350+ Varieties of Vocal Cards, Different Success Mantras But what is Unique among them?! Read this Interesting perspective of "The Story of Indian Playback Singers"!

Dear Friends and Students

Last week Lataji reached higher planets but left her voice as a return gift to the music lovers! I am not an ardent follower of Music but out of curiosity did a little research on Indian playback singers. With my quick check, I found 350+ playback singers from this soil so far!! I was checking known names and their contributions so far.

The following 10 amazing singers are no more but left their vocal cards with us. They all together sung 1,59,478 songs as per the rough calculations. I am subjected to the error but to derive a different perspective.

Mohammed Rafi (Lived 55 years, No of songs 25000, share 16% of this 1.59 Lakhs songs, Padma Shri), Kishore Kumar (Lived 58, No of songs 2678, share 2%, No Padma Award), Lata Mangeshkar (age 92, songs 50000, share 31%, Bharat Ratna), SP Balasubramanyam (lived 74, No of songs 40000, share 25%, Padma Vibhushan), Manna Dey (lived 94, No of songs 3500, % share 2%, Padma Bhushan), Jagjit Singh (Lived 70, Not sure of No of Ghajals, Padma Bhushan), Mahendra Kapoor (Lived 74, No of songs 25000, %share 16%, Padma Shri), Hemanta Mukhopadhyay(Lived 69, No of songs 2000, Share1%, Padma Vibhushan but not accepted), Mukesh Chand Mathur(lived 53, No of songs 1300, share 1%, No Padma Award), Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao (Lived 51, No of songs 10000, Share 6%, Padma Shri).

Out of 350+ famous singers across all states of India, many singers sang in different languages. To my surprise, 260 singers could able to sing in Hindi, 176 in Telugu, 169 in Tamil, 134 in Bengali, 124 in Kannada, 102 in Malayalam, 67 Punjabi, 66 Marathi, 59 Urdu, 50 English, 49 Odia, 39 Assamese, 35 Gujarathi, 30 Nepali, 24 Bhojpuri, 10 Sanskrit, 10 Tulu, 9 Sindhi, 8 Rajashatni, 7 Konkani, 6 Simhalese, 6 Arabic, 4 French, 4 Maithili, 4 Russian, 3 German, 3 Malay, 3 Haryanvi (Haryana), 2 Manipuri, 1 african, 1 armenian, 2 badaga (Nilgiri, Tamilnadu), 1 barpetia (assamme dialect), 1 bhangara,1 bishnupriya (Manipuri), 1 bundeli, 1 chattisgadi, 1 dutch, 1 goalpariya(Bangladesh dialect), 1 italian, 1 Japanese, 1 kachari (Bodos), 1 kajri (UP), 1 karbi(Assam), 1 Kashimiri, 1 khasi(Meghalaya).

I was surprised! I turned towards what kind of intelligence needed for this versatility? Definitely they all possess Musical Intelligence (Ability to produce and appreciate rhythm, pitch and timber) for sure!! On top of it, a few of them must be possessing Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence (Well-developed verbal skills and sensitivity to the sounds, meanings and rhythms of words)!!

As per Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in any field. If a person practices for 10 hours per day, it takes 1000 days to become an expert. As these playback singers showed their expertise in their walk of life, they might have clocked 10,000 hours of practice or 3 years of rigorous practice to reach their level.

What am I trying to derive out of these statistics? A few singers became famous in short period, a few singers continued their prowess throughout their career, a few died in 50s/60s and a few died in 80s/90s, a few could able to sing in multiple languages, a few in single language, a few earnt Padma Awards, a few earnt none, a few earned crores of rupees, a few might have lost everything, a few had contented life, a few had shortfalls in their life, but all them showed their passion towards their profession. They lived for their intelligence. God sanctions a certain intelligence biologically. They were able to leverage that intelligence, practiced for 10,000 hours and became proficient in their profession.

What is it for you?

Step 1: Identify your intelligence among 9 Intelligences of MI Theory (Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence, Mathematical-Logical Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, Visual-Spatial Intelligence, Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Naturalist Intelligence, and Existential Intelligence).

Step 2: Practice for 10,000 hours.

Step 3: Search for an opportunity and check the outcomes after 3 years of 10,000 hours of practice

Step 4: Decide whether to continue in that profession or not using the following formula!

Name or Fame or Monetary Benefits = (Your Natural Intelligence * Practice Hours * Opportunity) / Bad Luck

If Bad Luck goes low, Name or Fame or Monetary gains are high and Vice-Versa. However, regardless of outcomes, your satisfaction levels are always high!! Guaranteed!!

What are you waiting for? Check your Intelligence, start practicing and search for an opportunity!!

Time starts now!

Ravi Saripalle

Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2iTM.blogspot.com)