Safar - A Journey of Melodious Bollywood Songs Through Time, 09/19/2015 from 5.30pm onwards

A select set of very melodious Bollywood songs from 1950s till current from Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh, Hemant Kumar, Lataji, Ashaji to Shankar Mahadevan, Udit Narayan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Kumar Shanu and others.

Performed by Sriram Sivaramakrishnan, Divya Sriram, Ashish Shanbhag, and emceed by Rakhee Chopra. Come experience it!

Tickets $20 per person, $35 for couple, $5 for children less than 15 yrs of age.

It is at Whippoorwill Hall

19, Whippoorwill Rd East

Armonk

NY 10504

09/19/2015 5.30 pm

http://www.northcastlelibrary.org/directions/armonk-parking-directions/

Contact Sriram for tickets at sris007@gmail.com or at 914 873 0857

Vidyaarambh with Shankar Mahadevan, New Jersey 08/15/2015

It was a great pleasure for me to conduct the Vidyaarambh event with Shankar Mahadevan, for the Shankar Mahadevan Academy at New Jersey.

I am very thankful to Sridhar Ranganathan, Shankar Mahadevan, and the Shankar Mahadevan Academy for giving an opportunity to the students of the Sound of my Music school to showcase themselves to Shankar Mahadevan.  

And all the kids present there, new and old, had a lot of fun learning their first lesson from Shankar Mahadevan himself. Two thumbs waayyyy up!!!

Thanks to Academy of Creative Arts for being a part of this event, coming all the way from Boston.

Very Important for all kids and adults alike

I stumbled upon this interview Shankar Mahadevan gave to IndiaKnowledge@Wharton. There is a lot of good insights and advice for anyone who is pursuing music as a career, or as a student. A very good read indeed. 

"You can definitely become a professional. You can definitely become successful. And you can become extremely popular even without learning music. But it all depends on what you want to do. How do you want to perform this art form of music: whether you want to approach it the real hard way by knowing every single technical [element] that is involved in a song? Why get into all that? Or you can just learn a few songs. If people are talented, they can just sing. But I feel that if you learn music the hard way and you know what you are doing [at] every step, you are a confident person. And you are able to face any circumstances, any situation, any form of music. You are able to absorb easily. And you will somehow stay on for a longer time because it is not superficial. You are a learned [person]. It is like any art form. It is like literature, for example. If you are well-read and you write something, there is a difference. There is an easy way out, too. But I think it always helps if you follow the path the correct way."

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/musician-shankar-mahadevan-creating-means-taking-risks-in-untapped-territory/

Back after a long time!

First of all, apologies from my end for being away so long. The whole purpose of maintaining this blog was to write about what I am doing with the kids in my class, share important tidbits from the class, and also among other things, attach links to articles that provide insights on music and the learning process of music, and also videos that I think that people should watch. So please hang on and enjoy the fun!

Sound of my Music presents Mile Sur Humara (Being in Harmony)

Hope to see a lot of you.

An event you cannot miss!

A splendid display of fusion music by Ravi Iyer (guitar) https://www.facebook.com/raviiyerofficial?ref=br_tf, accompanied by child artiste Master Ritvik Yaparpalvi (tabla). Ravi, a nominee for the 2013 Global Indian Music Awards, has performed with Dr. L Subramaniam (violin maestro) and Ustad Fazal Qureshi (tabla maestro). 

A presentation of evergreen and modern Bollywood and English hits by Sriram Sivaramakrishnan (vocals) https://www.youtube.com/user/sris007. Sriram runs the Sound of my Music school, in affiliation with the Shankar Mahadevan Academy. In this school, he teaches an introductory course on music for children. 

A unique fusion of Bollywood songs with Western and Indian classical—featuring songs by the Beatles and RD Burman—presented by Sriram, Ravi and Ritvik.

Last, but not the least, an opening act of melodious songs, presented by students of Sound of my Music.

Love this!!!

These are the kind of things that are the main thought behind my starting my music class. Just look at the talent of the kid and the sheer joy on his face as he plays the percussion instrument. Parents need to look out and encourage their kids as much as possible. Who knows what talent is hidden in whom? Enjoy!
Sriram

Holi Celebrations 2014

On Mar 29, for the Holi Celebration at the local India Center here in Westchester NY, my students were asked to perform one song. 

The students did a quick turnaround of the song Bande Hain Hum Uske from the movie Dhoom 3. I mainly picked that song because of the lyrics of the song and the melody. It is sung so beautifully by Shivam Mahadevan and Anish Sharma.

Here is the video for the same. The kids are getting very comfortable handling new Hindi songs, given that they do not speak Hindi. Diction is something, apart from being comfortable on stage, is something we are still working on. More work to do. 

Check out the video - Bande Hain Hum Uske from Dhoom 3, music by Pritam Chakraborty