He was a gold medalist in Masters of Indian Classical Music at University of Madras and also holds a Diploma in Sound Engineering.

[2] He was formally trained by N. P. Ramaswamy, Antony and O. S. Thiagarajan in Carnatic vocals;[3][4] Hariharan in Violin and Ramamurthy in Western Classical Piano.

He learned Mridangam from four masters: Dennis, Vaikom S. Gopakumar, Kalamandalam Krishnankutty, and Mannargudi Easwaran.

This album was released by his guru O. S. Thyagarajan on 22 November 2006 in Chennai,[13] and singer S. Janaki received the first copy.

[14][15] Pai has composed and rendered four songs for a Switzerland-based multi-lingual movie titled “Madly in Love.”[16] He has composed music for dance dramas like “ Janani Jagath Karani” and “Sri Krishna Vaibhavam” produced by Sri Devi Nrithyalaya.