CHENNAI:He was all of nine when he first stroked the strings of his mother’s veena to play a note that would otherwise be very difficult for a beginner. No wonder then that Ramana Balachandran was soon signed up to pursue music. Having played at over 200 concerts so far, the Bengaluru-based Vainika will perform in the city as a part of Charsur Art Foundation’s monthly concert for preserving Carnatic music.
Tell us about your early years of training?
I started learning the mridangam at the age of four. I switched to the veena after that. I have also learnt vocal, initially from my mother and presently, I am learning from my father, who has learnt from M Balamuralikrishna. All my gurus, including Nagalakshmi Balasubramaniam, Ranganath Chakravarthy and Neela Ramgopal, have inspired me immensely, even my parents, who are very strict and perfectionists.
Two instruments and vocals, how did you manage to learn all of these?
I am passionate about all the three, but for concerts, I play the veena, because my voice is still settling. I did notice that the finger movements of the mridangam interfere while playing the veena, which sometimes affect notes when playing the latter. So, I am currently dedicating more time for veena.
Can you recall your arangetram?
It was in Bangalore back in 2013. It was an exciting experience for me, because I was playing along with a formal accompaniment, it was a huge stage. To be honest, I was being very playful and went around showing everybody some magic tricks I had mastered (laughs). My parents were more nervous than I was. Usually, we are supposed to practice with the accompanist a couple of times on stage to perfect the piece, but I did not do any of those things, I practised my bit well though.
Tell us about your experience playing at the Rashtrapati Bhavan?
It was in 2015 for an Indo-African Summit. We were in Rishikesh when my father got a call saying they would like to have me play at the summit. Some musician who had heard me in Chennai had suggested my name for the same. I was the only one to play solo there. It was a huge platform for me, I was really nervous because they had tight security and said if we run around without an ID card, they would shoot us down (laughs). There were about 300 plus artists, both from India and Africa, it was wonderful to hear different kinds of music as well.
Do you also listen to or play other genres of music?
I have just started to listen to some western music, though I don’t play it. I have also been listening to a lot of Hindustani and ghazals, I would like to learn it someday. Being a musician, I can understand how different the two genres are, although they fall under the same Indian classical music category. The approach to the genre is so different.
It is often said that mridangam players are good at mathematics.Is that true?
Mridangam is about simple arithmetics, not about complex mathematics. But yes, very experienced players have that sense for calculations - they know where it starts and where it will end. So it is about how you convert those calculations into something musical. And the intuitions for that develops overtime, I like to try and calculate on stage and perform accordingly as well.
