Pitch Perfection - a psychological perspective

Adherence to shruti is the greatest truth in music.  Every prominent system in the world places extreme importance in tuneful renditions of its basic tones.  (To systems that have the fundamental 12 tones in an octave, systems that have many more may seem microtonal.)  

In reality, the yardsticks of what is tuneful varies from system to system.  For instance, certain note values in Just-Intonation system of natural melodic systems in the world like Carnatic Music (CM)/Hindustani (HM) are different to those heard in Equal Tempered-Tuning system, embraced in the West primarily to accommodate harmonization.

Varied yardsticks

In friendly terms, Just intonation is based on laws of physics and aesthetics, but the intervals between any two notes in an octave is not constant.  While this sounds beautiful when notes are heard one after the other, it can create problems when certain note-combinations are rendered simultaneously by orchestras.  Therefore, for reasons of harmony, Western scholars 'averaged out' some note values to create equal intervals between the 12 tones.   Violin-legend Yehudi Menuhin has gone on record arguing that this artificial sharpening or flattening of notes (however minute) has corrupted Western ears (in his book, 'Unfinished Journey').  In fact, that is one of the reasons why certain notes on instruments from the West like Guitar/Piano can sound slightly off to sensitive listeners used to melodic systems like Hindustani/Carnatic. 

Contextual perfection

Nevertheless, artistes are expected to be tuneful within the context of each system.  When they are not, they are dismissed off as 'off-key' (West) or 'besur' (Hindustani).  In both these systems, pitch perfect is almost synonymous with note-perfect. The CM equivalent of this is apaswaram. However, CM also uses the term shruti-shuddham to denote melodic fidelity and refers to a lack of it as apashruti.

Swara, sthana & shruti

Carnatic uses only 7 notes (swara) and 12 tones (sthana) per octave even though it gives 16 names for these, unlike systems like Arabic, (which openly uses 31 notes per octave).  The extra twist in Carnatic is that has multiple subtle values for any given note, called shruti.   It is almost mandatory to sharpen certain notes like major 7th (kakali nishadam, N3) or the sharp 4th (prati madhyamam - M2) and render it almost on Sa and Pa respectively.   Several other notes are rendered lower or higher depending on the raga and at times, within the context of a given raga.  For instance the minor 2nd (shuddha rishabham - R1) in Revati would be rendered normally, while the same will tend to be closer to Sa in Saveri, Gowla etc.  Hindustani would generally tend to render most of these notes on their natural values (exceptions could be there). 

Expectations... 

Musicians of even average quality are required to be clearly cognizant of the correct value of the pitch and expected to be able to render them competently.  Yet, artistes can be off key (less or more than the note-value) for a variety of reasons.  At the student level, it could be due to reasons of non-awareness, inexperience, incompetence, insufficient practice or physical factors (like voice limitations).  Over time, most of these can be overcome, with effort and direction under a good guru.  Once a basic stage of competence and comfort is reached with respect to shruti, a musician would be expected to be tuneful. 

...and deviations

Yet, we find only a small percentage of artistes who render tuneful music.  Even here, degrees vary from 'general' and 'acceptable' levels to 'laser beam' levels of intense precision.  Why would this be among musicians of otherwise same standard and substance?  One easy question with tough, multiple answers! 

1. The reason could be professional - lack of practice, lack of effort on every note, thinking musicianship or commitment to perfection. 
2. The reasons then get to physiological such as health, which (at least in some cases) are beyond an individual's control.  Or it could simply be aging related weaknesses.
3. Or it could be scientifically attributable to personal habits.  It would be prudent to point out the non-judgmental view of a person closest to God that the planet has seen in sports, Don Bradman. 'Surely certain habits can impact on the reflexes and efficiency of movement,' is all he said but that is profound indeed. 

Needless to say, some of these could be  due to a combination of interconnected factors.

The elusive factor

However, another key factor, rarely brought to the table openly, is the mental make up of a person.  Probably because, it is the most elusive part to analyse and commit to.  Yet, I am placing certain important but certainly impersonal observations on record here. To summarise a few:

• An  over-eager, over confident, aggressive, frenzied, agitated mindset with Attitude, may result in music higher than shruti (over the short or long term).
• A person tends to be below key when tired, deflated, weak or under-motivated, again over short or long term. 
• A person tends to be both these when sporting a frivolous, happy-go-lucky or take-it-easy style complacent mindset.
• A person tends to waver, sway or float on plain, sustained notes when the mind is unsteady or afflicted by fear, guilt, lack of confidence or personal esteem. 
• A person tends to slip a lot on dynamic phrases when the mind is distracted or cluttered with unwanted baggage and unclear thoughts. 
• A person tends to produce dry music that can be all over the pitch-map while in a frustrated frame of mind. 

Fundamental correlation

Just as the 17th chapter in the Bhagawad Gita classifies various things as sattva, rajas or tamas, a fundamental correlation can be drawn between truth in life and truth in music.  Music higher than shruti is rajasic, music lower is tamasic.  Pure music is sattvic.  

In short, perfect pitch is not merely to do with talent and technique.  At the advanced level, it is more to do with the mental make up.  The tragic part in many cases is that the affected person scarcely notices the dip in musical form till too late.  Since any given artiste could sport a combination of varied mind set listed above at different times, it is tough for a normal person to pin down the exact reason for lack of shruti at any given point in time.

Solutions

Scary as the above sounds, they can all be overcome by mind-action-control and a person of class can re-discover personal form.  It may take a lot of personal effort, sustained focus, will power to eliminate every unnecessary distraction and channelise thought, counselling from experts, but it can be done, if artistes are keenly aware of their own form at every step of the way.  

In some lucky cases, a visionary guru would be able to take highly dynamic steps early enough to stem the rot, with equally committed students.  However, if timely action is not taken immediately, covering every possible angle, the case could soon get beyond redemption and join a majority of 'may-have-been' successes.  

It ultimately boils down to how intensely desperate one is to pursue musical truths, get back to the top and stay there!  

Success through Inertia

Most of us blame inertia for not doing something or for not even feeling up to doing something, I ruminated on the negative spell this Newtonian Law of Physics seems to exert on peoples psyches all around.  

It dawned upon me this morning that inertia is not responsible for only this pathetic apathetic state of mind.  It can as easily be tapped positively so that we end up doing a lot of things beneficial to ourselves or others. 

In fact, millions have done it (and continue to do so) under various garbs.  

What is inertia?  To paraphrase Newton, "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction - unless acted upon by an external force".  

This is as true for human minds and bodies too.  In fact, to a lesser degree, it is true for human  emotions too.  

We see the victims all the time - sedentary people continue to revel in it day in and day out, alcoholics and other addicts continue to be so and so forth.  

To a lesser degree, we also see the opposite - fitness fanatics cannot stop exercising, those who follow strict practice-ethics would often be hard pressed to stop practicing and so forth.  These are the beneficiaries of positive inertia.  

At a slightly macro level, we see teams that have developed a systematic habit of winning over time are unstoppable during their streak and vice-versa.  Same goes for countries that have developed or developing.  The latter tend to stay in their side of the court for decades or even centuries at times...

How to build positive inertia:  The key is to get out of negative inertia first.  This will take us to a neutral zone - if not anything more.  From here on, one can work towards building a momentum in positive things - be it practice or exercise or academic pursuits or something as simple as getting up early in the morning.  After a few days or weeks, positive inertia kicks in and takes over.  From here on it is generally smooth sailing.  For instance, someone who has got into the habit of getting up at 4 am can more often than not do it even if he or she slept in very late on certain days.  Someone who has got used to practicing music for 4 (or 8 or any number of) hours will find ways to do it even if there are other unavoidable engagements on certain days.  

All these are results of inertia - which, at the end of the day is only a neutral thing.  It is entirely we who make it positive or otherwise...

The Dot-Connect Theory & Test

Association of ideas is a fascinating topic.  Imagine a classroom with 40 students for 5 years.  Most get predominantly the set of data points over this time.  Though what they get outside of it is a huge factor too it is nevertheless remarkable that some are able to connect seemingly random things taught in class sessions and come up with beautiful analogies or examples or innovative, out-of-the-box solutions to problems.  How much of this is genetics and how much is epigenetics is an altogether different subject.  

Mind-print: The relevant point here is that the Mind-print - the manner in which each individual connects the same set of dots (data points) to form a whole - is at least as distinctive as fingerprint and defines the individual.  

This can perhaps be one of the models in Behavioral Sciences and allied subjects including Corporate Environment to analyze Human Information Processing and what happens subsequent to that in the mind.  There may doubtless be several similar theories by specialists who have devoted much more time & energy on such subjects and also gained academic competence.  However, the subject here is not so much with the Information Gathering of the brain, which includes Memory Formation, Pattern Recognition etc (involving such specialized things as pyramidal and stellate neurons of the cerebral cortex and the gating type and nucleus reticularis neurons of the thalamus) but more with what happens in the mind after that.

Brain vs Mind: This article makes the fairly obvious distinction between the visible and divisible (hence quantifiably assessable) brain and the invisible and indivisible mind.  The former is being systematically studied at the the level of individual neurons and we are beginning to appreciate some of its functioning.  But the latter is - by all accounts so far - an almost indefinable thing. Yet, it may not be far-fetched to say that it is the mind which seems to be the key for several genetic traits - be it just biological ones or (what some may consider as bio-illogical) re-incarnation related ones.  To the best of our knowledge, no species has been yet known to carry neurons cells after death or give neuron cells from itself to its offspring - yet quite a few instincts come pre-programmed. This article may perhaps trigger studies on these and similar lines.

Though pyscho neurology is a fast growing field, at a very surface level one is fascinated by specialized studies demonstrating how neuron cells light up in various parts of the brain based on empathy in a shared experience (such as a music concert where multiple listeners share the same experience). Yet it is easy to miss the forest for the trees.  So, here is a model of what may loosely be called Dotomatrix for now. Though volumes need to be written about each aspect listed here, this article limits itself to a fairly simple synopsis of the postulate…

Highlights

• Every individual picks up bits and pieces of information during the course of life. 
• These are on various fields, subjects and topics (be it mathematical formulae, everyday news, musical facts, philosophical thoughts or literary learning). 
• Each bit of information is stored in various parts of our brain. 
• Each bit of information can be visualized as a discrete dot. 
• To continue the visualization, the brain can be seen as a rectangular canvas or even a multi-dimensional space which houses these dots. 
• The mind monitors this information gathering process and shapes it in various ways. 
• Each person finds some connection between some pieces of information either because of (i) external influence (like reading, learning from or discussing with others), (ii) by introspection and analysis, (iii) personal experiences or (iv) by a mere association of ideas. 
• Normal people may often find connections in an orderly, progressive and predictable manner (for instance, 2+2 could be connected with 2+3 or 200+25000). 
• Creative or even weirdly imaginative people, geniuses and highly introspective individuals may find connections between two seemingly unrelated topics - it could be as much a leap as a simple 2+2 being connected in their brains with an obscure Greek philosophy or a volcanic eruption somewhere (to give extreme examples). 
• Each connection that a person finds represents a connected dot. 
• The connection of any dot can be with one or more dots - like a hub and spoke route map of a major airline (but of course the brain is more than just 2 dimensional). To give a simple illustration: a tiger could be connected to a forest and a zoo in some people; it could be related to a national park & other animals in a few others; in some cases, it could include all the above connections plus connections to strong or scary people that one knows or hears about (and numerous other things). 
• Thus, the discrete bits of information become analogous within the brain as the person evolves and matures. 
• It should however be noted that not every bit of information needs to be connected with one or more bits; many may remain unconnected pieces for lifetimes, depending on the type of individuals and the evolution path of each. 
• Thus, the process of individuation can be defined as the metamorphosis of digital information into analogous flow of ideas. 
• With millions of bits of information picked up in the course of life, every individual may connect the dots differently.

These connections made in various ways can broadly be classified as:

(a) Assimilated Connections (AC): Most often, our dots are connected faster for us by others who have already made the connections and have a knowledge base, which saves us years and decades that we would have spent were we to have figured those connections ourselves. This ensures that there are certain fairly standard and common connections found in most people who attend regular courses in schools and colleges, read the same kind of literature (or newspapers), learn from the same gurus, watch the same movies (or programs) and so forth. 

(b) Genetic Connections (GC): Some of these when assimilated over several generations, could become genetic connections (needs several studies). 

(c) Independent connections (IC): Yet, there are hundreds to millions of unique connections that every individual makes too, during the course of his/her life through analysis or association of ideas. 

Un-connecting Dots (UC): Due to various reasons including short term illnesses, non-relevance of connections at various points in life, forgetfulness, amnesia, dementia, Alzheimer’s etc, people can also lose connections between various dots over a period of time. 

Total connections (TC) Formula: Thus the Total Connections = Assimilated Connections plus Genetic Connections plus Independent Connections minus unconnected dots. Thus, 

TC = AC+GV+IC-UC 

Uniqueness: This TC or Mind-print is unique for every individual.  However, unlike Finger-prints, this keeps changing all through one's life.  But this is what eventually defines and personifies every person and provides a distinct identity to each. 

• More than humans: There can be little doubt that almost all animals with reasonable sized brains (to the degree that man can perceive and understand), connect dots in various ways (appropriate season – migration – route maps - mating – change of season – reverse migration chain is a simplistic example of this that is seen in numerous animals and birds).

Real life ramifications: Some of the greatest scientific discoveries, most elegant mathematical solutions have been brought about by people like Newton and Ramanujan with an ability to connect what may appear like remote dots to most normal people. 

Likewise, some of the biggest truths of life have been established by seers and philosophers who could connect seemingly remote observations and cite analogies in an impactful manner.

The Dot-Connect model has several other real life applications of which a couple are given below.

Education: Connecting dots helps memory develop phenomenally. Current day education is more focused on giving millions of dots by way of tons of information (most of which students hardly apply in day to day life). This creates a tremendous stress on memory, nervous systems and the whole psyche of students, since most of these discrete dots only cater to an exam, a contest or some other short term goal. Were education to be geared to facilitate students to improve their grasp and memory by helping them make connections faster between the various dots (wherever possible), their capabilities would be enhanced exponentially.

Clinical Treatment: A study of overstressed people will reveal that their brains/minds are over heated with too many connections (most of which are formed unintentionally by people because of traumatic experiences or depressing circumstances). A good psychologist can now consciously approach the treatment from the perspective of analyzing the many unwanted or even malignant dot-connections and help untangling these or even helping the patient erase some of them to reduce stress levels.

Personality Assessment for Job Recruitment and Organizational Employees: A study of how people connect dots would provide at least a very rough insight into their personalities. The simple sample test below illustrates this.

Ravikiran’s Dot-Connect Test

This is a simple psychological and personality test which can be given to almost anyone in any situation and age. This is definitely no representation of the complexities of the multi-dimensional dot-connections in the brain (or the Dot-Connect Theory of Information Processing as a whole) but only a simplistic, quick view process in office/work-space/school/college kind of environments.

• A plain paper with a simple rectangle filled with a specific number of dots can be given to each candidate along with a pen.

• Each candidate is asked to connect the dots within a fairly short specified time (say 5-7 minutes) in whatever manner that comes naturally to him.

• With hundreds of dots, the possibilities for connecting them in various permutations and combinations are almost endless. For instance, 

(i) Some people may connect it in the shapes of various animals;

(ii) Others may find connections like an airplane/car and so forth;

(iii) A few may come up with simple connections;

(iv) Some may come up with complex and intricate connections;

(v) A rare few may connect almost all the dots;

(vi) Most others may only connect a few dots: 

(vii) Some may connect them in a completely shapeless manner and 

(viii) Some may re-connect several dots to form overlaid shapes

The manner in which each connects will be a window to his/her personality in very broad terms.

Interpreting the results

The parameters for interpreting their final connections and determining personalities are numerous and the subject is huge. 

Meantime, please feel free to add your perspectives on this subject...

Practice - I

I received numerous email queries from students of music after my earlier blog on Fear Factor, on more specific inputs about how to overcome it. Since this is a huge topic, I may write it in several parts. 

Is there a substitute for practice? Not one that I can think of - not even talent/genius, knowledge/scholarship, luck/even God’s grace. Those will supplement practice but be blunted with lack of practice. Even for God's grace, one must prove worthy of it! 

Anchor

Practice is the anchor of a truly solid artiste that can make him (or her) weather ill-luck, temporary loss of form, public or media fire, personal confidence crisis or similar storms. With perseverance and practice under good direction, one can overcome even lack of talent, genius, knowledge and scholarship. I have seen numerous people with good work ethics doing better than those endowed with the assets above. 

 On the other hand, I have seen an umpteen number of talented and brilliant people leading unfulfilled or under-fulfilled lives because they failed to translate their talent into tangible results because of poor work ethics. I have also been acquainted with performers who have got to the top more by chance (because some of the other top artistes retired/travelled to other worlds!) than inherent worth. 

The serious ones among these are forever ravaged by guilt about having something that they don’t deserve. They live feeling insecure all the time about how long their luck would hold. In other words, one who has come up without having worked hard for it seldom feels 'in control'.  

Similarly, there are numerous knowledgeable scholars who cannot even express themselves even in a small phrase of 4 notes, again because they involved their minds more than their bodies in the pursuit of arts. Practice definitely involves the heart, mind, body and soul and one has to dedicate one's energies for several years with single-minded focus and ensure that all these are part of the mix. There are many types of practices, from an end result point of view. 

Eliminate Flaws

This is the first and foremost reason to practice - to gain fundamental competence. Unless one practises, one will not even be aware of the kind of mistakes one tends to make. Some things are naturally hard for almost everyone and some others could be hard or easy individually. X may find a particular phrase easy that Y has to slog for while it maybe the opposite for another phrase. With practice, they will at least be able to anticipate such potential minefields and tread carefully! Without practice, they will surprise themselves big time when such phrases occur in a given piece of music. This is how even talented artistes end up making numerous 'unforced' errors. In my childhood, I used to equate flaws with cancer - I used to see them creep up even on established and experienced artistes... 

Consistency 

While competence is all right for science, it's just the first step in art (and sports too). An artiste has to be fairly consistent. In simple terms, if one renders a phrase or a song 100 times, one has to do it well at least 80-90% of the times. Anything below will be average or under. Practice again is the key to this. Sometimes, consistency is written off as a sign of mediocrity. This does not mean that inconsistency is brilliant. The thumb rule is one has to aim for consistency all the time in order to even get middle level opportunities. Brilliance is a nice contrast to have in order to keep audience interest alive. Concerts of top level brilliant artistes like T N Rajaratnam Pillai (Nadaswaram) were built on a solid foundation of consistency. 

Polish and perfect 

It has to be highlighted here that learning a new song or revisiting a forgotten one is not practice. The count-down starts after one has memorised something and is able to render it with a decent flow. A good listener can discern whether an artiste merely has flair or has worked hard to polish the pieces. It is obvious to the cognoscenti that the gems of legends such as M S Subbulakshmi and Lalgudi Jayaraman (to mention only a few) are products of constant polish. Even those reputed to be brilliant artistes such as Umayalpuram Sivaraman and creative such as GNB and Madurai T N Seshagopalan have worked hard thousands of hours in order to present their concepts effectively. I have personally known that even born geniuses such as Flute Mali and Palghat Mani Iyer used to practice lots. 

Passion

Some people practice because they simply love to. True artistes fall under this category. Even in their early days, they will always be thinking about the art and will want to spend time singing, playing or dancing. But for this passion to continue, parents and gurus must ensure that they are constantly inspired by the art of great legends. The doyen, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, my own gurus T Brinda and Chitravina Narasimhan, dance legend Vyjayantimala Bali and others being constantly 'at it' even after decades of experience and accomplishments. 

Confidence 

Even competent artistes can sometimes lose confidence due to various reasons. Often, practice is what bails them out at such times. I will address a few more issues in subsequent posts...

Fear factor in music

1. Fear is one of the most natural things in music for a lot of people. Some of the greatest artistes (or for that matter, sportsmen or people in other walks of life) face it too. Only two kinds of people are generally fearless – the highly ignorant or the immensely knowledgeable. Great artistes are great not because they are fearless but because they overcome it by dint of hard work in the right direction and mental preparation with the correct attitude.
   
   Types of fear
   
   During one’s musical journey, an analytical person will notice several kinds of fear along the path! A few of them are given below:
   
   • Fear of each note (mostly long sustained plain notes) – some more than the other like Sa, Pa, Ga3, (the major third note) or high notes like S, R, G, M
   • Fear of some phrases
   • Fear of other friends/family members listening or walking in as we practice
   • Fear of other students in class (even those that are not better than us!)
   • Fear of guru
   • Fear of stage and audience
   • Fear of mike (how our own music will sound when amplified!)
   • Fear of peer artistes who may drop in on our concert
   • Fear of legendary artistes or other important people who may attend the concert
   
   Overcoming fear
   
   Each one of us can assess for ourselves which stage of fear are we in at a given point in time! However, all these can and must be overcome with quality guidance under great masters as well as more and more practice with lots and lots of patience. Patience does not mean just practicing for many hours each day. I am talking more about patience with respect to every note and phrase.
   
   A practitioner will see how he is able to eliminate each type of fear mentioned above step by step with the kind of patience I am speaking about.
   
   The approach has to be to practice until one feels good about the music first. Normally, the stages this would be:
   
   • After practicing a note/phrase for a few dozen times (it could be more or less based on how comfortable one is with a given phrase) one can get it correctly.
   • After a few more times after the stage of mere correctness, one will stop feeling conscious of it.
   • Only after a few more times will one stop being tense about it and start feeling comfortable with it (since one’s voice or hands start move more naturally).
   • Only after many more times will one feel confident about it when singing alone.
   • Only after several more times will one feel confident to sing it in front of others.
   • After some more time, others will also feel comfortable when they listen to us!
   
   Developing intimacy with each note/piece of music
   
   By getting to know the notes one by one and phrases one by one, an artiste will overcome this factor. Getting to know a note/phrase is akin to getting know a person or a family. There are many with whom our relationship is just a ‘Hi’ and a ‘Bye’. We will never know such people much. There are some with whom we spend hours, days, months or years and we get to know them better and better.
   
   So also with notes and phrases that we don’t spend time on. One will never get to know them well. Then how can one sing/play them well? Only when we spend lots of time on a note or phrase can we start knowing it better.
   
   With even more time, the note / phrase will also know us better! Sounds, weird? Actually, it is not. I will leave you all to introspect a bit about this to understand what I mean!

Musopathy

The Background

The power of sound has fascinated millions over centuries. Certain types of music have been known to reduce  stress, depression, headache etc while other kinds make the opposite happen. Unless one realises that music-mechanics supersede the individual artist  or even the genre of music (classical, pop, jazz etc) that is being heard/rendered the field of  Music Therapy would be consigned to quasi or pseudo scientific alternative (or at best complementary) medicine. On the other hand, if more fundamental laws of physics that are the building blocks of even the highest level of music are objectively studied, the incredibly  precise though complex relationships between music and health could be quantifiably understood and tapped into. 

The need of the hour is quality research in several areas by distinguished specialists and institutions with as much scientific rigour as seen in allopathy. The scientific study and development of this area, which I termed as Musopathy (a la allopathy, homeopathy etc), can have an enormous positive impact on humanity. It is clearly distinct from the fairly subjective Music Therapy that is offered by several Universities across the planet today. In other words, Musopathy is a de-culturalised and de-regionalised objective approach to address auro-neural and hormonal responses and health issues but through measurable musical factors in a scientific manner, document the stats and analyse them to conclusively prove or disprove a number of claims and postulates such as Royal Raymond Rife’s thoughts on the relationship between certain frequencies and cancer in 1930s. It’s only gradually becoming apparent to mainstream medical scholars even at institutions like NIH (in USA) that human brains are more sensitive to musical pitches than other primates.

Music Therapy in recent times

As most of us know, music is increasingly being used by scientists and doctors all over the world as complementary or alternative therapy for dealing with hypertension, depression, physiotherapy or even speech therapy for stroke victims. Leading medical names keen about music include Virginia Apgar, (the obstetrician famous for Apgar score), Rene Laennec, (inventor of the stethoscope), Dr Richard Bing and Dr Eugene Braunwald (renowned cardiologist), to mention a few. 

Music-medicine relationship in ancient times

Musical associations of medical professionals dates back as far as the ancient Indian and Greek eras and can be traced to modern times as well. Apollo, the god of healing in the Greek mythology is seen with a lyre and Aesculapius who was Apollo’s son has been associated with flute. Indians have believed that ragas like Amrtavarshini or Meghmalhar could bring rain, Deepakam could light up lamps and those like Neelambari could combat insomnia. We also have stories of composers such as Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi, Tyagaraja and Muttuswami Dikshitar being called upon to cure patients with their music.

Experiments in modern times

Studies were conducted on the effect of music on plant growth by leading Universities such as Harvard in 1970s that noted that Indian Classical Music was the best catalyst for plant growth. (For more information on this, read Sidney Sheldon's Stars Shine Down!!). In the late 1990s, a San Diego based University claimed that students performed better in exams after listening to Mozart.

In the beginning of the new millennium, Jane Hanson, on behalf of BBC, looked at the cutting-edge research and application of music in clinical medicine which included the University of North Texas, USA, Beth Abraham hospital in New York and select doctors and musicians in Mysore, India. An audio of her experiences is available at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/144_powerofmusic/page3.shtml

In Chennai, India, the Raga Research Center led by violinist Kunnakkudi Vaidyanathan claimed that cattle that heard the raga Anandabhairavi produced more milk. Some studies suggest that regular concert listening increases lifespan or that heavy weight music  makes high intensity workouts more enjoyable.  

Limitations and scope

However, all these need deeper investigation as they are mostly subjective approaches based on regional cultural exposures. For example, a study in New York would not include music from India or Africa and vice-versa to ensure the scientific validity of all these claims beyond doubt. Nor do they go to absolute yardsticks like volume levels, tempo of music or the combination of notes that are responsible for specific responses.  And beat effect of music (2 sounds of microscopically unaligned pitches) have not been documented sufficiently either.  But their limitations notwithstanding, the fundamental truth cannot be disputed – the power of sound. 

Sound has immense power and potency. In fact, some scientists have even experimented with limited success in creating new acoustic weapons, which emit frequencies that may impair, harm, or kill.  Theorists such as Benjamin Boretz consider some of the results of psychoacoustics to be meaningful only in a musical context

But how well has it been tapped in the area of medicine? How well has its power been studied? No doubt that there are studies based on Music-psychology and there has also been an attempt to get to a broader picture by studying musical syntax (though it has been confined to Western systems which includes harmony). Music psychology focuses on several areas, including music performance, composition, education, criticism and therapy is only one of them. It also investigates human attitude, skill, performance, intelligence, creativity, and social behavior.

Specifically coming to the therapeutic side, there is a lot of scope to extend organized research with systematic exactitude.  Mere sentimental or culture-centric musical ideas, with intentions however sound (pun intended), can never replace the rigour of science. That is why, Music Therapy (the way it is approached now) hovers somewhere between quack medicine and quasi-science.  

There is a complete absence of standardisation as every country has a different approach to Music Therapy based on the music that is practiced there.  In India, Music Therapy is about research using certain ragas. In the West, it is about composers like Mozart and in Africa, it is about native percussion.  There is no scientific manner in which anyone can explain why certain ragas or certain composers like Mozart have particular impact on human beings, animals or plants. 

Musopathy

Ruminating over all these, I came up with Musopathy to de-culturalise and de-regionise music and take it to its fundamental roots, based on laws of physics using standard, measurable and repeatable factors like combinations of frequencies, tempo, decibel levels and beat-impact. For obvious reasons, I will not be able to share all the details of psychoacoustics involved here. I will just give some highlights and advantages below:  

• Musopathy is a quantifiable approach that combines music and medicine in absolute terms. 
• It eliminates region, religion, culture, language etc and the subjectivity associated with these, which dominate the subject of Music Therapy. In other words, it will convert the quasi-scientific music-therapy into a serious study as sound as biochemical medicine. 
• Musopathy promises empirical auro-neuro-solutions and opens up newer areas of studies such as neuro-physics. 
• Musopathy has great potential to offer viable alternatives with far lesser side effects for several ailments where chemical cures dominate today.

To summarise, this is an area that has not been fully explored but if extensive work is carried out with a combination of vision, experience and scientific precision, it can blaze a trail of its own for the benefit of mankind. It is heartening to see leading lights of the scientific and academic world with whom I have discussed this stating that this is a cutting-edge approach to the subject. I have promised myself that I will get to formal research on this as soon as time permits and I find the right collaborators and support.

Cosmic Soular Theory: Extending the Big Bang

One fine morning in early 2010, I was ruminating over the remarkable manner in which relationships develop between two apparently disparate individuals. How does a child under 10 form a bond with a grand father, grandmother or even a total stranger who is decades older? Or vice versa? It is seldom at an intellectual level as there are only a million things that are yet to be on the same plane between the two, though each will make an effort to come down or climb up and meet somewhere. It is not necessarily at the physical level of sexual attractions or the emotional level of ‘falling in love’, even though these are also not out of the equation. Extending this even further, why does a dog form a bond with a specific human being more than others? Or vice versa?

It dawned upon me that the reason is more to do with Soular (if I may be permitted to coin the term) Compatibility. In other words, it is more about a meeting of souls than a meeting of minds, hearts or bodies. I hasten to add that the soular compatibility is in itself not incompatible with other level compatibilities mentioned above, given appropriate circumstances.

But while the reasons for physical, emotional and intellectual compatibilities can seem self-evident, soular compatibility is often obvious only to those who share it. It can seem absurdly inexplicable to others.  

Soul vs Consciousness 

Since another article of mine, Beyond Relativity - Theory of Creativity talks about Consciousness, it is imperative to explain the subtle distinction between Soul and  Consciousness here. Briefly, Soul is an intuitive perception felt by many beings with Consciousness, which is currently being accepted as an experiential fact by several members of the global scientific and academic community.  Soul is also used more figuratively than literally when we make statements like "X is a good soul" or "Y is completely soulless".  Consciousness is an all pervading intelligence in the Universe but Soul is typically used more in an individualistic sense.  

My Cosmic Soular Theory brings both Consciousness and Soul to the table. 

The Big Bang model of the universe has found wide acceptance across the scientific community. It generally refers to the idea that the universe has expanded from a primordial hot and dense initial condition at some finite time in the past, and continues to expand to this day. Monsignor Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître proposed this theory sometime in the 1930s although he called it his "hypothesis of the primeval atom".

I wondered why is this only being limited to matter? I saw that this hypothesis can be extended to the soul (of any form of life) as well. But in reality, my hypothesis is not so much about the origin of souls but more about what has transpired since. Anyways, here goes my basic hypothesis.

The Soular Big Bang

At some point in time, there was a primeval soul, like the primeval atom, which contained the nucleus of all souls that could possibly ever be. Suddenly there was a big bang and this resulted in zillions of souls being manifested across the universe in various galaxies/ stars/ planets in whatever form of life imaginable and unimaginable to mankind.

These individual souls have zillions of different characteristics just as the material world’s stars and planets have different shapes and sizes and component matter and/or energy levels. And just as diverse galaxies and stars are in varying stages of evolution, so are the souls too.

Soular Systems

Similar to galaxies, stars, planets, satellites and what not in the physical universe, there are Soular Systems spread across the universe. It is not limited to human beings but since that is the best way to perceive this, I will use human examples. A simple soular system could consist of the soul of a person around whom the souls of an entire family revolves like planets. There could be satellite souls around one or more of such planetary souls.

Bigger systems could include extended family / friends / dependants or followers of certain ideologies of this soul.

Soular Galaxies

This could be centered around great souls like Jesus, Gandhi who have carried the weight and hopes of millions of other souls around them. Just as different galaxies have different life spans, the influence-spans of such souls also vary. For instance, while the soular galaxies such as Buddha and Jesus are thousands of years old, that of a Gandhi or Martin Luther King is relatively young.

Soular Black Holes

These are akin to the destructive souls who suck millions of souls along with them.

All these correspond to observations seen in real life on our own tiny little planet.

But what binds this universe full of souls together? The answer is what may be understood as Soular Gravity.

Soular Gravity

Soular gravity could be defined as the pull that a given soul feels from various other souls and the pull that it in turn exerts upon other souls. Again the pull felt by a soul from various other souls (or exerted by it upon other souls) can vary based on the size, distance and other factor.

Inter-Soular-Gravitational Force is the single most important factor that creates tension as well as balance between souls.

A few more interesting Soular phenomenons are remarkably (though not exactly) similar to those seen in the material world

Twin Souls: Just as Twin Stars and Entangled Particles abound the universe, twin souls are also not uncommon. These are just two souls that exert a tremendous mutual gravity and revolve around each other. They happen to meet up, form soular bonds because they share the same soular ideologies and philosophies. It is frequently seen that when two very diverse people connect with one-another, at this level, nothing else such as age, time, class, physical attributes or material wealth matters and they continue to revolve around one-another.  

Free Souls: These are completely independent souls roaming across the universe with no apparent binding whatsoever. They could probably likened to Soular comets or other such objects.

Trapped Souls: These are souls that would love to leave a system but are unable to – such as planets at the extreme edge of a star system with irregular orbits or weak gravitational forces from nearby to bind them.

Soular theory in the context of duality vs non-duality

Hindu philosophers have argued about the duality (Dvaita) and non-duality (Advaita) of eternal Consiousness. In layman’s terms, the former says that primordial Soul (Paramatma) is the Centric to the Universe and all other souls (Jeevatma-s) are constantly seeking to merge with it. However, non-dualists led by Adi Shankara have argued that all souls are the same and only those blinded by illusion cannot see this obvious truth. (Ramanuja’s Vishishtaadvaita philosophy is beyond the scope of this article.)

It is this article's contention that Advaita is more about the pre-soular big-bang state, after which, zillions of secondary souls have come into being from the primary soul. Advaita in an objective context is more about the state of one’s mind than observed soular reality. Even in a human context, one can easily observe the various stages of evolution individual souls are in.

When we say “X is a great soul”, we are actually more precise than we imagine. X would represent a soul that is definitely more evolved than, say Y or Z. So, it is quite obvious that souls are not devoid of characteristics and personalities. If they were, every living object would behave in the same manner as the next, except for basic shape, size and intelligence levels.

That said, one must note that there is nothing like "small souls", often used to refer to cute or tiny animals because, Soul is beyond localisation or quantification. 

Soular Expansion Contraction Cycle

If one goes by the Big Bang theory of matter, nothing much other than perpetual expansion and distances between souls. However, if one were to apply the Indian philosophical / vedantic principles, there is also the Big Shrink where all matter will ultimately go back to its root source and then get ready for the big bang again. (This whole cycle has been alluded to by the great composer, Muttuswami Dikshitar in his composition, Veena pustaka dharini where he says, ‘nikhila prapancha sankocha vikaasa’).  

Similarly, all secondary souls (jeevatma) will merge with paramatma, the eternal, primary soul. And so the cycle goes on... 

Terrors and errors

Though this space was intended more for music related posts, no thinking world citizen will be able to resist placing one’s perspectives on the subject above.

For the last several decades, billions of global citizens have been witness to organised terror. Millions have been touched by it one way or the other and hundreds of thousands have been subjected to it directly.

Contrasting responses: Developed countries such as USA and UK have tightened their act considerably through increased security measures, stricter immigration, rejuvenated intelligence efforts, ruthless clamping down of groups and sectors already inside the country that exhibit even a minute disruptive potential and numerous such measures. Even though some of these have been reactive, several others are proactive and anticipatory in nature.

Other nations such as India have been more content with immediate to not-so-immediate responses after or, as it happened in Mumbai recently, during the crisis. And they have never been able to bring to the books most of the perpetrators because of a host of reasons that include tedious judicial processes, lack of dynamic diplomacy or charismatic international opinion building capabilities which can pressurise countries that form the ‘cradle of terror’.

But the reactions of first world countries, mostly USA, has leaned on the other extreme of blatant aggression calculated to show might.

But is this 'war against terror' the right approach to terror? Questionable.

Two wars: The 'trample-your-face' approach is unlikely to win because there really are two different wars out there, being fought on dissimilar planes. On the one hand we have the all-conquering might of say, the USA (that nevertheless places so much importance on the lives and security of its citizens) vs the subterranean approach of the terrorists who do not value geographical boundaries or even their own lives. So, unless the USA is willing to engage the terrorists in a more subtle manner, how would it hope to win?

A lot of empty rounds are fired against unrelenting mountains, both literally and figuratively. This will be a perpetual battle as the terrorists will always wait out a storm of an army in caves and catacombs while actively plotting their next targets and drawing up time lines. But at least the stronger intelligence networks within and outside of the USA ensure that its anticipatory moves pay off at least to a large extent.

This is a huge minus when it comes to the third world countries. With paltry intelligence and half hearted follow ups, they leave their territories wide open to such attacks.

Optimal solution: The best solution, as discerning observers have probably reiterated often enough, is for first and third world countries to join hands and fine tune their approaches to win this war. In other words, as Robert Kagan of The Washington Post says, “internationalize the response.” Countries proven to turn a blind eye to terror camps definitely need the ‘assistance’ of the entire world community to root out such camps.

It has also been argued that such an action could violate a country’s sovereignty. But the counter to this, as Kagan asserts is: “Nations should not be able to claim sovereign rights when they cannot control territory from which terrorist attacks are launched. If there is such a thing as a "responsibility to protect," which justifies international intervention to prevent humanitarian catastrophe either caused or allowed by a nation's government, there must also be a responsibility to protect one's neighbors from attacks from one's own territory, even when the attacks are carried out by ‘non-state actors’."

For the terrorists, it is India today and USA another day and UK the next and so forth - no national border on the map is sacrosanct. So it should be for the nations when it comes to countering them.

Whether it is a strike on USA/UK/Indian soil, the world should unite and act together to weed out the roots of this menace, the camps themselves. Individual countries where the continuing complicity of the military and intelligence services with terrorist groups are only too well known, shed any claim to sovereign protection.

There is little to be gained by blame-game rhetoric when action is the need of the hour. India should get its proofs in order and get competent people to project the truth effectively and build a convincing case in the international community which will mobilise world opinion and galvanise influential countries into action as well.

Action plan: The Mumbai event has opened the eyes of the world to the reality in the subcontinent as no other event has, so far. World leaders are appreciating the direness of the situation here and the world media is projecting events with perspectives that are more balanced and realistic. This is the best time for the Indian think-tank to make its case.

However, it must be remembered by India that any unilateral, military offensive done prematurely before world opinion is solidly built, could backfire badly and result in fresh catastrophe. So India has to prioritise:

(a) Build irrefutable proof
(b) Make a strong case in the appropriate world forums
(c) Catalyse a joint world offensive against suspect regions – military/economic/political

This is also a time for political parties within the nation to shove internal bickering to the back burner and work together, sending a strong message to our own citizens and to the rest of the world that at least when it comes to defending the country, we are above self-serving, tunnel visioned politics. Will India's politicians rise to the occasion and find the perfect pitch to convince the world?

Citizens role: The citizens of India have exhibited quite a bit of anger and discontent over the way the politicians have let things precipitate to these levels. Several high-flying politicians have been openly snubbed by the people and slammed by the media as well. Even within the music community, a few people have tried to campaign against receiving awards from politicians.

However justifiable these actions, they are at best knee jerk reactions and are not the real solutions. A bit of soul searching will reveal that numerous ordinary citizens contribute to violence in one way or the other. Even an apparently innocuous act such as gifting a toy gun to a child can sow the seeds of violence in a future citizen. Same goes for software games that project violence. As to movies that portray violence graphically, the less said the better. To summarise, we all collude everyday to make violence fashionable and exciting at some level or the other.

It could be argued that only the smallest percentage of the millions who are exposed to the above actually become destructive in real life. But it is quite possible for us to make life exciting without turning brainless violence into an 'in' thing.

Civilians can at least start off by boycotting violence-oriented toys and software as gift articles. It may be a small drop but every drop counts.

MSS – The one and only…

Several years after the article below, which has been cited or reprinted by many publications, I was requested to compose a song on Smt MSS for her Birth Centenary, a video of which is in the link below...

https://youtu.be/wKpwJ13dxOE

......................

There is not a tinge of doubt that M S Subbulakshmi was one of the most beautiful artistes to ever adorn the world music scene. Beautiful in all senses of the term…

It is often said that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but she was an artiste whose beauty transcended relativity. Because it was a beauty that she was not merely born with, nor was it solely dependant on resplendent jewellery or attire.

This was beauty she enhanced every day, every hour and minute that she lived, through her thoughts, words and deeds.

And of course, through her music – impeccable and inimitable.

One can analyse and micro-analyse her music and career for years but still not find all the reasons for her stupendous success that others can only dream of.

She certainly was endowed with a voice that had most qualities required for weighty, classical Carnatic music. It was also a voice that could do her bidding when it came to light classical, devotional and film music. Her voice also possessed what I term as the ‘ring of auspiciousness’, a bell like quality that could make even a Kshetragna padam seem like Suprabhatam… But it was not merely this.

She was meticulous beyond measure to ensure that her music was not just attractive but also acceptable from any standpoint – be it the grammar of the raga, accuracy of tala, pronunciation and more importantly, the correct accent as dictated by the language. But again, this does not complete the picture.

She was a model of assiduousness when it came to concert planning. A lot of us plan but never execute because we dream of the results without ever putting in the necessary effort. Today’s busy professionals often end up with a glow about their scrupulous preparation if they have glanced at a completely new song in an unfamiliar raga and odd tala just hours before rendering it in a concert or recording! MSS never worried about the results but put in days of practise after learning a song, which is what made her sing absolutely unfamiliar songs with such silken sheen that one could be forgiven for believing that these songs were part of the Carnatic repertoire for ages and had been polished by numerous maestros in the past. But again, this is not all.

People talk about the bhakti element in her singing and it was unquestionably a major factor in influencing millions of listeners. Not only did she possess true devotion but she could make her listeners experience what true bhakti was. Her bhakti was born from an outlook where simple faith ruled as opposed to intellectual cynicism.

Ever the perfectionist, she was not even conscious of stardom, let alone covet it. She possessed one of the greatest qualities required for growth – the attitude of a perpetual seeker. Even at her zenith, she constantly learned from maestros such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and Brinda-Mukta to make sure that her repertoire had the stamp of authenticity.

In terms of consistency, she was almost Bradmanesque. One would hardly hear of about a concert by MSS that was less than excellent.

In terms of stage presence, few could match her. Off stage too, she was just as beautiful.

However great each of these attributes are, they still create a whole greater than the sum of its parts…

The truth is there was some invisible magic in her persona which has made her invincible. That is God’s grace – not just given but earned…

This, in my opinion, is the biggest thing we can all learn from her. Without eve spelling it out, she has shown that if one possesses the other qualities she had, God’s grace will naturally follow.

On a personal note, I have had a privileged relationship with her even before my ‘conscious’ years. My parents have always remembered with fondness the incredible reception for me that she hosted at her house soon after my debut as a two-year old, in 1969.

My first memory is when I gave a vocal concert at a wedding in Trichy when I was 5 or 6. MS amma was to sing the following day at the same wedding but she made it a point to come a day ahead and sat through the whole concert - even though I distinctly remember that I sang well below my standards and incurred the wrath of my father at the end of the day!

My mother – to whom MSS was like a goddess – told me how fondly she had talked about my grandfather Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar and how she was convinced that I was his re-incarnation. A true blessing indeed. However, I was too young to be aware of the significance of all this.

I had several interactions subsequently with her that I cherish very much. I will only share one here.

I had a disagreement with All India Radio and Doordarshan (about the name change of my instrument from gotuvadyam to chitravina) and had stopped performing for them for a couple of years. During this time, when I once went to MS amma’s house, she gently chided me saying, “Yours was one of the few concerts I have always looked forward to on the Radio as I rarely venture out. If you stop this, where is the tonic for people like me in my old age?” Needless to say, I felt extremely humbled and resolved that I would resume playing for AIR again (who coincidentally agreed to my stipulation around the same time).

When I received an SMS from a friend about her demise around 4.30 am, I rushed to her house right away. There was absolutely no one there at that time except her family and I did indeed feel as much a part of the family as one could ever be. For, it is absolutely true that to me that this loss amounted to a shrinking of my own family…