Bollywood Singing

Millions of Indians dream of making it large at Bollywood. They wish to become successful Bollywood playback singers, composers, arrangers, musicians and artists. Once upon a time, singers with Indian classical music background could dare to enter the studios, but legends like Kishore Kumar changed the approach. Gradually, non-classical singers earned their share of honour and acceptance. Every progress has its pitfalls. In the case of Bollywood music, nepotism, and musically and technically weak singers succeeded grandly, sending a wrong message to society. If we check the last eight decades of Bollywood music, we’ll find times of great music and music that people ignore. In this current century, music production is digital. Technology is helping the untrained ones to produce somewhat quality products. Music making is becoming an easy task. Young learners are not paying attention to mastering skills that take years to perfect. There are two distinct schools of thought. One still believes in proper education, practice and presentation, while the other is in instant stardom. The ones who wish to learn to seek advice and guidance. Should they learn Indian classical or Western music to become successful Bollywood singers? If we look at the music compositions of the last twenty years, we observe that Indian classical, folk, western and typical mixed music has become hits. There is room for all types of artists if they can offer quality services. The learner should begin by training their voice. Voice training applies more Western technicalities and musicianship skills. Singing harmony is a common practice. With proper knowledge, training and practice of Western voicing, singers will develop skills to sing in harmony. A Bollywood singer needs to know harmony and its application. Voice training prepares to learn one or multiple art forms to help an artist to be versatile, like Shankar Mahadevan and Sonu Nigam. Music composers like A.R. Rahman, M.M. Kreem, and Ilaya Raja extensively use the Western concepts of multiple voices and harmonies. Bollywood singing is much more diverse than most people may think.

A limited number of Bollywood singing schools in Kolkata offer diverse training. Bollywood is a genre that requires a tailormade approach to develop singing skills that suit 21st-century music production. Music schools in Kolkata, like the Academy for Musical Excellence, offer Bollywood vocal lessons and musicianship courses. AMEC additionally offers certified courses for Diploma in Music Teaching. The advantage of AMEC is that it follows a graded and sequential course compounding with international certification. A learner should keep in mind that there is no shortcut to becoming a trained singer and singing like a professional on stage or in a recording studio. Years of hard work and careful preparation will make them singers whom people will love to listen to.