THE MADRAS ORHODOX CHOIR -PARTS HARMONY

It is a wonderful feeling to realize slowly, the transformation that the Orthodox Church is going through in music and it is very satisfying to be a part of that metamorphosis.

It is great to see the the first of the many outputs come through after a lot of hard work. The bass group had to go through a real grind with Fr.John Samuel everytime he demanded perfection. I believe it was the same situation for the other voice groups too.

MELODIES AND BUTTERFLIES

Last December I got an opportunity to sing on stage for Christmas.  Of all the performances I have done so far, I believe this one was the best. The previous stint was almost a year earlier.

I have to agree that I did experience almost a factory of butterflies inside me in the last five hours prior to singing. But still I feel I was able to manage it well. Singing is best done when we are able to breath normally and when we are at complete ease with the surroundings. I really felt that happen this time.

I remember the first time when I performed on stage in college. I had truck loads of butterflies inside me for almost days before the singing. I had not practised the spots where I had to breathe and the whole song came to stop in the middle and I exhaled heavily into the mike. It was like the sound of some mini typhoon for the audience, when I finally exhaled :)) It took several months for me to come to terms with that fiasco :))

Singing comes best when we are casual and at ease. But I think I am rarely in that state and that is why I believe it is always a challenge for me :)) In fact singing is a great way to destress.



The funniest part is that someone had to tell me that I could sing. I am thankful to my college mates S.V.Gopal, Arul Daniel and Giridhar for pushing me to sing on stage the first time and to go beyond my diffidence.

Once when I was working out of Kolkata, I memorised a few Hindi song scripts written in English and went for a Hindi song audition. I did well and the judges rated me high. Ankur my roommate at Kolkata was the one who helped me get there. That performance gave me a lot of confidence. But the real mishap happened when the judge started to talk to me in Hindi after the song and all I could do was to blink in response :)) There are many other friends who always wanted me to sing in gatherings, small or large and all these little stints have had feedbacks and has helped me to dive deeper with much more interest and enthusiasm to sing.

Being part of the choir singing group at Church gives me a lot more confidence to take the pretty high and low pitches and to control my breath. Our choir leader Vinod has been a great observer and trainer. Team singing though, is a different cup of tea.