Many people ask me what do singers do with their free hands while singing? Why do they make gestures which mean nothing? Does it affect their singing - make it worse or better? Is it a fashion to make such gestures to suggest supremacy over singing or the surs?
Although most of the times I escape the question saying I don't know, I will attempt an explanation as I perceive it. The hand gestures made by singers while singing may be understood as visual graphs of sound versus space. How do you visually explain sound? And more-so, when someone's life is only as non visual as sound, about its intricacies, how does it obtain a visual dimension? Hand gestures gives a visual meaning to sound. It almost objectifies sound to a playful thing.
Many a times, professional singers have explained singing as a play of /in sur or swars (notations). When striking a high note, the hand and head goes high; and vice versa for a low note. That's simple to understand. but when the song is feasible, its more about the play of throwing a word in a desired manner. This 'throw' can be perceived through the gesture. There is a treatment to each word, each line and the entire song. The hand-gesture thus shows the way performer treats the work - i e the song.
The hand gestures also capitalizes on the structure of the hand itself - in terms of the arm, palm and fingers. The movement of all symbolizes a 3-dimensional graph - much like the tantra, a diagram which only exists in the mind. The gesture probably, according to me is a manifest of such a diagram of music. The gesture grips the rhythm, the sur (tone), the swar (notation), the lyrics, the mood and thus the composition. It symbolizes abstract qualities of music like smoothness, softness, sharpness, etc. for a particular song. Bhaav is intrinsic to Indian Classical music as against the structure of a piece for the Western Classical. Hence, one finds a separate director for live music in western classical performances. In Indian Classical, it's more of a jugal-bandi, or an interplay - where all come together and improvise.
This improvisation will see improvised hand gestures. It is compulsive, not fashionable - it is a reflection of what those vibrations inside do to you. Sometimes, while singing, one closes ones eyes, or hints, suggests, smiles - all such actions primarily are involuntary.
Yes, when you find people who do not know much about music doing weird hand movements, you can easily point them out as forced or fashionable...
Although most of the times I escape the question saying I don't know, I will attempt an explanation as I perceive it. The hand gestures made by singers while singing may be understood as visual graphs of sound versus space. How do you visually explain sound? And more-so, when someone's life is only as non visual as sound, about its intricacies, how does it obtain a visual dimension? Hand gestures gives a visual meaning to sound. It almost objectifies sound to a playful thing.
Many a times, professional singers have explained singing as a play of /in sur or swars (notations). When striking a high note, the hand and head goes high; and vice versa for a low note. That's simple to understand. but when the song is feasible, its more about the play of throwing a word in a desired manner. This 'throw' can be perceived through the gesture. There is a treatment to each word, each line and the entire song. The hand-gesture thus shows the way performer treats the work - i e the song.
The hand gestures also capitalizes on the structure of the hand itself - in terms of the arm, palm and fingers. The movement of all symbolizes a 3-dimensional graph - much like the tantra, a diagram which only exists in the mind. The gesture probably, according to me is a manifest of such a diagram of music. The gesture grips the rhythm, the sur (tone), the swar (notation), the lyrics, the mood and thus the composition. It symbolizes abstract qualities of music like smoothness, softness, sharpness, etc. for a particular song. Bhaav is intrinsic to Indian Classical music as against the structure of a piece for the Western Classical. Hence, one finds a separate director for live music in western classical performances. In Indian Classical, it's more of a jugal-bandi, or an interplay - where all come together and improvise.
This improvisation will see improvised hand gestures. It is compulsive, not fashionable - it is a reflection of what those vibrations inside do to you. Sometimes, while singing, one closes ones eyes, or hints, suggests, smiles - all such actions primarily are involuntary.
Yes, when you find people who do not know much about music doing weird hand movements, you can easily point them out as forced or fashionable...
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