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how does Ir compose a song

Topic started by Jeeera (@ 206.175.176.2) on Thu Oct 31 18:02:15 EST 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

This is a woderful article written by somebody. I picked it off the IR's group. This is a huge one but explains in detail how and what he does to compose a song. After reading thsi I was stuck with Awe. Does this man have had any time to do anything else other than mudic. Enjoy!!.

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Responses:

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• From: Whatever (@ 66.75.179.76) on: Thu Jan 2 19:10:24 EST 2003
  
  You may be right. But I remember reading that in an article on Einstein many moons ago. I might have got it wrong. I will try and confirm the source.
  
  
• From: Anni (@ 202.9.147.217) on: Thu Jan 9 03:16:30 EST 2003
  
  An aside...I wanted to suprise my husband no his birthday and so arranged for a meeting with his idol Ilayaraja. It turned out to be surprisingly easy to access the maestro and we were invited to his chamber. We spent a good 20 minutes talking about music with the maestro. One of the most memorable birthday gifts he'd ever recieved, my husband confessed later.
  
  
• From: Raja Fan (@ 212.72.11.66) on: Thu Jan 9 06:18:18 EST 2003
  
  Interview with Mr. Chandra Sekhar -
  Courtesy : Music Curry .com
  
  
  Question: Tell how you landed as a Key board player from a harmonica player?
  
  Answer : …... Later when I joined Mr. Ilayaraaja I was really afraid that I may not fit his standard. But he really encouraged me and said 'I know your talent and you can perform'. Whenever some music nuances are there he used to teach me use this finger, use this key. Though I was a famous guitarist, Raaja was very innovative, nice, and very intelligent guitarist. The thing is that he will think in a such a different way, when some passage is given I will think that what all fingers to use, how to make it very easy, he will just come and tell me how he conceived that bit, and very easily he will give me a shortcut. Like that he used to give me lot of short cuts, and he really made me a keyboard player so that in such a way I can play the keyboard with both my hands fluently, though I am not a pianist.
  
  Question : What are your interesting experiences with Maestro Ilayaraaja ?
  
  Answer : Everyday is a different experience. If you take the recording part of it, it is very disciplined, the most disciplined place for the musician to work. He considers that it is a serious job, not a time for play or fool around. He keeps you engaged and his standard is so high that playing with him musicians improve their talents. Which means that everyday you come across difficult phrases, you cannot sit like that and play it. You really have to work hard to get the feel of the music, which means that during the recording or the interval you have to really practise hard. So nowhere else you get this experience, if at all I have to compare somebody in past it will be Mr. M.S Viswanathan. I have got a good name working under him. I would say there are two people from whom you keep learning as you earn, in those days Mr. M.S.Viswanathan and nowadays the one and the only Mr. Ilayaraaja.
  
  Question : What is the flowchart of the work ?
  
  Answer : It has been improved or it keeps changing from time to time. In nowadays I would say that most of the Music Directors follow this setup. The story is told to Music Director, and the situation of the songs are also told. The tunes are then composed, the alternate tunes are also composed and Director, and Producer choose the tunes. Once the tunes are confirmed they fix the recording date. When we enter the recording studio at 7:00 AM, it only Mr Ilayaraaja and me, the other musicians come at 9:00 AM or 2:00 PM. He sits at my Keyboard, and basically he makes the composition. He literally plays, and I use the computer to record the music using some musical software, and sometimes he writes music and he will ask me to program all these things. Whenever he plays he plays in bits and pieces in real time, I have to see the score and correct all the parts, tightening the timings, feeding some real time controller events, mixing of different things, and making the audio part of it. Meantime he writes the entire score for the song, by the time the 9:00 AM musicians arrive, and it is taken for xerox and number of copies are made. The music is clearly marked like what musicians have to play and at what bar at what time. So they start programming, and my brother Mr. Purushotaman conducts for Mr Ilayaraaja, is at the rhythm box. After 2:00 PM, Raaja listens and makes the final changes. Then all the electronic instruments are sync'ed so that they start and stop at same time. He then goes into recording room and sits at the mixer and make all the fine arrangement. In the evening Mr VS Narasimhan will rehearse the song. Now everything is listened together, so each instrument is sync'ed to internal recorder, then track by track all the instruments are recorded like Base guitar, accompanying chords, etc. Now you have got the basic electronic track. Now after that if songs require any violin arrangement, or chorus to be added, some brass arrangement, or a flute/shehnai to be added they are over dumped. Now you have a master track having the master instrument. They get the sync signal from my computer.
  
  
• From: Venki (@ 192.127.94.7) on: Thu Jan 9 08:12:25 EST 2003
  
  Raja Fan, You are doing a wonderful service these days. Thanks to you.
  DICIPLINE - This is one thing everyone Including UK, and ARR mentions when they talked about IR.
  
  
• From: Mumbai Ramki (@ 203.197.24.195) on: Wed Jan 15 08:45:32 EST 2003
  
  Raja Fan ,
  Great Service ..Do post such articles ..Otherwise ther is nothing worthwhile in this website except for new songs ..of course ARTICLES also means articles on other music directors not just ILLAYRAAJA
  
  
• From: Jasper (@ ) on: Thu May 13 04:15:43 EDT 2004
  
  How to actually compose a good song. Because i am a church pianist, sometimes i have to use piano songs , add chords into it . I just want to ask how to make the church song more beautiful. To improve the songs that i had to break my brain. Please tell me how to solve it or send me examples of chords like tne 9th or 11th chord . What are those? Thanks.
  
  

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