A Dream Comes True

I've sequenced and recorded 8 of my compositions and compiled them into an album titled "Hope, Inspiration and Joy ".The idea is :

"We begin each new venture with the Hope that we'll succeed.If we persevere and stay Inspired to give our best, its just a matter of time before our efforts culminate in Joy"

Here are the track names:

1)A New Beginning
2)A Walk in the clouds
3)Living in Harmony
4)This one's a Medley
Part1 : The Despondent Arjuna
Part2 : Krishna Counsels

5)This one in untitled so far. Will probably call it “Reflections at a seashore “ as suggested by my friend Ananth.
6)A Ray of Hope
7)Those were the days
8)Celebration

It’s not a commercial album and I’ll probably never go commercial. But I am really happy with the way the songs have turned out.The songs were sequenced completely on my beloved synth, the Yamaha PSR540.The recording was done in my friend Ananth's lab. It was finished on18th Novemvber,2005 .I am currently a member of the IISc music group Rhythmica.They are a wondeful bunch of people , very talented and friendly.

“A new beginning “ and “A Walk in the clouds” are the simplest compositions of the lot as far as complexity in music goes. But they have in them a kind of freshness that’ll be hard for me to recapture now. "A new beginning" was my very first composition.

"Those were the days" is about me recalling the wonderful days I've spent (and am spending:) at IISc .It's for me to listen to 20 yrs later:)It's my most recent composition; was also the most difficult of the lot to compose. Its about recalling the days with fondness and a sense of wonder and has a nostalgic feel to it. This is perhaps the only song that deviates from the album theme. The complexity in this has nothing to with it being in 9-beat. Rather the chord progressions
I’ve attempted in this song are completely different from the ones I’ve tried so far.

Would rather not describe all of the songs; would rather leave them to the listener’s imagination. In some sense, I try to tell a story in each composition. The story that the listener hears may be different from the one that I'm trying to describe, but that's fine, as long as he/she likes the story! There definitely would be some “data loss” in converting my thoughts to music; however the ability to express thoughts through music improves over time .

The album is dedicated to my parents. They had faith in me when I tried to convince them that I would buy the synth and then learn to play it somehow:)It was my Dad who got “Yanni at the Acropolis “ tape when I was about 15.I Heard it and was mesmerized by the music.Have heard all of his music since then and in my opinion he is a full blown genius. Listening to his music has largely shaped my understanding of conveying emotions through music. Just pure lucky that I heard some wonderful stuff at an impressionable age.

4 people have been very influential in my musical life
(and non-musical one too)-
Adwait Inamdar,Ananth, Ankush and Vaibav Musale.

Adwait and Ankush had encouraging words to offer at crucial times. Adwait talked me out of quitting music a year after I’d started. Ankush was the first guy who seemed to like my music. He really liked a composition of mine that I was very happy about but nobody else seemed to like(Medley).Most of whatever little music theory I know, I learned from Vaibav .A very patient friend, who also corrected some blunders in my fingering techniques. Meeting Ananth was a magical thing to have happened in my life. Have learnt a great deal from him; about music of course, but about many other things as well.

Many might not have heard much instrumental music before.Some might even feel that purely instrumental music without vocals is pointless. Infact I too felt the same until I was about 15.In general, instrumental music takes longer to like and appreciate but is also very accurate in expressing emotions that would be very hard to describe in words. Consider this, why are film songs so popular ? The simple reason is that they are picturized. It’s easy for a person to understand and appreciate a song when he/she visually sees it. Take away the video and you have to listen to the lyrics and the singer’s voice modulation to get the essence of the song. Take away the lyrics too and it gets significantly harder to understand what’s going on. One needs to cultivate an ear to listen and appreciate instrumental music and anyone can do it if they carefully listen to good instrumental for some time.

Many of my friends out here have heard the music, and amazingly, they seem to like it! The response has been way better than expected. For me music has always been a joy to savour, and even if I don’t make a penny in my entire life through my music, it’ll make absolutely no difference to me. Would feel nice though if people feel it gives them hope and raises their spirits.