His friend shared the video with him…

… of a Raga singer singing a western song in swaras.

The student thought that was an excellent goal and was excited sharing it with me, but…

… as I pointed out the reality, he explained in his own words how it was just a translation, definitely needs practice, but too convergent and with not enough real skill that he actually wishes for.

Performance is a very small convergent part of music, probably the easiest to understand, with single solution, single answer, right and wrong.

Maybe the reason why there are so many performers covering the same Western classical or Raga songs or film songs again and again… but so very few good composers or arrangers.

Now, it is the job of the teacher to point out that the goal the student thought was a desirable one is not the one if the student is interested in being able to ragify notes to swaras, scales to Ragas.

he by himself couldn’t find it obvious that saying sa ri ga ma instead of a b c d was not what he wanted. instead adding gamakas, making connections and even including extra Raga knowledge based music content was.

is one wrong and the other right? no.

but one has to keep the ladder on the right song or musical goals … right?

and the teacher is responsible to show the reality of the walls.