The Beach Boys and classical Indian music

Musicians and singers (third from the left is Ranjana)

During the summer break from choir we have summer workshops which are open to all and we have different leaders to give Ben a break, though he took the first one which was a Beach Boys special. Well, I just had to be at that! We sang my all time favourite God Only Knows along with Sloop John B, I Get Around and another all time favourite of mine In My Room. I know the songs well and hardly needed the lyrics and I've listened to them for so many years I know virtually all the harmony parts. So I was in my element.

The other workshop I attended was on classical Indian music. I was interested to see what this involved. Well, it was eye opener. I have never concentrated so hard on anything. Classical Indian music is complicated and takes years to learn properly, much like Indian dancing. There are Ragas for different times of the day, seasons and so on. Songs are sung using the name of the notes which are different to what we call them, and there are various variations of notes, how you sing them, sort where the stress is.

These days everything is on an App and the Ranjana who led the class had the Tanpura, which emits a long tone, as a background to everything else on an App. The song she taught us she wrote especially for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and features bagpipes! Indian music isn't written for choirs but for solo performances, though sometimes there are groups of singers. Anyway we learned the song in two parts. We did pretty well considering. She then played a recording of the song so we could see how it should sound. We all clapped. It was great. I thought I'd forget the song. We'd learned it two hours but it was so hard to sing the right note name as well as get the music. I looked up the website and listened to the music again and the whole thing came back to me. I was going round the house singing Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Dhin Dhin Dar Tin Tin Ta Te-te Dhin Dhin Dha. Oh yes, I kid you not!

Anyway, on Sunday Ranjana was taking part in the Darbar Festival at the Southbank Centre with the Odissi Ensemble, a free performance in the Clore ballroom. I went along. Wow! I loved it. I have to say classical Indian music is not something I would sit and listen to normally, but when it is performed with dancers it is totally different. Ranjana was part of four musicians and singers and her vocals were terrific. I have much respect for the dedication of any musician or singer and this group as well as the dancers were wonderful to listen to and watch. The performance lasted for an hour and so I'm glad I went along.

To hear the song we learned at the workshop click on Ranjana's name above.