Mandolin!

[sunson]

About a year ago, I got my electric guitar made by Madras Musicals. I was so damn impressed by the amazingly smooth neck and fret board he made for me. I have tried a few other 'branded' guitars (some local brands like Tansen and some really funky brands like Schecters) but really, Thulasi rocks for all the customisability and the value for money

Comments

[rfc9000]

Just happened to read your email threads with faiz.
Man, I've been having the exact same doubts that you were talking about. Which is:

If I want to learn Carnatic on the keyboard the proper way, how do I go about it?
1) Get myself an accommodating guru who sings and I real-time-convert it to keyboards, or
2) Learn vocal (forgetting how horrible my vocal chords are), and later apply the stuff I learnt to keyboards, or
3) Forget about formal training, and just listen to say Mandolin Srinivas (or anybody else for that matter) on my player, and try to replicate it on keyboards. And of course improvize whenever I cannot replicate certain complicated sangatis :)

So how have you been learning carnatic on guitar all these days? Mode 1 or 2 or 3?

[sunson]

:)

I do a combination of Mode 1 and Mode 2. My teacher badly wants me to sing. But I invariably end up singing badly and I get allowed to play the thing on my guitar. ;)

No, but more seriously, I had a bit of difficulty convincing him to allow me to learn on the guitar while he gives the vocal lessons. After a while, he started getting frustrated because I was new to both the musical form as well as the instrument. Infact, I've decided to sorta take a break for a while, get comfortable with the instrument on my own and then go back to the classes.

[rudugudu]

Know the feeling! My teacher would explain Malkauns as SGMDNS, and I would sing SGMDNS (with all the G's becoming R's and M's becoming D's).

Being tone-deaf is a very frustrating phase for a student.

[sunson]

Yeah, I wasn't entirely tone deaf but I'm sure approximately I could be called deaf. Sometimes I could magically play what the teacher sang though I wouldn't know how I did it. Call it coincidence, probability, etc.,. ;)

btw, which hindustani male vocalist' would you recommend for hindustani newbie listeners? (I wanted to buy Bade Ghulam Ali Khan but the albums were all recorded in the 60s and I'm sure those would suck at quality... and man, Hindustani albums are so expensive. Nothing is below Rs.295!... or am I wrong?)

[rudugudu]

I think Sony CD's usually cost that much. Times music comes out with these value pack offers - you should try those. Not that Im an expert at this, but I think Ust Rashid Khan, Pt Ulhas Kashalkar, Pt Jasraj and Pt Bhimsen Joshi are great to name a few.

To begin with, its a good idea to listen to fusion based hindustani music like albums by Pt Ajay chakraborty, "Astral Journey" by Marco and Gargee etc

Dhrupad by the Dagar brothers is definitely a "must-buy" if you like listening to dhrupad. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab's music (as I heard on Gandharv, worldspace) seemed to be of very good quality. You could look for his cd's as well.

[sunson]

thanks for the recommendation.

What sucks with the "Gandharv" channel is most of the programming seems 'automated' without any human explaining who/what is being sung.

That way, Shruti is decent. The Jazz channel is the worst -- little or no anchoring.

[rudugudu]

People may argue that the lack of anchoring is what makes Worldspace score over shams like radio-city. But yeah, I feel the missing introduction to some songs quite strongly sometimes. These days I think, they've changed things a bit - with a little introduction before every piece.

[spacejunkk]

I have a friend in Bangalore, who is going to send me Hindustani, Carnatic, Dhrupads and other classical stuff through courier by this month end. Let me see if I find any Bade Ghulam Ali Khan stuff in it!

And also, sometime in April end, can you drop some Cd's at my aunt's place in Bangalore? (I'll mail you the address later). They are planning to come to Nasik by May first week, so I can collect it from them! I had plans of visiting Bangalore in June, but thats shelved now, because they won't be there (and their home is my first (and only) preference to stay), though I have other relatives too in Bangalore.

[sunson]

Sure thing, will do so. Do let me know like the "dead line".

[spacejunkk]

I happened to visit Planet M this evening, got myself a RTP Todi by Aruna Sairam (Swarutsav 2001). My eyes went first on this, this was the only update to their carnatic section in 2 months time :(

I saw that T-Series has a good collection of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan (AIR releases). There were about 5-6 volumes priced at 95 each. May be you can request/ check out for those at Bangalore's Planet M. There was only one CD which costed 350/- (Sony it was)