Namaste, Dear Music Lover, I want to share with aspiring singers a tip about working in Bollywood playback (movie soundtrack) singing: there is usually some (intended, maybe) literal link between song lyrics and a movie’s visual action/story or hope that songs convey emotionalmoments or feelings to highlight or support the cinematic narrative, and they may […]
Namaste, Dear Music Lover, First, I must note that this post is not mainly about thespian (theatrical/screen) acting. It’s really about what’s termed as composure or how one carries oneself on stage (and of course, wherever else one performs). Other related terms: posture, carriage, stage presence and persona. Being “in the limelight” (in other words, […]
Namasté, Dear Music Lover, This will be one of my briefest posts here. I just want to acknowledge the importance of gaining control over one’s own mind—being a key aspect of training oneself as a pro vocalist. We are given notes and guidance from composers about how to approach various texts and melodies (the voice […]
Namasté, Dear Music Lover, Dance is among the most ancient modes of human expression. Virtually every global region, country or locale has some form of traditional-cultural dance… in general we call many such dance forms folkloric or folk dances. Hindu classical dance is nice, too. India’s dance traditions are about as ancient as any others […]
Namasté, Dear Music Lover, I remain so focused on Bollywood movie songs that I have delegated some “routine” activities like web site administration to Footman Joe (my manservant), who along with limited guidance from a few others at Team Antara/T–Mantra Music covers this aspect of my so-called online presence. Whereas generally it’s more like an […]
Namasté, Dear Music Lover, Certainly I’m not here to push for one or the other, nor to tell anyone but myself how to feel, yet I think of many singers… we struggle with being some specific identity or balance of influences that “places” us in the constellations of singers as one or the other for […]
Kindness costs us nothing. Why bother hating—if it’s far too difficult to prosecute or defend? Which it usually is. Kindness. Let’s keep it in mind. I want to add a sort of quick “disclaimer” here and let everyone know that I had no intention to jump into the fray over whether Sonu-ji one of my dear […]
Namaste, Dear Music Lovers, One aspect of being “in the public eye” is the tendency of artists/performers to fall into some variation of “people pleasing behaviours” and I’ll admit it’s practically a given for singers. If we’re not already overloaded with pressure to produce excellence by a music director or composer, we can find ourselves […]
Namaste! Dear Music Lovers, Queens are keen… The idea of royalty is quite ancient. Recently I wrote about mothers as objects of our admiration. The much-promoted and press-covered British Royal wedding of
Namaste, Music Lovers, This is the first installment in what I hope is a new fashion series. Fashion/style is one fun part of life in a movie-production orbit that can a) take a detached producer’s view or b) be sought for a particular purpose like today’s show/event (or in my view only for fun). As you can […]
Namaste, Music Lovers, Each of us has a mother or we wouldn’t be here. So thanks to the annual celebration which in the modern era may have originated in Europe and was later commercialized in the United States but surely has a much older eastern origin, what we call Mother’s Day was expanded globally by […]
Namaste, Dear Music Lovers, Today is yet another smoky day in Mumbai. I hope that wherever you are, there is less air pollution. It almost seems like Los Angeles here (well, in terms of music/audio/film production facilities, but here in Mumbai we are second to none), if only in terms of crowded roads and hazy […]