I often get asked this question by a gamut of people. Audiences at concerts, participants at lecture demonstrations, parents of young students of Music Vruksh, friends, acquaintances and even strangers who hear that I am a classical musician.
Since singing has been an intrinsic part of my growing up and has now evolved into my profession, I had, until a few years ago, never really thought about people who have a desire to sing and possibly an aptitude too, but never really got to learn formally or sing in public. Most of these people hide bashfully behind the identity of what they call ‘just a bathroom singer’. Bathrooms obviously signify extreme privacy, a place where a person can unleash his or her own Sonu Nigam or Shreya Ghoshal alter ego. With the showerhead as a mike, the soapy floor as the grand stage, and the buckets and soaps as audiences, the singer inside him or her blooms with full confidence. The mirror plays a very important role too. It is that special reflection that shows the person as a larger-than-life singer who can create magic in people’s hearts, the persona they desperately want but feel they can never acquire.
The desire to sing is actually a desire for many things morphed into one. It is the ego’s desire to be admired, looked up to and loved by people. It is the mind’s desire to express a whole gamut of emotions from love to hate. It is the spirit’s desire to expand and embrace life and its rich experiences through the magic that music is. It is the desire of our beings to touch perfection and beauty through our vocal cords even if for a brief moment of time.
But most people get lost in the belief that that music is a gift only a few privileged people can enjoy. They resign themselves to being the longing soul that desperately desires music but cannot touch it.
For these people, I have something very important to say. It is no doubt certainly a worthy goal to want to improve your singing skills. In classical music, we give immense importance to the skills of ‘Sur’ and ‘Taal’, and it is certainty a wonderful thing if your key can be a bit better, if your sense of rhythm can be a bit more polished. But there is something else that is far more profoundly important. Even in classical music, what differentiates a powerfully soul-stirring singer from a highly skilled one, is spirit. Only when skill is powered by spirit can music genuinely transcend. So yes, it is a great thing to start musical training and look forward to improving singing skills. But it is essential to not lose one’s spirit and essence in this pursuit, the spirit that compels one to cry, laugh and love through its voice.
The pursuit of perfection is a mirage. Just as when you love something or someone with your full heart, the object of your desire becomes perfect for you, the same is true of music. When you love what you sing and sing what you love, you feel the fullness of happiness as perfection. Perfection actually lies in the spirit of oneness. It lies wholly within us. And when we sing with our heart, express with gay abandon and reach out to the divine through our love, we are perfect singers.
So, when I am asked the question ‘Can I sing?’, I have an unequivocal answer. Yes! Anyone can sing. Everyone should sing. Because it is every single soul’s birthright to be as grand as it desires. To be as happy as a singing cuckoo bird. To be as united with the beauty and magic of the true spirit of music as any professional singer on this planet.