So...I was on TV guys. Exciting, right? (Please tell me somebody is reading this)
Should you want to watch 30--or 27, to be exact--minutes of me singing, a link to the video is posted below. Before you watch it, though, there are some things about the style of music that you should know.
1) This style of music is called Hindustani, and is originally from the northern regions of India, although pretty much everyone sings it now. Original South Indian music is called Carnatic.
2) Almost everything in the video you are about to see is improvisational. That is correct, other than the words, I am making everything up on the spot. Of course, there are guidelines for what you can make up, and these guidelines for what notes you can use and when you can use them are called "Ragas". Think of it like the Indian classical version of jazz. Additionally, everything has to be in the correct cycle of beats, provided by the instrument that the boy in the video is playing, called a tabla.
3) The first part of the video is called an Alaap. This is essentially the vocal warmup where I show the audience what Raag I am singing by just basically experimenting with the notes a bit. The next section is a "Bhada Khayal", which is a very slow piece. These are more difficult, because you have much more space to fill with your improvisations, but it is also harder to understand if you do not know anything about Indian music. It will basically be like, why is she singing so slowly? The third part is a "Chota Khayal", which is a shorter, much faster piece in which I do some shorter improvisations. This will be probably be much more impressive to the viewer because it will sound fast and you will be like, wow, did she just make that up? The answer is yes, yes I did. The last piece is a "Bhajan", which is just a short devotional song that is entirely not improvised, and is in a different Raga than the rest of the performance.
4) If you do not want to watch 30 minutes of me singing, but still want to be a good friend to me, I recommend skipping towards the end, when I do the faster, more impressive improvisational stuff called "Taans", and also a Bhajan that is pretty. If you, for some reason, want to know even more about Indian music, talk to me at another time.
5) If you are wondering why I did not tell anyone/force anyone to set their TiVos for when I was going to be on TV, it is because this only aired in Northern California, so I am not a TV star or anything.
Without further ado, here you go:
http://www.swaralahari.org/site/playvideo.php?concertid=150
For a time breakdown of what I do in this video so you can watch selected parts of it:
Bhada Khayal is till about 17 minutes in.
Chota Khayal is till about 24 minutes in.
Bhajan (PRETTY SONG THAT YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO) starts at about 24:30, and goes till the end.
Hope you enjoy it...
