Performing Arts - Violin

Learning one of the most difficult musical instruments might be a real task of challenge in itself; however it is incomplete without performing it if front of a considerable audience.

It has been a year since I started learning violin. Albeit, I have only come to realise – I am still digging the crust of an immensely deep and dense pie. Learning violin really takes immense determination and passion. Moreover, training in Indian classical takes it to a greater level of arduousness. I have merely learned two Rags (Bhupali, Durga)  as per the Indian tradition. However, when it came to performing I was faced with one of the most bewildering of all challenges.

Cultural events in any Indian society stand unmatched when compared to the rest of the world. Ganesh-Utsav (usually a 10 day long celebration centralized on the elephant-headed god of wisdom and prosperity Ganesh) is one of the biggest of such cultural and religious gatherings. Having said that, it gave me a nice opportunity to display the skills I had developed over the past year; serve people by entertaining them; and perhaps encourage others to take interest in it. So I decided to perform on one of the day 10 days. I consulted my coordinator Ms. Vijayalaxmi for approval and contacted Mr. Anoop Iyyer my supervisor. Mr. Iyyer is an excellent keyboard player and show organizer. He helped me put up a complete show. Even though I was learning Indian classical, it wasn’t adequate to be able to perform in a classical show naturally. In addition, if I had to perform in from of the common audience, I had to consider the fact that not everyone had the taste and understanding of classical music.         

Mr. Anoop on keyboard and me playing violin.

Therefore I decided to play something other than classical music, something which could at least be apprehended by the audience.  Thereby, I planned to prepare a piece of western music and play that instead. I came up with the world famous song “My heart will go on” from the movie Titanic. The song was known to all and the evening served as an adequate time to play and enjoy it. Admittedly however, planning to play it was the easiest part. The way western violin is played is different from the Indian style, even the seating differs. I had to struggle a lot to play it while sitting on a chair (we sit down conventionally). I had to prepare it in very less time. I never thought I would be able to do it in time. To my surprise, I just did prepare it well! In fact my sister wanted to sing it with me on listening to my violin. I became aware of my own abilities to perform under pressure and the latent talent my sister had. I didn’t know she could sing so well. Being able to play a new song was still easy I thought, when it came to performing.

My activity supervisor, Mr. Anoop supported and encouraged me to take up this task. Initially I was really nervous about performing in public. I did agree to perform but since I had no experience of it I wasn’t really sure. I even thought of cancelling it, but something in me refrained to give up. Such are the times where we actually need to show perseverance because it our determination which enables us to withstand the challenges. Mr. Anoop kept encouraging me and it really helped me stick to my commitment. 

Our performance: "My heart will go on"

The event was set, crowd occupied that area and after the opening ritual and a couple of religious songs it was our turn. Mr. Anoop just asked me to simply start without any second thought. I started playing and without realizing I finished it smoothly. To me it just felt like a fraction of second, I had no idea what the audience was clapping at in the end. It turned out that people really liked it. Some people even wanted to learn violin getting inspired from me. I felt really excited. I was glad that I could perform it so well and that people liked it. Suddenly, that so called ‘stage fear’ vanished. Performing an art is a skill and I was really happy to have at least taken a step towards perfecting it.