Murali Venkatraman

Murali Venkatraman posted

It is one thing to comment on others and a totally different thing to comment on self.

I am probably the oldest audio-blogger among my friends.I have been blogging since 2002 about music ( I lost the first blog). And from 1998, I have written extensively on various topics in http://tfmpage.com and ended up founding http://dhool.com with my friends later.

I am a singer, composer, keyboard and guitar player, an arranger and a writer. I have no formal schooling in any of these. Hence from yesterday, I have joined music classes under Shree Shobha Shekar of Melbourne.

My approach to music comes from two different perspectives : Analytical and Emotional. I am a scientist by the day and its influence creeps into every aspect of my life including music. But I also recognize the fundamental importance of music having to be transcendental experience beyond the notes.

My strengths:
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1. Expression
2. Enunciation and clarity in syllables.
3. Extreme care for the lyrics and pronunciation in all languages.
4. A keen ear which is capable of detecting even the the most minor flaws when going off-scale
5. I believe my voice is suited more for soft and semi-classical songs.
6. Mid range notes sound good in my voice.
7. Very diverse listening but pretty much confined to Indian genres and languages and allowing them to influence my singing and composing styles.
8. Seek to perform songs that are long lost gems.

My weaknesses:
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1. Base and High notes need more work.
2. My diction in North Indian languages need more work.
3. More than diction, the differences between carnatic and hindustani gamakams need to be understood more.
4. Nasality in very high notes.
5. Unclear brighas in extremely fast phrases.
6. A tendency to rush when I sing without metronome.
7. Not attempting songs which have a western feel due to inhibition.
8. Bad time management which lets me do much less than what I can.
9. High influences of SPB and Yesudas and recently hariharan and srinivas. I don’t know if this is a strength or weakness, but it is a feature.
10. Absolutely hopeless in a sound-engineering for my compositions.

Please let me know what you guys think.

Posted on February 05, 2009