Wednesday, March 15, 2023

SJ – Orchestral vocal instrument - Strumming (1980s)

 

Strumming is a staple technique with guitar and several Raja compositions use this technique. However, there is one song, where Raja uses this technique along with SJ’s voice instead of a guitar. It is true that Raja also used MV’s voice also in the same mode in this song.

The track is from the prelude of the song, ‘Paruvakaalagalil’ from ‘Moodu Pani’ (Tamil 1980). This is a rare 13 second clip, where he uses SJ’s voice in this mode backed by the bass and lead guitar. He uses her voice in this mode to convey the sense of the liberated young celebrating it. It begins as a simple melody and towards the 5th second or so, shifts into the strumming mode. Very creative use of the female voice. I did not hear any other track, where he repeated this experiment.

Let’s hear ‘Paruvakaalangalil’ strumming with SJ’s orchestral vocal instrument…


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aah nanba. I came across ur blog first in 2017 and shared ur blog about Raja's guitar based polycare and commented in FB that u could get a phd just by presenting this blog as a thesis paper. I didn't realize you are still active in Blogspot. What a treasure trove. Please consider archiving this in a book format or so. When I read that article in 2017 I had barely learnt 1 or 2 chords in a steel string. Now that I can play few more chords I appreciate that blog post even more.Thanks for all the joy and the great work. - Arunan

B K Vaishnavi said...

What a unique way of using SJ's voice! immensely enjoying reading this blog, finding out so many nuances in Raja's music. Great pick!