-Have been very busy commuting to Cambridge and back and generally feeling very happy attending lectures, but been fluey and too tired to do much else.

-A and I have finally going over to the dark side and have bought a car. We have resisted doing this for a few years. Both his parents and mine have been after us to get one, but what with living very near good transport links we’ve not really felt the need for one or the associated expense. But now as I will be commuting a lot for the PhD, the tube becoming pretty hellish pre-Olympics and us feeling the need to explore England more, we have decided that the time has come. I am having fond fantasises of getting A to drive me to historic sites and gardens and to nurseries. It will mainly be A doing the driving as I haven’t got my license yet. He is trying to change that situation!

-A has been baking nonstop. Chocolate tarts, lemon tarts, brownies…My mother was here for a few days and brought a halwai’s shop worth of mithai with her so there was some seriously unhealthy eating going on here. Not that I’m putting on any weight. Useless.

-Have lately been listening to this album, which a jugalbandi of the Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad) and the Malladi Brothers (Carnatic). It’s not exactly easily available. They recently performed again in Chicago, here’s a vigorous fast-paced Shankara Girijapati by all four:

Related Posts:

• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• A Question of Variety; Carnatic or Hindustani Music?
• V is for Veena
• T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it’s Good to Know the Difference

Z.M. Dagar was the slowest moving individual I’ve ever met. He was never interested in playing very fast music, and his mind and body seemed to be set at alap speed. He gave the impression of being continuously half asleep, but everyone who got to know him soon realized that Dagarsahib was alive and alert to subtle realities that most people never even notice. He was a keen observer of people and events, a sort of amateur psychologist, and he could speak to the innermost part of a person when he wished to – with his music of course, but also with words. English was his fourth language I think, but he got his point across splendidly.

Dagarsahib had very strong hands and fingers. I watched him make sitar mizrabs from heavy wire without any tools and of course he pulled heavy vina strings with phenomenal accuracy. Anyone who has tried to replicate Ustad’s meend and sruti will know it takes not only a lot of patience and skill but steady endurance as well.

He was a splendid cook. He used black pepper as much as chilies and was fond of chicken. He made the best blackeye peas (loobia) and the best cauliflower I’ve ever eaten.

He felt that North Indian classical music, and Dhrupad alap especially, was a Universal Science of music and sound, of which India was the custodian. It could be learned, performed and deeply felt by non-Indians. He rejected the notions of “Hindu music,” “Muslim music,” “Black music” etcetera and I think he enjoyed gently annoying ethnomusicologists by his emphatic dismissal of their terminology and concepts. Of course he recognized different musical styles in different cultures and communities but he knew from experience how pure music could transcend rather than define the differences between people. He also knew that sound is vibrating air and that vibrating air in itself has no religious beliefs or cultural identity. Link

Related Posts:

• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• V is for Veena
• Popular Ragas for the Beginner Ear~ Durga
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Gharana Festival Chennai-22nd to 24th January 2010

Durga is a pentatonic Raga, i.e it has five notes, S, R, M, P, D, S. All the notes are shuddha or sharp. It is a late evening Raga. More information on the Raga here.

There are many renditions in Durga. Sometimes compositions in the Raga invoke the Goddess of the same name, though not always. Below are some recordings of Durga. I wouldn’t advise listening to them all together, but over a few days.

Instrumental:

Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan: Sitar and Sarod-Raga Durga:

Adnan Sami and Ustad Zakir Hussain Piano and Tabla, Raga Durga:

Ustad Sultan Khan and Marco Salaun: Sarangi-Guitar Jugalbandi-Pentatonic Devotion: Raga Durga:

Improvisations On An Indian Theme Raga Durga: Vladislav Andonov – viola, Vesela Geleva – harp, Stefan Dalchev – piano:

Vocal:

Pandit Nirmalya De is a Dhrupad singer and sings the Raga Durga in Dhrupad style. The composition is by Tansen.

Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra-Jai Jai Durge Mata-Raga Durga:

Pandit Venkatesh Kumar-Durga-Eri Dhan Dhan Bhag Mori (concert available from sangeethamshare.org/murthy)

Vidushi Padma Talwalkar, Sakhi Mori Rum Jhum, followed by Tarana-Raga Durga:

Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Raga Durga:

Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Tu Ras Kan Re followed by Chatura Sughara Baalama-Raga Durga:

Pandit Kumar Gandharva, Amona Re, Raga Durga:

Vidushi Gangubai Hangal, Raga Durga:

Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur, Roopa Jo Bana Raga Durga:

Ustad Salamat Ali Khan: Raga Durga:

Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan -Jai Durge Durgati-Raga Durga:

Related Posts:

• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• What is a Raga (7): The Pakad or the “Grip” of a Raga
• Jai Sharada Bhawani-Ustad Rashid Khan

This pitch is called sruti in the south (the word sruti is translated in different ways, this is one of them) or sur/ swar in the North.

Finding and maintaining one’s pitch is of fundamental importance. The instrument that helps a classical musician do this is the Tanpura, or as it is known in the South, the Tambura.

The Tanpura is the instrument that is tuned to a singer’s pitch (instrumentalists use them too) and that provides a constant reference point that helps the musician stay in pitch.

Well tuned Tanpuras are a pathway to heaven, the heaven inside yourself, because they help you find your pitch, your frequency.

In the video below we have some really well tuned Tanpuras. They are the long instruments with fat bottoms behind the singer, who is Ustad H. Sayeeduddin Dagar. He sings a Sanskrit chant in the Raga Bhoopali.

How do you find your pitch?

Your pitch can be found against a keyboard, a harmonium or against a Tanpura, although it is advisable to carry on your practice against the Tanpura and not the keyboard.

Finding one’s pitch is basically finding one’s base “Sa” (Shadja).

As we noted earlier, the seven notes of Indian music are Sa, Re (or Ri), Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni and Sa. We do not count the last Sa, because Sa repeats itself at the end of the scale. Sa’s frequency at the end of the scale is exactly double that of the fist Sa at the beginning of the scale and sounds “higher.”

It is the first “Sa” that constitutes one’s basic pitch or adhara shadja/adhara swara.

If you take the example of a keyboard, in theory, your Sa can start anywhere on the keyboard, depending on where you comfortable singing it.

“Sa” then becomes the fixed or tonic note (adhara shadja/sruti/swara).

All other notes are in relation to and relative to Sa.

My “Sa,” is different from my teacher’s “Sa”, as he is a male and has a lower pitch.

Living Idioms In Hindustani Music ; A Dictionary Of Terms And Terminology by Pandit Amarnath from Flipkart.com
Music Contexts : A Concise Dictionary Of Hindustani Music by Ashok Da Ranade from Flipkart.com
The Dictionary Of Hindustani Classical Music by Bimalakanta Roy Chaudhary from Flipkart.com

Tanpuras/Tamburas usually have four or five strings. The first string is tuned to Pa, the two middle ones are tuned to the higher Sa and the last, to the tonic Sa (i.e. your fundamental Sa), an octave lower. So what a Tanpura does is to provide a constant tonal reference point.

The tuning of the first string (Pa) may change, depending on the raga (e.g. there may be a raga without Pa) or an extra string that plays the seventh note, i.e Ni, can be added (the adding of strings is usually done by Hindustani musicians), or the Pa string may be tuned to Ma.

Nowadays one gets electronic “sruti boxes” and electronic tamburas that are much easier to carry around, that look like small radios. Though these are very good and have reached high standards, some people (including yours truly) feel that the traditional Tanpuras and Tamburas provide a richer sound and should not be done away with.

Learning to tune a Tanpura to one’s pitch is considered essential in perfecting one’s pitch or sur or shruti. More on Tanpuras here.

Sadly, some teachers are doing away with the practice of teaching their students to tune Tanpuras.

Here is a podcast by the Carnatic musician Vidya Subramanian explaining the concept of pitch. Since she is a Carnatic musician and from the South, she calls pitch “sruti.”

And here is a podcast by Vidya on Tamburas.

Want to try singing and finding your Sa yourself? There are some online Tanpura recordings here. If you are female, you will probably find a pitch between 4 and 6 that is comfortable and if you are male try between 0.5 to 2 (some manage even higher).

Just sing Saaaaaaaaaaaaaa in your normal voice and hold it steady.

You can vary it by just singing “aaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” Singing “aaaaa” is known as aakaara saadhana in the South and singing in aalaap/aakaar in the North.

Here is a free aalaap/aakaaram lesson, that you can try singing along with and is good for generally toning your voice! Click in the top right hand box to listen.

Related Posts:

• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 14: More on Sur/Shruti or Pitch
• T is for Tanpura not Sitar; it’s Good to Know the Difference
• V is for Veena
• Sa and Pa not always fixed?
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 12-The Saptaswaras in the South- the Carnatic notes

See, for example, these videos by the Beenkar (Veena player) Ustad Bahauddin Dagar who demonstrates these varieties on the Rudra Veena:

Don’t worry if you don’t understand everything at once in the videos!

Related Posts:

• V is for Veena
• Introducing Yourself to Indian Classical Music 13-What’s your frequency? The Tanpura/Tambura and finding your Sur, Shruti or Pitch
• What is a Raga (8)?: The Chalan (characteristic phrases) of a Raga
• Popular Ragas for the Beginner Ear~ Durga
• What is a Raga (1)?