Strategies and tips for percussion students by Sri Srinath Bala

We are grateful to Sri Srinath Bala, a senior mrudanga vidwan in the bay area for accepting to be featured in our April 2020 (virtual) CCC event. He shared a lot of pointers on the strategies and tips on how to be a successful accompanist and how to enhance the concert experience for the performers and the audience. Vidwan Shri Srinath Bala's topic for the Feature a Guru segment was in tune with the topic shared by Smt. Sandhya Srinath, but from the perspective of percussive accompaniment. Shri Srinath Bala spoke about the strategies and tips for good percussive accompaniment and insisted on adaptability, focused listening, alertness, and keeping up the melody. Using examples, he gave tips for mastering adaptability to the various styles of singing and applying sarvalaghu by listening to the sangatis presented, tips on how to enhance accompaniment by keeping up the melodic aspect of layam by using certain pleasing sounds at the right time, and tips on how to listen to the artiste and closely follow and respond dynamically. Following these tips and best practices will increase the confidence of the students as they grow more as an artist. Thank you Sri Srinath Bala and Smt Sandhya Srinath for your time and efforts!