Music Guru
"Whilst practising, go to the lowest possible note in your real voice, I repeat, real, and not cultivated or artificial voice. Pay attention to your volume at that point.
Now maintaining d same level, start going up, in a moderate speed. Not too fast, slow would still work. Watch how many notes can u cross in one breath, maintaining the same volume as the lowest one. Its interesting to see how your voice will change, how your vocal chords will re adjust as u go higher. Go as high possible without straining your voice, making it shriller as you go up,( u can take a fresh breath from wherever u lost it) and then note down that highest Note. Now come down in the same speed. Back to the starting note.
Note that you take a very deep breath every time you inhale, maintain the same volume, do not strain your voice, sing easy, in sur or right pitch, and with every effort, gradually try touching a note higher and lower.
If you do this right, you should soon be able to see a drastic increase in your range and breath.. Rest, in a personal work shop or through Aceopen university.. :) Love and More power to Genuine music"- Music and love - Sonu Nigam
"When u sing, sing as if someone is watching u.. U'll develop a habit of cautious and correct singing."-Sonu Nigam
"One must never undermine the importance of rhythm while doing reeyaaz. The electronic tabla for those who do not have an accompaniment, is a sensible investment if you can afford it. or else, keep tapping the hand or feet and focus on the tempo while practicing sargams and taans. It makes a great deal of difference."- Music and love - Sonu Nigam
"There are various kinds of voices in the world... Every voice has a particular vowel, with or without a consonant, that can help achieve better results if practiced on that. Singers who have a thin, sharp, KK, Narender Chanchal, kind of tone can be helped by the reeyaaz of the sargams in the sound of HA, HAI, HO, HI, HE etc if they want to attain softer touch in their voice! It has to be sung though in such a way that air is blown from the lungs smoothly but significantly. Remember, long full breathed notes. Music is the Cosmos' fashion show. Enjoy"- Sonu Nigam
"Turn your deaf ear to anyone who teaches you to sing loud. He/she is destroying your vocal chords, your range, your voice quality, your expressions, your versatilty and the divinity and soul of your voice. A genuine teacher, will never ask you to sing loud or full throated. He/she will ask you to sing in speech level, in the volume of your normal talking voice (not when you are angry, or in a disco, but generally talking at home)"- Sonu Nigam
Sonu soul
Jo guzar gaya vo guzar gaya
Main kab ka chhod vo dagar gayaa
Sadiyon key gorakh dhandey ko
Bus aaj mein mujhko jeena hai
Yeh baat lagey to bhaltee hai
Par baat mein baat ko samajh gayaa
Beetee yaadein daiteen hain sabaq
Jo aaj key paath mein padhnaa hai
Phir kal ke aaj mein aaj key paath ki
Yaad ko laikar badhnaa hai. - Sonu Niigaam(0500 30.7.2011 Nairobi time, Tribe Hotel, 300)
"Zindagi bhar zindagi mujhe manaati rahi, main maani nahin.. Ab aalam hai ke main manaati hoon, ke mari kabhi to maanegi - "Sonu Niigaam(04122010 1915,Raheja, Papa Mummy's house, for Mummy)
"I am nothing more than a concept, a thought! - "Sonu Niigaam(08112010 1729 Namah, on the treadmill)
"The Sonu, that Sonu knew all these YEARS, never existed! - "Sonu Niigaam(31102010 1421 Namah)
"Not many understand that the spiritual realm has an opposite gravitational force. The more grounded you get, the higher you elevate - "Sonu Niigaam(04092010 0148 Mumbai)
"Nights come only so we can see the stars that otherwise go unappreciated during the day - "Sonu Niigaam(14082010 1058 Bangalore from airport to hotel)
"Only an artiste, can acknowledge the strangeness of a genius during his life time. The rest of the world gets it after his death"Sonu Niigaam(28062010 1645 IST,Bangkok airport lounge, to Mumbai)
"Am gonna really miss u all, when I am dead "Sonu Niigaam(0345 10062010 Namah)
"Lets lead and not count how many follow"Sonu Niigaam(05062010 1809 Manali)
"Fear not, for the troubles and challenges of today, shall transform into legends of tomorrow"Sonu Niigaam(16052010 2026 Hyderabad Novotel 626)
"One who makes a big deal of spirituality,seldom benefits from it!"Sonu Niigaam (160410 1305 Namah, in reply to a message from a friend)
"Just gazing at the sky makes me realize how vast I am within!"Shyama Govind (100410 1436)
"Sufism is not abt singing a sufi song.. Its a state of higher being that converts every song into Sufism "Sonu Niigaam(09042010, 0155, Mumbai explaining to someone about how every song of mine, now points towards the ONE)
"I stop giving it, I stop getting it"Sonu Niigaam(08042010, 0259 AM, in reply to Sabiha)
"Normalcy is a state of life and mind we find too boring until something catastrophic snatches it away, only to make us wish for the normal life again!"Sonu Niigaam(05042010, 1242 AM, Namah, in reply to Ellen Goldberg's mail)
"Its easier to provoke a mob than a single person. When it comes to pacifying, its the other way round"Sonu Niigaam(1300, 05032010, Namah)
"Nothing, is everything"Sonu Niigaam(17022010 1956 On board Jet flight to Doha from Delhi)
"Just when I accepted defeat,I realised I won "- Sonu Niigaam(290110 Namah,Mumbai)
"Between faith and suspicion, lies the worldly so called realities"- Sonu Niigaam(280110 Mumbai)
"No work can kill a man. Too much work, can kill a soul"- Sonu Niigaam(280110 Mumbai)
"Dear fellow travellers, As we bid farewell to the first decade of this millennium, I am overwhelmed at how my life transformed in the last ten years. My beliefs, my relations, my status ( I was single when I was entering the now-so-old decade!), my looks, my experience, I can go on and on! Am thankful for all the learning and experience this decade provided me. I am so much more at ease with myself than what I was 10 years back. So much more aware! I enter the new decade with reverence and humility, and a little twinkle in my eyes in pleasant anticipation of what lies ahead of me this decade onwards! And where and how will I be when I write once again in Dec 2019! All I can say is life is an endless journey, and it's only now that I have slightly started understanding the meaning of "endless".My prayers to all the people who have been with me all this while, in body or spirits, may we all achieve the TRUTH sooner than later."- Happy New Year! Lovingly,Sonu Niigaam
"Yes,what I do to others, comes back to me. Because it's the same person inside everyone!"- Sonu Niigaam(030909 1353, Hollywood Hills. Just woke up)
"Music is a kind of death. Nothing else exists when there's true music!"- Sonu Niigaam(280809 1006 Los Angeles, just out of Rene's studio)
"Observing the people around me and their characteristics is like putting my finger on the various aspects and traits of my true nature. Either it is my point of view that makes me look at them a certain way, or they are the macrocosm of my microcosm. In both cases, the situation is in my hands. And I need to forgive the both of us"- Sonu Niigaam(240809 0945 Hollywood house of Mahendra bhai and Hemaji. Courtesy: Tania experience MJ This One's for you)
"Listen to what is being told to you by everything around"- Sonu Niigaam(090809 0038, To Sowmya)
"Sex is like a ten sec promo of the bigger cosmic bash"- Sonu Niigaam(020809 Philadelphia,Microtel inns and suites,after flight cancelled for LA concert)
"The same person sits inside every body strangely and doesnt realise it even after repeated reminders from the cosmic structure he/she has created"- Sonu Niigaam(300709 1106 La Guardia airport)
"Do not become the doer. Or else u'll lose the viewer"- Sonu Niigaam(070709 1935 Los Angeles,part of an sms to Shyama Govind)
"Negotiation is all about portraying the confidence of refusal"- Sonu Niigaam(240609 2327 from LA,part of an sms to Geetha Balsaara)
"Life is as difficult as u make it, and as easy as u want it "- Sonu Niigaam(310509 New Jersey)
"I just realized what freedom is lying down on the bed of my Radisson LAX room 1247. Around 3am here in LA. 18 Aug 2009. Freedom is never snatched away by anyone. It is given away, mostly inadvertently, out of ignorance. Some times out of cowardice, other times out of greed or lust!
Freedom can't be judged by outward status, as in "the employee lacks the freedom of the employer". Or " the colonized are not as free as the colonizers"! Freedom is an inner state of placidness! A realization that the lesser we command, the more free we become! If I may say, freedom actually doesn't exist at all in this world, it wouldn't be an exaggeration! There is nothing called freedom in this outer world. Freedom is a state of awareness of knowing that our desire for freedom, is inversely proportional to the actual freedom we experience.. In our pursuit for freedom, we become slaves of the desire for freedom!
Feeling un-free, is like dishonoring our core existence. Standing in front of a mirror with our back towards it! We are free. Born free. Uncontrolled, unaffected! We chose to tie ourselves down to people, relationships, religions, goals, patriotism, virtues and vices, our imagery of our own selves. And then we think and believe that we'll be free one day. We do attain freedom eventually..in death though. But we live our lives as slaves, in beliefs and dogmas, in pursuits!
Lately, even when I have been confronted and confined by responsibilities, crazy schedules, goals, relationships fluctuations etc, that might make me appear quite pre-occupied or un-free to the world, I have been noticing myself going through a previously never experienced calm and unaffected state of being! Just now I realized, this is FREEDOM that I am experiencing! Freedom from the expectation that tomorrow is gonna be better than today, for that means today is imperfect. Freedom from the desire to be free, for I am free when I am most certain that I am free!!"- Sonu Niigaam
"One who ties the brain,talent or just mere spirit down, can never be free himself"- Sonu Niigaam(080309 0345 Namah In reply to a thank u from Ben,to Ben)
"Life is more creative and original than its perception!"- Sonu Niigaam(230209 1021 Leela,Kovalam)
"Discipline and Regard, are Siamese twins. Neither exists without the other"- Sonu Niigaam(090209 1328 Namah)
"They dont leave us. They just become lessons!"- Sonu Niigaam(100109 2121 in the Alphard on my way back from Indian idol shoot to My home in reply to Geet's question)
"Either I treat others the way I treat myself,or I treat myself the way I treat others. The former makes me compassionate, the latter, detached!"- Sonu Niigaam(070109 0824 on my way to Amby Valley in the car)
"As every year passed when I was a kid, I'd see myself becoming taller and bigger physically. Until one day I realised I stopped growing any taller and became a man. And then just recently,I realised I stopped growing physically cuz it was the turn of my soul to grow! For only when my soul grows healthily and reaches a certain respectable level of maturity and consciousness, can I be upgraded from a Man to a Child...God's Child! How strange is this transformation from a Child to a Man and then back to a Child. From Physical growth to Spiritual growth! Hence, every end of the year, I check myself if I have downgraded myself to being the Man I was or Upgraded myself to the Child I wanna be! This year, like a lot of us, I too have felt a conflict of beliefs in my mind, as to whether being the child I wanna be, can counter the gory evils of the rest of the ignorant world?or do I need to be a Man to tackle it the traditional way? And as the year ends,I have found my answer which I'd like to share with all the people who follow my career,ideologies and thought process!
I shall be the reflection of the purity of God's love and light.I shall love and not hate! I shall work and not only preach! I shall regard people who spread love, as messengers of God, and those who spread hatred and evil,as people in desperate need of God's love! I shall not avenge them. Just like I dont slap a blind man if he happens to push me unknowingly,regarding him as handicapped, so will I regard the narrowminded,cruel,nasty,vindictive,racist,fanatic,bully;a Handicapped. I will keep collecting good people around me and keep myself positively charged and inspired. I'd like to give and share as much as I can cuz any moment could be my last moment on earth..Hence I would like to go away from this planet without any baggage or debt. A very very Happy New Year to all the Children reading this, and equally to all the Men and Women who would wanna be God's children one day..Prayers and Prayers!"- Sonu Niigaam(281208 0426 Taj Bengal 359,Kolkata)
"Life is a rugged line with crests and troughs,connecting two singularities!! We cant change its length,but we can smoothen it with the tool called LOVE!!"- Shyama Govind(191208 1922 Mumbai, enlightened by the visionary,my Guru,my brother,Sonu Niigaam and adding to this space on His insistence)
"Its Not Me! Its Through Me!" - Sonu Niigaam( 241108 1956 Amarnath, In Reply to a Dear friend's Thank u)
"True purpose of sex-With the help of each other, we experience the One who made the Two of us" - Sonu Niigaam(171108 1447 Amarnath)
"I am nothing without your belief" - Sonu Niigaam( 081108 0912 Kuwait Time, JW Marriot, 1106. In reply to a dear friend's praises for me)
"Jise tum kehte ho thehraav
Use main kehta hoon aalas
Jise kehte ho bekali
Use main kehta hoon saahas
Hai farq e nazariya hi nahin
Usse bhi badhkar
Tum log jeena chahte ho
Laash sa bankar" - Sonu Niigaam( 051108 Hampi backstage, lying on a couch)
"Nothing really matters, and what really matters, is happening by itself !" - Sonu Niigaam( 021008 0103 Amarnath, In an answer to a questionaire by a Dubai Magazine for my concert on 16th Oct)
"Just as food is meant for the hungry, so is forgiveness meant for the guilty !" - Sonu Niigaam(100508 1441 Amarnath, In response to a friend who asked for forgiveness)
"When you underestimate others, ridicule or criticize them brutally, it shows your own low self esteem. As its only when you are insecure internally that you see and presume the other person to be faultering. When you know subconsciously that you yourself are capable of nothing better, you develop a secret desire to see others too, fail and be proved incompetent !" - Sonu Niigaam (2005 Made for cynics, mostly under the disguise of critics)
"I know now Oh Lord, how much You love me, after I see my own self love my son !" - Sonu Niigaam (080708 0830am IST, Bangkok, Millionair Hilton, room 2328)
"Opinionated friends are like coloured glasses/goggles. They manipulate your vision. You will never be able to see what you see in its natural state unless you get rid of them !" - Sonu Niigaam (100307 0325, Ahmedabad, Pride Hotel)
"Every successful person is not enlightened. But every enlightened person is successful !" - Sonu Niigaam (280508 2014 Mumbai)