Thoughts on Music

Baji J. Ram Rao

A collection of my thoughts on music, over a period of time.

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14:07 +0530 Sun. 01-Jul-2012     kaanton se khiincha ke yeh aanchal: A hindi film song that starts with an अन्तरा(stanza) instead of a conventional मुखडा(refrain).

18:50 +0530 Tue. 02-Jul-2013    Nikita is the other side of any given line in time. A memory from the the winter of 1986.

08:08 +0530 Fri. 22-Nov-2013    Electronic Vocal Polishing. Stripping out the vocals from a music track.

21:06 +0530 Mon. 06-Jan-2014    A song? or a number, a track, a cover, a single,... What’s in a name?

23:30 +0530 Wed. 25-Jan-2014    “Dry mix foldback”, and stage performance

23:20 +0530 Sat. 15-Mar-2014    Two MIDI connected keyboards

23:20 +0530 Sat. 15-Mar-2014    Soulful Saxophone. The alto saxophone makes the most wonderful seductive creamy sound -- a near human sound, so expressive of human emotions. One cannot think of the saxophone in hindi film music, without thinking of Manohari-da and his spotless gold-plated Selmer alto saxophone. Manohari Singh(1931-2010) was composer R. D. Burman’s main arranger.

14:31 +0530 Sun. 23-Mar-2014    Overtone Singing. While traveling on Bombay’s suburban local trains as a teenager in the early 1970s, I have heard beggars doing Overtone Singing just to project louder and farther than usual. The same was used by Chai wallahs on the railway platforms, for the same reason.

20:08 +0530 Wed. 11-Jun-2014    “Picha Vecha Naal”, from the movie: Puthiya Mukham[പുതിയ മുഖം] (2009). A cute love song picturized on Prithviraj Sukumaran and Meera Nandan.

20:30 +0530 Sat. 21-Jun-2014    Earth’s largest and loudest musical instrument. The 150-ton, 1932 Midmer-Losh organ in the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium in Atlantic City, NJ, USA, has a console with 7 manuals, over 33,112 pipes in 8 organ chambers, 449 ranks and 314 registers.

18:50 +0530 Fri. 05-Aug-2014    The Electronic Synthesizer

09:28 +0530 Fri. 16-Aug-2014    Noriya Noriya

22:25 +0530 Fri. 12-Sep-2014    That Happy Feeling

16:45 +0530 Sun. 14-Sep-2014    learning ornamentals through song...

22:07 +0530 Mon. 15-Sep-2014    On purity of raags and mixed raags

06:56 +0530 Fri. 19-Sep-2014    Wind of Change -- Scorpions

09:00 +0530 Wed. 08-Oct-2014    Hala la la laiyya -- Rahbani brothers, Lebanon

09:34 +0530 Sat. 20-Dec-2014    chalaa bhii aa, aajaa rasiyaa

16:50 +0530 Sat. 03-Jan-2015    A live music orchestra in Gujarat

12:31 +0530 Sat. 08-Jan-2015    Absolute and variable pitch and temperament

19:00 +0530 Mon. 12-Jan-2015    Tumbadora (or Conga drums)

10:40 +0530 Fri. 16-Jan-2015    O. P. Nayyar

06:35 +0530 Fri. 23-Jan-2015    ye mahalon ye takhton ye taajon kii duniyaa

14:26 +0530 Mon. 26-Jan-2015    Do birds make music?

15:02 +0530 Wed. 28-Jan-2015    Sanam Puri and Vocal Harmonies

12:15 +0530 Wed. 30-Jan-2015    aap ki aankhon mein kuchh mehke hue se

18:13 +0530 Tue. 03-Feb-2015    raat bhii hai kuchh bhiigii-bhiigii

15:21 +0530 Tue. 11-Feb-2015    Gratitude! Thank the fish for the music

15:00 +0530 Tue. 16-Feb-2015    Absolute Pitch

16:55 +0530 Tue. 16-Feb-2015    Benny D’Silva and the Shigeru Kawai SK-7 semi-concert grand piano

16:55 +0530 Tue. 16-Feb-2015    parbaton ke peDon par shaam kaa baseraa hai

10:19 +0530 Sun. 31-May-2015    Baby Elephant Walk

07:21 +0530 Sat. 19-Dec-2015    Observing a hindi film song live orchestra rehearsal

10:06 -0700 Wed. 25-Dec-2015    Lovely defective chord in song for Amar Prem(1971)

21:03 +0530 Sun. 16-Apr-2017    “muurchhnaa(मूर्छना)” modulation: shifting the tonic(शड्ज) changes mode(ठाट) of the solfège(सरगम)

10:06 -0700 Wed. 18-Oct-2017    R. D. Burman and the Bossa Nova rhythm.

19:45 +0530 Mon. 16-Jul-2018    Things to avoid when singing on stage

15:44 +0530 Wed. 13-Mar-2019    Should singers memorize their songs?

23:20 +0530 Thu. 26-Dec-2019    The Ghazal form

09:18 +0530 Fri. 27-Dec-2019    The Marathi Ghazal

08:30 +0530 Fri. 22-Jan-2021    Songs from a 1965 grade-school Parents and Prize Day

17:55 +0530 Sun. 28-Mar-2021    As a good musician, don’t do these ten things

13:00 +0530 Tue. 06-Apr-2021    Why can’t we define or describe music, yet?

18:47 +0530 Sat. 10-Apr-2021    What is Musicality?

21:39 +0530 Sun. 23-May-2021    Musical Arrangement

00:08 -0400 Sun. 06-Nov-2022    International Sax Day 2022