam which I did the very evening. This was my first full song. The joy of creating a song and composing your own song is the beauty I discovered then.
On a separate note, my longtime friend and now my wife Rekha was a big fan of my amateur poetry and singing. She has been a great supporter always. Needless to mention, poetry and song rendition were some of the tools I employed to impress Rekha as well ;).
With a bit of effort, I managed to record a song on my computer, for my own lyrics, tune and yes first time usage of cymbals and drums.
On seeing my interest, dad introduced me to one of his close friend, Sri Theresh babu garu (pydrisree) who is an exponent of telugu poetry and brilliant gazal writer with excellent music sense. He is an awesome singer and poet himself. He visited my home to listen to my song and he was extremely happy with it. That is when he introduced me to the concept of Shruti- Laya/ Rhythm-Melody. The words he taught me that day still echo in my head. Thenceforth, analysis of songs became so easy and has become my second nature. I realized how bass is effectively used and how beautiful lyrics marry with rhtyhm and melody to become an ocean of awesomeness.
The first thing I bought with my first salary from HAL is to buy a 15k casio CTK 5000 61 key electronic keyboard. Overtime I realized the huge potential and sound making abilities of modern day electronic synthesizers and midi controllers. The mere note of a piano, strum of a guitar or high pitched overture of a string started inspiring me. There were days I dreamt of buying Yamaha Motif or Korg worth 3lakh inr and then realized how a cheap midi controller and a powerful DAW in studio can beat Yamaha and Korg hands down. For sometime, I entertained the idea of quitting job and signing up for Trinity College, London. I approached School of Audio Engineering in Bangalore for a course on music production. You might know that GV Prakash Kumar was SAE student. But 1.5 lakh fee deterred me.
I started realizing how nature has inherent rhythms and melodies. I understood how the timbre and tone of human voice adds richness to composition and started evaluating singers on their unique gift - voice. Started following Rasool pookutty and was thrilled when he won academy award. Learnt how Rahman effectively uses technology to bring freshness to his songs.
I studied chords and try to marry it with the knowledge of melakartha ragas. Started understanding chord progressions accompanied by bass movements and subtle usage of chorus.
Thanks to support of Rekha, owned a Novation sl mkII zero controller and Yamaha audiogram 6. And recently M-Audio Axiom(Thanks again Rekha for taking pain of going to Chennai all the way and getting it back to Hyderabad for me).
Hitting studio for composing a theme for IIM B alumni association meet was an awesome experience. Got the chance to actualize my music ideas into an mp3 with help of my friend singer Bhole. The tremendous satisfaction you get when you hold a CD that has song you composed it is unparalleled. It doubled my confidence in me.(https://soundcloud.com/chaitanya-naga-1/tejate-the-theme-music-of)
And then, I had this dream of composing an album, just to explore what I can do here. I don't have a brilliant training in any instrument. But I feel that my intuition and understanding would help me. Now, I'm starting off with it this day. I visualize it to have four songs with a particular theme. Hope it turns out well.
When I was studying 5th or 6th class, my dad enrolled me with Sri Kodi Ramamoorthi garu who was an excellent Veena player and classical music teacher. Though I practiced Sa re ga ma notes, Jatis and few keerthanas, veena instrument attracted me a lot. I always wanted to experiment with it. I vividly remember asking him if I can borrow his instrument(which he treasured more than his life and wife) and he agreed. Over the weekend, I tweaked and twisted so much that by Monday morning that I broke three strings. The magnitude of scathing I received for that is well left for your imagination. This has put an end to six month training.
But, whenever I listened to any song, the individual components of song thrilled me. Earlier in childhood, I thought(like any other kid) that in a video song, the instrument players must be sitting somewhere near hero heroine couple and played instruments while hero heroine sang melodiously. It is only much later that I understood about audio recording and sound mixing techniques.
Thanks to my dad, who is a versatile genius and possessed gifted voice, I got multiple chances to visit and perform in radio and television, where I learned how instrument players sit in recording studio and compose music.
I remember requesting my dad to buy me audio cassette of 'Nuvve Kavali', a telugu film. He bought it for me with a condition that I should learn and sing at least one song for him which I did. I must have listened to that cassette a zillion times.
But whenever I heard A R Rahman's song it was quite different in tone and tenor when compared to any classical keertana. This evoked in me tremendous desire to understand how it is different. But as you would know, like any other indian student of my age then, was so busy with academics that I had limited time to reach out to people to clarify my doubts. Meanwhile internet helped me with lot of information.
In my third year of engineering, in JNTU Hyderabad hostel, there was a hostel day celebration going on which I attended. One senior Surinada Bhaskar introduced me to a software called Fruity Loops which turned out to be my first introduction to digital music. It had so many instruments which I often listen in any modern song may it be of A R Rahman or any other leading composer then. I remember foregoing sleep for days following that incident, tweaking with that software piece.
Thanks to fluent telugu taught by dad (who himself is a master's degree holder in telugu literature and diehard literature aficionado) and exposure to lot of telugu literature at home, I picked up tough words and complex usage very easily. During engineering days, I used to pen song lyrics whenever inspiration strikes me. I remember sitting in K S Bakers in KPHB,where we would gather for birthday parties, and instantly writing a pallavi on a tissue paper. My friend Sunil liked it and encouraged me to complete charanam which I did the very evening. This was my first full song. The joy of creating a song and composing your own song is the beauty I discovered then.
On a separate note, my longtime friend and now my wife Rekha was a big fan of my amateur poetry and singing. She has been a great supporter always. Needless to mention, poetry and song rendition were some of the tools I employed to impress Rekha as well ;).
With a bit of effort, I managed to record a song on my computer, for my own lyrics, tune and yes first time usage of cymbals and drums.
On seeing my interest, dad introduced me to one of his close friend, Sri Theresh babu garu (pydrisree) who is an exponent of telugu poetry and brilliant gazal writer with excellent music sense. He is an awesome singer and poet himself. He visited my home to listen to my song and he was extremely happy with it. That is when he introduced me to the concept of Shruti- Laya/ Rhythm-Melody. The words he taught me that day still echo in my head. Thenceforth, analysis of songs became so easy and has become my second nature. I realized how bass is effectively used and how beautiful lyrics marry with rhtyhm and melody to become an ocean of awesomeness.
The first thing I bought with my first salary from HAL is to buy a 15k casio CTK 5000 61 key electronic keyboard. Overtime I realized the huge potential and sound making abilities of modern day electronic synthesizers and midi controllers. The mere note of a piano, strum of a guitar or high pitched overture of a string started inspiring me. There were days I dreamt of buying Yamaha Motif or Korg worth 3lakh inr and then realized how a cheap midi controller and a powerful DAW in studio can beat Yamaha and Korg hands down. For sometime, I entertained the idea of quitting job and signing up for Trinity College, London. I approached School of Audio Engineering in Bangalore for a course on music production. You might know that GV Prakash Kumar was SAE student. But 1.5 lakh fee deterred me.
I started realizing how nature has inherent rhythms and melodies. I understood how the timbre and tone of human voice adds richness to composition and started evaluating singers on their unique gift - voice. Started following Rasool pookutty and was thrilled when he won academy award. Learnt how Rahman effectively uses technology to bring freshness to his songs.
I studied chords and try to marry it with the knowledge of melakartha ragas. Started understanding chord progressions accompanied by bass movements and subtle usage of chorus.
Thanks to support of Rekha, owned a Novation sl mkII zero controller and Yamaha audiogram 6. And recently M-Audio Axiom(Thanks again Rekha for taking pain of going to Chennai all the way and getting it back to Hyderabad for me).
Hitting studio for composing a theme for IIM B alumni association meet was an awesome experience. Got the chance to actualize my music ideas into an mp3 with help of my friend singer Bhole. The tremendous satisfaction you get when you hold a CD that has song you composed it is unparalleled. It doubled my confidence in me.(https://soundcloud.com/chaitanya-naga-1/tejate-the-theme-music-of)
And then, I had this dream of composing an album, just to explore what I can do here. I don't have a brilliant training in any instrument. But I feel that my intuition and understanding would help me. Now, I'm starting off with it this day. I visualize it to have four songs with a particular theme. Hope it turns out well.
