In his early days, he used to accompany his brother for concerts. Once he went to a village in Salem district with his brother for a marriage concert. His brother was to play violin for vocalist Dhakshinamurthi Pillai. All of a sudden, Dhakshinamurthi Pillai suggested that Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer sing. Obviously, the young Semmangudi was elated and gave his best. At the end, Pillai told his brother that, ``His voice is as melodious as the noise created when a coconut shell is scraped on a rock. Don't bother to give him vocal training. Let him learn to play the violin.’’

This had upset Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer no end. Then and there he had decided that he had a point to prove. That made him to practice nearly eight hours every day to demonstrate his voice skill. But it had its own negative fall-out. The strenuous practice had strained his vocal chords. So much so, he had tonsils removed. That had further affected his voice. Rajaji apparently advised him to use snuff powder to improve the voice. Semmangudi did heed his advice. Though it did help him in the beginning, it resulted in other complications. So he had to stop using snuff powder.

For him, 1928 was a memorable year. That was when Govindaswamy Pillai took him to Tiruvaiyaru, the birthplace of Saint Tyagaraja. Musicians gather there every January for the Thyagaraja Aradhana to sing at the samadhi of the saint. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer sang a kriti in Bhairavi. At the end, Govindaswamy Pillai patted him and told him that he would become really big in a couple of years.  Obviously, young Iyer was very thrilled.

The turning point in his life came when he went to the Gokhale Sastri Hall in Madras to hear Viswanatha Iyer sing. Govindaswamy Pillai was to play the violin and Dhakshinamurti Pillai the kanjira. It was a solar eclipse day. Unfortunately, Viswanatha Iyer could not sing. So the organisers asked Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyear to stand in and sing. Maharani Sethu Parvati Bai of Travancore was at the concert. Impressed with his concert, she asked him to come to Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) to edit and popularize the compositions of Swati Tirunal. After initial dilemma, he took up the job on the advice of Kanchi Sankaracharya.

In his view, his nomination to the post of principal of Swati Tirunal Music College was a chance happening. He would not wish that to happen the way it had. Harikeshanallur Muthiah Bhagavathar, who was then the Principal of the College had found fault with his Suruti ragam in front of a large gathering. This had hurt Semmangudi very deeply. He later proved the Bhavathar wrong. This had resulted in the Bhagavathar going for early retirement from the college. The incident left a painfully mark on him, though.