Winter Bumper Issue: Tanjavur Sankara Iyer

I loved to practice. Sattur Iyengarval used to wake me up at 3 am. The street lights were switched off at 3 am and that was the signal for me to get up! I would start with the geetam in Bauli and practice for six or seven hours. However, I would constantly sing in my mind. This is called mananam. In fact Amir Khan, the great Hindustani vocalist, used to emphasise this aspect (mananam), as a prelude to vocalising a phrase, Tiger also believed in it. I would constantly think about different aspects of music, like, for example, how to hold the gandhara for a particular raga and so on. I would also practice veena-playing a lot. I believe this is very important for a vocalist. My veena teachers were Gomathisankara Iyer and K.S. Narayanaswamy