Why we listen 

*Listening is the most important thing we can do in our music education. It teaches us to enjoy music.*

I want to stress that nobody goes through this process knowing how to already listen or what to listen for. We all have to go through the motions of listening again and again until your ears start to pick up new things. We are training our ears. We also each hear different things, and we want to celebrate those individual reactions. Even if it’s confusing at first, we have to listen more - I promise music will become more clear and exciting the more that you listen. This is why we must attend all live concerts of Carnatic music whenever they happen in town, and listen to albums of Carnatic music each week. It takes practice, like everything else. 

Listening Prompts:

Here is one way you can approach your listening reports for each song, which are due one month from today:

First, list this info:

 1) Link to recording I listened to (or the exact words I looked up): 

 2) Ragam: 

3) Thalam (if relevant): 

4) Composer (if relevant): 

5) Artists in recording: 

6) Date of recording (if known): 

And answer some or all of the following questions: 

- Did you listen to a composition? A composition is a pre-written piece of music that existed prior to this concert or recording that you’re listening to. If so, what type of composition is it? Is it Krithi/Kirthana? Is it a varnam? Is it a tukada? If this piece is part of a larger concert or album, then write down where in the concert this piece comes. That might also help you figure out what type of piece it is.

 - If you are not listening to a composition, then you are probably listening to improvisation: music that is created right in front of you, by the artists  performing it. Who is improvising, the melody artists (vocalist, veena player, violin?) or the rhythm Artists (the Mridangam player, the ghatam player, the kanjis player, the morsing artist)? Or both? Is there any back-and-forth in the improvising? Are they taking turns? Or is one person mostly leading it? Does it feel like you can put thalam to the improvisation or does it feel loose? Do you know if it is an alapana, Thanam, Kalpana swaram, nereval, viruttam, thani avarthanam or something else?

 - what technical aspects do you notice about the raga? Can you identify any of the swaras in this raga? If there is a singer, and they are singing actuals what are names, make note of where the swaras are appearing (time stamp, as well as location within the recording: beginning, second paragraph, middle, near the end, end, etc). Based on your own understanding of composed music versus improvised music, do you think these swaras are composed, or improvised 

- and why? Explain your reasoning. 

 - If there is a sense of rhythm in the recording, try to identify if it is adi thalam (the 8-beat pattern we know) or not. Does the music feel fast? Does it feel slow? Does it feel different things at different points? Describe in detail. 

 - What does this music make you feel? What are the emotions expressed? If there are words being sung, or you know the title of the piece, consider looking up the text (the lyrics) and finding a translation. What is this song about? How does the meaning of this composition compared to the meeting that you yourself take from it? These can be different things: the meaning the composer intended, the meeting the performer is bringing out of it, and the meaning that you as the listener are taking from it 

- all of these can be different emotions and moods. Describe in detail what you are feeling and/or what you think you are meant to be feeling. 

 - After listening to multiple things, write in the conclusion if you have a favorite raga or song now, and why. This means that you will have listened to pieces more than once.

Shruthi

ஸ்ருதி

श्रुति