Recently, I played my first ever 45-minute concert with an accompanist. This was my longest performance ever and the accompaniments really helped to elevate the atmosphere produced in the hall that day.
This, however, was the tip of the iceberg as I had to put in two hours of hard work every day for two months to have it culminate at this point. Ever since my tenth-grade board exams ended, I had to practice two hours a day to qualify to give a such a long high-quality performance. I even had to go to Chennai for two weeks in the sweltering heat just to learn more complicated songs and practice under the guidance of my teacher, Chitraveena. N. Ravikiran.
As this was my first ever solo concert, I had to work extra hard to make this performance happen. The hours of practice left me with my arms throbbing and my fingers stiff. The constant tuning and string cleaning was exhausting. The Chitraveena is not easy to maintain.
On the day of the concert, I felt extremely nervous; would my performance be representative of the amount of work I had put in or would it only receive pity applause? I decided to put these thoughts behind me and start my sound check. I felt the instrument was not properly tuned and I spent a little over fifteen minutes tuning the instrument. It may have been noisy and a little annoying but the results would be worth the agony.
As the audience started walking in, the nervousness came back. My accompanist, a seasoned professional with a hundred concerts under his belt, went about his business and tuned his mrudangam by precariously hitting it with a rock in the right places. The low pitched sounds only increased the dramatic tension in the room as people started to settle down. Luckily, this was a small room with a capacity of around fifty people so if I made some mistakes, they wouldn't go very far.
The organizers held forth with flowery speeches about the event and their efforts. Somewhere in the dark pit of the audience, I rubbed my cold, nervous hands together, dreading that I might make mistakes that everyone would talk about the rest of the evening.
The concert started and I gave a short introduction before each song so the westernized audience could better understand the nuances, difficulties, and meanings of the songs I played. This helped to elevate the atmosphere in the small room and drove attention away from the minor mistakes I made. Thankfully, the only person who noticed my mistakes was my mother; even my accompanist didn't notice so I could brag about how I finished my first ever concert without any mistakes.
The concert ended after forty-five minutes and I was relieved. I was a bit sweaty after the concert because of the nervousness and the physical effort it takes to play this instrument at a near-professional level.
My first concert was a success and the months of effort seem to have paid off. After the concert, I have been practicing my instrument for relaxation rather than preparing for another concert because although it is gratifying, the amount of work required to put up a quality corner coupled with my school work is too much to bear.
However, I plan to return to the stage soon as a seasoned, professional and less-nervous musician and give something back to the community that helped make me the musician I am today.
