Some are made teachers. Some are, however, born teachers. Tiger Varadachary was a born teacher. Veena Vidushi Kalpakam Swaminathan recalled an instance when Tiger Varadachary helped a struggling student scale the upper octave. When repeated attempts to egg him on to go up the octave failed, Tiger Varadachary hit upon an unconventional method. According to Kalpakam Swaminathan, Tiger Varadachary lowered the board and asked his student to utter `SA'. The student had no difficulty in saying the bass `SA' as he looked down at the board. Tiger Vardarchary then held the board straight to him and asked him to say `PA'. He uttered `PA' with ease. Then he moved the board atop and asked him to say the upper `SA'. He shouted `SA' as he looked up the board. And, the student was thrilled that he could also scale the upper octave. As the veteran veena artiste explained this to us, we were impressed by the natural teaching techniques employed by yester-year teachers.
Monday, October 23, 2006
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