Music of Mysore

I am taking Carnatic Voice (Classical South Indian Singing) as a part of my course load here in India. And while it is extremely different from the western scale I butchered throughout my lifetime in America (butchered as in knowing 'do' and 're' and 'la' apart from one another at any given note... Solfège) I am really enjoying the challenge it presents me with. The South Indian Classical style is so mathematical and precise. Every Raga (or scale) has a value, a name, and a frequency. Every Tala (or number of counts to a particular beat) has a hand gesture and an accompanying name. It is tricky... but I learned my first song (scratch that - learning my first song) yesterday.

Yesterday our music guru, (a guru in India is basically one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area and teaches what they know to others very intensively) Radhika, encouraged Kat (the other girl taking Carnatic Voice) and I to attend a Carnatic Concert with her in the center of Mysore. Since 1962, performers (and GOOD performers) from all over India travel during various festival times (this being the festival time of Ganesha) to put on small and free concerts for people in a given community. We simply sat outside and enjoyed some incredible South Indian Classical music. It was also really neat to be able to motion the Tala with the professional - I am actually learning something!!

 The Venue!

 Madurai TN Sheshagopalan on Vocals

 CN Chandhrashekaran on Violin 

(Just a note about this man: he is blind!

Not that it matters, but it did make his performance all the more impressive in my book!)

KV Prasad was also featured on the Mrudanga - which is their drum

For a small venue, the concert was really well attended

And, after such an incredibly cultural night on the town, where did Kat and I decide to eat? Pizza Hut, obviously. We had to compare Pizza Hut to our earlier Domino's experience. The funny thing about our dinner was, I was eating in the fanciest Pizza Hut of my life. Fancy menus, nice seats, and great service; I even had a "Mocktail Mango Mojito." It was almost too fancy; we couldn't control our laughter when the server began serving us the pizza (obviously we got the "Cheese Ball Crust") on our plates... for goodness sakes, it is just Pizza Hut. So silly.