Now its interesting

So.... There are cracks in the FOTA wall. Mad max and his whipping coterie must be laughing. No test for Schumacher! 

Ya! 

I for one applaud this. Schumacher was a great driver and in my view will win atleast 1 if not 2 races this year. However, Haug comment that by letting Schumacher test is the sporting thing to do, is pure rubbish. If anything, Schumacher went very near the edge of what is sporting and what is not. There were times that he did cross that line. Even his most ardent fans will no doubt agree that he revelled in mindgames. Sporting gesture towards him. No way. 

What's in the rules are the rules. They apply to everyone.

Todi si magic

I spent nearly the whole day playing thodi raga on my violin. My back pains and my left index finger has a permanent groove! Time well spent, because I was struggling with raga. After 6 hours of practice, I can finally say, that I getting some bhava (or emotion)

Nobody ever said that Carnatic music was easy, but getting this raga right is really tough. I changed my finger technique a couple times today. The scale being

• Shadja (S)
• Shuddha Rishabha (R1)
• Sadharana Gandhara (G2)
• Shuddha Madhyama (M1)
• Panchama (P)
• Shuddha Dhaivatha (D1)
• Kaishiki Nishadha (N2)

I would normally play R1 and D1 with my index finger, G2 and N2 on my middle finger and M1 and the upper Octave S again with my index finger by drawing my hand up. However, the G2 and N2 were just not sounding right.

I tried to play G2 and N2 with my index finger itself, esp. when they are part of an ascending or descending note procession. Only when I needed to stop the procession at G2 or N2, I tried to use the middle finger.

So, a sequence like S'N2D2 would be played with just the index finger, or even a M1G2M1 would be with the index finger only, relying on my hand and wrist slides. But a sequence like PD1N2 would use 2 fingers. That of course assuming that the song's lyric goes as such.

The impact? Not so good for my neighbours because this bit of experimentation happened during the afternoon siesta but it did sound far better. Played it to my teacher and she agreed that the technique was now correct and what I was playing earlier didn't sound right.

I'm still a beginner but its getting interesting by the day. I wonder what my scary friend would say about this? Scary??

No pain, No gain, eh?